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Sports from the week of December 20, 2000 Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy, Minnesota, since 1880

Senior wrestler now benefiting from hard-knock younger years

Mike Kamrud has paid his dues to the Panther wrestling program. Like many of the lighter weight wrestlers he has had to endure many losing seasons to get to the position he is now in. Right now Mike is one of the dependable point getters for the team and has a good chance to do well in the tournaments at the end of the season.

Many wrestling teams have to look to seventh and eighth graders to fill the lower weight positions on the team because most of the more mature wrestlers out for the team can't lose weight to fill the 103, 112, 119 and even the 125-pound spots. Those seventh and eighth graders will, in most meets, be pitted against small, strong, more mature upper classmen. The result is that they suffer many defeats in those early years.

Mike has been through all of that. Because he has always had good agility and balance he did better than most, but he was handicapped by being exceedingly small. Now, as a senior, Mike has matured physically to go along with his mechanical abilities and determination and has become one of the most respected wrestlers in the area.


MACCRAY rallies to tip Panthers

The Panther boys basketball team came close before dropping its fourth-straight game of the season at Maynard Thursday, 50-46. The contest left Tracy/Milroy/Balaton 0-4 for the season and 0-2 in the 212 Conference heading into Tuesday night's game at Grove City.

The Panthers used an 18-point second period to take a 27-18 lead at the half. The Wolverines rallied to score 16 points both the third and fourth periods to win.

Derek Rignell led the Panther scoring with 18 points to go with his six rebounds. He hit three of seven three-point attempts and three of eight from two-point range.


Panther girls fight off Arrows, 59-53

The Panther girls basketball team improved to 4-1 (2-0 in the 212 Conference) with a 59-53 win over Pipestone-Jasper Tuesday night in Tracy.

"We haven't had a full team at practice for over a week now and it showed tonight," said Panther coach Paul Soupir. "We didn't shoot well at the beginning of the game and we let that affect our play."

He felt Pipestone-Jasper came out very aggressively at the game's start and took advantage of some of Panther defensive lapses.

"We did a good job at the end of the game of controlling the ball and ourselves."