Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy,
Minnesota, since 1880
Sports from the week of December 15, 1999
Comeback gives cagers first 'W'
The Panther boys' basketball team broke into the win column Tuesday night at Tracy with a come from behind victory over MACCRAY 61-58.
"Every win is a good one but that first one is particularly good," said Panther Coach Jon Barsness.
The win brought the Panther Boys record to 1-2 for the season after losses to two very good teams, YME and Redwood Valley.
To win, the Panthers rallied from a 13-point first period deficit.
Tracy-Milroy took a 2-0 lead after one minute of play on a jump shot by Senior Pat Coquyt. That lead proved to be the last for T-M until there were only three minutes to play in the fourth quarter when another jump shot by Coquyt found the net and again gave the lead to the Panthers at 51-50.
The score at the end of the first period was 15-8 in favor of MACCRAY and they quickly increased it to 21-8 in the first minute of the second period for their largest lead of the game. By intermission the Panthers had cut the lead to 29-23 and to only 42-41 at the end of the third quarter.
"Our defense tightened up after the first quarter and won the game for us," observed Barsness. "The kids hustled and really played hard."
The fourth quarter was very close with the Wolverines hanging tough by making their free throws. The Panthers were playing much more aggressively and were called for their tenth foul of the half with 3:50 remaining. The Wolverines made 8 of their 14 fourth quarter points from the foul line.
MACCRAY regained the lead at 58-57 with 2:00 showing on the clock but Derek Rignell drove the lane for a two pointer to put the Panthers back in the lead with 35 seconds left. With 24 seconds remaining Rignell was fouled and dropped both free throws for the 61-58 lead. MACCRAY then had to play for a three point shot and got the shot off with 5 seconds left but the ball would not drop and the Panthers had their win.
"We forced a player, who wasn't their best shooter, to take the three-point shot and he was backing away from the basket," commented Barsness.
Theh Panther B-squad lost to the Wolverines by a score of 66-35. Scott LaVoy led the young Panthers with 14 points. Darin Wilking had 8, Bryce Peterson 5, Kham Moua 3, Jordan Roots and Clay Caron 2 each and Brandon Lightfoot added 1.
The C squad lost 36-35 in a game played at the Prairie Pavilion.
Turnovers limit potent T-M offense in win over KMS
The Panther girls basketball team got back on the winning track with a 58-37 win over KMS at Kerkhoven. The victory improved the Panther's season record to 2-1 and 2-0 in the 212 Conference.
Stephanie Welvaert was the leading Panther scorer with 14 points while Freshman Laura Zwach added 9 more. Heidi Peterson, Jenny Otto and Rhonda Bitker had eight points each.
"I was pleased with the way we played in this game," said Panther Coach Paul Soupir. "We could have had a very good night offensively except we had 24 turnovers. Very few of those were caused by the KMS defense, we just threw the ball away. At the rate we were hitting the basket those 24 additional possessions would have added quite a few points to our total."
Tracy-Milroy got off to a 15-7 lead in the first quarter and improved that to 33-22 at the half.
The third period saw T-M out-scoring the Fighting Saints 11-7 and 14-8 in the final period to reach the final score of 58-37.
The Panthers hit 2 of 9 three-point field goal attempts and were 22 of 50 from the field for 44%. The Fighting Saints were 1 of 5 from three point range and 13 of 39 from the field for 33%. T-M pulled down 33 rebounds to 20 for KMS and had 24 turnovers to 27 for the opponents. The Panthers had 20 steals (6 by Zwach) to 5 for KMS.
Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy, Minnesota, since 1880
Matmen flex muscles in double win
Panther wrestlers went 2-0 in a triangular meet at Westbrook Tuesday night. Tracy-Milroy defeated Pipestone 41-27 and state ranked Red Rock Central/Westbrook-Walnut Grove 42-27.
Aldon Struchen collects 100th win in meet win over Redwood
The Panther wrestling team improved their season dual meet record to 4-3 with a 40-25 win over Redwood Valley at Tracy Thursday night. The meet also saw Aldon Struchen, 140 pound Panther junior, get his 100th career win.
"I thought we wrestled very well," said Panther Coach Joe Kemp. "It was a good crowd and an exciting meet."
The Panthers collected six pins during the meet, but it was slow going in the early matches as they fell behind 16- 3 before Mike Kamrud led the comeback with a decision at 130 pounds.
Once the Panthers started rolling the Cardinals were not able to get back into the winning column except for Dahms and Bracken at 145 and 152.
In exhibiton matches, Ross Ryan won over Okins of Redwood Valley, Matt Freeburg won over Vermillion, Troy Rykhus won over Bernardy, Freddie Martinez won over Iverson, Mike Weedman won over Rohlik, Vylasek lost to Deterling, Troy Rykhus won over Heiling, Jason Morin won over Hagert, Derick Goettig won over Thiel, Colin Evans won over Bunting, Donald Strand won over Tiffany, Troy Rykhus lost to Schottenbauer, Ross Ryan lost to Gewerth, Justin Dardis lost to Knobloch, Kyle Byrne lost to Wagner, Mike Schreier lost to Deterling, Matt Schreier won over Rohlik, Tim Byrne won over Iverson, Jason Morin lost to Soupir and Ross Ryan lost to Nieland.