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SECTION C • JUNE 23, 2011

SECTION C • JUNE 23, 201

SPORTS

REVIEW

Boys: Pages 2 and 7Girls: Pages 1 and 7

Boys: Pages 1 and 8Girls: Pages 2 and 8

Pages 3 and 7Pages 3 and 8

Boys: Page 6

Boys: Pages 5 and 8

Girls: Page 5 Pages 4 and 6Pages 4 and 6

Kaylee Benson chips onto the green during a match this season. Benson medaled 14times this spring and finished third at the state tournament.

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Meet Score PlaceMt. Lake 123 2ndWindom 53 4thFairmont 38 3rdSentinel Relays 119 1stSection True Team 545 3rdTrojan Relays 52 8th

Southwest Conference 76.5 5thSub-Section 125.33 2nd

JCC boys’ track and feld results

The season for the Jack-son County Central boys’track and field team hadplenty of highlights, both asa team and for individuals.

The biggest team high-light came with the win atthe Sentinel Relays on May6 when the Huskies scored119 points to win the teamtitle.

“Winning the SentinelRelays was a big highlight,”

Highlights aplenty or boys’ track team, individualsHuskies winSentinel Relays,Cook wins statechampionship

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Photos by Dan Condon

Justin Cook races with the baton during the 4x800-meter relay at the section track andfield meet. Cook and the 4x8 team finished seventh at state and Cook won the 800-meterrun at the state tournament.

head coach Brian Cooksaid. “It was also nice tohave a successful sectionmeet.”

The section meet saw the4x800-meter relay team winto advance to state. SeniorJustin Cook also won the800-meter run and sopho-more Jason Vongsavanh

won the 200-meter dash,meaning both qualified forstate.

The biggest individu-al highlight of the seasoncame at state when Cookused a program-best timeof 1:55.97 to win the goldmedal in the 800. The first-place finish was the first in-dividual state championshipfor JCC in track and field.

Cook was also on the 4x8team that finished seventhat state. Also on the team

were juniors Ben Kocak andTaylor Freeman and seniorMarc Strom.

Strom and Cook madeup half of the 4x8 teamthat won the state title lastseason.

“That was really nice togo back-to-back in gettingto state in the 4x8, espe-cially after we only had tworunners back,” Coach Cooksaid. “We were able to puttogether a team that wassuccessful again at state.”

Besides winning the 800at state and finishing sev-enth in the 4x8, Cook hadplenty of other successfulshowings this spring. He

won the 1,600-meter runat the Southwest Confer-ence meet, with his timeof 4:30.35 being second onthe JCC honor roll list of best times in team history.He also posted the 10th-best time in the 400-meterdash (53.88) and was onthe 4x4 team that had thefastest time in JCC history(3:33.95). Also part of thatrelay team were Vongsa-

vanh, Zach Post and Free-man.

Cook led the Huskies with 244 points this spring, with Vongsavanh coming insecond with 197. Vongsa-

vanh finished second in the200 at the conference meet,

won the 100 and 200 at the

Jason Vongsavanh (right) gets ready to hand the baton toSteven Salzwedel during the 4x200-meter relay.

See BOYS’ TRACK on C8

Opponent Result ScoreSpirit Lake L 215-196Fairmont L 216-211Worthington L 209-201Windom L 210-201

Worthington Invitational 3rd 419Redwood Valley W 197-218Red Rock Central W 193-220Estherville Lincoln Central W 191-228Marshall L 205-202Luverne W 196-215Pipestone W 205-244Blue Earth Area W 196-224Southwest Conference 3rd 409Sub-Section 1st 383Section 3AA 4th 397

Overall record: 6-5SWC record: 3-3

JCC girls’ gol results

JCC boys’ track and feld

1. Justin Cook .................... ...................... .244

2. Jason Vongsavanh ..................... ............ 197

3. Zach Post............................ ................... 182

4. Taylor Freeman .................... ................ 181

5. Marc Strom .................... ...................... .164

6. Steven Salzwedel ..................... ............ 136

7. Ben Kocak ...................... ...................... .114

8. John Isaacson ..................... ..................... 93

9. Evan Koep ..................... ...................... ...92

10. Darnell Taylor-Breck .............................66

Top point scorers


Emma Lilleberg sends a chip toward the hole at the section tournament. Lilleberg hada consistent spring season, averaging 54.1 shots per nine holes.

With a team consistingof just one upperclassman,the hope for the JacksonCounty Central girls’ golf team was to gain experiencethis spring and hope the ex-

perience would benefit theteam in the future.

The Huskies got muchmore than that as the team,led by junior Kaylee Ben-son, won six of its last sevendual matches to finish 6-5

Benson’s success atstate highlights 6-5season for Huskies

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Girls’ gol team picks up experience, several winsand won the sub-sectiontitle for the third straightseason.

“The girls had an amaz-ing year,” head coach MikeDiBrito said. “We lost fivegreat senior golfers fromlast season. This younggroup made some nice im-provements. They steppedup their game and finished

with a winning record, which was very impressivefor a young group.”

Benson carried the team

much of the season, earn-ing medalist honors in allbut two meets this spring.

After finishing second in theseason-opening loss, Ben-son medaled in 14 straightevents and finished third at

the Class AA state tourna-ment.

“Kaylee had an outstand-ing season,” DiBrito said.“To have a season averagein the 30s is amazing. Sheplayed great golf; there isno way around that. She isa great golfer who prettymuch beat everyone shecompeted against.”

With Benson posting thelow score in almost everymeet, the Huskies wereable to use ever-improving

scores from the rest of theteam to pick up their six- wins.

One player who saw herscore drop throughout thespring was eighth-grader

Alison Benson. Benson

opened the season withback-to-back 60-plus scores,but was never higher than55 after that. Her low roundof the spring came whenshe shot 47 in a win overLuverne. Benson also shot48 twice, but the highlightof her first season on varsity

was her third-place finish atthe sub-section tournament

when she shot an 18-holescore of 96.

Alison Benson averaged53.6 shots per nine holes

and had her score count in13 meets.Because she kept lower-

ing her score as the season went along, Alison wasnamed the team’s most im-proved player.

Emma Lilleberg andBlaike Smith both aver-aged 54.1 shots per nineholes, with Lilleberg’s scorecounting 11 times and Smith10 times.

Lilleberg played consis-tent golf all spring, with herbest score being the 18-hole

score of 101 at the sectiontourney. She shot 52 twiceand shot 57 or better eighttimes.

“She had a fantastic sec-tion tournament,” DiBritosaid of Lilleberg.

Smith shot a low of 49and never shot higher than57. Smith finished the yearstrong, with 103 at the sub-section meet and 111 at thesection tournament.

Shelby Benson averaged57.5 shots per nine holes

and had her score count sixtimes. Her best score was52 and she shot 55 or bettersix times.

Lexie Hoffman had herscore count in three meetsand posted a season-low 50in a win over EsthervilleLincoln Central.

