Spring Sports Preview 040711

8/6/2019 Spring Sports Preview 040711

1/8

SECTION C APRIL 7, 2011

SPORTS

PREVIEW

GOLF

Boys: Pages 2 and 8

Girls: Pages 2 and 7

Boys: Pages 3 and 8

Girls: Pages 3 and 8Pages 1 and 7Pages 1 and 7

Boys: Page 6

Boys: Pages 5 and 8

Girls: Pages 5 and 7Pages 4 and 6Pages 4 and 6

April 4 at Mt. Lake-Butterfeld-OdinApril 7 vs. Martin County WestApril 11 at New UlmApril 12 at Redwood ValleyApril 18 vs. Blue Earth AreaApril 19 at FairmontApril 26 vs. MarshallApril 28 at PipestoneMay 5 vs. WorthingtonMay 10 at WindomMay 14 JCC TournamentMay 19 vs. LuverneMay 24, 28 and 31, June 2 Section TournamentJune 9-10 State Tournament (Mankato)

JCC softball scheduleHead coach: Shelly Hotzler

Jackson 507-847-2200

Lakefeld 507-662-6611

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April 4 vs. Mt. Lake-Butterfeld-OdinApril 7 vs. AdrianApril 11 vs. WindomApril 14 vs. WorthingtonApril 16 vs. PipestoneApril 19 at New UlmApril 26 at Redwood ValleyApril 29 at FairmontMay 2 at Martin County WestMay 5 at LuverneMay 6 at Red Rock CentralMay 10 at WorthingtonMay 12 at WindomMay 16 vs. Southwest UnitedMay 17 vs. Redwood ValleyMay 19 at MarshallMay 28, June 1, 4, 7 and 9 Section TournamentJune 16-17 State Tournament

JCC baseball scheduleHead coach: Tracy Steiner

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Quick facts2010 record: 7-14

2010 SWC record: 3-9

Returning letter winners:7

NE

EDtoSEE

April 11: No matterthe sport, its always

un to see the Huskiesace Windom Area. TheEagles come to Jacksonor an early-seasonshowdown April 11.

NEED

toKNOW The Huskies were theonly team to score

against the FairmontCardinals in the Section3AA tournament lastseason. JCC lost 4-3and the Cardinals wenton to play in the statetournament.



Returning letter winners: 9

NEEDtoSEE

April 26: The Huskieshost Marshall, a teamShelly Hotzler saidis the sleeper in theconerence. The Tigersswept the Huskies lastseason.

NEED

toKN

OWSarah Christopher andBreanne Rentschler

pitched 149 o the 150

innings or the Huskieslast season and gaveup just 48 earned runs.Both will be back in thecircle or the Huskiesthis spring.

BASEBALL SOFTBALL TRACK AND FIELD

After an 11-3 start lastseason, the Jackson CountyCentral softball team fin-ished by losing seven of itsfinal nine games a rarestreak for the Huskies.

Head coach Shelly Hot-zler and her team are readyto get back on the field andprove that last year was anaberration.

To do that, the te am willrely on a solid group of

Nine returning veterans to lead the JCC softball team

by DAN CONDONSports Editor

Huskies hoping tocompete for title in

tough conference

returners, including senior

pitchers Breanne Rent-schler and Sarah Christo-pher. The duo pitched allbut one inning last seasonand combined t o allow just48 earned runs in 150 in-nings.

That will help tremen-dously, Hotzler said of re -turning the two to the pitch-ing circle. They will begood leaders out there.

When R entschler isntpitching, the speedster willpatrol centerfield. Chris-topher will play secondbase when she isnt firingstrikes.

Senior Emily Arndt re-turns at first base and se-nior Leslie Handzus is backto show off her range at

shortstop. Senior Kinbrae

Bezdicek also returns forthe H uskies and will movefrom the outfield to thirdbase.

Hotzler said its the se-nior leadership that she willcount on this year.

Theyve got experienceand that will really help us,she said.

But some newcomers arealso going to be counted onto carry the H uskies.

Sophomore Marita Ra-sche will be behind theplate after getting a tasteof varsity action toward theend of last season. Sopho-more Ja smine Erickson alsosaw action last spring andwill play second base whenChristopher is pitching andin the outfield when Chris-topher is at second.

Junior Breanne Reetz

will also play in the outfie ld,as will Caitlin Muir, whocan also play catcher.

SeeJCC SBonC7

Photo by Dan Condon


Photos by Dan Condon

Filling out the lineup cardmay be a bit like putting to-gether a puzzle for JacksonCounty Central baseball

coach Tracy Steiner, but itsa problem he likes.

Big things expected of six seniors on the diamondJCC baseball team

made up of 11

interchangeable

players, coach says

The H uskies have just 11players on the varsity roster,but they can play a varietyof positions and most ha veexperience at the varsitylevel.

Our defense dependson whose pitching, Steinersaid. Weve got 11 guys onour roster, so they need tobe interchangeable parts.

Seniors Bryce Christo-pher and Brock Thaemlitzand juniors Dustin Pronkand Phil Buschena figureto be the starting pitchers,with seniors Ty Schwarting,Nolan Luhmann and Boog

Steiner coming out of thebullpen.

Schwarting wil l p laycatcher when hes noton the mound, but canalso play shortstop. WhenSchwarting is on the hill, itwill be either junior CooperMoore or junior Brett Lar-son behind the plate.

Moore and Larson, alongwith Luhmann, Steiner andChristopher will be part ofa rotation at second base,with Luhmann and Stein-er also capable of playingshort.

First base will be mannedby Christopher, Pronk, Co-pley and Thaemlitz, withthe latter t hree also playingat third.

Senior Evan Tufvessonwill be the primary centerfielder, with Larson and Co-pley out in left field. Playingin right will be Luhmann,Buschena or Cop ley.

Despite a possibility ofseeing a lot of differentlooks when in the field,Coach Steiner said the of-fensive lineup is pretty wellset.

Moore will start the sea-son as the leadoff hitter,but Tufvessons speed alsomakes him a capable lead-off batter. Boog Steinersability to handle the batmakes him the perfect No. 2

hitter, followed by Schwart-ing, Thaemlitz, Luhmannand Christopher. Pronk,Larson and Tufvesson willtry to set the table from thebottom of the order.

We want speed guys atthe top and then at the bot-tom, Steiner said.

