Spring Sports Preview 2014

8/12/2019 Spring Sports Preview 2014

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SPORTSSECTION C MARCH 27, 2014

PREVIEW

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Jackson County Central softballHead coach: Shelly Hotzler

3-31 vs. Mt. Lake Area4-3 at Martin County West4-8 at Luverne (doubleheader)4-14 at Blue Earth Area4-15 vs. Redwood Valley (doubleheader)4-25 vs. Fairmont4-29 at Marshall (doubleheader)5-1 vs. Pipestone (doubleheader)5-5 vs. New Ulm5-8 at Worthington (doubleheader)5-10 JCC tournament5-15 vs. Windom Area (doubleheader)5-20 5-29 Section 3AA tournament

6-5 6-6 Class AA state tournament

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Jackson County Central baseballHead coach: Mike Wierson

3-31 at Mt. Lake Area4-3 at Adrian4-4 at New Ulm4-7 at Windom Area4-10 at Worthington4-12 at Pipestone Area (doubleheader)4-22 vs. Redwood Valley4-25 vs. Fairmont5-1 vs. Luverne (doubleheader)5-6 vs. Worthington5-8 vs. Windom Area5-12 at Southwestern United5-13 at Redwood Valley5-15 vs. Marshall (doubleheader)5-19 at Maple River5-20 vs. Martin County West5-24 6-5 Section 3AA tournament

6-12 6-14 Class AA state tournament

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PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central softball team are (front,from left): Megan Edlin, Kathryn Nasby and Rachel Johnson. Middle: Jayde Price,Bailey Schneekloth and Moira Carlson. Back: Blaney Markman and Brittany Woodke.Missing: Jordian Tirevold.

PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central baseball team are Zach Paulson (from left), JoshChristoffer, Jordan Biehn, Jeremiah Flatgard, Mitchell Macek and Peter Nasby.

Even as the season opensnext week for the JacksonCounty Central baseballteam, auditions will be tak-

Position battles aplenty for JCC baseball teamLack of outdoorpractices leavelineup spots up forgrabs for Huskies

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

ing place.First-year head coach

Mike Wierson said thereare plenty of spots up forgrabs and a lack of outdoorpractices has delayed theprocess of finding a regularlineup.

Its going to be one ofthose things where the firstcouple games there willbe a lot of guys getting achance to earn it, he said.Every time you get yourchance, you better earn it.

The Huskies are sched-uled to open their seasonnext Tuesday at Mt. Lakeand then play at Adriannext Thursday and at NewUlm next Friday.

Its unlikely well getoutside much before thefirst game, Wierson said.

While stuck indoors like just about every otherteam in the area Wiersonand his coaching staff havebeen stressing the basics.

The biggest thing isfundamentals, he said.Footwork, trying to build

our arm strength, thingslike that.While the groundwork

is being laid, Wierson saysbeing indoors does hinderthe development of a teamthat has a lot of holes to fill

from last years eight-winteam.

It makes it hard to knowwhere guys should be, hesaid. You cant see livegrounders.

T h e H u s k i e s a r estrapped with the chal-lenge of replacing four oftheir biggest bats fromlast season, plus almost allof their pitchers. Amongthose who graduated areTanner Menke, TaylorChristopher, Kyle Luh-mann and Zach Copley,who led the JCC offense

last season. Last yearsseniors pitched all but 10innings last season

Between Copley, Chris-topher, Luhmann, (Josh)Thaemlitz and Menke, welost pretty much all our in-

nings, Wierson said.Seniors Jordan Biehn

and Jeremiah Flatgardpitched last season andwill do so again, as wellas juniors Nick Arp, ScottChristopher and FreemanScott.

Jordan and Jeremiahwill be the two that threwthe most last year, Wier-son said. Otherwise itll be

juniors who have thrownin B squad, but haventthrown in varsity.

Doing the catching forthe Huskies will be senior

Mitchel Macek, who had a.298 on-base-percentagelast season. Also playingcatcher will be junior Jar-ed Bakalyar.

Seniors Flatgard andZach Paulson are first

basemen, as are juniorsBrody Anderson and Pat-rick Tate. Other infield-ers for the Huskies areseniors Josh Christoffer,Macek, Peter Nasby andShadrach Wacker and ju-niors Bakalyar, Christo-pher, Andrew Hesse andScott.

Playing in the outfieldwill be Biehn, Christoffer,Flatgard, Nasby, Paulson,Anderson, Arp, Hesse, Tateand juniors Ryan Timko,Zach Holm and MarekBingel.

Nasby led JCC returnerswith a .400 batting averagelast season and Biehn isthe returner with the mostruns batted in, plating 13teammates while hitting

SeeJCC BASEBALL onC5

Despite no outdoor prac-tices and its first gamecoming up next week,

Jackson County Centralhead coach Shelly Hotzleris confident about where

Huskies take aim at powerful PipestoneJCC softball teamhoping to knockArrows from atopSWC standings

her softball team stands.The Huskies scrim-

maged at Rochester lastweek, and the veterancoach was pleased withwhat she saw.

Offensively we weregood this weekend, Hot-zler said. We hit the ballwell.

