The 2010 sports season was a busy one with many stories of both defeat and triumph.

Northwood-Kensett saw its 4×200-meter relay team win a state championship and the Lake Mills volleyball team was one win away from a state title as well.

In Minnesota, the Glenville-Emmons football team upset one of the top-ranked teams in the state and reached a section final for the first time in school history. Albert Lea track standout Chrissy Monson placed third in the 3,200-meter race at the state meet and finished sixth in the 1,600, and New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva’s David Lindell finished third at the state wrestling meet.

Athletes weren’t the only local sports figures making headlines in 2010. Albert Lea boys’ hockey head coach Roy Nystrom won his 617th career game and moved into fourth nationally in all-time high school hockey coaching wins, passing his idol Willard Ikola.

Away from the court, rink and field, the Albert Lea Athletics Hall of Fame announced its inaugural class and held a banquet a Wedgewood Cove Golf Club, and the Albert Lea Thunder packed its bags and left City Arena for Amarillo, Texas.

Here are the top sports stories of 2010:

1. Lake Mills volleyball team finishes 45-2, state runner-up

A year removed from leading the Lake Mills volleyball team to their second-winningest season in school history, head coach Jim Boehmer had high expectations for 2010.

The season turned out to be better than he ever imagined.

After starting the season unranked, the Bulldogs slowly crept up to No. 6 in the state after finishing 39-1 during the regular season and eclipsing the previous school record of 38 wins.

But they weren’t done there.

After losing in four straight district finals, the Bulldogs found themselves a game away from their first state tournament berth in nine years against Sumner-Fredericksburg in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Nov. 2.

The Bulldogs dug themselves an early hole and trailed two sets to one before rallying to force a fifth set.

Down 9-6 in the fifth set, junior setter Morgan Fjelstad served nine straight points and the Bulldogs celebrated their fourth state tournament berth in school history.

As one of the smallest schools in Class 2A, the Bulldogs were considered a longshot to win even a game at state.

The Bulldogs opened the tournament against No. 9-ranked Pella Christian, a more experienced and tested team, but swept P.C. 3-0 and notched the program’s first ever victory in the state tournament.

Lake Mills faced an even greater test in the semifinals against No. 3-ranked Mediapolis but got the same result — a 3-0 sweep into the state championship match.

The Bulldogs rallied from late deficits in the first two sets against Mediapolis and received a 17 kills, 13 digs performance from Tribune Player of the Year Josie Brackey.

Boehmer thought he might be “dreaming” and his players cheered with hundreds of community members after the win.

In the championship match, the Bulldogs faced Western Christian, the most storied program in Iowa and constant at the top of the state’s ranking.

The Bulldogs opened the title match strong, leading 10-3 and eventually 23-21 against the Wolfpack, but lost 28-26, 25-16 and 25-12.

The Bulldogs’ Brackey and Fjelstad were named to the all-state tournament team after the historic run.

2. Albert Lea Thunder leave town

After a rocky two-year stint in Albert Lea, the Thunder hockey team’s roster was sold to the Amarillo Bulls on May 26, an expansion franchise in Amarillo, Texas.

The move came after the North American Hockey League discovered Thunder owner Barry Soskin engaged in a pay-to-play model with several players.

The league ordered Soskin to pay $400,000 to keep his league membership after he failed to post the $200,000 league-required cash bond at the start of the 2009-10 season.

The league also made Soskin repay all money taken through the pay-to-play agreement and pay a $50,000 fine.

Albert Lea made a last ditch effort to bring a new NAHL to town but that fell through when Terry Hughes’ application did not go through with the league.

It was estimated that eight players were involved in the pay-to-play agreement and that Soskin owed $100,000 to the players’ families.

After leaving Albert Lea and City Arena, part of the Thunder’s roster was signed by the Bulls. The Bulls were very successful in their first season, going 19-5-2 through Dec. 28.

3. Albert Lea Athletics Hall of Fame announces inaugural class

After more than a year of planning and six months of deliberating over nominess, the Albert Lea Athletics Hall of Fame comitee announced its inagural class in June and held it’s first ever banquet on July 9 at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club.

The Class of 2010 included two coaches and eight athletes. The banquet also honored Albert Lea’s 11 state championship teams.

The inductees were coaches Leroy Maas and Jim Gustafson, and athletes Tom Jean, Vinny Cerrato, Jeri (Domes) Porter, Jay Gustafson, Gary DeRoos, Greg Shoff, Ben Woodside and Clayton “Bumper” Westrum.

The idea for the Hall of Fame stemmed from the Albert Lea Education Association, Keith Fligge and Craig Ludtke.

The purpose was to honor Albert Lea’s ex-athletes and raise money to reduce the cost of student participation in Albert Lea athletics.

All inductees spoke at the banquet, besides Woodside who was in France competing in the French National Basketball Association.

