Irish gain ground in Challenge Cup standings

Talk about it

The Minnesota State High School League released its Challenge Cup standings from the past school year and Rosemount placed 21st overall among Class 2A schools.

The Challenge Cup tallies points for a school’s success in postseason tournaments for both athletic and fine arts activities.

Eden Prairie earned the Class 2A Challenge Cup with 971 points. Rosemount scored 333.2 points.

“Getting to a state tournament is always a lot of luck, besides having a good program and good coaches,” Rosemount athletic director Mike Manning said. “We have programs that have put themselves in the position to have the ability to get to state. Some years, it’s some sports. Another year, it’s another program.

“Last year, it was just neat to see how well we did, and we’re hopeful we’ll be even better this year.”

In a separate total for just athletic performance, Rosemount was second in District 196 with 322 points, the best finish in the district for the Irish since the Challenge Cup began in 2003. The top district school scored 400 athletic points.

Among the 11 Lake Conference schools, Rosemount finished fourth in athletics. It was just 12 points out of third place.

Counting just athletics, Rosemount would rank ninth in the state.

“I was just really pleased,” Manning said. “It shows we’ve hired some good coaches who work hard to build their programs, work with the youth programs and with our (athletic association) to have success like this at the high school level. I am pleased for them.

“And, we are pretty low in our conference in enrollment. We’re in the bottom third in enrollment. So, hopefully good things happen to Rosemount as we get larger.”

Tags: challenge cup, minnesota state high school league, sports