The Huskies graduatedsix key players from lastseasons team that finishedsecond in the SouthwestConference, but bring back

plenty of talent.One returner is senior

Brittany Woodke, who led

JCC with a .418 battingaverage last season. Shedrove in 16 runs, scored22 and had a team high 18walks.

Woodke one of justthree seniors on this yearssquad will play thirdbase for JCC this spring.

Junior Mo Carlson hit.340 a year ago with threedoubles and a homer. Shedrove in nine runs and willbe counted on for big num-bers this season at the plate

and in the circle.Carlson pitched 53 in-

nings last season with anearned-run average of 4.49.When shes not pitchingthis season, Carlson willplay catcher.

Junior Blaney Markmanreturns after hitting .286a year ago. Used in theoutfield last season, Mark-man will play shortstop forJCC this spring. She willalso see time in the circle,where she pitched five in-nings a year ago.

Senior Jordian Tirevoldalso hit .286 last seasonand returns to play the out-field for JCC. Senior JaydePrice is back at second

base this season after bat-ting .267 a year ago.

Juniors Bailey Schneek-loth, Megan Edlin, KathrynNasby and Rachel Johnsonall saw some action lastseason and will have in-creased roles this spring.

Schneekloth will be autility player for the Hus-kies, Edlin and Nasby areoutfielders and Johnsonwill play catcher and firstbase.

Junior Hannah Holm-

berg will play in the infield,junior Tearza Brewer is anoutfielder, sophomore Syd-ney Nyborg will play firstbase and freshman JayniAnderson is a catcher.

The Huskies also havehigh hopes for eighth-grad-er Kelsey Kannenberg,who is new to the team thisseason.

Kannenberg will pitch

and play first base and theyoungster shows prom-ise at the plate and in thecircle.

Hotzler said the Huskies

SeeJCC SOFTBALL onC2


2/6

C2 Thursday, March 27, 2014Sports Preview

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Jackson County Central golfHead coach: Keith Eggink

4-5 at Worthington tournament4-10 vs. Spirit Lake (boys only)4-14 at Fairmont4-15 vs. Marshall4-17 vs. Worthington4-22 vs. Martin County West4-25 at Windom Area4-28 at Spirit Lake (boys only)4-29 vs. Redwood Valley5-1 vs. Red Rock Central5-2 vs. Estherville Lincoln Centra (girls only)5-3 at Fairmont tournament5-5 at Estherville Lincoln Central (boys only)5-6 at Luverne5-8 at Pipestone Area5-16 vs. Blue Earth Area

5-19 at SWC tournament (in Worthington)5-21 Sub-section 3AA tournament (in Worthington)5-29 Section 3AA tournament (in Buffalo Lake)6-10 6-11 Class AA state tournament

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PHOTOS BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central boys golf team are KyleChristopher (from left), Chris Baker, Joe Brinkman, Zach Schwarting, Austin Olson,Jack Ringkob, Kyle Kapplinger and Matt Ringkob.

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central girls golf team are (front,from left): Abby Brinkman and Emmalie Benson. Back: Emma Lilleberg, AlisonBenson and Lexie Hoffman.

JCC SOFTBALL:Huskies return a lot of talentContinued from C1

have been working hard ontheir defense so far despitebeing stuck inside.

Defensively we mighthave lost some key players,but I think we have enoughpeople filling in that weshould be all right, Hot-zler said.

Hotzler listed Pipestoneas the team to beat againin the Southwest Confer-

ence. Last year, the Arrowshanded JCC its only twoconference losses.

This year, the Huskiesshould be able to againcompete with Pipestone

Just play solid defense,Hotzler said of the key tohanging with the Arrows.

Pipestone and New Ulmwill again be tough in thesection, Hotzler said.

The Huskies are sched-uled to open the seasonnext Monday at homeagainst Mt. Lake Area andhave a tough stretch inearly May against the twosection powers.

JCC hosts PipestoneArea in a doubleheaderMay 1 and then hosts NewUlm May 5.

The Huskies host a tour-

nament May 10 and beginsection tournament actionMay 20.

Hotzler is assisted atthe varsity level by CoryPauling. Erica Colby is theB squad coach and KassieAmbrose and Mallory Ru-dolph are middle schoolcoaches.

For 12 straight years,Jackson County Centralhas had at least one team orindividual play at the stategolf tournament.

Last year it was AbbyBrinkman who kept thestreak alive.

This year, head coach

Keith Eggink hopes JCCis represented even moreat state.

The Huskies return justabout everybody on boththe boys and girls teams,leaving JCC with a prettyhigh confidence level asthe season gets under way.

Girls aiming for stateThe JCC girls have near-

ly the same team that went7-2 a year ago back againthis season.

Gone is Shelby Benson,but back in the lineup isfreshman Abby Benson,who missed all of last sea-

State is the goal

for JCC golfersNearly everyone isback for girls andboys golf teams

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

son with a back injury.Its just about the same

bunch as last year, Egginksaid. We just traded Abbyfor Shelby.

Eggink said despiteAbby Benson missing awhole season, shes an ex-perienced golfer.

Shes played a lot ofgolf, he said. Shes got ex-perience playing in meets.Shes one that at timescan get into the low 40s.But shes not the only onecapable of shooting lowscores.

We could have six girlsthat could get into the 40s,Eggink said. Youre goingto win a lot of meets withfour scores in the 40s.