Cerrato was the banquet’s keynote spearker. The former vice president of football operations for the Washington Redskins spoke about his his coaches and teammates for his success during high school, college and

high school, college and as an executive at the professional level.

Cerrato credited Albert Lea as a place that helped him grow and develop and Cerrato spoke admirably of legendary football coach Jim Gustafson and wrestling coach LeRoy Maas, calling them the “godfathers” of their respective sports.

Cerrato also called former Tigers football players and 2010 inductees Greg Shoff and Jay Gustafson his role models growing up as he watched them both play in Albert Lea, and later, Shoff at the University of Minnesota.

Cerrato Cerrato then told stories of his life after graduating from Albert Lea High School. He recalled recruiting trips with iconic former Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz, drafting Terrell Owens to the San Francisco 49ers and being in the hospital with the family of Washington Redskin Sean Taylor, the night he was shot and killed in Miami.

Former Albert Lea head basketball coach Orrie Jirele served as the banquet’s master of ceremonies and introduced each speaker while making a few cracks about them along the way, saying he hadn’t seen so many jocks in one place since the Nike Convention and, with Jim Gustafson and Mass in attendence, Jirele felt pretty young that night.

4. Roy Nystrom moves to 4th all-time in high school hockey coaching wins

After coaching high school boys’ hockey for 45 years, 38 in Albert Lea, Roy Nystrom made history.

Nystrom notched his 617th career coaching victory on Dec. 8 with a 7-4 win against the Rochester John Marshall Rockets in Rochester.

Win No. 617 was the team’s third on the season and propelled Nystrom to fourth all-time nationally.

But it was the coach Nystrom leapfrogged that made the story special.

Nystrom passed Willard Ikola’s record of 615 wins, all which came in Minnesota as Ikola became the legendary coach of Edina High School.

Nystrom and Ikola both were raised in Eveleth and the Tigers coach has followed Ikola’s career intently his entire life.

Nystrom called Ikola an “icon” of Minnesota hockey and mentioned how special it is to be in the same coaching arena as a man he aspired to be like.

Nystrom has coached alongside his son David for 20 years and was joined this season by Jonny Breuer, the all-time leading points scorer in Albert Lea boys’ hockey history.

The three coaches hugged each other as the horn sounded in Rochester, sealing Nystrom’s historic win.

Nystrom expressed relief after the win, saying he was glad the chase to No. 617 is over.

But Nystrom is still in line to break more coaching records as he is just a fews wins away from Ron Baum’s 623 wins in Michigan and a few years away from Edward Burns’ 695 wins in Massachusetts.

In order to be No. 1 though, Nystrom will have to coach well into the next decade and beyond as Bill Belisle, of Rhode Island, is the all-time leader with an almost untouchable 897 wins.

5. Northwood-Kensett’s 4×200-meter relay team wins state track championship

Northwood-Kensett’s 4×200-meter relay team was the only team to win a state championship locally this season.

The team, consisting of Nik Werner, Jayson Olson, Spencer Capitani and Sam Arnold won the race on May 21 in 1 minute and 31.76 seconds, three seconds faster than the previous school record, and 3/10 second faster than second place Belle Plaine.

The relayers were the first N-K team to win a state championship since the 1980s and the season-long journey to a state title surprised even their coach, Dave Capitani.

At the beginning of the season Capitani envisioned he could get some relay teams to the state tournament but thought about bringing home a championship.

The relay team entered the title race with the best qualifying time in Class 1A and shaved four seconds off their time over the course of the year after coming together in mid-April.

The same group also qualified for the finals of the 4×100-meter relay and set a school record with a time of 43.88 seconds, 12 one hundreths of a second better than the previous school record.

The 4×100 team qualified for the finals with the third-best overall time. The top four relay teams were seperated by less than 3/10 second.

In championship heat, the 4×100 team missed winning a second state championship by just under 1 1/2 seconds, placing runner-up.

The foursome had a finals time of 43.48 seconds falling just short of Madrid, with a time of 44.02 seconds.

6. Chrissy Monson places 3rd, 6th at state track meet

Albert Lea running standout Chrissy Monson will be the first to tell you her cross country season didn’t end or start as well as she hoped.

The sophomore suffered stress fractures in her legs and missed much of the fall cross country season recovering and slowly trying to regain her speed and stamina.

Just a few weeks after returning the cross country team, Monson heroically won a section championship with a career-high time and advanced to the state meet for the third consecutive year.

Eyeing a state title, Monson finished in 41st place in 15 minutes and 21.5 seconds. In tears, Monson admitted she had a “bad day.”

She certainly didn’t have a bad year.

On June 11, Monson won third place in the state 3,200-meter race at Hamline University in St. Paul.

In fourth place going into the final 200 meters, Monson kicked it into high gear and edged Kaila Urick, of Chaska, by .17 seconds. Monson finished the race in 10 minutes and 49.61 seconds, shattering the school record.