Having a veteran likeKaylee Benson, who playedat state for the fourth timethis spring, lead the team

was huge, DiBrito said.“Kaylee did such a nice

See GIRLS’ GOLF on C7

SOFTBALLTRACK AND FIELDGOLF BASEBALL



C2 Thursday, June 23, 2011Sports Review

JCC girls’ track and feld

1. Sydnee Donnelli ..................... .............. 315

2. Courtney Donnelli ...................... .......... 233

3. Riley Schneekloth ...................... .......... 166

4. Julia Schumann ................... .................. 154

5. Jade Holthe ...................... ..................... ..67

6. Tracey Steffen ..................... .................... 61

7. Kathryn Nasby........................................38

8. Hope Belknap ..................... .................... 31

9. Megan Johnson ................... .................... 28

10. Sarah Voehl .............................................26

Top point scorers

Meet Score PlaceMt. Lake 83 4thWindom 92.5 4thFairmont 36 4thSentinel Relays 99 3rdSection True Team 468.5 5thTrojan Relays 53 6thSouthwest Conference 44 7thSub-Sectio n 104.5 4th

JCC girls’ track and feld results

Opponent Result ScoreSpirit Lake W 173-174Fairmont W 170-189Worthington W 173-187Windom W 176-182Worthington Invitational 4th 338Redwood Valley L 180-156Red Rock Central W 167-178Estherville Lincoln Central W 170-184Marshall L 159-145Luverne L 174-171Pipestone W 171-197Blue Earth Area L 182-166Southwest Conference 3rd 328Sub-Section 2nd 342


JCC boys’ gol results

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Player Best Score (Holes) AverageTanner Asa 35 (9) 40.3Tyler Asa 38 (9) 43.2Joe Brinkman 83 (18) 44.8Kyle Edlin 41 (9) 45.4Colton Ward 83 (18) 45.8John Marker 44 (9) 46.8Kyle Christopher 46 (9) 48.8

JCC boys’ gol individual results

Donnelli qualifesor state; one o many talentedathletes set toreturn next year

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

JCC girls sprint to successul season on the track


Julia Schumann (right) takes off after getting the baton from Riley Schneekloth duringa relay. The duo combined to score 320 points for the Huskies this season.

Sydnee Donnelli flies through the a ir during the long jumpat the section meet. The event was one of four in whichDonnelli competed in at the section meet. She finishedsecond in the 200-meter dash to qualify for the statetournament for the first time.

See GIRLS’ TRACK on C8

Photo by Dan Condon

Four Huskies go to sections as team fnishes 7-4Asa twins, Wardcap successulcareers or JCCboys’ gol team

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

See BOYS’ GOLF on C7

Tyler (left) and Tanner Asa write down their score during a match this spring. The senior twins led the Huskies againthis season as both medaled three times. Tanner had the low JCC score in 11 of the Huskies’ 14 events.

For the Jackson CountyCentral boys’ golf team, theseason could not have got-ten off to a better start. TheHuskies opened the spring

with a one-stroke win overSpirit Lake, Iowa, and were4-0 before the calendarturned to May.

The Huskies finished theseason with a 7-4 mark and

were 3-3 in the SouthwestConference. JCC finishedthird in the conferencemeet and was second in thesub-section.

“The boys had a greatseason,” head coach MikeDiBrito said. “They had alot of nice wins.”

Despite not making it tothe section tournament as ateam, the Huskies sent four

individuals to the tourna-ment. Qualifying for theSection 3AA meet wereseniors Tanner Asa, Tyler

Asa and Colton Ward andeighth-grader Joe Brink-man.

Those three seniors

meant a lot to the team forquite a long time, DiBritosaid.

“Tanner, Tyler and Colton were very valuable to theprogram,” he said. “Theyhave golfed for JCC sincemiddle school. Throughoutthe golf season, they havecontributed big time.”

And having them qualifyfor sections was a good wayfor them to end their career,DiBrito said.

“It was nice to see allthree seniors get to sec-tions,” he said. “The sectiontournament is competitiveand it was nice that theygot to experience this ontheir last high school com-petition.”

Tanner Asa had the bestfinish in the section tourney,but his 18-hole score of 80left him short of the statetournament. He had a se-nior season to remember,though, as he was the mainman for the Huskies mostof the spring.

Tanner medaled threetimes, including when heshot 35 against Marshall.He shot 39 to medal against

Pipestone Area and nevershot higher than 45. Asasaved his best golf for thepostseason as he shot 18-hole scores of 76, 78 and80 to wrap up his career.His 76 put Asa fifth in theconference meet and his 78

qualified him for sections.Tanner Asa had the low-

est average for the Huskies,averaging 40.3 shots pernine holes. He was the lowJCC golfer 11 times andhad his score count in all14 meets.

Tyler Asa also medaledthree times, with his low

score coming when hemedaled with 38 againstFairmont. Asa shot 40 twiceand shot 45 or lower in nineof 11 nine-hole rounds. Heaveraged 43.2 shots pernine holes and had his scorecount 13 times.

“Tyler has a lot of accom-plishments,” DiBrito said,listing one as being part of the team that played at statein 2007. “He was a valuableplayer and had a nice highschool golf career.”

Tanner Asa earned all-conference honors for thefirst time after being anhonorable-mention pickthe last two seasons. Tanner

was an honorable-mentionall-conference performer

this spring.Ward averaged 45.8

shots per nine holes andtied for medalist honors

with his score of 42 againstWorthington. Ward hadhis score count nine timesand played well down thestretch.

Ward shot 86 at the con-

ference meet and 89 at thesub-section tourney, wherehe qualified for the sectiontournament after comingout of a playoff.

“Colton was always smil-ing, always positive,” Di-Brito said.

Brinkman also neededa playoff to make it to sec-tions after he shot 89 at thesub-section tournament.The eighth-grader shot 83at the conference meet andshot a low of 44 four times.

Brinkman was as con-sistent all season, with allof his nine-hole scores be-tween 44 and 47. His 18-hole scores ranged from83-92. His score counted in

A deep Jackson CountyCentral girls’ track and fieldteam relied on its sprintersto score most of its pointsthis season, with four inparticular racking up pointsin bunches.

Senior Courtney Don-nelli, sophomore Sydnee

Donnelli and eighth-grad-ers Riley Schneekloth andJulia Schumann accountedfor 868 points this season,

with most of them comingin sprint events or relays.

The four combined torun the 4x100- and 4x200-meter relays when all werehealthy and blazed aroundthe track. They won the 4x1at the Southwest Confer-ence meet and were thirdin the 4x2 at the same meet.The foursome finished sec-ond in both relays at thesub-section meet and werethird in the 4x1 and fourthin the 4x2 at the sectionmeet.

The four combined torun the fourth-fastest timein both the 4x1 and 4x2in team history, posting aseason-best 52.03 in the 4x1

and 1:50.88 in the 4x2.“The strength of the team

was the sprinters and mid-dle-distance runners,” headcoach Brian Cook said.“Those groups were verystrong.”

Sydnee Donnelli led theteam with 315 points, giv-ing her 549 in the past threeseasons. Her total of 315 isthe most scored in a seasonfor JCC since Amanda Dar-ling tallied 409 points as a

junior in 2006.Donnelli qualified for the

state tournament for thefirst time in the 100-meterdash after finishing secondin the event at the Section3A meet. She won the racein the sub-section meet and

was second in the 100 at theconference meet.

Sydnee was named theteam’s most valuable run-ner and her fastest timeof 12.9 in the 100 puts her10th on the JCC honor roll.Donnelli also did well in thelong jump, qualifying forsections in the event. Sheranks fifth on the honor roll

with a season-best jump of 16’5.75”.

Courtney Donnelli wassecond on the scoring listfor the second year in arow after leading the teamin points in 2009. Donnelliscored 233 points after asuccessful season runningthe 200-meter dash and re-lays and competing in theshot put.

She qualified for the sec-tion meet in the 4x1, 4x2,200 and shot put after fin-ishing third in the shot putand fourth in the 200 at thesub-section meet.

Donnelli’s best distanceof 35’11.75” is the second-best in team history, withsophomore Jessica Voehlninth on the list (30’1.25”).

S c h n e e k l o t h ’ s 1 6 6points put her third, withSchumann scoring 154points to finish fourth onthe team.