Brinkman, just a sopho-more, leads the Huskiesafter posting a team-best44.9 average for nine holesa year ago. After finishingsixth at the Southwest Con-ference meet, Brinkmanwas sixth at sub-sections,tied for fourth at sectionsand finished 31stat state.

Junior Alison Bensongot hot at the end of lastseason, finishing fifth atthe conference meet andfourth at sub-sections toqualify for the section

meet. Senior Emma Lille-berg also qualified for thesection meet.

Senior Lexie Hoffmanand sophomore Emma-lie Benson are back afterboth averaged around 50strokes per nine holes lastyear and are joined by new-comer eighth-grader TiaraMenke.

Everybody at somepoint last year was medal-ist or tied for medalist,Eggink said. They all havethat potential.

Seeing Brinkman ad-vance to state a year agohas the Huskies motivated.

I think theyd like to goto state as a team, Egginksaid. They kind of sawthat atmosphere.

Eggink added winningthe conference to a list ofgoals that includes sub-section and section titles.

With the experience wehave and the depth, thoseshould be the goals, hesaid.

Big things expectedfrom JCC boys

The JCC boys graduatedjust two golfers who sawvarsity action last seasonand bring back seven letterwinners.

Having a handful of guysto pick from for the var-sity roster, while at timescan present challenges, isa good thing, Eggink said.

Thats a big help,he said. They cant justsay, Im a varsity golfer.Theyve got to perform inqualifying, got to performin meets or else somebodywill take their spot.

Junior Joe Brinkmanled JCC with a nine-holescoring average of 41.1 lastseason and was medalistfour times. Brinkman andsenior Kyle Christopher who was second on theteam with an average of43.7 strokes both quali-

fied for the section meetlast spring.

Junior Jack Ringkoband junior Zach Schwart-ing were third and fourth,respectively, in scoringaverage last season and ju-niors Kyle Kapplinger andAustin Olson both playedquite a bit of varsity golf ayear ago.

That experience shouldhelp all season, Egginksaid.

Especially when werenot playing at home,he said. They know thecourses we play. Theyve

been through the battles.Throw in seniors Chris

Baker and Andrew Holm-berg and sophomores MattRingkob and Caleb Kolan-der and the Huskies have anumber of capable golfers.

Eggink said there areseveral guys capable ofmaking a run at state.

We could have two orthree guys contend for a

spot, he said, but then list-ed a group of names evenlonger than that. Wevegot five guys that, on agiven day, could do well.

That balance has Egginkthinking the Huskies canfinish near the top of theconference.

Id like to finish secondin the Southwest Confer-ence, he said. We wonttouch Marshall. Theyvegot four guys that can shootpar or better.

After that, Eggink said asub-section title is the goal.

We should win the

sub-section, he said.Thats a goal of ours.

Sections a two-day tourneyThis years section tour-

nament is two straightdays of 18 holes for teamand individual competi-tion for the boys and girls,a change from just 18 holesin the past.

I think it levels the play-

ing field, Eggink said.This years section meet

is in Buffalo Lake, whereJCC played its sub-sectionmeet a year ago. That givesthe Huskies an advantage,Eggink said, because theywill be one of the few teamsto have played there.

Offseason workAlong with experienced

teams, the Huskies enterthe season with plenty ofoffseason work. The teamstraditionally play sum-mer events, but this yearadded winter golf to their

schedule.Team members orga-

nized a league on Sundaynights using the golf simu-lator at the Jackson GolfClub.

Its getting your swingsin, Eggink said. Thatshuge. And the camaraderiethey established hangingout with each other.

Eggink said the improve-

ments might not be noticeduntil the Huskies actuallyget on the course and canhit balls for real.

Its going to be hard totell until we get outside andsee balls fly, he said.

Coaching with Egginkthis season is Mark Kocak,who has plenty of experi-ence as a golfer himself.

Mark will be a bighelp, Eggink said. Hesa good golfer; he knowsthe game.


3/6

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Jackson County Central track and eldHead coach: Rafe York

4-1 at Luverne4-3 at Mt. Lake4-7 at United South Central4-11 at Mt. Lake4-14 at Windom4-22 at Murray County Central4-24 JCC meet5-5 Section 3A true team5-8 at Worthington5-12 at Windom5-15 at Southwest Conference meet (in Windom)

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PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Jackson County Central track and field team are (front, from left): Corri VanderWoude, Sarah Brandt, Kenna

Bannister, Julia Schumann, Makenna Donnelli, Sophie Johnson, Riley Schneekloth, Mady Vancura, Kayla OConnor and Emily Paplow. Back:Jeremy Ringgenberg, Jon Harmening, Austin Bell-Pixler, Darnell Taylor-Breck, Nolan Hohenstein, Matt Schmit, Matthew Strom, Izaac Lucht,Bradley Gustafson, Warren Darling, Ryan Salzwedel and Jordan Ringgenberg.

Head coach Rafe Yorkhas high hopes for theJackson County Centraltrack and field teams thisspring.

York said the boys couldbe in the running for a trueteam section champion-ship, while the girls canalso fare well, especially ifsome youngsters make bigcontributions.

Both teams return plentyof talent from quality sea-sons a year ago.

The Huskies are sched-uled to open their season

next Tuesday with a meetin Luverne and are at Mt.Lake two days later.

