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Sports from the week of March 23, 2005

Coach is pleased with Knowledge Bowl season

The season has ended for Tracy Area High School’s senior high knowledge bowl teams.

Tracy’s team one advanced to regional competition on March 16 after placing second overall at sub-regional competition on March 9. Members of team one are Will Johnston, Logan Sanow, Corey Lanoue, Dane Bloch, and Kyle Peltola.

Tracy’s team two placed 28th, team four placed 32nd, and team three placed 38th of 51 teams at sub-regions.

The team was shy its two senior players, Bloch and Peltola, in regional competition, but still placed in the top half—13th out of 42 teams.

Coach Eileen Schimming said that while the team did not come away with a trophy, it was a good experience for next year’s returnees, Lanoue, a junior; Sanow, a sophomore; and Johnston, an eighth grader.

Teams who did advance to state from regional competition are Redwood Falls, first; Worthington, second; Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, third; and two Windom teams in fourth and fifth place.

To finish off the year, the knowledge bowl teams hosted a faculty versus knowledge bowl challenge last Thursday.

Schimming said the competition is a little unfair, since the students are better practiced at working with the buzz strips and time constraints. However, the faculty did very well.

Playing against two knowledge bowl teams, the faculty came in second for rounds one and two, and tied for first in round three.

“The teachers are great sports to play with the kids, and it’s an event that the kids really look forward to,” Schimming said.

She said the senior high knowledge bowl team was one of rebuilding after the loss of three state-qualifying seniors. By mid-season, there were 18 participants, enough to field four teams at sub-regions—an all-time high for numbers in the program.

Five of the sophomore participants had previously participated on the junior high level but got their first taste of senior-level competition this year. Four new members were knowledge bowl rookies.

Four of the participants this year were eighth and ninth graders who elected to compete on the more difficult senior high level.

It was a successful year for the knowledge bowl program overall. At every invitational during the season, at least one team ranked in the top five, including a first-place showing at Fulda.

“Whatever the ranking, the students come away from each meet knowing more than they did before. In this respect, every participant is a winner every time,” Schimming said. “It’s my privilege to work with these young people and help develop their potential. They are indeed our future.”


TAHS wins third-straight sub-section speech title

Tracy Area High School students are the Section 3A, Sub-section 11 speech champions for the third-straight year.

The students defended their sub-section title in convincing fashion Saturday.

Tracy won the championship with 127 points, out-pacing runner-up Russell-Tyler-Ruthton by 42 points. Other schools in the sub-section competition were Canby, Dawson Boyd, Lakeview, Minneota, and Redwood Valley.

Four Tracy students earned individual championships.

Senior Rebecca Gervais topped the great speeches category, and senior Kyle Lessman was first in poetry. Junior Brad Lanoue won the prose title, while sophomore Bobbi Buyck spun a yarn to first-place in storytelling.

All told, 17 Tracy students qualified for the Section 3A speech tournament April 9 at Southwest Minnesota State University. The other section qualifiers, who finished in the top four of their categories, are:

Second place—Jenna Fischer, informative; Bekah Zens, great speeches; Dani Thooft, poetry; Celia Brockway, storytelling.

Third place—Casie Miller, drama; Jordan Christiansen, informative; Emily Gilmore, original oratory; Carly Miller, prose; Melissa Noerenberg, poetry.

Fourth place—Rachel Stobb, drama; Dane Bloch, original oratory; Jessica Mason, prose; Jeremiah Martin, poetry.

• • •

Students who placed at sub-section, but did not advance to section were:

Fifth-place—Brittnee Michael, storytelling.

Sixth-place—Dalton Kirk, drama; Caitlyn Sanow, creative expression; Megan Nelson/Nicole Marks, dramatic duo.


Nine advance to state youth mat tournament

Twenty-one Tracy/Milroy/ Balaton youth wrestlers participated in the National Youth Wrestling Association Tournament held in Windom last Saturday.

“These kids did a fantastic job on Saturday,” said Coach Kent Cooreman. “We have nine wrestlers that have advanced to the state tournament. The seventh and eighth graders will wrestle this weekend in Rochester and the K-6th graders will wrestle the following weekend in Rochester. We came away with five individual champions, which is super for the competition the kids were against.”

Josh Coyle, Ian Mariner, Zach Campbell, Luke Prairie and Jordan Rolling were first place winners. Austin Peterson and Bradley Schmidt finished in second place, Erik Cooreman was a third place winner, Dakota Rolling, Devin Skalak, Dwayne Fedde, Jared Towne and Colton Evans were fourth.

Brandon Schroeder and Tyler Bauer finished fifth and Becca Fedde and Cody Christian placed sixth. Daulton Carlson, Noah Jones, Brett Treague and Matt Wakefield also participated.