Eighth-grader Jade Hol-the scored 67 points thisseason and qualified forsections in the 4x800-meterrelay, 4x400-meter relayand 1,600-meter run.

Rounding out the top 10scorers were junior TraceySteffen (61), eighth-graderKathryn Nasby (38), seniorHope Belknap (31), seniorMegan Johnson (28) andsenior Sarah Voehl (26).

Belknap, Johnson andSarah Voehl were on the4x8 team that made it tosections, with Nasby andeighth-graders Faith Han-sen and Jessica Jandera

joining Holthe on the 4x4team at sections.

Johnson was named theteam’s most inspirationalathlete, with Jessica Voehlnamed the most valuablein field events. Kaitlyn Johnand Kaitlyn McCaslin bothearned managers awardsfor their work as student-

Courtney Donnelli




Opponent Result Score Adrian W 8-3Windom Area W 4-2Pipestone Area W 4-1Pipestone Area W 12-7Fairmont W 16-8New Ulm L 6-11

Martin County West W 10-1Luverne L 5-6Luverne W 4-2Red Rock Central W 9-1Worthington L 0-4Worthington L 3-8Windom Area W 10-6Maple River L 5-6Southwestern United W 12-2Redwood Valley L 1-4Redwood Valley W 10-6Marshall L 7-13Marshall L 3-11Section 3AA TournamentWorthington W 1-0Fairmont L 0-2


JCC baseball results

Opponent Result ScoreMartin County West L 5-9New Ulm L 3-10Redwood Valley L 1-7Redwood Valley L 4-10Blue Earth Area W 5-3Pipestone Area W 1-0Pipestone Area L 2-4Marshall L 1-2Marshall W 10-2

Worthington W 11-1Worthington W 5-3Windom Area W 10-4Windom Area W 13-3Rockford W 5-2Fairmont W 12-5Luverne W 3-0Luverne W 8-1Section 3AA TournamentSt. James W 11-0New Ulm L 1-11


JCC softball results

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Huskies one o justthree teams to beatFairmont; fnishat 12-9 overall

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Senior-loaded baseball team wins a dozen games

Only three teams beat thesecond-ranked FairmontCardinal baseball teamthis season and the JacksonCounty Central Huskies

were one of them. Theearly-season win over theCardinals showed just howgood the Huskies could be.

The Huskies also split with a tough Luverne teamduring the regular seasonand swept Windom Areaand Pipestone Area as partof a regular season that sawJCC go 11-8 and 6-6 in theSouthwest Conference.

Unfortunately for JCC,Section 3AA was loaded,

with Fairmont eventuallyemerging from a section

bracket that included NewUlm, Worthington, Luverneand JCC, among many oth-ers.

T h e H u s k i e s b e a tFairmont on April 29, buthad their season end to theCardinals in the secondround of the Section 3AAplayoffs.

“The highlight of the sea-son was beating Fairmont,”head coach Tracy Steinersaid. “I think Fairmont’sbeen our nemesis for years.For me, that was kind of asweet win for us.”

Steiner said the otherhighlight came in the play-off opener, when the Hus-kies beat Worthington 1-0behind a pitching gem fromsenior Bryce Christopher.

“We didn’t win a playoff game last year, so winning aplayoff game this year wasnice,” he said. “To do it, wehad to beat Lucas Henning,a guy who beat us in theregular season.”

The season ended justhours after the win overthe Trojans, as the Huskies

lost 2-0 to Fairmont, whofinished third at the Class

AA state tournament.Despite being unable to

upset the top-seeded Car-dinals, Steiner was proudof the season his team puttogether.

“I thought we had a re-ally good season,” he said.“It would have been nice to

win a couple more games,but overall, we had a realsuccessful season.”

As good as the Huskies’12-9 final record was, Stein-er was just as pleased aboutthe way the Huskies wentabout their business in prac-tice and in games.

“They had good attitudes, worked hard and we hadfun,” he said. “That’s whathigh school athletics shouldbe about.”

The Huskies were ledby a group of seniors whocombined for a ton of var-

sity experience, with mostplaying since they weresophomores.

“They were great lead-

ers for us,” Steiner said of a senior class that includesChristopher, Nolan Luh-mann, Boog Steiner, BrockThaemlitz, Evan Tufvessonand Ty Schwarting. “Theyled by example and thattakes care of so many prob-lems when you have guysthat go out there and getthe job done.”

Luhmann posted thehighest batting average onthe team, but three others

were right on his tail. Luh-mann’s .359 average barelytopped Thaemlitz (.358),Steiner (.357) and Tufves-son (.352).

“The top four hitters re-ally pounded the ball forus,” Coach Steiner said.

Luhmann scored 14 runsand had 12 RBI and played

solid defense at shortstopfor the Huskies.

Thaemlitz led the Hus-kies with 24 hits — finishingone ahead of Luhmann. Healso had a team-high 19 RBIand eight doubles. Thaem-litz and junior Dustin Pronk

blasted the only homers thisseason for JCC.

Steiner led the team with16 runs scored and he usedhis team-high 14 walks tofinish with an on-base per-centage of .500. He had20 hits, five of which went

for doubles, and drove in12 runs.

Tufvesson, the speedycenter fielder who didn’tmake an error all season,scored 12 times and drovein 14 runs from the bottomof the lineup.

“I would say the mostimproved player from be-ginning to end was EvanTufvesson,” Coach Steinersaid. “He really came onand was hitting the ball

well and in key situations.”


Bryce Christopher delivers a pitch in his 1-0 shutout win over Worthington in the playoffs. Christopher posted anearned run average of 1.44 in 39 innings on the mound.

Ty Schwarting sends a hit into the outfield for the Huskies. See BASEBALL on C8

Win streak helpssoball team fnishwith 12 victories

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Huskies win 10 in a row on the diamond

After a slow start to theseason, the Jackson Coun-ty Central softball teamturned things around in abig way. The Huskies beganthe season 2-6 before win-ning their final nine regularseason games and first play-

off game. The season thenended with a second-roundloss to New Ulm in the Sec-tion 3AA tournament.

Part of the reason forthe early-season struggles

was the competition, asJCC faced Martin CountyWest, New Ulm, RedwoodValley and Pipestone earlyin the season. The Huskies

managed a split with rivalPipestone, the team thatrepresented the section atthe state tournament.

The Huskies would up with a 12-7 overall recordand were 8-4 in the South-

west Conference, withsweeps over Worthington,Windom Area and Luverne.

Besides getting the toughteams out of the way early,something clicked to startthe winning streak for theHuskies.

“They just figured it outand started playing togetheras a team,” head coachShelly Hotzler said.

One other reason wasbecause senior BreanneRentschler started gettingon base at a high percent-age from her leadoff spot.Rentschler finished the sea-son batting .339 and drew ateam-high nine walks.

“Breanne really did wellfor us in the leadoff spot,

especially in the second half of the season,” Hotzler said.

The speedster scored 16runs and had 21 hits – allsingles.

“It’ll be tough to replaceBreanne at leadoff,” Hot-zler said.

Rentschler also did wellin the circle as she andsenior Sarah Christophercombined to pitch every in-ning for the Huskies. Rent-schler had a record of 5-3and an earned run averageof 3.02. She struck out 45batters in 42 innings.

As good as Rentschler was in the circle, Christo-pher was even better. Sheposted a 7-4 record andhad an ERA of just 2.613.Christopher pounded thestrike zone, giving up justtwo walks in her 75 inningsof work.

“Sarah was great for us,”Hotzler said. “She was al-

ways in the zone and used

her defense to her advan-tage.”

At the plate, Christopherhad 11 hits and scored eighttimes.

Senior Leslie Handzusled the team with 20 runsscored and tied for the teamlead with 23 hits. Hand-zus batted .359 and stole ateam-high six bases.