Albert Lea track head coach Margo Wayne called the third place run “an unexplainable feat,” as Monson dropped a staggering 18 seconds off her previous best 3,200-meter time, a mark she set a week prior.

Monson broke another school record at state on June 12, running the 1,600-meter race in 5:02.58 en route to a sixth place finish, even though her legs were tired from the previous day’s events.

7. 3 Albert Lea wrestlers place in top 5 at state

The Albert Lea wrestling team was held out of the state tournament in 2010, losing to Owatonna in the section final, but sent five individual wrestlers to the Xcel Center in St. Paul and saw three place in the top five.

At 140 pounds, No. 7-ranked senior Trevor Rasmussen earned fifth place with a 5-4 decision over Centennial’s Andre Dorschner.

Rasmussen finished 35-11 on the season and made up for last year’s disappointing state tournament where he lost when he lost his only match by a fall.

Rasmussen used a third-period escape to beat Dorschner, who tied the match with a near fall and nearly picked up more points when he had Rasmussen on his back temporarily.

Sixth-ranked Dalton Westerlund joined Rasmussen as the only two Tigers to win their final match at the state tournament.

Westerlund put Eden Prairie’s Tony Skjefte in a half nelson near the end of the mat and earned a fall in just two minutes and 35 seconds.

Westerlund finished the season 34-11 after finishing in fourth place the season before.

The Tigers’ Cory Hansen placed for the third consecutive season in 2010, finishing fourth after falling to Hastings’ Colton LaChance in the third-place match.

The meeting between Hansen and LaChance was the second of the tournament but Hansen fell 10-5 and finished 40-6 on the season.

Hansen scored more takedowns but LaChance effectively countered his other attempts to beat his for the third time that season.

8. Albert Lea diver Karli Kriewall places 5th at state, highest in school history

Before 2010, Albert Lea hadn’t sent a diver to the state diving meet in 18 years. Karli Kriewall broke that streak this season but didn’t stop there.

At the state diving preliminaries on Nov. 18, Kriewall, a sophomore, positioned herself in fifth place after the defending champion and runner-up seperated themselves ahead of the pack. The rest of the divers were left fighting for third place.

Kriewall’s best dive in the prelims was a forward 1 1/2 pike, which she received three ‘8s’ from the judges.

Head swim coach Jon Schmitz called it the best dive he’d ever seen her do.

In the finals the following day, Kriewall remained idle and finished in fifth place, the highest place in school history.

Kriewall finished with a time of 342.65 behind Kelsey Metz’s, of Richfield, 349.45. She also received All-American consideration.

Kriewall was also on of only two non-seniors in the top eight putting her into position to make a run at a state championship the next few seasons.

The historic finish at the state tournament made Kriewall arguably the best diver in Albert Lea history.

When asked if she thought she was, Kriewall didn’t have an answer, calling the idea of it “crazy.”

9. Glenville-Emmons football team reaches 1st section championship in school histoy

Glenville-Emmons first-year football coach called the community “elated” after the Wolverines reached a section final game on Nov. 5, something some teams play in annually.

But this was the Wolverines first section final game in school history — a game that capped a magical postseason run.

The Wolverines season began with a 41-8 home loss to Grand Meadow, which they followed with convincing wins over Lyle/Pacelli and LeRoy-Ostrander. But after a 29-14 loss to Lanesboro and being shutout 28-0 to Spring Grove, the Wolverines on pace for another .500 season, something the program had become accustomed to.

But the Wolverines actually finished below .500 in 2010 at 5-6. They lost four of their final five regular season games including two going into the section tournament.

Then they started to win.

After just having lost to Houston 29-14 11 days prior, the Wolverines upset 20-14 on the road advanced to the section semifinals and a matchup against 7-1 Grand Meadow.

It was the third meeting between the Wolverines and Superlarks in 2010 after Grand Meadow outscored Glenville-Emmons 82-36 during the regular season.

This time, the Wolverines held the Superlarks to 13 points and stunned the state winning 14-13.

Playing in their fifth game in 21 days, the Wolverines ran out of gas in the section final against the eventual state runner-up Lanesboro Burros, but not before giving the school and community the thrill of being a game away from state.

10. NRHEG’s David Lindell places 3rd at state wrestling meet

The top-ranked wrestler in Class A entering the 2010 state wrestling tournament, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva’s David Lindell had his eye on a state championship.

A controversial call in the state semifinals rerouted Lindell to the third place match, which he won by fall in two minutes and 57 seconds over second-ranked Logan Brand, of Lewiston-Altura/Rushford-Peterson.

Lindell dominated the match, the final of his career, and led Brand 7-0 before pinning him.

Lindell finished the season 38-3 and became the second NRHEG wrestler in two years to capture third place at the state tournament.