He recorded his best jump of the season last spring at the section meet, a personal-best when he needed it most. Then, Jonny Grams watched two jumpers from other schools beat his mark and qualify for state. Disappointed but not devastated, the NPHS senior has his sites set on making sure he’s one of the athletes qualifying for state this spring.
Grams entered the section meet with a personal-best long jump of 20-feet-10, a distance he reached in the conference meet. It was good enough to win the conference championship.

After winning all its regular season games and cruising through a tough state field to the championship game, the New Prague High School floor hockey team finished second in the state, falling in the championship game to Burnsville, 15-6, Saturday afternoon, March 18, at Bloomington Jefferson High School.

The high school archery team turned in its best performance of the season at the Falcon Classic Saturday, March 11, taking home the first-place team award and scoring 3,301 points from the scores of the top 12 co-ed archers.
Ellie Bawdon scored a 289, including two perfect rounds. Bawdon was the event’s top shooting girl. Cory Schroeder scored a 286 with a perfect round and was the event’s top shooting boy.

New Prague High School’s boys’ basketball ended its season in a tight, 58-55, game against New Ulm, Tuesday, March 7, in the Section 2AA quarterfinals.
“This was a very tough loss,” said New Prague head coach Dan Peterka. “We played extremely well through the first half and most of the second half.”

Wrapping up its season in fine fashion, the New Prague High School boys swimmers at the state meet represented their young program well last week.
The Trojans advanced swimmers in four of five events to the state finals, with Brendan Panka and Jacob Bisek swimming their way to the medal stand. Swimmers broke several school records.
In the 200-yard freestyle, Brendan Panka finished third with a school record time of 1:43.59. His time in the preliminary race was 1:44.08. Last year’s school record time in the event was 1:46.88.

Repeating an oft-used phrase, New Prague High School boys’ ice hockey coach Brad Drazan summed up the Section 1A championship game in Rochester in which Northfield topped the Trojans, 6-0.
“It just wasn’t our night,” he said.

New Prague High School's wrestlers finished off a fine overall season at the state tournament Saturday, March 4, at Xcel Energy Center.
With the team finishing second in the state, all six NPHS wrestlers competing as individuals made the medal stand Saturday. Four of the individuals came home state champions in their respective weight classes.

New Prague High School’s wrestlers battled hard, but fell to Simley, 46-20, in the Class AA state wrestling title Thursday, March 2, at the Xcel Energy Center. The Trojans finished second after defeating Mora, 47-20, and Kasson-Mantorville, 34-32, earlier in the day to claim a spot in the championship round. For more see an upcoming print edition of The New Prague Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

Despite their best effort, the New Prague boys' ice hockey team wasn't able to defend its Section 1A title crown from a year ago. The Trojans' season came to a tough end with a 6-0 loss to Northfield Wednesday night, March 1, in Rochester.

In a program in its second year, three brothers stand out for their commitment to the sport and their teammates.
The Dvorak brothers – Alex, Charlie and Brody – will be at the Rochester Recreation Center Wednesday through Friday, Feb. 22-24, where the New Prague boys’ swimming and diving team compete at the sectional competition. Weather conditions may impact the meet’s start time.
The brothers enjoy the competition and camaraderie of the team. They are the lone set of brothers on the team. Alex is a senior. Charlie is a ninth-grader and Brody an eighth-grader.

As it heads towards the regular season finale and an anticipated berth in the state tournament, the New Prague High School floor hockey team is looking to the potential of defending its state championship.
New Prague was slated to play Stillwater Wednesday, Feb. 25. Details of the game were not available when The New Prague Times went to press.

Overcoming their chief rival in the Section 2AA finals, the New Prague High School wrestling team won the Section 2AA team championship Saturday (Feb. 18) evening at NPHS. New Prague defeated Watertown-Mayer, 37-32. The Trojans entered the section tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Royals entered the section team competition as the No. 2 seed. The Trojans topped Watertown-Mayer, 41-25, back in December. The Trojans reached the section finals Saturday afternoon with a win over St. Peter. The Royals made it to the finals with a win over Scott West.

Winning every event in the section championship meet tonight, Friday, Feb. 17, in New Prague, the NPHS gymnastics team won a return trip to the state gymnastics meet Friday, Feb. 24, in St. Paul.
The Trojans topped second-place Minnetonka by a comfortable margin, 147.775 to 141.175 in the eight-team section competition. New Prague also advanced several individuals to the team competition Saturday, Feb. 25. A year ago, the Trojans finished second in the state team championship.
See details in an upcoming print edition of The New Prague Times.

New Prague High School’s dance team won its own invitational Saturday, Jan. 21, as both the varsity jazz and varsity high kick groups placed first in their events.
New Prague will next be at the Mounds View High School competition Saturday, Jan. 28.
“It was exciting, well deserved. The girls worked hard for it. It was a great feeling,” said New Prague head coach Tiffany Sandhurst about the Jan. 21 invite. “So many people came out to support them that it was just a special feeling for the teams.”

When two similarly matched teams put their best swimmers against one another, the results can often be quite close. Thus was the case when New Prague and St. Louis Park met in a dual meet Thursday, Jan. 19, with the Orioles winning 97-86.
“They have a couple of big dogs and we have a couple of big dogs,” said NPHS coach Kristen Munden. “NP would have won with a first place relay finish.”

If being a defending state champion isn’t enough, the New Prague floor hockey team is showing early it has the skills to handle competition aiming to knock off the champ.
In their first two games, the Trojans have won two games by a cumulative score of 23-2.
In both games, New Prague has had seven players contribute to the scoring sheet in a total team effort.
The Trojans’ defense has only allowed two goals on 27 shots.