Sophomore Marita Ra-sche was impressive allseason long, finishing witha team-high batting averageof .418. Rasche tied Hand-zus with 23 hits and led theHuskies with 18 RBI, threetriples and two homers.

“Marita had a great sea-son at the plate and pro-

vided a big bat in the middleof our lineup,” Hotzler said.

Sophomore Jasmine Er-ickson hit a team-leadingseven doubles and scored 17runs. She drove in 12 runsand had a batting averageof .313.

Sophomore Jenna Stadehit .265 and senior KinbraeBezdicek batted .262 withsix doubles and 11 runsscored. Senior Emily Arndthit .241, scored eight timesand drove in eight runs.

Christopher, Rentschlerand Rasche were all namedto the all-conference teamand Handzus was namedto the honorable mentionteam. Rentschler and Chris-topher shared the team

MVP award, with Rent-schler also being named tothe 3AA all-section team.

Erickson was named theteam’s most improved play-er, with Rasche and Hand-zus earning the team award

for outstanding offensiveplayer. Bezdicek was namedthe team’s outstanding de-fensive player and Arndtreceived a coach’s award.Bezdicek, Rentschler and


See SOFTBALL on C7

Jasmine Erickson sends one of her 20 hits into the outfieldfor the Huskies.

Breanne Rentschler gets ready to fire a strike this spring. Rentschler earned all-section and all-conference honorsfor her pitching and batting as a senior.




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CHECK OUR NEW WEB SITES FOR THE LATEST JCC SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES AS THEY HAPPEN!

Opponent Result ScoreWorthington L 3-7Red Rock Central/WWG W 14-8Murray County Central L 4-11

Adrian L 0-10Russell/Tyler/Ruthton L 15-16Martin Luther/GHEC W 12-4Red Rock Central/WWG W 12-8

Edgerton W 12-2Edgerton L 4-5Minneota L 2-9

Adrian W 8-3Mt. Lake-Butterfield-Odin L 0-6Jackson County Central L 2-12Murray County Central W 8-4Windom Area L 6-8Section 3A TournamentTracy-Milroy-Balaton L 7-10

Overall record: 7-10RRC record: 6-4

SWU baseball results


Above: Head coach Tim Owen fires up his team between innings this season. The Wildcats finished 7-10 on the season, but were second in the Red Rock Conference with a 6-4 record. Below: Ben Cunningham fires a strike for SWU.

SWU baseballteam beats Adrian,MCC to highlightits 7-10 season

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Wildcats knock of conerence’s best, nish second in RRC

Wildcats win twiceafer two straight

winless seasons

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Playof win highlights season or SWU sotball team

Photo by Dan Condon

See SWU BASE on C6

See SWU SB on C6

Ida Rogers-Ferguson delivers a pitch in a playoff win for the Wildcat softball teamthis spring.

When the SouthwesternUnited baseball team wasat its best, the Wildcats weretough to beat. That wasmost evident when SWUbeat Adrian and MurrayCounty Central late in theseason — the two teamsthat tied atop the Red Rock

Conference.The Wildcats were the

only team to beat both Adri-an and MCC this season,but the Wildcats were neverable to win more than threegames in a row in a seasonthat saw them finish 7-10.

After starting the sea-son 1-4, the Wildcats puttogether their only three-game winning streak, beat-ing Martin Luther/GHEC,Red Rock Central/West-

brook-Walnut Grove andEdgerton by a combinedscore of 36-14. SWU scored12 runs in each game of thestreak, which could havebeen longer had the Wild-cats not blown a big lead ina 15-16 loss to Russell-Tyler-Ruthton the game beforethe win streak started. Thestreak ended with anotherone-run loss, a 5-4 defeatto Edgerton.

The Wildcats finishedthe regular season 3-3, withtwo of the wins coming overthe conference’s two bestteams. The season ended

with a 10-7 loss to Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in the first

round of the Section 3Aplayoffs.

Leading the way for theWildcats was senior AlexMeyer, who exceled at theplate, at shortstop and onthe mound.

Meyer hit a team-high.375 and led the Wildcatsin every major offensive cat-egory. His 19 runs, 21 hits,five doubles, 14 walks and21 runs batted in were allteam highs. He hit the only

three home runs for SWUthis season and had half of the team’s four triples.Meyer’s biggest highlight

was blasting two homers inthe wild 16-15 loss to RTRin April.

On the mound, Meyerposted a 3.40 earned runaverage and was routinelyon the mound against theWildcats’ toughest oppo-nents. He struck out 38 bat-ters in 35 innings and posteda 4-2 record. Meyer pitchedtwo complete games ap-peared on the mound 10times this spring.

“Alex was one of the eliteplayers in the conference

this season,” head coachTim Owen said. “He wasa major contributor to oursuccess on the mound, atthe plate and in the field.”

Meyer finishes his career with 36 hits, 30 runs and35 RBI.

Meyer, junior AustinLiepold and sophomoreJacob Post were all namedto the all-Red Rock Con-fernece team, with seniorLukas DeWall and junior

Kyle Elder earning honor-able mention honors.

Liepold was second onthe team with 19 hits andscored 11 runs. He hit apair of doubles and drove inseven runs for the Wildcats.The first-baseman was at his

best in conference games, when he hit .406.

Liepold made just twoerrors in 89 chances at firstbase this season and was er-rorless in 62 tries during theconference schedule.

Opponent Result ScoreLuverne L 1-20Tracy-Milroy-Balaton L 1-11Red Rock Central/WWG L 10-21Madelia/Truman L 0-19

Adrian Area L 2-14Worthington L 0-11Martin County West L 3-18Murray County Central L 1-22Red Rock Central/WWG W 10-9Edgerton L 0-15Edgerton L 6-25Windom Area L 0-10

Adrian Area L 0-23Mt. Lake-Butterfield-Odin L 3-9Mt. Lake-Butterfield-Odin L 2-14Murray County Central L 0-18Section 3A TournamentRussell-Tyler-Ruthto n W 8-7Murray County Central L 1-12

Overall record: 2-16RRC record: 1-9

SWU sotball results

When a team is winless intwo straight seasons, settinggoals and getting excitedfor a new season might bea challenge.

But that wasn’t the casefor the Southwestern Unit-ed softball team, which hadgoals in place and reachedthem during a 2-16 season.

“At the beginning of theseason, they had some goalsthat we felt were attainableand they reached them,”

head coach Cindy Owensaid. “One of those goals

was to play some seven in-

ning games.”The Wildcats did that,

playing four seven-inninggames after losing via the10-run rule every game in2009 and 2010.

“Some people might notlook at that as a positive,but it was a positive for us,”Owen said. “We’re mov-ing in the right direction.”But the Wildcats didn’t justset their goals on being ingame; they wanted to winsome.

“Another goal was to wina couple games and we didthat,” Owen said.

The Wildcats ended anearly three-year-long los-ing streak when they beat

Red Rock Central/West-brook-Walnut Grove 10-9on May 3.

“Our first conference win when we beat RRC/WWG was a real highlight,” Owensaid. “The kids acted asthough they had won thestate championship. I waspretty excited for themtoo.”

Making the game evenmore special was the factit was played at home andthe Wildcats scored in thebottom of the seventh forthe victory.

“It was fun because it wasat home,” Owen said. “It wasa really good night for us.”The Wildcats also won aplayoff game, beating Rus-sel-Tyler-Ruthton 8-7 fortheir second win of theseason.

That win also came inBrewster, with the Wildcatsagain coming back to earn

the victory.It was the team’s focusand drive to get better thathelped the Wildcats get inthe win column, Owen said.