Schwarting was the t eamsleading RBI man last sea-son, driving in 15 runs. Hefigures to have plenty ofchances to increase thatnumber, with Moore andhis .333 batting averagehopefully on the base p aths

regularly. Thaemlitz hit.310 and drove in 12 runslast year, with Christophersporting a .289 batting av-erage.

The teams balance upand down the lineup anddepth in the pitching staffgive Steiner reason to be-lieve the Huskies can be a

SeeJCC BASEonC7

Brock Thaemlitz slides into home last season. Thaemlitz scored 12 runs last seasonand will be counted on for offensive production again this sp ring.

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central baseball team are (front, from left): Nolan Luhmann and Ty Schwarting. Back: BoogSteiner, Brock Thaemlitz, Bryce Christ opher, Evan Tufvesson and Cooper Moore.

Returning letter winners for th e Jackson County Central softball team ar e (front, from left): Breanne Rentschler, Kinbrae Bezdicek, Emily Arndt,Leslie Handzus and Sarah Christopher. Back: Caitlin Muir, Jasmine Erickson, Brooke Klontz and Marita Rasche.


2/8

C2 Thursday, April 7, 2011Sports Preview

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April 8 at Spirit Lake, IowaApril 15 at Estherville-Lincoln Central (boys only)April 18 vs. FairmontApril 19 at MarshallApril 28 at WorthingtonApril 29 vs. WindomApril 30 at Worthington TournamentMay 3 at Redwood ValleyMay 5 at Red Rock CentralMay 6 vs. Estherville Lincoln Central (girls only)May 9 at Southwest Star Concept (boys only)May 10 vs. LuverneMay 12 vs. Pipestone AreaMay 13 at Blue Earth AreaMay 23 SW Conerence Tournament (Worthington)May 26 Sub-section Tournament (Bufalo Lake)June 2 Section Tournament (Willmar)June 14-16 State Tournament (Jordan)

JCC golf scheduleHead coach: Mike DiBrito

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Quick facts

2010 record: 7-52010 SWC record: 3-3


NEEDtoSEE

April 18: The Huskiesget an early-seasontest when they hostFairmont, a team thatis always tough in thepostseason.

NEED

toKNOW The Huskies returne v e r y g o l e r r o m

last years 7-5 team,including seniors TylerAsa, Tanner Asa andColton Ward. Also backis Joe Brinkman, whorecorded the rst hole-in-one in team historylast season.




NEEDtoSEE

May 10: The Huskieshost Luverne, one othe many tough teamsi n t h e So u t h w e s tConerence. JCC beatthe Cardinals by 13shots last season.

NEED

toKNOWThe Huskies return just

one goler rom a teamthat went 8-1 last sea-son and made it to statetwo years ago: juniorKaylee Benson. But,shes a good one; Ben-son has been to statethree times already.

Photo by Dan Condon

The Jackson County Cen-tral girls golf team hashad a successful run thelast few seasons, but thisyears squad will have anew look.

The only returner fromlast years varsity team is

junior Kaylee Benson, who

has played in the state tour-nament three times already.JCC will be without BrielHendricksen, Emily Mark-er, Erika Voss, Rachel Han-son and Karlee Schneek-loth, who all graduated.

Losing five exception-al seniors is tough, headcoach Mike DiBrito said.

Those five seniors helpedlead the Huskies to an 8-1finish last season and tookthe team to state for the first

Benson returns to lead JCC girls golf teamJunior aiming for

another trip to the

state tournament



time ever in 2009.Benson is now the clear-

cut leader, with KristinSchulz, Emma Lilleberg,Blaike Smith, Lexie Hoff-man, Shelby Benson andAlison Benson competingfor the other five varsityspots. Also out for golf thisspring are seventh-gradersAbby Brinkman, EmmalieBenson, Rebecca Dose andAna D unlavey.

With such a young group,DiBritos main objective isto get the team experienceand for them to improve.

We have a young group

of golfers that will be com-peting at the varsity level,he said. Getting comfort-able to compete at t he varsi-ty level will take some time.DiBrito expects nerves tocome into play, especiallyearly in the season.

The younger pla yers willbe nervous playing at thevarsity level, he said. T heywill have to r ealize they aregoing to make mistakes on

SeeJCC GGonC7

Kaylee Benson is the only golfer retur ning from a team that went 8-1 last season. Headcoach Mike DiBrito said Benson is the perfect girl to lead a young squad.


It isnt very often a tea mreturns every member ofa successful campaign, butthat is the case for the Jack-son County Central boysgolf team.

The Huskies bring backevery member of last years7-5 team, including seniorsTanner Asa, Tyler Asa a ndColton Ward. SophomoreKyle Edlin also returns tocomplete two-thirds of thevarsity lineup for J CC.

Junior Ben Kocak, soph-omore John Marker, fresh-

man Kyle Christopher andeighth-graders Joe Brink-man and Kyle Kapplingerall got varsity experiencelast season and will com-pete for t he final two varsityspots.

Having that many guyscompeting for a spot onvarsity can only help theteam, head coach Mike Di-Brito said.

There are a huge num-ber of boys out for golf thisyear, he said. There willbe a major amount of com-petition between membersof the tea m. This will makeeveryone on the team im-prove because they willhave to lower their scores

Everybody returns

to boys golf teamHuskies led by

three seniors,

but have plenty

of other talented

golfers back again

Returning letter winners for the Ja ckson County Central boys golf team are (front , from left): Kyle Christopher, John M arker and Kyle Edlin.Back: Ben Kocak, Tanner Asa, Colton Ward a nd Tyler Asa.

Photo by Mike Jordan

Kyle Kapplinger (left) a nd Joe Brinkman are only middleschoolers, but are returning letter winners for the JCCboys golf team.

Tanner Asa sends a putt toward the hole last season.

just to get onto the varsityroster.

The Huskies had a littlefriendly competition lastseason between the Asatwins. The two frequentlyfired the low score for theHuskies, with Tanner aver-aging 41.1 strokes per nine

holes and Tyler 42.8.The Asas, along with

Ward, give the Huskies atrio of seniors with a lot ofvarsity experience.

Having three seniorson the te am will help us becompetitive this year, Di-

SeeJCC BGonC8

Tyler Asa gets r eady to blast a drive down the middle of the fair way last sp ring.