JCC hosts a quadrangu-lar April 24. The SouthwestConference meet is May 15in Windom, with the sub-section meet at the samespot on May 22. The sectionmeet is May 29 in RedwoodFalls.

York is assisted by JackWalsh, Kerri Kocak, BrianCook and Greg Maday.

Boys are loadedThe JCC boys have a

loaded team, returning itstop 10 scorers from lastseason and having depth at

just about every spot.

That gives York lofty ex-pectations for the season.

Weve got high hopesfor the boys this year, hesaid. I think we can makea run at the true team sec-tion.

York said Luverne will betough in that meet, which isthe one he always sets hissights on because it is anaccurate measuring stickof who has the best team.

Back to lead the Huskiesis senior Darnell Taylor-Breck, who set the schoolrecord in triple jump whileplacing third at state lastseason. Taylor-Breck wasthe Southwest Conference

champion in the event andfinished second at the sub-section and section meet intriple jump.

Hes got a real shot

High hopes for JCC track and eld teamsBoys are stacked,girls have plenty oftalent returning

by DAN CONDONSports Editor

to place even higher thisyear, York said of Taylor-Brecks chances at state.

Taylor-Breck also ex-celled in long jump, sprintsand relays, helping himscore a team-high 186.5points last season.

Sophomore Ryan Salz-wedel scored 141.5 pointslast season, senior JonHarmening scored 128.5,

ju ni or War re n Da rl in gscored 120 and freshmanMatt Strom scored 108.Rounding out the top 10were seniors Izaac Lucht,Matt Schmit, Austin Bell-Pixler and Bradley Gus-tafson.

Salzwedel is second inJCC history in high jump,clearing 5 feet, 11 incheslast season. He will com-pete in that again this year,as well as sprints and re-lays.

Harmening was the sub-section champion in the110-meter high hurdlesand 300-meter hurdleslast season and also madeit to sections in the triple

jump. He will be joined inhurdling events by seniorJeremy Ringgenberg andSchmit.

Hohenstein and Bell-Pix-ler lead a talented group ofthrowers that includes ju-nior Brandon Schmit andMatt Schmit.

Bell-Pixler won the sub-section title in discus lastseason and Hohensteinwas second in shot put anddiscus in the meet.

Our throws are goingto be tough, York said.Weve got four guys thatcould place in both.

He also thinks two throw-ers could have a chance atmaking it to state.

Jon has a shot to make itto state in triple jump and300 hurdles, York said. Ifthings fall into place, Nolanhas a shot and maybe Bell-Pixler in discus.

Joining Salzwedel andTaylor-Breck in sprintswill be Darling, seniorsLucht and Shadrach Wack-er, juniors Demonte Thom-as and Zach Holm andexchange student MarekBingel.

Distance runners areseniors Bradley Gustafson,Eric Thomas, Jordan Cush-man and Jordan Ringgen-berg, junior Aaron Johnsonand freshman Wyatt Weier.Middle distance runnersare Strom and junior WyattCleberg.

Pole vaulters are sopho-more Curtis Pell and fresh-

men Ryder Lesch andTeague Schultz and otherjumpers are Darling andDemonte Thomas.

York said hes pleasedwith just about every as-pect of his boys team.

The sprints are reallydeep and pretty good, hesaid. Our jumps with Jon,Darnell, Warren, Demonteand Salzwedel. Our dis-tance got better this yearbecause Cushman cameback out. Im really excitedabout all the areas.

Girls return talentThere are plenty of rea-

sons York is optimisticabout the girls track andfield team.

The Huskies have eightof their top 10 scorers backfrom last season, includingnearly all of the membersof a successful 4x100-me-ter relay team and sometalented distance runners.

Juniors Riley Schneek-loth and Julia Schumannand sophomore Maken-na Donnelli were on the4x1 team all last season,with eighth-grader AbbySchneekloth also runningin the relay. All four areback this year.

Riley Schneekloth wassecond on JCCs scor-ing list last season andSchumann was third. Bothexcel in sprints, as doesDonnelli, who was fifth onthe scoring list.

Other sprinters this sea-son for JCC will be AbbySchneekloth and fresh-men Mady Vancura, Kate-lynn Dorschner and KaylaOConnor.

Junior Sarah Brandt wasfourth on JCCs scoringlist last season and leads agroup of middle-distancerunners that also includes

junior Jayde Holthe, fresh-man Annika Lilleberg (sev-en on last years scoringlist) and seventh-gradersElla Lilleberg and HaileyHandevidt.

Senior Corri Vander-Woude was sixth on JCCsscoring chart a year agoas a hurdler and madeit to sections in the 300-and 100-meter hurdles.This year she leads a hur-dling group that includesfreshman Sophie John-son, eighth-grader BrielleScheepstra and seventh-graders Aleigha Hender-son and Zoe Pohlman.

Scheepstra made it to thesection meet in pole vaultlast season and returns tothe event this season.

Jumpers on this yearsteam are Vancura, John-son, Pohlman, OConnor,Dorschner, Henderson,Ella Lilleberg and fresh-man Alexis Kocak.

In her first year out lastseason, senior Kenna Ban-nister made it to the sec-tion meet in shot put andfinished ninth on JCCsscoring chart. This year,she leads a squad of throw-ers that also includes ju-niors Holthe and LaurenBuhr; sophomores KianaNyborg and Maggie Post;and freshmen Josie Hornand Liberty Meyer.