“They worked hard andstayed focused,” she said.“They never quit; they al-

ways kept a positive attitudeand that’s the kind of kids

we have in the program.”Owen said that started

with juniors Connor De-Wall, Kayla Droll and Janae

Vonk, who have been withthe team through thick andthin.

“They really providedleadership for these kids,”Owen said.

The leadership of thethree juniors was impor-tant because the Wildcats

were extremely young, withseventh-grader Ida Rogers-Ferguson doing most of thepitching and several otherunderclassmen on the field

and in the batting order.But Owen said the teamcame together quite well.

“They seemed to have agood unity among them,”she said. “Everybody wasreally striving for the samething.”

DeWall earned all-RedRock Conference honorsand was named the team’smost valuable player.Vonk and freshman Alaina




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SWU girls’ track and feld

1. Katey Granstra .................... ................. 212

2. Mara Eichenberger .................... .......... 159

3. Jen Schmidt ...................... ................ 141.75

4. Regina Steffen ..................... ................. 133

5. Hailey Schumacher .................... ....... 19.25

6. Mariam Elabedi ...................... ................ 10

7. Jordin Elness ................... ...................... ...8

7. Hannah Langseth-Berger ..................... ...8

9. Katelyn Walters ................... .................. 4.5

10. Julia DeWall .........................................1.25

Top point scorers

Meet Score PlaceLuverne 39 NAMt. Lake 46 5thRebel Relays 64 4thWorthington 26 8th

Arrow Relays 70 5thWildcat Invite 69 5thSection True Team 157.5 12thTrojan Relays 58 7thEagle Invite 81 4thRed Rock Conference 49 7thSub-Section 38 7th

SWU girls’ track and feld results

Meet Score PlaceLuverne 48 NAMt. Lake 11 6thRebel Relays 46 5thWorthington 4 8th

Arrow Relays 59 5thWildcat Invite 34 8thSection True Team 138.5 11thTrojan Relays 54 8thEagle Invite 80 4thRed Rock Conference 44 8thSub-Section 38 7th

SWU boys’ track and feld results

SWU boys’ track and feld

1. Marty Schmitz ..................... .............. 245.5

2. Mitchel VanWesten .................... .......... 137

3. Adriano Martins....................... .......... 110.5

4. Jameson Collin ..................... ................. 100

5. Mykil Vonk................................................6

6. Alex Coronado ..................... ..................... 1

Top point scorers


Photo by Dan Condon

Numbers, results improve or Wildcat boysSchmitz jumps,

VanWesten runs toSection 3A meet

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Mitchel VanWesten runs in the 1,600-meter run at the Section 3A meet this season. VanWesten set the school record in the event last season and finished this spring with137 points.

Granstra, Stefenand Eichenbergerwere big-timeperormers orSWU track andeld program

by DAN CONDONSports Editor

Stellar careers come to an end or three Wildcat seniors

For the SouthwesternUnited girls’ track and fieldteam, the names Granstra,

Eichenberger and Steffenhave been constants for thepast several seasons. Butthe trio of Katey Granstra,Mara Eichenberger and Re-gina Steffen have complet-ed their Wildcat careers,leaving some big shoes tofill next spring.

“We’re going to missMara, Katey and Regina,”

co-head coach Donna Cooksaid. “The seniors camethrough and did quite well.”

Granstra scored a team-high 212 points this season,giving her 833 for her ca-reer. The senior dominated

the throwing events duringher time in a Wildcat uni-form, qualifying for statetwice and finishing secondat the Class A state tourna-ment in the discus in 2010.

“She had an outstandingcareer with the SWU trackprogram,” Cook said.

Granstra holds the teamrecord in discus with a

throw of 129’0.5” in 2009.This season, Granstra

won the discus at the RedRock Conference meet and

was second in the shot put.She was second at the sub-section meet in the discusand qualified for sections inboth throwing events.

Eichenberger sprintedher way to 159 points thisseason, giving her 449.5 forher career.

She ran her fas tes t100-meter time of 13.16

when she won the confer-ence title. She finished sec-ond in the 200-meter dashat the conference meet andqualified for the sectionmeet in both events.

“Mara was always a goodleader,” Cook said. “She

was a really good runnerfor us.”

Steffen scored 133 pointsthis season, putting hercareer total at 505.5. Thesenior competed in a varietyof events, including hurdles,long jump and sprints.

Steffen ran a personal-best 52.33 in the 300-meterhurdles at the sub-sectionmeet to advance to sec-tions in the event and camein eighth at the conferencemeet.

“She was piquing at theright time,” Cook said. “Theconference and sub-section

meets were good meets forher.”

Junior Jen Schmidtscored 141.75 points thisspring, giving her 307.25

with one year left in hercareer.

Schmidt won the high jump competition at theconference meet and fin-ished fourth at the sub-

section meet.“She’s a very good ath-

lete,” Cook said. “We hopeto see her back next year.”

Schmidt and Granstra were both academic all-state selections, with Grans-tra also being named theteam’s most valuable fieldevents athlete. Eichenberg-er was the team’s MVPand outstanding runner.Eichenberger, Granstra andSteffen earned senior lead-ership awards and seventh-grader Katelyn Walters

was the team’s rookie of the year.

Walters scored 4.5 p ointsthis season and took a likingto the hurdles.

“Regina took her underher belt and taught herabout the hurdle events,”Cook said. “She really likesthe hurdles.”

Seventh-grader Hailey

Schumacher scored 19.25points this season, with sev-enth-grader Miriam Elabe-di scoring 10. Junior JordinEllness and sophomoreHannah Langseth-Bergerboth scored eight points.

Despite losing three valu-able seniors, the Wildcatshave some talent returning,led by Schmidt.

“We’re losing some goodathletes,” Cook said. “But

we expect some good thingsin the future.”

Above: Regina Steffen soars over a hurdle during the 300-meter hurdles at the sub-section track and field meet this spring. Left: Katey Granstra competes in the shot put atthe section meet. Granstra had an impressive career at SWU, finishing with 833 points.

Nine track and field ath-letes may not sound likea lot, but it is an improve-ment for the SouthwesternUnited boys’ track and fieldteam. The Wildcats usedtheir nine team membersto put together some prettygood showings this spring,including a fourth-place fin-ish at the Eagle Invite.

“We had a good season,”co-head coach Donna Cooksaid. “We had a very smallteam still.”

Nearly all of the Wildcats’600 points came from thequartet of seniors MartySchmitz and Mitchel Van-Westen, exchange student

Adriano Martins and ju-nior Jameson Collin. Thosefour combined to score 593points, led by 245.5 fromSchmitz.

Schmitz, in just his sec-ond year in the sport, wonthe Red Rock Conferencetitle in the long jump andhigh jump and qualified forthe section meet in bothevents.

“For coming out for trackfor just two years, he really

was a good jumper,” Cooksaid.

Schmitz scored at least 16points in eight of 11 meets

this season, with a highcoming when he scored 63

points at the section TrueTeam meet. His best resultscame at the Arrow Relays,

when he soared 20’2.5” inthe long jump and cleared6’ in the high jump.

VanWesten was secondon the scoring list with 137points this season. He ranthe 1,600-meter run in a sea-son-best 4:58.8 at the ArrowRelays and has the schoolrecord in the race whenhe ran 4:50.36 last season.VanWesten qualified for thesection meet in the 1,600after finishing fourth at thesub-section meet.

“For his career, he didset a SWU record, so that

was a highlight for him,”Cook said. “He was alwayscheering people on; he wasa good motivator.”