3/8

C3Thursday, April 7, 2011 Sports Preview

April 5 at LuverneApril 8 at Mt. LakeApril 15 at Mt. LakeApril 18 at Windom

April 26 at SlaytonApril 28 at FairmontMay 6 at FairmontMay 9 State True TeamMay 12 at WorthingtonMay 13 at Blue Earth Area (JV)May 19 SW Conference meet (Luverne)May 26 Sub-section meet (Worthington)June 2 Section meet (Redwood Falls)June 10-11 State Tournament

JCC track and feld scheduleHead coach: Brian Cook

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Returning letter winners for the Ja ckson County Centr al girls track and field team are (fr ont, from left): Tracey Steffen, Sarah Voehl, RachelBuresch, Courtn ey Donnelli and Riley Schneekloth. Back: Kirsten Ringgenberg, Ja de Holthe, Hope Belknap, Sydnee Donnelli and Jessica Voehl.Missing: Hailey Timko, Julia Schumann and Megan Johnson.

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central boys track and field team are (front, from left): JasonVongsavanh and Austin Lucht . Back: Marc St rom, Just in Cook and Steven Salzwedel. Missing: Evan Koep an dZach Post.



SeeJCC BT&FonC8

SeeJCC GT&FonC8

The Jackson County Cen-tral boys track and fieldteam is expected to be abalanced one this spring,with seven returning letterwinners leading the way.

There are 26 Huskiesready to compete this sea-son, with 13 of them in 11thor 12th grade.

Having seven seniorson the team is a definitestrength, head coach BrianCook said.

Those seven seniors aregreat leaders, he said.

The Huskies bring back

three of the ir top five scor-ers from last year, including

Balance is the key or boys track teamHuskies have 26

athletes, includingseven seniors



half of the 4x800-meter re-lay team that won every race

it competed in last season.Seniors Justin Cook and

Marc Strom were part ofthat team, with Cook scor-ing a team -high 265 pointslast season and Strom fin-ishing fourth with 171. Bothwill again run long- or mid-dle-distance races this sea-son.

Also running in middle-and long-distance races willbe seniors Nathan Fieldsand Tanner Hummel, ju-niors Taylor Freeman andBen Kocak and freshmanJordan Ringgenberg.

F reeman sco red 1 2 2points last season for theHuskies.

The teams depth in themiddle- and long-distanceraces is a strength of theteam, according to CoachCook.

With a number of kids

Justin Cook takes off at the start of a race last season.

A new season for theJackson County Centralgirls track and field tea m isalready under way and theHuskies have a lot talentedgirls back.

The Huskies kicked offtheir season Tuesday with ameet in Lu verne and will beback on the track tomorrow

JCC girls return a lot o talent to the trackHuskies bring back

13 letter winners

and nine of last

years top 10 scorers

(Friday) in Mt. Lake.The season continues

with another meet in Mt.Lake Apr il 15 and includessix other varsity meets be-fore the Southwest Confer-ence tournam ent May 19 inLuverne. The sub-sectionmeet is May 26 in Luverne

and the section tourna-ment is June 2 in RedwoodFalls.

The H uskies have 25 girlson the team and more thanhalf are returning letterwinners.

Weve got 13 letter win-ners back, head coachBrian Cook said. We onlylost two, so that is great.

Among those back are

nine girls who finished inthe top 10 of the teamsscoring chart last year.

S o p h o m o r e S yd n e eDonnelli and sister, seniorCourtney Donnelli were thetop two scorers, followedclosely by eighth-graderJulia Schumann.

Filling spots five through10 on last years scoring listwere senior Sarah Voehl,senior Megan Johnson,sophomore Jessica Voe-hl, junior Tracey Steffen,eighth-grader Jade Holtheand eighth-grader RileySchneekloth.

Im excited to have allthose letter winners back,

Sara h Voehl hands th e baton to Sydnee Donnelli last sprin g. Both ar e back this yearand should contribute big points for the Huskies.


4/8


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SPORTS

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Dan Condon

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April 5 vs. LuverneApril 8 vs. Tracy-Milroy-BalatonApril 12 at Red Rock Central/WWGApril 14 vs. EdgertonApril 15 at WorthingtonApril 18 at Madelia/TrumanApril 19 at Adrian AreaApril 21 vs. Mt. Lake-Butterfeld-OdinApril 26 vs. Murray County CentralApril 29 at Martin County WestMay 2 at Martin Luther/GHECMay 3 vs. Red Rock Central/WWGMay 5 vs. EdgertonMay 9 vs. Windom AreaMay 10 vs. Adrian AreaMay 12 at Mt. Lake-Butterfeld-OdinMay 17 at Murray County CentralMay 20, 24, 28, 31 and June 2 Section TournamentJune 9-10 State Tournament (Mankato)

SWU softball scheduleHead coach: Cindy Owen


2010 RRC record: 3-7


NEEDtoSEE

May 5:The Wildcats hostEdgerton/Ellsworth, ateam it swept in a pair ogames last season. Thesweep gave SWU two iits three victories.

NEED

toKNOWLuke Henkels was theonly Wildcat to hit over

.300 last season, but Lu-kas DeWall, Alex Meyer,Ben Cunningham, KyleElder and Sean Haber-man all had an on-basepercentage o at least.313 thanks to double-digit walks.

Thirteen Wildcats returnto lead a SouthwesternUnited baseball team hop-ing to finish well ahead oflast years 3-15 mark. Butdespite all those playersback, SWU still has a fairlyyoung team with just five

seniors on the squad.

Wildcats return 13 players to diamond squadDespite a lot of

letter winners back,

SWU baseball team

is still young

Two of those se niors havebeen around a while as AlexMeyer and Sean Haberma nwill be taking the field forthe fourth year in a Wildcatuniform. Other seniors areBen Cunningham, LukasDeWall and Tim Kennedy.

Junior Luke H enkels alsoreturns with plenty of expe-rience and will be behindthe plate for the third year.He was named the teamsMVP and best hitter lastseason.

Henkels wil l catch apitching staff led by Meyer,who will be the teams No.1 starter.

He s one guy ready to be

the leading pitcher, head

coach Tim Owen said.Cunningham figures to

be the No. 2 pitcher, withjunior Kyle Elder , Kennedy,Henkels, junior R iley Placeand sophomores Mark Fer-guson and Jacob Post alsocapable of taking the ballon the hill.