Kenna is a heck of a shotputter and shes excited toget out there and do it,York said.

Perhaps the best group,York said, is his distancerunners.

Senior Sam Swift wasninth on the scoring chartlast season and made it tosections in the 3,200-meterrun. She returns, as do An-nika Lilleberg who has

made it to sections in the800-meter run the last twoseasons, senior HaleyHarnett, freshman KarliCavness and eighth-grad-ers Emily Paplow, JessicaChristoffer and Kia Holm.

I think our distancecrew might be our strengththis year, York said.Their cross country sea-son was really good andweve got most of thosegirls out.

York said for his team tobe successful, a few young-sters are going to have toplay big roles.

Were a lot youngerthan the guys are, he said.The girls only have fourseniors. Some of the youngkids are going to have tostep up.

So far, that looks like itcan happen.

Im impressed withour middle school crew sofar, he said. With girls,youve got to rely on middleschoolers. We have sevenor eight middle schoolersthat could run varsity thisyear. Thats exciting be-cause it pushes everyoneahead of them.


4/6


Southwestern United softballHead coach: Angie Rogotzke

4-1 at Luverne4-8 at Murray County Central4-10 vs. Adrian Area4-11 vs. Worthington4-12 at Wabasso tournament4-15 at Red Rock Central4-17 at Edgerton/SW MN Christian4-22 vs. Mt. Lake Area4-25 vs. Martin County West4-28 at Martin Luther/GHEC4-29 vs. Murray County Central5-1 at Adrian Area5-2 vs. Madelia/Truman5-6 vs. Red Rock Central5-8 vs. Edgerton/SW MN Christian5-12 at Windom Area5-13 at Mt. Lake Area5-15 at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton5-16 5-29 Section 3A tournament6-5 6-6 Class A state tournament

PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Southwestern United softball team are (front, from left): Samantha Obermoller,Stephanie Kazemba and Ida Rogers-Ferguson. Back: Mariah Crowell, Kristin Liepold, Rachel Mathias, MeganHaberman and Lizzie Rossow.

PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Southwestern United baseball team are (front, fromleft): Angel Esqueda, Aaron Fest and Marcelo Esqueda. Back: Isaac Fest, DakotahSchmid and Jake Getzel.

Angie Rogotzke knowsone thing about her South-western United softballteam: it will work hard.

After losing in the secondround of the playoffs lastseason, the team wanted tokeep practicing.

That enthusiasm hascarried over to this springas the Wildcats have been


Hard-working Wildcats ready for breakout seasonNearly everystarting playerreturns for SWU

practicing inside for theseason debut next week.

The group of girls iswilling to work hard and isdedicated, Rogotzke said.

SWU scrimmaged three

teams last Friday in Roch-ester, giving the Wildcats amuch-needed change fromtheir exclusively indoorpractices until that point.

Part of the reason theWildcats were stuck in-doors was the weather, butanother reason is all thework being done to SWUshome field on Okabena.

The field is in the midstof major changes, thanksin large part to local dona-tions.

The Wildcats , whoplayed some games in Ok-abena last season, debut attheir improved park April10 against Adrian. Thatcomes after SWU opens the

season April 1 at Luverneand then plays April 8 atMurray County Central.

In early May, the Wild-cats have a tough stretch athome, starting with a gameagainst Madelia/Trumanand ending with gamesagainst Red Rock Centraland Edgerton/Southwest

Minnesota Christian thetwo teams expected to fin-ish at or near the top of theRed Rock Conference.

A tournament at Wa-basso is slated for early in

the season and the sectiontournament starts May 16.Rogotzke hopes an ex-

perienced team can makea deep run in the sectionplayoffs.

SWU has eight returningletter winners, includingfour players who earnedrecognition from the con-

ference last year.Sophomore Ida Rogers-

Ferguson and junior Ra-chel Mathias were all-conference players a yearago and sophomore Me-

gan Haberman and fresh-man Samantha Obermollerwere honorable-mentionpicks.

Rogers-Ferguson wasnamed the teams mostvaluable player last yearand Haberman was votedthe teams best defensiveplayer. Obermoller was

named the teams best of-fensive player and Mathiaswas most improved.

Rogers-Ferguson willbring her heat back to thepitching circle this season

and Rogotzke said whenshes not pitching, Rogers-Ferguson can play justabout anywhere else onthe field.

Idas a leader, Rogotz-ke said. She definitelygets the girls going.

Haberman is back at

The Southwestern Unit-ed baseball team won justfour games last spring, butplayed pretty well downthe stretch.

Despite losing 11 seniorsand their head coach, theWildcats hope that momen-tum carries over to the newseason.

Part of the reason foroptimism is a solid groupof pitchers returning to themound, led by senior AaronFest, who earned all-RedRock Conference honorslast season.

Also back to the bumpis Trey Cranston, a juniorwho earned honorable-mention all-conferencehonors last season as theteams No. 2 pitcher. Back-ing up those two are juniorsDakotah Schmid and IsaacFest, who both saw actionon the mound last season.

Were going to havepretty good depth at thepitching position, first-year head coach Ben

Scheevel said. Our pitch-ers know what theyre do-ing on the mound.