Martins edged Collin for

third on the scoring list,110.5 to 100.Martins ran the 400-me-

ter dash and 800-meter run

and also competed in triple jump and the 4x200-meter

relay.Martins’ best event was

the 400, with his best timebeing 56.77 at the sub-sec-tion meet. Martins scored35 points at the True Teammeet and tallied 20 points atthe Arrow Relays and 19.5at the Eagle Invite.

Collin competed in a va-riety of events, with his bestbeing the high jump. Collinfinished second in the con-ference meet in the event,but also did well in thehurdles, which he starteddoing midway through theseason.

Collin also earned aca-demic all-state honors togo with his solid season onthe track.

The foursome of Schmitz,VanWesten, Martins andCollin teamed up to run

the 4x2 during the seasonand finished third in therelay race at the conferencemeet. The four also finished

fourth at the sub-sectionmeet.

Schmitz was named theteam’s MVP and outstand-ing field events athlete, withVanWesten earning the out-standing runner award andMartins being named theteam’s rookie of the year.Schmitz, VanWesten andMartins all earned seniorleadership awards.

Sophomore Mykil Vonkscored six points for SWUand seventh-grader Alex

Coronado scored one point.Vonk finished sixth in

both the shot put and discusat the sub-section meet andhe and Coronado shouldprovide quality points nextseason.

“Alex loves to run ,” Cooksaid. “We’re looking for-

ward to him and some other younger boys coming outnext year.”

With Schmitz and Van-Westen graduating and

See SWU BT on C8




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SWU baseball statistics

Name AB Runs Hits RBI BB BA OBP

Alex Meyer 56 19 21 21 14 .375 .507

Austin Liepold 54 11 19 7 8 .352 .431

Jacob Post 51 14 16 7 1 .314 .327Luke Henkels 51 12 15 8 10 .294 .410

Kyle Elder 49 12 14 11 12 .286 .419

Erik Jass 35 11 10 4 13 .286 .509

Ben Cunningham 25 5 7 6 4 .280 .379

Lukas DeWall 54 13 14 8 6 .259 .309

Jacob Olson 18 7 4 4 7 .222 .385

Sean Haberman 42 8 9 9 7 .214 .302

SWU 471 114 133 89 84 .282 .385

Offensive statistics

Pitching statistics

Name App. GS IP H K BB ER ERA

Alex Meyer (4-2) 10 7 35.0 35 38 23 17 3.40

Ben Cunningham (0-1) 7 1 15.0 18 21 10 9 4.20

Jacob Post (1-1) 8 3 17.2 12 14 19 11 4.36

Riley Place (1-2) 8 3 20.0 39 11 12 16 5.60

Kyle Elder (1-2) 4 3 11.2 19 10 8 10 6.00

SWU (7-10) 47 17 116 146 102 84 80 5.03

Photo by Dan Condon

SWU SB: Wildcats win twiceContinued from C4


Sonja Peters catches a throw at third base for a forceout for the Wildcats this season.

SWU Base: Wildcats finish second in conferenceContinued from C4


Clay Salzwedel chips in during the sub-section tournament in Worthington.Kyle Wendland watches his shot while playing at Prairie View this spring.

Post hit .314, with 16 hitsin 51 at bats. He scored 14times and drove in sevenruns. When he wasn’t pa-trolling centerfield, Post

was pitching well on themound. Post had an ERAof 4.36, with 14 strikeoutsin 17.2 innings.

DeWall hit .259 on theseason, but hit .303 in con-ference games. The second-baseman played solid de-fense all season, committing

just four errors for SWU.“Lukas is a real spark

plug for us,” Owen said.“He has performed consis-tently all season in the fieldand at the plate.”

Elder hit .286 this seasonand used 12 walks to havean on-base percentage of .419. The junior had 14 hits,scored 12 times and drovein 11 runs.

On the mound, Elderstruck out 10 batters in 11.2

innings while appearing infour games.

Senior Ben Cunningham, who overcame long odds just to play this season af-ter being in a car crash lastsummer, put together animpressive final season in aWildcat uniform.

Cunningham hit .280 forSWU and drove in six runsin just 25 at bats. Cun-ningham pitched in sevengames, racking up 21 strike-outs in 15 innings whileposting an ERA of 4.20.

Junior Luke Henkels hit.294 and had an on-basepercentage of .410. Henkelshad 15 hits, scored 12 runsand drove in eight.

Sophomore Erik Jass hit.286 and walked 13 times topost a team-high on-basepercentage of .509. Jass had10 hits, scored 11 times anddrove in four runs for theWildcats. Jass used his keen

eye at the plate to record ateam record four walks in a

win over RRC/WWG thisseason.

Senior Sean Habermanhad nine hits, scored eighttimes and drove in nineruns.

Junior Riley Place ap-peared in eight games onthe mound, starting three.Place struck out 11 battersin 20 innings and posted anERA of 5.60.

With just four seniors on what was a balanced team,the Wildcats are poisedto be in the running foranother high finish in theconference next season.

We bring back a lot of experienced players, so

we’re looking forward totaking another shot at win-ning some hardware nextseason,” Owen said.

Kyle Elder fires a pitch for the Wildcats this season. Elder was an honorable mention all-conference player, perform-ing well on the mound and at the plate.

Shortstop Alex Meyer catches a flip from second baseman Lukas DeWall. Both players wrapped up their SWU career, with Meyer earning all-conference honors and DeWall being named to the honorable mention squad.

Klingenberg were bothhonorable mention all-conference players, withKlingenberg named the

team’s most improvedplayer. Vonk and Drollboth earned spirit awards.Rogers-Ferguson wasnamed the team’s Rookieof the Year and freshmanKristin Liepold earnedthe coach’s award.

Also on the roster wereseniors Ashley Riggle andDanielle Olson; juniorsMaddie Rasche and Ari-anna Hessemann; sopho-mores Kelsey Medina and

Kassaundra Rossow; andfreshmen Mariah Crow-ell, Maclane Rostomily,Catelyn LaCourn, Mariah

Freehan, Sonja Peters andMegan Schmitz.

With just two seniorsgraduating, Owen and theWildcats are hoping foran even better season next

year.“The kids said, ‘Let’s set

a goal a little bit higher,’”Owen said. “We’re lookingforward to next year. Wehad some successes and arelooking forward to continu-ing that.”

Maddie Rasche rips a hit for the Wildcats.

Boys’ golf teamimproves all seasonat new home course

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Scores come down for Wildcats

There might not havebeen a lot of success interms of wins and losses for

the Southwestern Unitedboys’ golf team, but theWildcats made steady im-provement all season longin their first year playing atPrairie View in Worthing-ton.

The Wildcats moved fromEmerald Valley in Lakefieldto Prairie View and handledthe change fairly well.

“It was longer, so that was

a factor,” head coach DebJaycox said. “There were notrees, so it was windy a lot,but it was no different thanbeing on the road.”

The Wildcats beat RedRock Central on the roadthis season and finishedahead of Wabasso in aquadrangular for their two

wins of the season.“We were a very, very

young team,” Jaycox said.“We started playing bettertoward the end. Hopefully

we start out that way nextseason.”

Freshman Clay Salzwedelplayed well all season, butreally came on strong atthe end. Salzwedel earnedall-conference honors whenhe shot 87 to place 10 th atthe Red Rock Conference

meet. He followed that up with 90 at the sub-sectionmeet.

During the season, Salz- wedel shot 41 against Fuldato post the second-lowestscore of the meet. He alsohad 42 against Westbrook-Walnut Grove and led SWU

with 44 in their quadrangu-lar meet.

Sophomore Kyle Wend-land shot 88 at the confer-ence meet to narrowly missall-conference honors. Hishighlight of the season wastying for medalist honorsagainst Adrian when heshot 44. Wendland alsoplayed well in the quadran-gular, shooting 45.

