Sports from the week of June 12, 2002
4x800 championship headlines state track
A season-best performance propelled the Panther 4x800 meter relay team to a state Class A Championship.
Freshman Rebecca Gervais nipped Katie Gewerth of Cedar Mountain at the finish line by .04 of a second to give the Panthers the championship.
“It was an incredible performance by four very determined young ladies,” said Coach Steve Jones. Laura Zwach, Kristen Sweetman, and Jillian Tholen are the other team members.
The photo-finish win was even more thrilling because it was unexpected. The Panther foursome came into the state meet with the seventh best time among nine teams. In the championship race, the Panthers exceeded their best time by 21 seconds and broke the school record they set last year by six seconds.
"We had faith that Becca could hold her off," said Zwach. "She's a runner that doesn't let people by her."
Saturday's competition marked the third-straight state appearance for a Panther 4x800 meter relay team. Last year, Zwach, Sweetman, Tholen, and Gervais earned fifth-place medals at state. In 2000, Zwach, Sweetman, her sister Melissa, and Jenna Boerboom competed at state in the 4x800 relay.
The Tracy VFW baseball won their first game of the season in a weekend tournament at Luverne.
The team lost to Sioux Falls 8-3 and Luverne 8-2 before beating Fairmont 4-3.
The team lost to Canby 4-3 Thursday.
"We are a very young team," said Coach Brady Schmidt. "Most teams are comprised of 9th and 10th graders. We have quite a few 8th graders to go with our ninth and tenth graders.”
Pitchers Derek Radke, Derek Daniels and Lucas Walling are all eighth graders.
“The good news is that these young kids are gaining experience and will be much better in the future. We have lacked timely hits and probably our worst trait has been that when we make an error the kids put their heads down and that leads to more trouble.”
Schmidt said players returning from vacation are helping the team.
Legion baseball opens with win
The Milroy American Legion baseball team opened their 2002 season with a 10-5 win over Minneota at Minneota Monday night.
"We played quite well," said Coach Chris Miller. "We got good pitching and some timely hits. Our defense wasn't as good as I would like it to be but the kids had not played in a couple of weeks."
Greg Carlson pitched 4 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 8 and walking 1. Austin Skoblik pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits while walking 3 and striking out 3. Erik Kathman pitched the last inning, allowing no runs on only 1 hit while striking out two.
Kathman LaVoy and Ross Ladehoff each had 2 hits and 2 runs batted in each.