Sports from the week of October 30, 2002

Seedings mean little in opening TMB victory

The Panther volleyball team advanced to the second round of the northern division of Section 3AA Volleyball Tournament at Redwood Valley High School. The Panthers, seeded sixth, upset the third seeded Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 15-13, 8-15, 15-7 and 15-4 Friday night.

"Neither team played very well in the first game and we were fortunate enough to win," said Panther Coach Katie Gervais. "We played poorly in the second game and then came on and played well in the last two games to win the match."

When TMB won the third game it took the wind out from under the Thunderbird's wings. The Panthers cruised to a decisive 15-4 victory in the finale.

BOLD knocks out spikers

The Panther volleyball team's season was ended Tuesday night at Redwood Falls. They lost to the number 2 seeded BOLD Warriors 3-1 in the second round of the North Division of the Section 3AA Tournament. The game scores were 11-15, 15-6, 10-15 and 14-16.

"Laura Zwach makes their defense really tough, she neutralizes every serve by getting it to the setter with a good pass," said BOLD Coach Cyndi Raymond. "Our goal on defense was to prevent any long scoring runs by the Panthers."

"Jessica Fesenmaier was just a force for them," said Panther Assistant Coach Jenny Kirk. "At 6-2, she just towered over the net and her kills were hit almost straight down and very hard to stop."

The Panthers finished the season with 9 wins and 18 losses against some very good competition. The tournament squad of 12 players included 1 senior, 2 juniors, 6 sophomores and 3 freshmen to make the future look good for TMB.

Times are fast, but not fast enough

Panthers are 6th in 15-team field

The Tracy/Milroy/Balaton cross-country team finished sixth in the Section 3A meet held in Slayton Thursday.

Canby and Luverne finished first and second to claim the two Section 3A trips to state.

Canby/Minneota/Lincoln HI won the meet with 58 points, followed by Luverne 91, Martin County West 93, Windom 101, Jackson County Central 105, Tracy/Milroy/Balaton 123, Murray County Central 169, Adrian 227, Redwood Valley 243, BOLD 276, Springfield-Cedar Mountain 285, Yellow Medicine East 289, Southwest Star Concept/Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster 303, Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 374, Renville County West 378.

"We can't control what other teams do, we have to run our own race and the girls ran very well," said Panther Coach Brian Michelson. "We were close but not quite there. There were only 32 points separating the second place and sixth place teams."

Senior Kristin Sweetman closed out a stellar prep cross country career with a 12th place finish. She toured the 4,000-meter course with a time of 16:15.

Jillian Tholen 20th, 16:39; amd Rebecca Gervais, 21st, 16:40; gave the Panthers two other Top 25 finishes.

Senior Kelly Laleman ended her season with a strong 27th place finished and a time of 16:54,

Julia Olson was the Panther's fifth runner, finishing 43rd in 17:21.

Other varsity runners were Steph Kaup 43rd,17:21; and Megan Pool, 55th,17:53.

"Steph Kaup (who played volleyball last year) told me that she considers cross-country tougher than volleyball or basketball," said Michelson. "She pointed out that there are no time outs or quarter breaks in cross-country."

The Panthers again won the Academic All-Section Award.

"We had to get out our calculators," said Michelson. "We won by .0003 of a point."

The cross-country team plans a post-season awards program at Tracy Lutheran Church Sunday, Nov. 3 at 5 p.m.

Young football team looks forward to '03

The Panther football team finished the season with a record of 1 win and 8 losses and they were 1-4 in the 212 Conference.

The Panthers were a very young team with only 6 seniors and 8 juniors on the squad and look for great improvement next year. As a typical young team they played their best football at the end of the season. They lost 6-0 to Yellow Medicine East, one of the better teams in the 212 Conference, and 14-6 to West Central, undefeated and the top seeded team in the Section 6AA playoffs.

The defense, in particular, played well in the last two games holding YME to a total of 222 yards of offense and West Central to 248 total yards. The other seven opponents averaged 328 yards against TMB.

For the season the defense gave up an average of 172 yards rushing and 135 yards passing.

On offense the Panthers picked up 730 yards rushing and 1028 yards passing. Sophomore Quarterback Donald Strand finished the season completing 76 of 163 passes for 984 yards for 46.6%. Senior Jake Peterreins was his favorite target, catching 45 passes for 652 yards for four touchdowns and one extra point. Senior Austin Skoblik was the leading rusher with 421 yards in 121 carries.

The Panther punters (mostly Sean Kirk) punted 23 times for 751 yards for an average of 32.6 per punt. Matt Schreier was the leading tackler with 125 tackles(solo and assists) and 1 fumble recovery. Senior Greg Carlson also played stellar defense from his end position, registering 78 tackles and 7 1/2 sacks.

"I was very pleased with the effort and improvement this team showed," said first year Panther Head Coach Randy McIntire. "We are setting up a weight program for our returning players with the aim of getting bigger, faster and stronger. I coached defense for many years under Gale Otto so I was comfortable with the defense. On offense I used the same sets as we had used under Gale. However, I added features that had caused me trouble as a defensive coach."