DeWall is expected to beat second base and Kennedyat first, giving the Wildcatsa solid right side of the in-field. The left side is still upin the air.

The right side of theinfield will be good, Owensaid, adding the team wasstill looking for a shortstopand third baseman.

The outfield will feature


2010 RRC record: 0-10


NEEDtoS

EE

May 10: SWU hostsAdrian, a team it scoredseven runs against lastspring. The late-seasongame will give SWUtime to gain much-

needed experience.

NEED

toKNOWThe Wildcats lost bythe 10-run rule every

game last season, butnew head coach CindyOwen expects that tochange with a hard-working group o play-ers led by returners Ja-nae Vonk, Connor De-Wall and Kayla Droll.

Photo by Dan Condon

Haberman, with Elder, ju-nior Austin Liepold, Place,Ferguson, Post , Meyer,Cunningham and Henkelsalso capable of playing inthe outfield.

Owen likes the speed theoutfielders have and saidhis team will need to use itsspeed on offense a s well.

We have to do the lit-


There is a feeling of ex-citement for the Southwest-ern U nited Wildcat softballthis spring.

Wildcats enter softball season with enthusiasmMore experienced

team looking for a

few victories


The team is winless ineach of its last two sea-sons, but new head coachCindy Owen said that hasntstopped the Wildcats fromworking hard and enjoyingthemselves.

Last Friday it was fiveoclock and I t old them wewere done with practice, butthey wanted to keep practic-ing, Owen said.

The same thing happened

a week later, when the Wild-cats were pr acticing outsidefor the first time. D espitecold weather and rain fall-ing, the team wanted tokeep taking ground ballsinstead of heading inside.

Theyre working hard,Owen said. They want tokeep pr acticing. Theyve gota lot of enthusiasm. Theyreanxious to get the gamesstarted.

In preparation for theirseason opener, Owen has

had her tea m going throughthe basics over and over.Were working a lot on

fundamentals, she said.They probably think itgets boring after a while,but we need that to go anyfurther.

The Wildcats have also

been trying to improve theirpitching and should ha vea deeper staff of pitchersthis year.

Owen will rely on return-ing letter winners ConnorDeWall, Kayla Dro ll and Ja-nae Vonk to lead the team.While having just thre e let-ter winners back may notseem like a lot, it is morethan the Wildcats have hadin some years prior.

We have girls that ha vestuck with the program

and now have some e xperi-ence, said Owen, adding inthe past girls had played asfreshman or even youngerbefore quitting.

DeWall was an honor-able mention all-conferenceplayer last year and will beback at first base this sea-son. Droll will likely pitchand play catcher or at thirdbase. Vonk will play secondbase again.

Senior Ashley Riggle re-


Returning letter winners for the Southwestern United softball team are J anae Vonk(from left), Connor DeWall and Kayla Droll.

Jan ae Vonk takes a swing for the Wildcat softball tea mlast season.

SeeSWU SBonC6

SeeSWU BASEonC6

Returning lett er winners for the South western United ba seball team are (front, fr om left): Sean Ha berman, Kyle Elder, Brady Meyer, Alex Meyer, Ben Cunningham a nd Tim Kennedy. Back: Riley Place, Austin Liepold, Luke Henkels,Mark Ferguson, Jacob Olson, Lukas DeWall and Jacob Post. Below: Henkels returns as the catcher for the Wildcats.


5/8


April 5 at LuverneApril 8 at Mt. LakeApril 19 at SlaytonApril 26 at SlaytonApril 28 at WorthingtonMay 3 at PipestoneMay 5 at WorthingtonMay 12 at WorthingtonMay 16 at WindomMay 19 RR Conference meet (Slayton)May 26 Sub-section meet (Worthington)

June 2 Section meet (Redwood Falls)June 10-11 State Tournament

SWU track and feld scheduleHead coaches: Jason Fisher and Donna Cook

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Returning letter winners for the Southwestern Unit ed boys track and field team are M art y Schmitz, Jameson Collin, Mitchel VanWesten and Ben Peter.

Returning letter winners for the Southwestern United girls track and field team are Katey Granstra (from left), Mara Eichenberger, ReginaSteffen and Jennifer Schmidt.

Last season, the South-western United boys trackand field team had a much-improved season, with fourboys combining to scoremore tha n 300 points.

All four are ba ck this sea-son and the Wildcats alsohave six others hoping tocontribute this spring.

Seniors Marty Schmitzand Mitchel VanWesten,

junior Jameson Collin andsophomore Ben Peter alldid well for SWU last sea-



Wildcat boys

are on the riseAll four scorers are

back for SWU

son and are expected toagain lead the team.

Schmitz led the Wildcatsin scoring with 190.5 pointsand is looking to defendhis Red Rock Conference

championships in the long jump and high jump. Healso made it to the sectionmeet in both events lastseason.

Schmitz will also run r e-lays for SWU this spring.

VanWesten scored mostof his 131.25 points last sea-son in the 1,600-meter r un.He is the schools recordholder in the event, havingposted the fastest time atthe Fulda I nvite last seasonand then breaking his ownrecord later in the year. Hewas an all-conference run-

ner and advanced to thesection meet last season.

VanWesten will run themile race again this season,as well as the 800-meterrun. His field events willlikely be high jump andlong jump.

Collin scored 60.75 pointslast season in the high jumpand sprints. The lengthy

junior will compete in thesame events this year andwill be a pa rt of SWU s re-lay teams.

Peter will also competein sprints and relay teamsthis season after scoring11.25 points for SWU lastspring.

Co-head coaches JasonFisher and Donna Cookexpect big things from the

jumpers this season, aswell as from VanWesten in

the mile.Also competing for the

Wildcats will be exchangestudent Adraino Martins,

junior E dwin Marsical ,sophomores Mykil Vonk,Matthew Soto and Emilo

Esqueda and seventh-grad-er Alex Coronado.

Martins is a jumper andMarsical and Esqueda areboth expected to competein shot put a nd discus.

Theyve got some po-tential, Fisher said of thethrowers.

Vonk will also compet e inthrowing events and r un the100-meter dash. Soto willrun sprints and relay racesand Coronado will run the800- and 1,600-meter runs.

