From the pool to the ice, 10 Lumberjacks ink collegiate commitments on school's signing day

Apr. 23—BEMIDJI — Ten Bemidji High School athletes will continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level.

On Wednesday, Kellen Heuer, Abby Daman, Natalie Hole, Daniel Scherling, Holly Snobl, Kady St. Peter, Abe Benson, Tanner Johnson, Casey and Claire Story all participated in signing day at BHS.

St. Peter, who will be a hockey cheerleader for the University of North Dakota, had one of Wednesday's most unique signings. Schools like UND and the University of Minnesota have some of the top on-ice cheerleading units in college hockey, according to St. Peter, and it was her goal to get into one of those schools.

As expected, the process to become a cheerleader is lengthy.

"There's a prep clinic that I actually wasn't able to attend because of the blizzard," St. Peter detailed. "So you go to the prep clinic, and then I sent close to probably 12 different videos. They had a regimen that you had to follow, different skills that you had to be able to do. ... I had to learn the fight song and everything.

"Then I also had to send in videos just talking about myself and why I want to be on the team. Then, after that, I ended up going into the interview process, which was just Zoom calls back and forth. Then I got the email, and now we're here."

It's an incredible accomplishment for St. Peter, who's only been a cheerleader for the Jacks since her junior year.

"I'm a little bit fresh with cheerleading," she said. "But I like to think I caught on quickly. But for UND, what they were looking for more was the figure skating skills, and I've been a figure skater since I was very little, so that's an easy transition."

Four swimmers will swim at the collegiate level — Benson at Beloit College, Johnson at Rhodes College, Scherling at Dordt University and Daman at Augustana.

Benson was a key swimmer on the boys swim and dive team, which was competitive and full of seniors last season. He'll compete in NCAA Division III for Beloit College on the Wisconsin-Illinois border.

Johnson, a three-sport athlete at BHS (cross country, swim and dive and track and field) and a Triple 'A' Award winner, will swim at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, at the D-III level.

As good as he was for the boys swim and dive team, he's equally as good in the classroom. He plans to enter the pre-med program at Rhodes.

"I had a list of about 10 schools that got back to me," Johnson said to the Pioneer last month. "I just started looking at their programs, what they offered, costs — I had spreadsheets. Once I got it narrowed down to Rhodes, I visited campus and I loved it. I loved the people and I loved the team."

Scherling will be swimming in NAIA Division II at Dordt in northwest Iowa. This most recent season, he headed to the state championships in the 100-yard breaststroke after setting the school record in the event (58.79 seconds) at the Section 8AA championships.

Daman will be in the NSIC swimming for Augustana at the D-II level. When she visited the campus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, she felt like Augie was the right place for her.