Exchange student Au-relio Boerlin, who hadn’tplayed golf before joiningthe Wildcats, showed themost improvement of anySWU golfer.

“Aurelio was amazing,”Jaycox said. “He shot 75 inhis first nine-hole round andshot 48s and 49s at the end.”

Freshman Walker Crock-er fired a 92 at the sub-section meet and freshmanLogan Ellenbecker alsohad a fine season for the

Wildcats.“We have a lot of young

players,” Jaycox said. “Theyhad to learn as they go.”

Jaycox was pleased withthe team’s improvementthroughout the season andexpects that continue withpractice throughout thesummer.

“Except for Aurelio, we’llhave everyone back,” shesaid. “They have a summerof golf and we get almosteveryone back.”




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JCC girls’ golf individual results

job leading the team this year,” he said. “She re-ally helped the girls to beprepared for the meets.She made it fun for themthroughout their first year

of varsity competition.” And with Benson again

Girls’ golf: Young team improvesContinued from C1

back to lead a team that will have a full year of ex-perience, DiBrito alreadyhas high hopes for nextseason.

“We’re really looking

forward to a great seasonnext year,” he said.

Photo by Dan Condon

Alison Benson chips onto the green during a golf matchthis spring. Benson saw her score drop considerablythroughout the season and was named the most im-proved golfer for the Jackson County Central girls.

Boys’ golf: Huskies win seven duals, three in SWCContinued from C2



Softball: Huskies win 10 straight on the diamond as part of season’s 12 victoriesContinued from C3

10 meets this spring.“Joe qualifying for the

section tournament two years in a row was a niceaccomplishment,” DiBritosaid.

Sophomore Kyle Edlin was named the team’s mostimproved golfer. Edlin av-eraged 45.4 shots per nineholes and had his scorecount 10 times this season.Edlin shot a season-low41 in back-to-back meetsagainst Estherville LincolnCentral and Marshall andthose 41s were sandwichedby a 42 and 43, giving Edlinan impressive four-matchstretch.

John Marker and KyleChristopher filled out thesixth varsity spot for theHuskies, with Marker hav-ing his score of 44 countagainst Windom. Christo-pher shot a low of 46 twice.

Besides their success onthe course, the Huskies also

were the academic all-stateteam for the section.

“It is nice for them to getrecognized for their hard

work in school,” DiBritosaid.

DiBrito said the team willmiss its three senior lead-ers and will rely on a youngsquad to carry the teamnext year.

“It is tough to lose threeseniors that have been inthe program so long,” Di-Brito said. “I wish themthe best. We are going to

be young next season. There will be many young golfersplaying varsity. Hopefully

Support of parents, fans key for the JCC golf programJackson County Central gol coach Mike DiBrito said one o the highlights o the gol

season this spring was seeing the many parents and ans walking the course to supportthe Huskies.

“I want to thank all the parents o the gol program rom seventh grade up to 12th,”DiBrito said. “We have a lot o parents that come out to the course to support the kids.

That support is greatly appreciated by us coaches.” The support was most evident at the state tournament, when a crew o Husky ans ol-

lowed Kaylee Benson as she fnished third in the Class AA tournament.Husky ans also cheered on the team in all o their other postseason events and were

supportive throughout a regular season that saw the boys go 7-4 and the girls fnish 6-5.

this will motivate the golfersfor next year.”

Kyle Edlin lines up a putt during a match this season.

Senior Colton Ward sends a putt toward the hole in a match at the Jackson Golf Clubthis season.

JCC softball statistics


Marita Rasche 55 16 23 18 4 .418 .458

Leslie Handzus 64 20 23 4 3 .359 .388

Breanne Rentschler 62 16 21 4 9 .339 .423

Jasmine Erickson 64 17 20 12 1 .313 .333

Jenna Stade 34 4 9 2 1 .265 .286

Kinbrae Bezdicek 61 11 16 5 2 .262 .308

Emily Arndt 58 8 14 8 2 .241 .279

Sarah Christopher 51 8 11 5 2 .216 .259

Caitlyn Muir 51 4 9 4 4 .177 .236 JCC 540 109 152 70 28 .282 .323


Pitching statistics


Sarah Christopher (7-4) 11 11 75 75 46 2 28 2.61

Breanne Rentschler (5-3) 8 8 51 42 45 17 22 3.02

JCC (12-9) 19 19 126 117 91 19 50 2.78

Handzus also were namedto the academic all-stateteam.

The Huskies will loseboth of their pitchers, as

well as three other players.“They’ve been around for-

ever,” Hotzler said. “They’llbe tough to replace.”When Rentschler was pitch-ing, the Huskies had anall-senior infield of Arndt

at first base, Christopher atsecond, Bezdicek at thirdand Handzus at shortstop.

“That’ll be a big changenext year for us,” Hotzlersaid.

The Huskies will havethe advantage of havingRasche back behind theplate to help work with thenew pitching staff. Her bat,along with Erickson’s, willprovide power and highbatting averages for theHuskies to build around.

“We’ve got some goodplayers coming back andsome others that look like

they can play,” Hotzlersaid. “They’ll get more ex-perience this summer andhopefully be ready to gonext spring.”

Leslie Handzus throws over to first in time to record an out. Handzus was named tothe honorable-mention all-conference team as a senior.

Above: Marita Rasche gets ready to throw out a run-ner in her first season as the Huskies’ catcher. Right:Sarah Christopher, who walked just two batters in 75innings, fires one of her many strikes. Both Rasche andChristopher were named to the all-conference team.




202 Grant St., Jackson, MN

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Jackson, MN 56143

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JCC baseball statistics


Nolan Luhmann 64 14 23 12 8 .359 .446

Brock Thaemlitz 67 15 24 19 7 .358 .419

Boog Steiner 56 16 20 12 14 .357 .500

Evan Tufvesson 54 12 19 14 3 .352 .407

Ty Schwarting 54 14 18 11 6 .333 .400

Bryce Christopher 59 9 18 9 3 .305 .359

Brett Larson 53 12 16 5 6 .302 .373

Zach Copley 47 7 14 8 6 .298 .377

Dustin Pronk 52 12 15 13 4 .288 .362

Cooper Moore 75 15 21 9 8 .280 .357

Phil Buschena 14 5 4 0 8 .174 .406

JCC 605 132 192 112 73 .317 .401


Pitching statistics


Bryce Christopher (3-2) 9 5 39.0 27 32 16 8 1.44

Zach Copley (2-0) 2 1 7.0 4 8 3 2 2.0

Dustin Pronk (5-2) 9 6 33.1 23 28 26 12 2.52

Phil Buschena (1-0) 4 1 10.2 4 12 11 4 2.63

Brock Thaemlitz (1-0) 11 2 28.0 41 19 14 27 6.75

Nolan Luhmann (1-2) 5 0 7.2 7 4 6 9 8.22

JCC (12-9) 48 21 139.1 122 114 92 83 4.17

sub-section meet and wason the 4x4 team that wassecond at the sub-sectionmeet. His time of 22.96 isthe third-best 200-meterdash time in JCC history.

Vongsavanh was namedthe team’s most inspira-tional athlete and Cook

was the team’s most valu-able runner. Freshman JonHarmening was named the

most valuable field eventsperformer.Third on the scoring list

was senior Post (182), withFreeman (181) and Strom(164) rounding out the topfive. Completing the top 10

were senior Steven Salz- wedel (136), Kocak (114), junior John Isaacson (93),senior Evan Koep (92) andfreshman Darnell Taylor-Breck (66).