The four returners areexpected to lead the Wild-cats, with the other six ex-pected to improve as theygain more and more expe-rience.

Some of that experiencemay come in relay races,something the Wildcatswerent able to have in some

previous years due to lownumbers. This years squadwill likely have at least onesprint relay team per meet.

The Wildcats were sched-



A dozen girls are out fortrack and field at South-

Four returners expected to lead Wildcat girlsThree seniors make

up one-fourth of

SWU squad

western United this year,ranging from a state qualifi-er to newcomers with plentyof potential.

Of the 12 Wildcats readyto run this spring, four arereturning letter winners.

Seniors Katey Granstra,Mara Eichenberger and

Regina Steffen and juniorJennifer Schmidt are allback after finishing in the

top six on SWUs scoringchart last season.

Granstra led t he Wildcatswith 246 points last seasonand already has 612 in hercareer.

The senior won the discusin every meet she competedin last season until state,

where she finished second.She also excelled at thatshot put and is expected torack up a lot of points inthe two events again thisseason.

Granstras ability to fin-ish well in both throwingevents is a strength of theteam, according to co-headcoaches Jason Fisher andDonna Cook.

A n o t h e r s t r e n g t h i sEichenbergers speed insprints.

Eich en b erg er s co red205.75 points last seasonand was second at the RedRock Conference meet andlater qualified for the sec-tion meet.

The senior will be count-ed on to use her wheelsto score points again thisseason in sprints and relay

races.Steffen and Schmidt could

also contribute in relay rac-es, but the lack of numberson the team will likely limitthe Wildcats to one or tworelay teams in each meet.Fisher said the relay teamswill likely feature one or twoupper classmen, with someyounger girls rounding outthe team.

SeeSWU GT onC7

SeeSWU BT onC8 Jameson Collin soars over the bar while competing in the high jump last spring.Ben Peter flies through the air during the long jumpcometition last season.


6/8


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April 5 at Red Rock CentralApril 12 at WorthingtonApril 14 vs. Hills-Beaver CreekApril 18 vs. Adrian and Southwest ChristianApril 19 vs. FuldaApril 25 vs. WindomMay 3 vs. Westbrook/Walnut GroveMay 5 at AdrianMay 6 at Martin County WestMay 13 vs. Martin County WestMay 17 Red Rock Con. Tournament (Worthington)May 23 at Westbrook/Walnut Grove

May 27 Sub-Section TournamentJune 3 Section TournamentJune 15-16 State Tournament

SWU boys golf scheduleHead coach: Deb Jaycox

Its a season of change forthe Southwestern Unitedboys golf team.

The Wildcats are playingwithout Brady Hall for thefirst time in six years afterthe graduation of the two-time state qualifier.

But a bigger change iswhere the Wildcats will callhome. SWU will practiceand play its home meets atPrairie View Golf Links inWorthington after previ-ously calling Emerald Val-

ley home.Head coach Deb Jaycox

doesnt see that as muchof an issue, as the Wildcatshave practiced and played

Season of change for WildcatsBoys golf team

now calls Prairie

View home


at the course for the RedRock Conference tourna-ment.

One hundred yards thereis 100 yards a nywhere, Ja y-cox said.

In fact, the course maybenefit a young Wildcatteam, as Prairie View hasno mature trees and fewerspots to get in trouble thanEmer ald Valley.

The Wildcats return fourletter winners, all who proj-ect to be in the lineup whenthe team opens its seasonagainst Worthington Tues-day.

Freshman Clay Salzwedelhas two seasons under hisbelt and is joined by sopho-more Kyle Wendland andfreshmen Walker Crockerand Logan Ellenbecker as

returners.Salzwedel and Wend-

land showed improvementall season last spring, withCrocker and Ellenbecker

also coming on toward theend of the season.

Jordan DeWall was onthe team last season andhas an inside track to oneof the final two open spotson the varsity team. Alsocompeting for a varsity spotare Caleb Postma, DerekDurst and exchange studentAurelio Boerlin. Sixth-grad-ers Mason Ellenbecker andKurt Obermoller are alsoworking on their game thisspring, but are too young tocompete for the Wildcats.

Jaycox said the Wildcatsare a team that works welltogether, with the boys alltrying to push each otherto improve.

I see them all work-ing together, she said.Theyre going out a nd get-

ting better.Jaycox said the obvious

goal for the Wildcats is towin their matches, but shereally hopes the team showsimprovement all season,something assistant coachMarv Johnson said is thenorm for the Wildcats.

Its going to be fun tosee how they improve allseason, Jaycox said, add-ing she hopes the te am willbe competitive by the timethe conference tournamentrolls around. They willget better as the year goeson.

One way to track theWildcats improvement isby keeping track of statisticssuch as fairways hit, greensin regulation and putts.

Were really going towork on our stats, Jay-cox said. Were going tokeep track every time theyplay.

The Wildcats, who donthave a girls team againthis spring, are scheduledto host Westbrook-WalnutGrove the team Jaycoxtabbed as the conferencefavorite May 3. South-west Christian, Red RockCentral and Adrian will alsohave good teams, Jaycoxsaid. SWU will face SWCand Adrian in Adrian May5. The match against RRCwill be made up, as it was

postponed from April 5due to water on the Falconshome course.

That is good news forJaycox, who said the extrat ime before the openerwill be good for her team.That g ives us anotherwhole week of practicebefore our first meet, shesaid.

And even if that isntenough time for the Wild-cats to me in midseasonform, Jaycox said she andthe tea m wont panic.

Were young, she said.We can only go up.


tle things offensively,he said . We have tobunt, move runners overand hope to sneak onethrough. We dont havethe capability of winningtoo many slugfests.

Henkels was the lead-ing hitter for SWU lastseason, batting .373. De-Wall was next (.240), withMeyer hitting .236.

Weve got to findsomebody who can hit,Owen said. Luke is ourreturning hitter, but wehad a lot of guys in thelower .200s.

Owen was still work-ing on a batting order asof last week and said thelineup could change.

Weve got to work onfinding where guys canbe most successful in thefield and in the lineup,he said.

D e s p i t e q u e s t i o nmarks entering the sea-son, Owen said the goalsare the same for the Wild-cats.

Ideally, youd like to

SWU BASE: A lot of talent returnsContinued from C4

hunt for hardware, he said,adding the Red Rock Con-ference could be down a bitthis season.

