Sports for the week of October 20, 2004

TMB beats state-ranked ACGC

The Tracy/Milroy/Balaton Panther football team finished the regular season with a 24-7 win over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City at Grove City Tuesday night. The Panthers posted a season record of five wins and three losses to qualify for a home game in the first round of the playoffs. Both T/M/B and ACGC finished conference play with a 3 -2 record.

"The boys knew we had to win to get a home field playoff game," said Panther Coach Randy McIntire. "They came ready to play."

"We seem to play better when we are behind in the score," said Defensive Coordinator Jason Kainz.

The Panthers out-gained ACGC in total yards 254 to 112. T/M/B had 208 yards rushing and 46 passing while the Falcons had 50 yards rushing and 62 passing. Donald Strand led the team in rushing with 110 yards in 17 carries and he was 3 of 7 passing for 46 yards. Jackson had 1 catch for 31 yards.

For ninth straight year, girls are 212 champs

The Panther girls' cross-country team won the 212 Conference Meet for the ninth-straight year Friday. Jillian Tholen was the individual champion.

Run at Raymond in sleet, cold and wind, race conditions were miserable.

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton's winning 29 points were followed by: YME, 48; ACGC, 74; BLM/BOLD, 76; MACCRAY, inc.; RCW, inc.

Tholen's winning time was 16:35. Other Panther varsity runners wereL 4) Stacy LaVoy, 18:37; 7) Jessica Mason, 18:51; 8) Jenna Schaar, 18:56; 12) Becca Gervais, 19:43; 15) Megan Pool 20:05; 26) Julia Olson, 20:51.

"The weather conditions were not the greatest but our teams ran well," said Panther Coach Marie Clauson. "They really worked hard as a team for this meet and their efforts were rewarded. Jillian Tholen defended her title and won the varsity race by a large margin. Jenna and Jessica really stepped it up to clinch this title."

"The JV girls team also had some outstanding performances from Jen Vroman who won the race and Rachel Stobb who finished right behind her," said Clauson, "Rachel has really improved this year-it's fun to watch her reach her goals.

A young Panther team was last in the boys' varsity race. The team scores were: 1) MACCRAY, 42; 2) RCW, 54; 3) ACGC, 62; 4)YME, 90; 5)BLM/BOLD, 103; 6)T/M/B, 145.

The boys individual results were: 10) Ryan Tholen, 20:02; 31) Alex Jones, 24:22; 33) Ross Ryan, 24:48; 35) Chad Cooreman, 25:13; 36) Sam VanNevel, 25:26.

"Ryan continues to get stronger with the varsity competition. Chad also ran an excellent race. He put forth a lot of effort in this race."

Alex tourney helps TMB tune up for play-offs

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton was third in an Alexandria volleyball tournament Saturday.

The Panthers won three matches and lost one. The scores were: TMB over Perham 25-20 and 25-22; TMB over Wayzata 25-22, 25-20; RCW over TMB 12-25, 25-21 and 15-17; TMB over Moorhead 25-23, 21-25 and 15-11.

"This was a good tournament to see our strengths and weaknesses going into sub-sections," said Panther Coach Katie Gervais. "We really showed some improvement in serve-receive and in blocking. We need to see more confidence from our hitters. We need to make adjustments quicker. We will focus on cutting down on errors and controlling tempo in the upcoming weeks."

The top seeded Panthers are now 20-4 for the season and will open post season play against Canby at Redwood Falls on Friday, Oct. 29 at 6 p.m.