Post did most of his scor-ing in relay races and servedas an alternate in the 4x8at state. He made it to thesection meet in the 4x1, 4x2and 4x4. Post, Freeman,Salzwedel and Harmening

were seventh on the honorroll in the 4x200-meter relay(1:36.62).

Freeman made it to sec-tions in the 4x2, 4x4 and

4x8 after finishing secondin two of the events at thesub-section meet and thirdin the other.

Strom ended his highschool career with the sev-enth-place finish in the4x8 at state. He earneda gold medal at state lastseason and has his namescattered all over the honorroll. His time of 4:41.98 inthe 1,600-meter run ranks

fifth and his 10:20.92 in thetwo-mile run this year is sev-enth. Strom ran the fastesttwo-mile time in programhistory in 2009, when heposted a time of 10:17.11.

Strom finished second atthe sub-section meet andthird at the section meetin the 3,200-meter run this

year and was third in the1,600 at the conference

meet.Koep made his way intothe honor roll by clearing10’6” in the pole vault,

which puts him in a tie forsixth. Junior Austin Luchtcleared 9’7” in pole vaultto put himself eighth on thehonor roll.

Harmening made thehonor roll in two individualevents, ranking fifth in thetriple jump (38’9”) and

eighth in the 110-meter highhurdles (17.93).

Besides winning the Sen-tinel Relays, the Huskiesfinished second at the sub-section meet and the sea-son-opening meet in Mt.Lake. JCC came in third ata meet in Fairmont and thesection True Team meet.

“We had a great season,”Coach Cook said. “After

losing a lot of seniors last year, I thought the season went well. We ended up with the runner-up trophyat sub-sections and won theSentinel Relays. We had alot of kids step up.”

Some who stepped up were in their final year withthe program, somethingthat is always necessary fora successful season.

“Our seniors were great

leaders on the team,” CoachCook said. “We’re going tomiss them very much. Someof them have been aroundfor many years.”

Earning senior awards were Cook, Nathan Fields,Koep, Post, Salzwedel andStrom.

But the Huskies return afine group of athletes, threeof whom have experience at

the state meet.“We’ll have experiencefrom the state meet withJason Vongsavanh, BenKocak and Taylor Free-man,” Coach Cook said.“Hopefully that’ll lead tosome leadership next year.They’ll have some experi-ence and drive to get backup to state again.”

Coach Cook expects goodnumbers on the team again

Boys’ track: Cook’s state title one of many highlights for JCC boys’ track and field teamContinued from C1

Photo by Dan Condon

Marc Strom (left) wrapped up a memorable track and field career by finishing seventhin the 4x800-meter relay at the state tournament.

next year, which should helppave the way for anothermemorable season.

“We should be strong

in many events,” he said.“We’re looking forward tothis year’s juniors leadingour practices and putting

together another successfulboys’ season.”

Baseball: Huskies finish with 12 wins, including one in the postseasonContinued from C3

Besides the top four hit-ters, the Huskies had sixother players hit at least.280, including three whotopped the .300 plateau.

Schwarting hit .333,

picking up 18 hits andscoring 14 runs. Chris-topher batted .305 andscored nine times. Hehad six doubles and atriple as part of his 18hits. Junior Brett Larsonhit .302 and scored 12times. Sophomore ZachCopley batted .298 anddrove in eight runs. Pronkhit .288, with 13 RBI and12 runs scored. He hitfive doubles and a tripleto go with his homer. Ju-nior Cooper Moore hit.280 and scored 15 timesfrom his leadoff spot. Thespeedster stole a team-high eight bases and ledthe Huskies with a pairof triples.

Christopher and Pronkled the Huskies on themound, with Christopher

going 3-2 with a sparkling1.44 earned run aver-age. The senior pitchedthe team’s only shutoutin the playoff win overWorthington and struckout a team-high 32 bat-ters in 39 innings. Pronk

was 5-2 with a 2.52 ERA.He struck out 28 battersin 33.1 innings and starteda team-high six games.

Junior Phil Buschenaposted an ERA of 2.63 inhis 10.2 innings of work.He struck out 12 battersin his four appearanceson the mound.

“Our pitching was def-initely a very positiveaspect for us,” CoachSteiner said. “I felt ourpitching and defense

were strengths for us go-ing in and, as it turned

out, we hit the ball pretty well too.”While the seniors led

the team, Coach Steiner was pleased with the waythe juniors and sopho-mores played.

“Those guys were goodcomplements to the se-niors,” he said. “They’regood athletes and gaveus enough depth so thatI was hitting guys seventhand eighth in the orderthat had really good popin their bats. Brett andDustin, time and timeagain, got big hits for usfrom the bottom of theorder. They’re going tobe very good players next

year.”Coach Steiner said los-

ing six seniors — includ-ing three who are expect-

ed to have big rolls on theIowa Lakes CommunityCollege baseball teamnext season (Steiner,Luhmann and Schwart-ing) — will be tough toovercome.

“We’re going to starta step behind where we

were,” he said. “You don’t just replace those guysand the experience theybrought.”

But with five experi-enced players returning,

he sees next year’s team asone that can vastly improveas the season goes along.

“I see this as a team that,

especially led by the seniors we’ll have, can have a prettysteep improvement curvebecause of the number of

young players we’re goingto be bringing along withthem. They’re a pretty ath-letic group.”


Above: Boog Steiner laces one of his 20 hits this season. Below: Brock Thaemlitz fireshome in time for a force at the plate in the Huskies’ playoff win over Worthington.

Girls’ track: Huskies track and field team led by four speedstersContinued from C2

Photos by Dan CondonTracey Steffen clears the bar during the pole vault competition.

Megan Johnson leads a pack of runners at the season-opening meet in Mt. Lake thisspring. Johnson scored 28 points for the Huskies this spring.

managers during the sea-son.

The Huskies used theirsprinters and depth to finishfourth in the season-open-ing meet in Mt. Lake and

were fourth in three othermeets. The Huskies werethird at the Sentinel Relaysin early May and scored 30points at the section meet.

“We had a very goodseason,” Cook said. “Wescored more points than

we previously had in a lotof meets. We had some newathletes that stepped up this

year. We had a very strongshowing at all of our meets.”

With a number of entriesin the section tournament,many of which had a gooddeal of success, Cook pointsto that meet as the seasonhighlight.

“Scoring some points atthe section meet and hav-ing Sydnee make it to statein the 100 were highlights,”Cook said. “Another high-light was the success of oursprint and middle-distancerelays.”

The Huskies return threeof their four high scorersand have six of their top-seven point scorers back fornext season, which excitesCook.

“We’re looking forwardto our juniors to lead us next

year,” Cook said. “They will

be counted on to show goodleadership in practice.”

And having a state quali-fier back will help the Hus-kies.

“With Sydnee having ex-perience at state, we’re hop-ing that carries over to our

sprint and middle-distanceathletes,” Cook said.

But Cook said it will betough to replace the seniors

who have meant a lot tothe program over the pastfew years.

“We had a very strong

group of senior girls,” hesaid. “We will miss them

very much.”Earning senior awards

were Belknap, Rachel Bu-resch, Courtney Donnelli,Johnson and Sarah Voehl.

Martins ending his timeas an exchange student atSWU, the Wildcats willhave some big holes to fillnext season.

“We’re going to missthe seniors,” Cook said.“They were a big part of our team.”

But, with Collin leadinga group of returners, theWildcats could have successagain next spring.

“We have some good,quality athletes,” Cook said.“Hopefully we can get a fewmore out next year.”

SWU BT: Numbers up for the Wildcat boys’ track and field teamContinued from C5

Jameson Collin clears the bar during the high jump competition.Photo by Dan Condon

spring sports review 062311

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