Others hoping to get achance on varsity are sopho-mores Austin Droll (out-field, designated hitter),Blake Glaser (outfield), ErikJass (catcher, outfield), Jus-tin Jass (outfield, pitcher),Austin Rossow (outfield,

designated hitter), KurtSchmitz (outfield, pitcher),Kraig Stenzel (catcher, out-field), Luke Veith (outfield,infield) and Ja y Young (out-field) and freshmen NathanBeyer (outfield) and AaronFest (infield, outfield andpitcher).

The Wildcats have 57players out for baseball thisyear in grades six through12, allowing SWU to fieldseventh- and eighth-gradeteams as well as a juniorvarsity squad.

Les Knutson and NickStevermer are coachingthe junior high tea ms, withBlaise Jacobsen assistingOwen at the varsity level.

April 5 vs. WorthingtonApril 12 vs. Red Rock Central/WWGApril 14 at Edgerton/EllsworthApril 16 at Martin County West TournamentApril 19 vs. AdrianApril 21 at Mt. Lake-Butterfeld-OdinApril 25 at LuverneApril 26 at Murray County CentralApril 29 at Russel-Tyler-RuthtonMay 2 at Martin Luther/GHEC

May 3 at Red Rock Central/WWGMay 5 vs. Edgerton/EllsworthMay 9 vs. Minneota/Lincoln HIMay 10 at AdrianMay 12 vs. Mt. Lake-Butterfeld-OdinMay 16 at Jackson County CentralMay 17 vs. Murray County CentralMay 24 vs. Windom AreaMay 25, 28, June 1, 4, 7 and 9 Section TournamentJune 16-17 State Tournament

SWU baseball scheduleHead coach: Tim Owen

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turns with experience andwill pitch and play in theoutfield. Owen said thespeedy freshmen AlainaKlingenberg and CatelynLaCourn will see time inthe outfield, with fresh-men Megan Schmitz,Mariah Freeman, EliaRomero, Maria Crowelland Maclane Rostomily,senior Danielle Olsonand exchange studentMari Melo also vying fortime in the outfield.

Seventh-grader IdaRogers-Ferguson, Crow-ell, Rossow, sophomoreKelsey Medina and ju-nior Arianna Hesemannshould see time at pitcherfor the Wildcats.

Junior Maddie Raschewill play on the left side

of the infield, freshmanKristin Liepold could playfirst base or catcher andfreshman Sonja Peterscan also play catcher.

Owen isnt sure of abatting order yet, but saidshe hopes her team willdo a better job of puttingthe ball in play and usingits speed.

Even if they dont wina game again, Owen said

SWU SB: Team looking for winsContinued from C4

she is at least hoping theWildcats can play in someclose games, somethingthey didnt do last yearwhen they lost by the 10-runrule every game.

We want to play someregulation games, Owensaid. We think thats verydoable. We need to devel-op that winning attitude.Developing that winning at-titude is something that hasstarted to come through thesweat of the first few weeksof practice.

They want to get a cou-ple wins, Owen said. Theywant to get that mo nkey offtheir back.

The Wildcats ha ve 40 girlsout for softball in gradesseven through 12 this year,nearly double the amount

that went out last year.Because of the high num-bers, the Wildcats alreadyhave three junior varsitygames scheduled and arehoping to get a few moreadded.

Coaching the JV teamwill be Molly Neil and E ricaPasche, with Lucas Silva-Garcia assisting Owen andcoaching the junior highteam.

Photo by Dan Condon

Returning letter winners for the Southwestern United boys golf team are Kyle Wendland (from left), LoganEllenbecker, Walker Crocker and Clay Salzwedel.

Kyle Wendland sends a putt toward the hole for theWildcats last spring.

Kayla Droll gets the ball in to the infield last season.Droll is expected to make the switch from th e outfield toinfield this spring.

Alex Meyer fires a pitch for Southwestern United la st season.


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JCC SB: Tough SWC schedule awaits JCC softball teamContinued from C1

S o p h o m o r e B r o o k eKlontz could see some timepitching, with sophomoresAdriane Rentschler, JennaStade and Brooke Arndtalso expected to get someplaying time this season.

As of last week, Hotzlerwasnt sure of a batt ing or-der, but said Breanne Rent-schler would be leading off.She led the t eam with a .430average last year, picking up37 hits all singles in86 at bats.

Handzus (.329) and Ra-sche (.316) both hit over.300 last year and will becounted on to lead the of-fense.

The H uskies played well


Breanne Rentschler fires a pitch for the Huskies last season. Rentschler and SarahChristopher will be counted on to handle the pitching duties again this spring.

JCC GG: Benson returns to lead young girls golf teamContinued from C2

the golf course a nd will haveto learn from them. Themain goal will be to makeimprovements as the seasonprogresses.

One way to do that, Di-Brito said, is to pinpointareas that nee d a little extrawork.

Each meet they are go-ing to have to identify areaswhere they are strugglingand take the extra time towork on those areas, he

said.A typical problem area

for youngsters is the shortgame and DiBrito saidhis team has already beenworking on getting that pa rtof the game up to speed.

The young players aregoing to have to improvetheir short game, he said.This will help them cutstrokes fast.

Putting in the extra timeis something DiBrito fully

expects the Huskies to do.The main strength of

this team is the willingnessto work hard, he said.

That might come fromwatching Kaylee Benson,who spends countless hourson the course.

Kaylee will be a greatrole model for the youngerplayers, DiBrito said. Herperformance will help mo-tivate the girls this year.She will be a great leader

who will help the youngerplayers become more suc-cessful.

Benson is coming off aseason in which she wasmedalist nine times and a v-eraged just 41.9 strokes pernine holes. As good as herfirst half of the season was,she really picked it up downthe stretch and ended with atie for 27th place at the statetournament.

Benson and the Huskies

are scheduled to open theseason tomorrow (Friday)in Spirit Lake, Iowa, andwill kick off the SouthwestConference schedule April19 in Marshall. Other con-ference meets are April 28in Worthington, April 29against Windom, May 3 atRedwood Valley, May 10against Luverne and Ma y 12against Pipestone Area.

The SWC tournamentis May 23 in Worthington,

with the sub-section meetMay 26 and the sectiontournament June 2.

DiBrito expects a toughconference slate again thisseason.