Along with the staffspitching exper ience,Scheevel has experience onthe mound as well. He saidthat time on the mound hashelped him work with thisyears hurlers and he hasalso gotten volunteer helpfrom Matt Prunty.

Catching the pitcherswill be junior Jake Getzel,sophomore Angel Esquedaor sophomore MarceloEsqueda.

Getzel will also playthird base, with Isaac Festplaying shortstop. Oth-er infielders are sopho-

mores Ryan DeWall, BradyHaberman and Adam Hiet-brink, as well as freshmenDavid Volk, Logan Knutsonand Gage Droenen.

Playing in the outfieldwill be, among others,Schmid, sophomore AlexBoumann and freshman

Wildcats hope momentum carries over to new seasonSWU baseball teamplayed well to endseason last spring

by DAN CONDON

Sports Editor

Braden Sipe.Scheevel said so far he

has stressed the basicswith his young team Aaron Fest is the only se-nior and hopes solidbaseball can overcomewhat could be a slow offen-sive season for the team.

Ive been preachingfundamentals, Scheevelsaid. If we can field theball, if we can throw theball, if we can hit the ball,well be all right.

Hitting is Scheevels big-gest concern so far, espe-cially since the team hashad to practice indoors and

not face live pitching.We might struggle on

offense, he said. We needto find kids to step up anddrive in runs. We need kidsto step in that first gameand be ready and thenbring them up to speed asquick as we can.

If that happens, Scheevelexpects the Wildcats toimprove on their four winsfrom the 2013 campaign.

I began the season byasking, Is winning fourgames last year what youcall fun? Scheevel said. Ihope to at least be .500 thisyear, if not better.

Scheevel said consisten-cy is important, as well astaking advantage of everyopportunity.

I want to be competitiveevery game, he said. Ifwe can win some one-runballgames, well be fine.

Along with counting on

his veterans for produc-tion, Scheevel hopes theycan lead the younger play-ers.

Thats what were work-ing toward, he said of im-proving as the season goesalong. We want to developthem a little bit. We have to

rely on the upper classmento bring the other guys upto speed.

Joining Scheevel on thecoaching staff are OctavioJimenez (junior varsity)and Lon Eichenberger (ju-nior high).

The Wildcats are sched-uled to open their seasonnext Tuesday at Worthing-ton and are at Minneota onApril 7. The home openerin Heron Lake is scheduledfor April 8 against MurrayCounty Central.

Scheevel said Adrian,Red Rock Central/West-brook-Walnut Grove, Mt.

Lake Area and MCC willbe tough in the Red RockConference. Home gamesagainst those teams arescheduled for April 9(MCC), April 15 (RRC/WWG), May 1 (Adrian) andMay 13 (MLA).

Southwestern United baseballHead coach: Ben Scheevel

4-1 at Worthington4-7 at Minneota4-8 vs. Murray County Central4-10 at Adrian4-12 at MCW tournament4-14 at Windom Area4-15 vs. RRC/WWG4-17 vs. Edgerton/SW MN Christian4-21 at Luverne4-22 at Mt. Lake Area4-28 at Martin Luther/GHEC/Truman4-29 at Murray County Central5-1 vs. Adrian5-6 at RRC/WWG5-8 at Edgerton/SW MN Christian5-12 vs. Jackson County Central5-13 vs. Mt. Lake Area5-17 at Canby5-21 6-5 Section 3A tournament6-12 6-14 Class A state tournament

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PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Returning letter winners for the Southwestern United track and field team are (front, from left): Taylor Johanning,MaKayla Edwards, Rachel Salentiny, Brianna Preston and Danielle Ambrose. Back: Pablo Esqueda, BrittanyPeterson, Cheyenne Schaffer, Bailey Collin and Zach Lynn.

Southwestern United track and eldHead coaches: Gary Hildebrandt and Lucas Kaplan

3-27 at Minnesota State University, Mankato4-3 at Mt. Lake4-11 at Mt. Lake4-15 at Slayton4-24 at Mt. Lake5-2 at Fairmont5-12 at Windom5-15 at Red Rock Conference meet (in Slayton)5-22 Sub-section 9A meet (in Windom)5-29 Section 3A meet (in Redwood Falls)6-6 6-7 Class A state meet

The goals for this yearsSouthwestern United girlsand boys track and fieldteams are considerablydifferent.

For a girls team thathas plenty of talented dis-tance runners, the goalsare pretty lofty for postsea-son success.

For the boys, the goal isto keep drumming up inter-est with just five Wildcatson the roster.

Co-head coaches GaryHildebrandt and Lucas

Kaplan have had theirtroops working the last fewweeks for a season that wasscheduled to kick off lastThursday with an indoormeet at Minnesota StateUniversity, Mankato.

Girls aiming for moremedals at section meet

SWU had a good show-ing last season at the sub-section meet, sending twoindividuals and two relayteams to the section meet.This year, Hildebrandthopes for even better re-sults.

Eighth-graders RachelSalentiny and MaKaylaEdwards both ran distance

races at the section meetlast season and both wereon the 4x800-meter relayteam that qualified forsections.

Salentiny was the sub-section champion in the3,200-meter run and Ed-wards was third in the1,600.

