Perham High School finished in third place in Class A in the Minnesota State High School League Challenge Cup. It is the second straight year that Perham was the top-ranked public school in the competition.
The Challenge Cup is an awards program, just completing its third year, designed to recognize Minnesota high schools for excellence in athletics and fine arts activities. The Challenge Cup is awarded to two high schools, one Class A school and one Class AA school, that earn the most points based on their participation and finish in section and state fine arts and athletics tournaments.
Perham finished with 400 points. Winning this year's Challenge Cup for Class A was St. Cloud Cathedral with 505.7 points. Second place was The Blake School in Minneapolis. The Class AA champion was Eden Prairie High School with 767 points.
Only three public schools, Perham, Watertown-Mayer (8th) and Litchfield (9th), made the top-10 list in Class A.
"It's great for our kids and our school to be recognized this way," Perham Activities Director Fred Sailer said.
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Perham was led by the gymnastics team, which won their third straight Class A State title. Throw in the individual performances, including Kourtney Johnston winning the All-Around Championship, and the gymnasts earned 190 Challenge Cup points.
The cross country team, led by a third place finish at State from the girls and a fourth place finish by the boys, collected 86 points.
Championships by Caleb Anderson and the girls 4x800 relay team in track and field brought in 45 points.
State Champ Kenny Moenkedick and the rest of the wrestlers earned 35 points.
Another State Champ, golfer Taylor Cavanagh, earned 14 points and outside the athletic realm, the speech team, lead by a first place finish in Informative Speaking by David Tomporowski, collected 30 points.
Near misses by the football, volleyball, wrestling and baseball teams, all of which reached Section semifinals or Section Championship games, could have pushed Perham into the top spot.
"It shows we've put together a consistent program with a variety of kids and teams having successful seasons," Sailer added.
There are a total of 314 schools listed in the Class A rankings.
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Full results and explanation on the Challenge Cup can be found online at www.mshsl.org . Click "Recognition", then click "Challenge Cup".
