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Sports from the week of March 7, 2001 Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy, Minnesota, since 1880

Sixth in state

Struchen closes out stellar mat career

Aldon Struchen gained sixth place in the state-wrestling tournament held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul last weekend.

The senior 135-pounder, wrestling in his fourth state tournament, won his first two matches before suffering a reversal.

In his third match Struchen wrestled well, but lost to Reggie Rach (38-0) of Bertha-Hewitt. The match was tied at 4-4 with 50 seconds left when Rach rolled through two headlocks to win 9-5.

"That was Aldon's best match," said Panther Coach Joe Kemp. "He was the aggressor throughout and was very disappointed after the match. It is difficult mentally to come back after a tough loss and that affected his performance in the final two matches."

"I felt the top six wrestlers were a toss-up," said Kemp. "You could wrestle them a half a dozen times and come up with a different winner each time."


Hot-shooting & tenacious defense sinks TMB girls

The Panther girls basketball team's season ended with a 47-41 loss to Martin County West in the Section 3AA tournament at Worthington last Friday.

The loss ended the Panthers winning season with an 18-5 record. The Mavericks improved theirs to 17-6.

The Panthers were the No. 1 seed in their half the Section, with the Mavericks seeded fourth.

"We thought that Martin County West and TMB were the two best teams in the section tournament," said Panther Coach Paul Soupir. "Most of their losses occurred early in the season and they came on to be a very good team with good athletic personnel."


Panther boys make favored Arrows work hard for win

The Panther boys' basketball team played a gritty game before falling to the favored Pipestone-Jasper Arrows in the first round of the Section 3AA tournament at Worthington Saturday.

"The kids played hard," said Panther Coach Jon Ruoff. "As usual they left everything they had out on the floor."

The loss left Tracy/Milroy/Balaton with a 1-22 record for the season.

It was the second seeded team, Pipestone-Jasper, playing the seventh seeded team but it did not appear that way. The Panthers, although behind in the score most of the game, challenged the Arrows at every point of the game. Midway through the fourth period, TMB led by a point.

The extremely quick Arrows used their rebounding skill, accurate passing and two, three- pointers to regain the lead and hold off the Panthers in the final moments to win 56-52.