Sauk Rapids-Rice ProStart Team Heading to Nationals

SAUK RAPIDS -- One of the most successful ProStart teams in Minnesota is heading to the National ProStart Invitational in Providence Rhode Island next month.

The Sauk Rapids-Rice ProStart team just took first place at the Minnesota Invitational and will compete at nationals April 27th - 29th. To get there, they had to beat out 17 other culinary teams and six other management teams.

Mary Levinksi is the ProStart Culinary and Management Team Advisor. She says while there's a lot the national judges expect, from how the dish looks, to sanitation and taste, they don't want teams going overboard.

"They would rather have a well-executed dish that's simple, than something that has too much added too it. One of the things we've heard them say is some teams take it over the top and there's just too much to it.

Ten students will be representing Sauk Rapids-Rice at nationals.

The management team will be graded on their ideas surrounding starting and running a restaurant. This will be the 12th time in a row the management team is going to nationals, and the 2nd time the culinary team is.

They're ten-time defending state champs in management, they've crossed the national stage twice in the past decade, 2013 and 2016 and have been named in the top 50 programs in the country for five years in a row.