Sports from the week of September 25, 2002

First TMB win is thriller

Last second scamper by Strand brings home victory

The Panther football team got into the win column with 32-29 victory over MACCRAY in a wild game at Maynard Friday night. They are now 1-3 for the season but 1-0 in the 212 Conference.

"It was a wild one," said Panther Coach Randy McIntire. "We led 26-7 at the half but then things started happening to us and MACCRAY scored with 48 seconds left to take the lead at 29-26. We needed to get to their 30 yard line in order to try a 'Hail Mary 'pass. On the last play Donald (Strand) tried twice to throw it into the end zone but each time someone was in his face so he took off running. I was sure the game was over and we had lost but somehow he managed to get through a bunch of defenders inside the ten yard line and fell into the end zone as time ran out!"

The Panthers returned the kickoff to their own 40 yard line. Three straight pass completions to Peterreins gained 34 yards to the MACCRAY 26 yard line. With time for only one play Strand tried a "Hail Mary " pass. Most of the defenders converged on the Panther receivers in the end zone. After 2 attempts to get the pass off Strand started to scramble. He got through the defenders at the line of scrimmage but it looked as if he would be stopped short of the goal line by the Wolverine secondary. Somehow he managed to fall into the end zone as time expired and the Panthers had their first win of the season at 32-29.

Panthers participate in Apple Valley tournament

The Panther volleyball team finished 16th out of 16 teams in the Apple Valley Tournament this weekend.

At first glance that would indicate a very poor performance but most experts agree that the teams present were very good.

The Star Tribune called it, "The greatest collection of talent in twenty plus years."

Belle Plain's Cassie Wolpern, in this tournament, set a national record for career hits. Wolpern had 64 kills in the tournament and now has 2,477 career kills. The old record of 2,463 was set in 1999 by Carly Miller of Jackson, Michigan.

Armstrong, the winner of the tournament, proved to be the best of the best and did not lose a game in four tournament matches. The Panthers will benefit from this participation.

"We struggled in all areas at different times during the tournament," said Panther Coach Katie Gervais. "The main reason we were not successful was due to an overpowering offense by all teams we played. When we did pop up the ball, it was out-of-systems and we were not able to return a high powered attack."

"We served more aggressively and more accurately this weekend, but when you play against higher level teams they are able to pass a majority of the tough serves," said Gervais. "We lost Jadeen Schultz to a knee injury in the first game of the first match and her status for our upcoming matches is uncertain."

Panthers place third at Windom Invitational

The Panther cross-country team placed third in the Windom Invitational last Thursday. The team scores were: 1) United South Central 37, 2) Martin County West 66, 3) Tracy/Milroy/Balaton 77, 4) Windom 87, 5) Lake Crystal- Wellcome Memorial 100, 6) St. James 135.

"We were missing Kris Sweetman and Rebecca Gervais in this meet," said Panther Coach Brian Michelson. "United South Central's Sara Bias has been injured but she was back in this race and ran a 15:13 to beat our best runner by more than a minute!"

For the Panthers Kristin Sweetman was sick and Rebecca Gervais has an injured ankle. Hopefully they will both be back and in good shape for the Panther's next meet at Redwood Valley this Thursday.

The individual Panther varsity results were: 10) Jillian Tholen 16:18, 13) Kelly Laleman 16:34, 18) Steph Kaup 17:14, 19) Julia Olson 17:16, 20) Megan Pool 17:24, 26) Dani Jones 17:50, 34) Johanna Schmidt 19:14.

The individual results for the Panther junior varsity runners were: 6) Jessica Coulter 18:21, 7) Ashlee Domine 18:41, 8) Jackie Vroman 18:54, 9) Ayla Snyder 18:55, 10) Suzanne Knott 19:12, 11) Jenny Vroman 19:33.

"Our junior varsity ran really well," observed Michelson. "They finished in a perfect pack for a score of 15."