John's Journal: Two Days, Two State Tournaments, Two Medals

When Vaughn Hanson walked into the Gangelhoff Center at Concordia University in St. Paul on Friday afternoon, he was wearing a blue ribbon and a gold state championship medal around his neck. This may have seemed odd, because Friday was when teams competing in the MSHSL robotics state tournament were only doing set-up in anticipation of Saturday’s competition.

Hanson’s medal, however, had nothing to do with robotics. Earlier Friday, the senior from New London-Spicer had competed in the MSHSL adapted bowling state tournament at Bowlero in Brooklyn Park. He won his gold medal as the champion of the boys singles competition in the Physically Impaired division.

Vaughn rolled games of 109 and a personal-high 150. Adapted bowling uses numerical handicaps for athletes, and with Hanson’s handicap of 114 in play for each game, he finished with a total of 487 pins. That was 14 ahead of Winona's Easton Gudmundson (473). Albany's Andre Robinson was third (451) and Wayzata/Minnetonka's Brady Malay placed fourth (448).

"Vaughn had a great day on the lanes," New London-Spicer bowling coach Paul Beuning told the West Central Tribune. "Both of his games were well above his season average.”

This was Hanson’s first year as a member of the Wildcats bowling team. He has been on the robotics team for three years, and as if that doesn’t keep him busy enough, he’s also a member of the Wildcats tennis team this spring.

“I've been pretty busy with robotics, tennis and then bowling,” he said during the robotics competition. “It's been a lot of fun.”

Vaughn, whose left hand is impaired, is 6-foot-3 inches tall and plays tennis doubles with teammate Isaac Palmer. Because of his high-level bowling and robotics commitments, Hanson missed a triangular tennis competition Saturday at Fergus Falls, also involving East Grand Forks.

Vaughn took home another medal on Saturday, with New London-Spicer being part of the second-place alliance at robotics. In robotics, three teams work together against an alliance of three other teams in the competition space. New London-Spicer competed in the championship match alongside Sauk Centre and Rochester against the winning alliance of Irondale, Pequot Lakes and Becker.

Which means that Vaughn arrived at robotics with one state tournament medal and went home with two.

“He’s a pretty interesting kid,” New London-Spicer robotics advisor Arik Harrier said. “He’s always got a smile on his face and he kind of brings joy to other kids. And so he's a pretty cool kid that way.”

Hanson had never rolled at Bowlero until Friday, and he said he began the bowling competition with little expectations.

“I was just excited for the opportunity,” he said. “I wasn't really expecting much, other than having some fun.”

His roles with the robotics team have included safety captain and scout, and he said the best part of the activity is spending time with new friends.

“I just like talking to other teams, meeting new people that you wouldn’t really meet or talk to otherwise,” he said.

Harrier said building new relationships, with teammates as well as kids from other schools, is an important part of robotics.

“I've seen kids that don't talk and by the end of the season they're leading the team. You see relationships form, with teamwork and bonding and then all of a sudden they’re a tight group.”

Vaughn said he plans to begin his post-high school education at Ridgewater College in Willmar, aiming for a career as a radiologic technologist.

He’ll meet more new people in college and beyond, and he will have some pretty darn good stories to tell.

--MSHSL staff member John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Bluesky at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]