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DICKINSON — With the year of high school sports coming to a close, west region conference coaches have made their 2021-2022 All-WDA selections. Hundreds of outstanding athletes across western North Dakota played tough all year, but only the best were chosen for this prestigious recognition. These student athletes demonstrated superb sportsmanship, dedication, leadership and consistently performed well this season.
In both softball and baseball, Dickinson had more athletes selected than any other schools in the region.
DHS senior Reese Hauck was named All-WDA in softball, basketball and volleyball.
“Reese really grew into a team leader,” Jay Schobinger, DHS volleyball coach, said. “She got an opportunity to play the libero position this year and she embraced that role.”
Schobinger says Hauck was a player who kept everyone loose and relaxed on the court while making an outstanding effort to keep the ball in the air.
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In softball, Hauck and the Midgets won two out of three games in the 2022 state tournament and beat Jamestown in the Class A Semifinal, 5-4. She set new records for herself in basketball, beating Dickinson’s single-game scoring record with 40 points against Turtle Mountain in February.
Similar to Hauck, DHS senior and three-sport athlete Troy Berg was also named All-WDA in multiple sports, including baseball and football. He wrestled and played football and baseball all four years of his high school career and finished his 2022 baseball season 3rd in state with a 9-6 win against Minot. He was also named 2022 Senior Athlete of the Year in Class A baseball.
“Troy is a once-in-a-life-time athlete for a coach in terms of his grit and determination,” Pete Dobitz, Berg’s baseball and wrestling coach, said. “He is one of the toughest kids I’ve ever coached simply because even when he was hurt, he never stopped training and trying to get better.”
Dobitz says Berg was put against senior and junior athletes on the football field when he was just a sophomore, but he had no trouble competing at their level. He was also put against seniors all the time in wrestling and never backed down.
In Berg's freshman year in wrestling, he was in a weight class that had a returning state champion and despite recommendations from Dobitz for him to move to another weight class to have a better run at the state championship, Berg preferred to stand his ground and embrace the challenge.
“Troy said 'nope, this is the weight class I’m in. I’m going to wrestle here,’” Dobitz said. “He wrestled tough and he ended up getting runner up to that kid.”
Out on the mats, Dickinson dominated the board in gymnastics with six All-WDA athlete selections including Amy Fridley, Addison Fitterer, Rylee Olson, Aspen Roadarmel and sisters Anna and Elizabeth Karsky. Of the six, four made it to one of the All-State teams.
As a team, DHS gymnastics earned their 7th straight title this year as the 2022 State Team Champions and set a new NDHSAA record for most state titles.
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In girls’ cross country, Dickinson’s Leila Gregoire took All-WDA. She led her team with the fastest times all season and was repeatedly number one in the team’s top five runners for all seven meets of 2021. In August 2021, the team placed third in the Heen-Ihmels Invite, their best finish all season. Gregoire completed the 5,000-meter race in 21:31:90, finishing fourth out of 40 individual runners at the meet. In the 5,000-meter her season record time was 19:54:00 at the Becki Wells Invitational, where she finished 11th out of 73 runners.
On the tennis courts, Valerie Bradley put on a quick, calm and controlled performance this season and is DHS’s All-WDA selection for tennis. She recently placed 6th in the state tournament and 3rd in the WDA Championship. She was also selected All-Conference this year.
Bradley wasn’t the only tennis player in the spotlight this season, as her teammate and two-sport senior athlete Lola Homiston was named All-WDA in golf.
Homiston has been the DHS golf captain for the past three years.
“She is a fantastic person who has great leadership,” John Spry, Homiston’s golf coach, said. “She is dedicated to her art. Her mental focus and talent alone, is one of the strongest parts of her game.”
Charley Rathgeber, Taylor Miller and Mara Ellerkamp were Dickinson’s All-WDA selections in girls’ swimming and diving. Of the three, Miller and Ellerkamp were distance swimmers and Rathgeber was a sprint and mid-distance swimmer in the 100 and 200.
“These girls put in hard work at practice every day and kept on pushing,” Jenna Wolf, swim and dive coach, said. “They had a drive to be the best they could be.”
The list of Dickinson All-WDA selections is seemingly endless, signifying the magnitude of athletic talent on the Western Edge.
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Additional All-WDA athletes include: boy's hockey: Kaeden Krieg; boys' soccer: Jace Hughes; boys' swim and dive: Mason Beck and Dawson Milson; boys'basketball: Britton Cranston and Alex Dvorak; boys' cross country: AJ Ash, Caleb Hansen, and Jace Cofer.
West region selections in boys’ and girls’ track and field are to be determined.