The two will be countedon to lead a deep group ofdistance runners again thisseason.

Last year they had agood spring and then thiscross country season theydid great, Hildebrandtsaid of his distance run-ners. Their confidencelevel is huge right now.

Were trying to reign themin and make sure theyre

Goals differ for Wildcat track and eld teamsGirls have highhopes, boys lookingto improve numbers


ready to let it go when thetime comes.

Other distance runnersfor the Wildcats are eighth-graders Brianna Preston,Cheyenne Schaffer, TaylorJohanning and VanessaJuarez. Preston was on the4x8 team at sections lastseason.

Running sprints will befreshmen Bailey Collin,Brittany Peterson, JessicaReyes, Kaylan Untiedt andeighth-graders Schafferand Danielle Ambrose.

Hurdlers are Collin, Un-tiedt and Johanning andthrowers are Collin, Am-brose, freshmen TarynCrocker and Cassie Kram-er and eighth-grader Ash-ley Wagner.

Doing jumping eventswill be Peterson, Schaf-fer, Reyes, Untiedt, Ed-wards and Salentiny. Hil-

debrandt said exchangestudent Hanna Martensenand junior Sarah Schmidwill compete in just abouteverything.

The Wildcats have noseniors, just two juniorsand no sophomores on theirroster. But Hildebrandtsaid the team is fairly expe-rienced already, with mostof the girls having a yearor two of track under theirbelt, whether at the juniorhigh or varsity level.

Despite decent numbers,Hildebrandt said team suc-cess could still be hard tocome by for the Wildcats.

We still dont have thedepth where we can com-

pete team-wise, he said.Individually, however, he

expects some good things.We hope to get more

girls to the section meet inmore events, he said. Ifwe can do that, maybe wecan place a few. We wantto get a few more medalsand see what happens withthat.

Goal is to have funWith just five members

on the SWU boys team,Hildebrandt said the goalis to have fun and hope-fully round up a few newteammates.

Were just trying to getthem to enjoy track andfield, he said. If theyenjoy track and field and

spread the love, maybe wecan get more kids out as theseason goes on or maybenext year.

The Wildcats have fresh-man Logan Knutson and

eighth-grader Tyler Brunkto run distance races, withKnutson splitting his timebetween track and fieldand baseball. Brunk willalso compete in jumpingevents.

Freshmen Zach Lynnand Michael Berger areboth sprinters and throw-ers and eighth-grader Pab-lo Esqueda is a thrower.

If they can improve asthe season goes on, thatwould be wonderful, Hil-debrandt said, adding thatshouldnt be a problem.They work their tails off.Everything Ive asked ofthem theyve done.

Changes for practiceThis year, the Wildcats

have been practicing inHeron Lake and Okabenaafter primarily practicingin Brewster the last fewyears.

Hildebrandt said it has

been a nice change.Were finding the right

streets, right grass, rightplaces to throw, he said.

The Wildcats are alsoputting more of an empha-sis on weight training thisseason.

Were focusing a littlebit more on strength be-cause the kids are a littlebit older, Hildebrandtsaid. Two days a weekwere in the weight room and thats everybody.Hopefully that strengthhelps them not just be abetter track and field ath-lete, but a better all-aroundathlete.

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JCC BASEBALL:Some spots yet to be decided as rst game approachesContinued from C1

.286 last season. Christof-fer had an OBP of .400 ayear ago and FlatgardsOBP was .303. Wackerreturns to the team afterseeing action in the middleinfield as a sophomore butnot playing last season.

Wierson said speed willbe an asset for the Huskiesthis season as they hope toput pressure on their op-ponent.

Weve got some speed,he said. The biggest thingon offense is were going to

run the bases well. If wecan run the bases well, wecan put a lot of pressure onteams. We dont have anybig hitters, so well playsmall ball and make themmake plays.

Wierson said the South-

west Conference and Sec-tion 3AA are again loaded,which will present a chal-lenge nearly every game.

Between our confer-ence and our section, werepretty much stacked, hesaid, listing Marshall, Lu-

verne and Worthington asall SWC powers and NewUlm and Fairmont as sec-tion favorites. Its going tobe tough.

Wierson is assisted atthe varsity level by BlaiseJacobsen, who was the

head coach at Southwest-ern United last season.Kevin Holm and NathanBoler will coach the B andC squads, respectively,and Eric Tvinnereim andBrandon Fredrickson arethe middle school coaches.


6/6


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PHOTO BY DAN CONDON

Members of the Southwestern United golf team are (front, from left): Sarah Madsen, Brooke Freking, KaileyWendland and Kennedy Cummings. Middle: Ben Sheldahl, Ethan Untiedt and Ethan Koep. Back: Hunter Timko,Garrett Schumacher, Clay Salzwedel, Walker Crocker and Josh Radke. Missing: Haley Reusch.

shortstop, Mathias returnsto first base and seniorKristin Liepold returns tothird base. Add in Ober-moller back at catcherand SWU has almost allof its infield back from ayear ago.

The only infield battle tobe determined is at secondbase, where seventh-grad-

er Jessica Rossow, eighth-grader Stephanie Kazembaand seniors Catelyn Lacourand Mariah Crowell allhave a chance.