All the girls teams willbe pretty competitive in theconference, he said.

Amy Voss and Brett Ben-son, Kaylees oldest brothe r,return as assistant coachesfor the Huskies.

Two likely candidatesare seventh-graders HaileySchumacher and KatelynWalters, both of whom ha vegood speed.

Steffen will also competein hurdles and long jump,with Schmidt running the800-meter run and compet -ing in high jump. Schmidtwas fifth on the scoring listlast season with 165.5 pointsand Steffen scored 87.25 tofinish sixth.

Schumacher and Wal-ters are both expected tocompete in h igh jump, with

Schumacher also runningthe 800 and Walters com-peting in hurdles.

Cook said one key to theseason is finding eventsSchumacher, Walters andthe other newcomers cando well in.

S o p h o m o r e H a n n a hLangseth-Berger is expect-ed to compete in sprints,relays and long jump; soph-omore Jessi Lentz will runsprints; junior Jordin Ell-ness will join Granstra inthe thr owing events; sopho-more J ulia DeWall will runsprints and middle-distance

races; seventh-grader Miri-am E labedi will run sprintsand middle-distance races;and eighth-grader NikkiWalker will run sprints andrelays.

With just 12 girls on theteam, Fisher said it is unre-alistic for his team to winmeets, but he expects theWildcats to compete well.

We want to stay competi-tive, he said. With our lownumbers, we arent goingto win meets, but we wouldlike to be competitive.The Wildcats were sched-

uled to open their seasonTuesday in Luverne and willbe back in action tomorrow(Friday) at a meet in Mt.Lake. Meets are scheduledin Slayton on April 19 and26, with three meets inWorthington, one in Pipe-stone and one in Windombefore the regular seasonends.

The Red Rock Confer-ence meet is May 19 inSlayton, followed by thesub-section meet May 26in Worthington and thesection tournament June 2in Redwood Falls.

SWU GT: Four girls return, eight others out for Wildcat track and field teamContinued from C5


Jennifer Schmidt (a bove) and Katey Granst ra (below) make up half of the return ingletter winners for the Southwestern United girls track and field team.

threat in the SouthwestConference and section.

We have lofty goals,he said. Anytime youstart a season, your pri-mary goal is to win it all.But you have to havegoals along the way. Firstof all, we want to have awinning season.

To do t hat, Steiner said,the Huskies will have to

show more consistencythan they displayed lastseason.

We have to play con-sistently good baseball,he said. We got therelast summer, but we needto do that out of the gatethis season.

The Huskies lost toFairmont in the playoffslast season, but were theonly team to score on theCardinals in the sectiontournament.

Steiner thinks his teamis capable of doing whatFairmont did last spring.We should be the team

going through the sectionand going to state, Steinersaid. Having said that,theres some really goodteams in our section.

The conference also hassome tough teams, withMarshall tabbed as the fa-vorite by Steiner.

With six seniors on theteam, Steiner e xpects plentyof leadership.

I sat down with the se-niors and told them Thisis your team. You guys aregoing to make it what youwant of it, Steiner said.Theyve been workingreally hard. They lead byexample.

Steiner has given his se-niors a voice, meet ing withthem once a week to gettheir thoughts on what theteam is or isnt doing.

We have a conversa-tion about how things aregoing, Steiner said. I askthem what they think weneed to work on. I give thema large voice in what s going

on. I want it to be a good,fun experience for them andtheyre more likely to havefun if they have that leade r-

ship role and buy into beinga leader on the team.

The team was scheduledto open the season Tuesday,but that game was post-poned. The Huskies arenow scheduled to ope n theircampaign today (Thur sday)against Adrian.

The SWC schedule begins

Monday when the Huskieshost Windom. Two moreconference home games fol-low, with three other gamesscheduled in April. May hasnine games on the schedule,with a double-header May19 in Marshall wrapping up

the regular season.Despite a tough sched-

ule and a stretch in whichthe Huskies have sevengames in 10 days, Steiner isconfident the Huskies cando well.

Im fairly confident wehave the guys to do this,he said.

Steiner is ass is ted byMike Wierson, with JimGumto and Nathan Bollercoaching the B and C squadteams. Eric Tvinnereim andZach Stratton are coachingthe middle school squads.


Bryce Christopher is one of many players who can pitch and play multiple positionsin the field for the Huskies.

Ty Schwart ing blasts a home r un for JCC la st season. The senior hit .339 last spr ingand will be counted on to drive in runs from the middle of the Huskies lineup.

Boog Steiner flips the ball to Nolan Luhma nn for an outlast spr ing. The two can both play the middle infield posi-tions and pitch for the Huskies.

JCC BASE: Six seniors to lead teamContinued from C1

during the summer seasonlast year, even advancingto nationals. Hotzler hopesthat momentum carries intothe new season and leadsto a successful run in theSouthwest Conference andsection playoffs.

Wed like to do wellin the conference, finishstrong and hope fully get tostate, she said.

The Pipestone Arrowsstand in the way of bothgoals and, along with Red-wood Valley, are listed byHotzler as the conferencefavorites. Marshall could bethe conference dark horse,Hotzler said.

Of those three confer-

ence powers, the H uskieswill face Redwood Valleyfirst. JCC faces the Cardi-nals April 12. The Huskieshost Marshall April 26 andface Pipestone on the roadtwo days later.

The Huskies home tour-nament is set for May 14,with just a doubleheaderagainst Luverne followingbefore playoffs begin.

Hotzler is assisted byCory Pauling at the varsitylevel, with Katie Andersoncoaching the B squad team.Kristin Thiner and Brit Sch-neekloth are coaching themiddle school teams.

Leslie Handzus laces a pitch for th e Huskies last season. Ha ndzus hit .329 for J CC ayear ago.


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uled to get their first test ofthe season on Tuesday at ameet in Lu verne and will beback on the track tomorrow(Friday) in Mt. Lake.

SWU has mee ts in Slaytonon April 19 and 26, followedby a meet in WorthingtonApril 28. A meet in Pipe-stone on May 3 is followed

by two more in Worthing-ton, with a May 16 meet inWindom wrapping up theregular season.

The conference meet isscheduled for May 19 inSlayton, t he sub-sectionmeet is May 26 in Worthing-ton and the section meet isJune 2 in R edwood Falls.

