The Great Lakes Division won the 2025 Northwoods League Home Run Challenge held in Madison, WI Tuesday night.

The Great Lakes and Great Plains divisions sent nine of their top batters across their baseball and softball leagues to compete in this year’s home run challenge. Jake Bechtel of the Waterloo Bucks started off the night for the Great Plains Division at the top of the ninth. Bechtel hit just one ball over the fence Tuesday night to start the Great Plains with a 1-0 lead.

MJ Sweeney was the first up to the plate for the Great Lakes Division and was one of two players representing the Madison Mallards on Tuesday. Sweeney had a decent start, earning three home runs during his time at bat in the bottom of the first.

Maddox Haley of the Rochester Honkers took back the lead for the Great Plains with four home runs at the plate. The Wausau Woodchucks’ Noah Malone quickly took the lead back in the bottom of the second with six home runs, the most of the night at that point. The score after four batters was 5-9 for the Great Lakes Division.

Minot’s own Taylor Chillingworth was the lone representative for the Honeybees in Tuesday night’s challenge. The Honeybees had just finished their game against the Madison Night Mares less than an hour before the challenge began. The Honeybees lost 1-2 in the bottom of the seventh. Even after playing earlier in the night, Chillingworth was still able to secure an additional four home runs for the Great Plains Division to tie the game 9-9 in the top of the third. Emma Kavanagh of the Madison Night Mares was next up and landed nine home runs in the bottom of the third to once again take the lead.

Matthew Pena of the Willmar Stingers and Jarren Sanderson of the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders both scored eight home runs in the fourth inning, leaving the gap between the Great Plains and the Great Lakes the same.

Chayton Fischer of the Badlands Big Sticks was the first player to end the night with no home runs, and Noah Ruiz of the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters scored just one run for the Great Lakes in the bottom of the fifth.

The Wausau Ignite’s Mia Johnson scored eight home runs to start the Great Plains’ effort to tie the game once again, but Avary Makarewicz of the La Crosse Steam widened the margin once again with a total of ten home runs. Makarewicz was the first player to reach double digit home runs during Tuesday’s challenge.

Ethan Surowiec of the Duluth Huskies was next up for the Great Plains. He hit just five home runs before his time expired. Max Soliz was the Great Lakes’ batter for the bottom of the seventh and was the challenge’s only returning player this year. He hit just one home run before his two minutes at bat were up.

Riley Schwisow of the Wausau Ignite hit no home runs during her at bat, allowing Hilary Blomberg of the Madison Night Mares to extend the Great Lakes’ lead by five extra runs.

Minot’s Henry Allen was the league’s home run leader heading into Tuesday’s challenge, but with the Great Plains 13 runs behind the Great Lakes, he would need more than a miracle to win. Allen was only able to secure four home runs in his time at the plate, giving the Great Plains a final score of 34. Mikey Bell of the Madison Mallards capped off the event and secured a last second home run to bring his total for the inning to nine, giving him the most home runs of any baseball player during the challenge.

The Great Lakes won the challenge for the second year in a row with a score of 52 home runs. Avary Makarewicz of the La Crosse Steam had the most home runs of any individual at the event with ten and was the only player to reach double digits. The Northwoods League will have their All-Star game on Wednesday night in Madison, WI.