Gymnastics
Winter sports at Cretin-Derham Hall are well underway! The CDH gymnasts have sprung into action ready to tackle their ‘25-‘26 season. The new season has brought about major changes in the gym, with over half of the gymnastics team graduating last year.
Head Coach Anja Mundhal says, “We have been challenged to find our team identity without the seniors that we lost last season. New people have needed to step up into these leadership roles which is hard. It takes courageto be the person to set the tone.”
Because of this significant change in the team, the Lady Raiders have been focused on strengthening a new team identity, while many gymnasts take on new leadership roles. Captain Grace Bartel ‘26 shares, “With over half of our team graduating last year our team has had to be completely rebuilt. We’ve put a lot of work into bettering our skills to continue developing strong line ups and improving team chemistry.”
Although the Lady Raiders haven’t won any meets this season, the small wins have been just as worthwhile, Coach Mundhal continues, “Trying new skills, hitting routines we don’t normally hit, challenging ourselves to set big goals, having fun, making friends are all wins in our eyes this season.” The biggest win of the gymnastics season is the incredible new team’s connection, heart, and dedication. Captain Grace Bartel ‘26 concludes, “I couldn’t imagine a stronger or braver group of young women.” As the season comes to an end the lady Raiders are excited to showcase their hard work and incredible improvement at JV champs and Sections.
Boys Basketball
The Cretin-Derham Varsity Boys basketball team has moved through the season with a 14-3 overall record as of late January. Their 3 losses have been to Wayzata, Totino-Grace, and Prior Lake, all of which are difficult teams with high-level competition. Currently, the team is ranked 11 in Minnesota and sits 1st in the AAAA Section 4 conference.
Senior player Isaiah Thom commented on the team’s overall performance so far, saying, “Our record is 14-3. Things are looking good.”
Facing powerful opponents brings both pressure and excitement as the team continues to test itself throughout the season. However, completion within their conference has presented a new challenge. Varsity assistant coach Joe Hutchins, explained, “A big challenge this year has been the discrepancy in talent across our conference. It has been a down year for a large number of conference teams, which limits the amount of big games we’ve been a part of.”
Despite this, Thom emphasized how energetic high-stake matchups can be, adding, “It’s always a fun environment when we get to play teams that are our biggest rivals.”
With a relatively young roster, the team has focused on growing together throughout the season. Underclassmen such as Char Davis, Anthony Armstrong, and Maxwell Walker-Green, all sophomores, have stepped into important roles. While talented, building chemistry has been an ongoing process that will continue to develop over the season.
“We’re a young team, so a challenge is working on our chemistry – getting used to working cohesively,” Thom said.
The team’s competitive mindset has helped fuel their success. Hutchins noted, “We have a really fun group that loves to compete. Our players 1-18 compete and push each other everyday in practice. There have been multiple times this year where our practices are harder than our games, due to this competitive joy”
Last season, they placed second in the 2025 Class 4A Boys Basketball State Championship, falling to second-ranked Wayzata with a final score of 80-55. Despite that loss, the team remains focused on another potential postseason run. With strong depth and expanding character development, the Raiders have a solid chance of advancing far if they uphold their momentum.
Looking ahead, Thom shared his optimism for the remainder of the season, stating, “We’re looking forward to section playoffs. We have a good shot at another run for state.”
Hutchins imitated that hope, saying, “I’m most excited to see the growth at the end of the season and hopefully continuing the journey all the way to state.” He added that the team’s main goal is “winning our section and playing in the state tournament.”
Overall, expectations remain high as the season unfolds and the teams prepare for what’s in their future during the 2025-26 season.
Girls Basketball
As of late January the Cretin-Derham Hall Girls Basketball Varsity record was 13-7. Which is as impressive as that is, they are also ranked 5th. Tara Gunderson has been the head coach for three years now and has led this team with the help of student leadership, to their position today.
Senior Captain Sage Gilbert spoke about her different memories from girl’s basketball over the years. However, her favorite memory was when the team beat De La Salle for the first time in eight years. In the close game against De La Salle, they beat them by three. This sparked a moment of celebration for the entire team, and proved that their hard work was paying off.
Gilbert, who has been on varsity since freshman year, explained how their team includes players from every grade level. Even when the girl’s basketball team went to state last year, there was someone from each grade level who played, and that structure of the team continues in this season as well.
This season, Gilbert has a goal to make it once again to the state championship and watch the team win there.