Junior Lizzie Rossowreturns to left field andKazemba also returns withexperience in the outfield.Also competing for out-field spots are Crowell,

Lacour, eighth-grader Tes-sla Crowell and seventh-graders Rossow and Sa-mantha Freking.

Crowell will also pitchand Rogotzke expects herand the other youngerplayers to fit in well withan experienced core ofWildcats.

The young ones like

Tessla will do very wellwith the team, she said.

Rogotzke said the lack ofoutdoor practices has beena challenge working ondefense, but the Wildcatsseem to be pretty good withthe glove.

The defense in thegym looks good, she said.Now we have to make the

throw.On offense, the Wildcats

figure to be aggressive.Were going to run the

bases as much as we can,Rogotzke said. Weve beenworking on bunting andslapping.

With an experiencedsquad back, Rogotzke saidthe aim is to do better than

the five wins posted lastspring.

We want to improve onlast years record, shesaid. We improved lastyear and want to see it con-tinue. I want them to havefun. I want them to enjoysoftball.

Rogotzke is assisted byDoyle Zellar.

SWU SB:Wildcats return eight in hopes of improving on ve winsContinued from C4

When it comes to teamscores, neither the South-western United boys orgirls golf teams are count-ing on a ton of success,especially early in the sea-son.

Individually, however,the Wildcats have a chanceto make some noise.

The Wildcat boys fea-ture two returning varsitymainstays and the girlshave junior Kaylee Wend-land back after making atrip to sections last season.

After that, its a whole lotof learning.The teaching will be

done by first-year headcoach Jared Bourquin, who

Individual success the early goal for Wildcat golfersSWU hoping forcomplete teams byend of the season


was an assistant with theWildcats last season.

Two seniors to lead boysSeniors Clay Salzwedel

and Walker Crocker returnfor the Wildcats and will becounted on to lead the teamin many ways.

The two will be countedon for low scores, but alsoto help bring along an inex-perienced rest of the team.

Those two have to helplead the others, Bourquinsaid.

Salzwedel shot an 83 atthe Red Rock Conferencemeet last season to finishin a tie for second place.

Junior Josh Radke wasin his first year on the SWUgolf team last season and

juniors Hunter Timko andGarrett Schumacher andeighth-grader Ben Shel-dahl are all fairly new to

the sport.Clay and Walker arecapable of low scores,Bourquin said. Then weneed two others to step up

to be competitive.Bourquin hopes that is

something that happensover the course of thespring.

The top two we want toget consistent; do it day inand day out, he said. Therest we want to bring theirscores down to a competi-tive range.

For Bourquin, the goalfor the boys team this sea-son is pretty simple.

We want to have com-petitive meets, he said.We want to get four qual-ity scorers every meet.

Along with the six var-sity golfers, sixth-gradersEthan Untiedt and EthanKoep are out for golf. Be-cause they are only in sixthgrade, they arent eligi-ble for varsity meets, butBouquin hopes to get themin junior high meets to gain

experience.

Wendland aims for stateIf the boys need an ex-

ample of how to have suc-cess without much experi-ence, they dont have tolook very far.

Wendland made it to thesection meet last springin her first season on theWildcat golf team.

This season, she will becounted on to lead a teamof just five Wildcat girls.

I would really like to seeKaylee qualify for state,Bourquin said. She hasthe ability to do so.

Joining Wendland are ju-nior Kennedy Cummings,sophomore Haley Reuschand freshmen Sarah Mad-sen and Brooke Freking.

Reusch has golfed be-fore, but not for a numberof years. The other three

have never touched aclub, Bourquin said.

Bourquin hopes he canget Reusch up to speedin a hurry so she can playalongside Wendland inmatches, something thatdidnt happen with theWildcats incomplete teamlast season.

Kailey was really un-comfortable last year nothaving a team, Bourquinsaid, adding a typical groupin a meet includes twoplayers from each team.She never had the oppor-tunity to have that comfortof playing with a team-mate.

That could change if andwhen Reusch and othersare ready.

My goal is to get Reuschcomfortable at varsity andsee how far we can get withthe other three, Bourquin

said.

Season scheduledto start Tuesday

The Wildcats are sched-uled to open their seasonnext Tuesday with a meetagainst Red Rock Central.SWU has six other meetsscheduled during Aprilbefore five more regular-season meets on the docketin May.

The Red Rock Confer-ence meet is May 13, thesub-section meet is May15 in Worthington and theSection 3A meet is May 28in Marshall.

The Wildcats will playtheir home meets at NorthValley Golf Course inLakefield, a change fromthe last few years whenthey played primarily atPrairie View in Worthing-ton.

Southwestern United golfHead coach: Jared Bourquin

4-1 vs. Red Rock Central4-7 vs. Westbrook/Walnut Grove4-10 vs. Hills-Beaver Creek4-14 vs. Adrian and SW MN Christian/Edgerton4-17 vs. Mt. Lake Area4-21 at Windom Area4-24 vs. Hills-Beaver Creek5-1 at Adrian Area5-2 vs. Martin County West5-8 vs. Fulda5-9 at Martin County West

5-12 at Mt. Lake Area5-13 Red Rock Conference tournament5-21 Sub-section tournament (in Worthington)5-28 Section 3A tournament (in Marshall)6-10 6-11 Class A state tournament (in Becker)

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Spring Sports Preview 2014

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