SWU BT: Wildcats return fourContinued from C5

Photo by Dan Condon

Mitchel VanWesten gets good dista nce in th e long jumplast s eason. VanWesten will compete in the event again

this year a nd look to break his own record in the 1,600-meter run.

Brito said. Th ose guys havelearned a lot about coursemanagement, which will

help them make good deci-sions on the golf course.

The Asa twins and Brink-man all qualified for thesection tournament las tseason, where Brinkmanrecorded the first hole-in-one in team history.

The Huskies are sched-uled to open their seasontomorrow (Friday) in SpiritLake, Iowa, with anothertrip south of the borderscheduled a week lateragainst Esther ville LincolnCentral.

JCC opens the SouthwestConference schedule April19 in Marshall, the team Di-Brito tabbed as the favoriteto win the conference.

We always have a verycompetitive conference,DiBrito said. The Marshallboys are always a tough

team.The Huskies have home

conference meets againstWindom (April 29), Lu-verne (May 10) and Pipe-stone Area (May 12). Theconference meet is May23 in Worthington, withthe sub-section meet May26 and the section meetJune 2.

DiBrito expects his expe-rienced squad to have plen-ty of success this season.

I would like to see usbe very competitive in theconference and section,he said.

To do so, the Huskie s willrely on their strengths.

The main strengths ofthis team are experienceand the fact that so many

different guys will be com-peting for varsity spots,

DiBrito said.DiBrito is assisted by

Amy Voss and Brett Ben-

son.

JCC BG: Huskies return every golfer from last yearContinued from C2

Photo by Dan Condon

Kyle Edlin is one of several JCC golfers with plenty ofvarsity experience.

able to do well in thoseraces, it will make it eas-ier to fill the h oles left bythe big group of seniorsthat graduated from lastyears team.

Senior Steven Salzwe-del racked up 142 pointsin sprints and relays lastseason, senior Zach Postscored 86 and seniorEvan Koep scored 62.

All three will compete insprinting events this sea-son, as will junior AustinLucht, sophomores Ja-

JCC BT&F: JCC boys should have balanced track team this seasonContinued from C3

son Vongsavanh a nd C.J.Rosenkranz, freshmen Jer-emy Ringgenberg, DarnellTaylor-Breck, Bradley Gus-tafson, Wyatt Cleberg andEvan Broitzman.

Jeremy Ringgenberg, junior John Isaacson andfreshman Matt Schmit willcompete in hurdles for theHuskies.

Junior Alex Tewes and

sophomore Wayne Fiskwill be competing in shotput and discus, with Koep,Hummel and Lucht pole

vaulting.Competing in jumping

events will be freshmanJon Harme ning and sopho-more Tanner Post, amongothers.

With so many kids onthe team, Coach Cook isexcited to see how his teamshakes out.

Were excited to seewhere theyre going to fit

into the varsity roster, hesaid, adding he is happy tosee 13 freshmen and sopho-mores on the team.

Relay teams werent setearlier this week and couldchange throughout the sea-son as runners round intoform.

Were hoping to dowell in relays, Cook said.Well have to wait and seewho is on those teams.The Huskies dont have ahome meet this season, butdo have many nearby. The

season started Tuesday inLuverne, with the Huskiesback in action tomorrow(Friday) in Mt. Lake. JCCreturns to Mt. Lake Apr il 15and has a meet in Windomon April 18.

Meet s a re s ch ed u ledfor April 28 and May 6 inFairmont, with anothermeet in Worthington May12.

The Southwest Confer-ence mee t is May 19 in Lu-verne, the sub-section meetis May 26 in Worthingtonand the section meet is June2 in Redwood Falls.

Cook said he hopes theHuskies can repeat theirsuccess of last season andwould like to again do wellat the true team meet.

Were looking to have astrong repeat at true team,

he said.Last year, JCC won thesection true team meet andwas fifth at the state trueteam tournament.

Cook also hopes to ha ve afew relay teams and sprint-ers at the state meet thisseason.

Were hoping to getmore runners up to state,he said.

Cook is assisted by JackWalsh, Bob Ruby, Kerri Ko-cak and Rafael York.


Evan Koep competes in the pole vault for JCC last season.

Above: Taylor Freeman carries the baton during a relaylast spr ing. Below: Jordan Snyder leads a pack of runner sduring a long-distance run last season.

Cook said.T h e H u s k i e s f i g u r e

to score a good amount

of points in sprints thisyear, with both Donnellis,Schumann and Schneeklothready to speed down thetrack again.

Also running sprin tsare juniors Sarah Dar-ling, Kirsten Ringgenberg,Monica Gee and AmandaPohlsen and sophomoresJes s ica Vo eh l , Mar iahSmith, Caitlyn Stevens,Michelle VanEpps and Tay-lor Dunker.

Weve got great dept h insprinting, Cook said.

The Huskies also have asolid group of middle- andlong-distance ru nners backthis season.

Johnson, Sarah Voehland Holthe scored most oftheir points in middle- andlong-distance r uns last sea-son and will be joined in

the events by senior HopeBelknap, juniors HaileyTimko and Rachel Bu-resch, sophomore MirandaKunerth and freshman Mi-randa Timko.

Weve got great experi-ence in long-distance run-ning, Cook said.

The H uskies will also puttogether relay teams, withCook hoping to get a fewof them to the state tour-nament.

We should be very strongin relays, he said. Hope-fully we can get some tostate.

Steffen will be competingin hurdle races again for the

Huskies.Ringgenberg, VanEpps,

Jessica Voehl and Court-

ney Donnelli will all alsocompete in multiple fieldevents.

With so many quality girlsback this season, Cook ex-pects the Huskies to moveup in the standings.

Were ho ping to improvein team r esults, Cook said.Weve been moving up

JCC GT&F: Huskies bring back 13 letter winnersContinued from C3

each year.One such competition

Cook hopes to see improve-

ment in is the section trueteam meet.

Im very excited this yearto compete in the true teamcompetition with all our let-ter winners back, he said.

Assistant coaches for theHuskies are Jack Walsh,Bob Ruby, Kerri Kocak andRafael York.


Hope Belknap competes in a relay race for the Huskieslast season.

Above: Julia Schumann flies through the air during longjump last season. Below: Riley Schneekloth a nd J essicaVoehl sprint t o the finish of the 100-meter da sh.

Spring Sports Preview 040711

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