Boys Ice Hockey
The Cretin-Derham Hall boys hockey team has had quite an accomplished 2025-26 season, led by head coach Matt Funk. The team is 14-6 overall and sits at the top of the Suburban East Conference, making them one of the top teams in the state of Minnesota and putting them in a good spot going forward.
Unfortunately, the team has experienced numerous injuries this season, causing many people to be thrown into new roles. However, as players recover, the team will emerge even stronger as each player will be able to play multiple positions. The boys hockey season is already coming to a close with the playoffs just around the corner. Head coach Matt Funk stated that he is “excited to watch this team grow and develop. We have learned how to win tight games and have been in every game we played this year”.
The spirits of the CDH boys hockey team are high as they enter their final weeks of their season. The raider community is excited to see what happens and to continue to support our team to the end of their season. Go Raiders!
Girls Ice Hockey
As the new year of 2026 begins, it brings lots of hopes and desires with it, especially for the CDH Girl’s Hockey team. The impressive group has recently crossed the pivoting point of completing all regular season games. Not only have the 20 established varsity girls shown signs of improvement after every game, but they also aim to continue on in hopes of obtaining the section title.
Upon the completion of the initial varsity roster, it was noted that six players from the freshmen class were put onto it. When asking Captain Channing Haycraft about it, she admitted, “Going into the season, I was excited, but I didn’t know what to expect because our team was so new and really young.”
Additionally, Captain Grace Kemp voiced her thoughts on how the new2025-2026 crew was very talented but she “also knew it was going to take us a while to become a fully developed team. With so many new girls, it was inevitable.” With this, the beginning of the season did prove to be a bit rocky for the team having a 2-5-0 record in the first 7 games. However, with every loss also came great developments and milestones that enabled the team to adapt and practice even harder to produce results that accurately represents their hard work.
With every player working hand in hand with their teammates and their coaches—Tony Scheid, Callie Dahl, and Elena Basill—the team ultimately began to show results. For example, one of their most notable moments was against the renowned Mounds View-Irondale Girl’s Hockey team. Previously, Mounds View had been undefeated until they resulted in a 0-3 loss to Cretin-Derham Hall on December 2nd. From there, the motivation seemed to keep growing as CDH now goes into their section pool with a 11-13-0 record. With this new shift, it’s clear that the girls are a changed group from the start of the winter. When interviewing Assistant Captain Emma Kennefick, she proudly proclaimed, “We have gained much more confidence and trust in each other both on and off the ice. Going into sections, I am excited to see how far we can take this momentum, and finish the season strong.”
Along with meeting various team goals and objectives, several individual celebrations have also been accounted for in this admirable group of 20. In particular, ten different players have scored their first varsity goal, many of them coming from new additions to the squad this year. Additionally, number 35 Grace Kemp recently made history by obtaining over 2,500 saves against Eastview on December 23rd as a bit of an early Christmas gift. Lastly, the top scorers go
to Channing Haycraft with 32, Emma Kennefick with 20 and Brynn Scanlan and Ellyson Henjum tied for 12 points.
Although all of the players have enhanced their abilities substantially, they’re far from being done. Upon winning their first section game versus Eastview on February 4th, all of the spectators seem to be anticipating the next round and what’s to come with this newly refurbished lineup.
Boys Swim and Dive
As the winter began, the boys hopped into the pool and started off their swim season very strong. This year the Boys Swim & Dive team have been able move from the AA section to the A section, which allows the boys to compete with schools in similar capacities as theirs. This change is giving the boys hope to have swimmers qualify for the state meet at the end of February. And have individuals or relays with state times or top times in our section be able to compete at the meet, in which the boys believe they can do.
“The qualifying times are still hard to achieve but we are confident some are achievable this year. This change in section has brought us a lot of hope for achieving at the state level.” -Carl Steinhoff ‘26
With this term of dedication and wit, it is clear the boys are ready to excel. Jameson Downs, one of the boys swimmers, has been a beast in the 500 free recently. At one of his recent meets, he was able to drop 38 seconds from a prior meet and is also constantly showing much improvement in his swimming and times. Additionally, Chase Style has been a very huge contribution to this team by having insanely fast times. Recently, in the 100 free he was able to swim a 53.39 and a 24.15 in the 50 free, which are extremely speedy times. Constantly, we see Chase scoring many points for this team. Captain Carl Steinhoff believes these two boys are very supportive and energetic people that show the traits of a leader while being the amazing swimmers they are.
“I believe both of these guys will be great future team leaders and will continue to make the team better for years to come.” -Carl Steinhoff ‘26
