Sports year in review: On top of their game in 2011

NATIONAL ATTENTION

• Jessie Aneyof Century was named Sports Illustrated's Sports Kid of the Year in late 2010 for her accomplishments in tennis and hockey. The percs spilled into 2011 as she got to present the Best Female Athlete award on a Cartoon Network television show to auto racer Danika Patrick.

• The Rochester Community and Technical Collegegot all the way to the NJCAA Division III national tournament championship game for the second straight year. The Yellowjackets again went home with the runner-up trophy.

• The Rochester Ice Hawkswere hosts of the national Junior A hockey tournament. They came up short of advancing from pool play into the semifinals.

• Caleb Leichtnamof the RCTC football team set a national community college football record with an astonishing 20 interceptions in 11 games.

• A Rochester seventh-grader, Ingrid Neel,got noticed statewide and beyond when she chose to play with the Mayo boys tennis team, and was prominent in a New York Times article about a tennis academy run by John McEnroe. Neel played No. 2 singles and lost only one match all season for a team that won the state championship. It was believed to be the first time a Minnesota girl — when given the option to play with her own gender — instead opted to play for the boys team.

PRO ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Rochester's Marcus Sherelsnot only stuck with the Minnesota Vikings as a defensive back on the active roster for the entire 2011 season, he had a regular role of returning punts.

• Rochester's Eric Butoracand his partner began 2011 by getting all the way to the semifinals of the Australian Open in men's doubles, then lost to pro tennis's dominant pair, the Bryan brothers.

• Karl Klugof Caledonia finished his football career at the University of Iowa and then was drafted in the fifth round by the Tennessee Titans, for whom he has played all 14 games in the defensive line with 19 tackles and six sacks.

STATE CHAMPIONS

• Rochester added to its resume as a tennis hotbed with a team state boys championship ( Mayo) and a state girls singles championship (Century's Jessie Aney). The Mayo doubles team of Kylie Boyerand Kate Rosenowwon the AA state championship.

• Lourdesupset the state's No. 1-ranked Class AA boys basketball team, Plainview-Elgin-Millville, in the section finals and went on to reach the state AA title game before losing to Perham.

• Caledoniawon the state Class AA high school football championship for the fourth time in the last five years.

MILESTONES

• Mayo's Lorne Grossopassed Edina's Willard Ikola for most wins in a Minnesota high school hockey coaching career.

• Tom Vixof Rushford-Peterson passed the 500-win mark, a level reached by only 29 others in the history of Minnesota boys high school basketball.

• Plainview-Elgin-Millville's Cole Olstadbroke the 3,000-point mark, making him the sixth player in Minnesota boys high school basketball to do so.

COACHING DEPARTURES

• Two of Rochester's head coaching positions in boys high school hockey turned over when Century's Bruce Frutigerand John Marshall's Scott Lecyresigned. Frutiger had been in that post since Century opened in 1998; Lecy, a veteran of the 1977 JM state championship team, had served five seasons.

• Rochester Community and Technical College had three head coaches hang it up in 2011: football's Brad LaPlante, volleyball's Carolyn Belland softball's Jean Musgjerd.LaPlante moved to Texas to a dominant high school program, Bell is gone to New York with her family, and Musgjerd said she needed to focus on her RCTC athletic director duties.

• Red Wing's Kraig Ulvelingended a 28-year run as head coach in boys and girls basketball.

• Clair Austin, who won two state championships and eight section titles in 13 years at Goodhue, resigned. He's in the high school ranks in Ellsworth, Wis., but upon leaving Goodhue said he was seeking a college opportunity.