Sports from the week of March 15, 2006

Wrestlers celebrate strong year

The Panther wrestling program looked back on its most successful season in more than a decade Tuesday night.

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton wrestlers posted a 19-5 dual meet record and advanced to the third round of the Section 3A tournament. Three individuals advanced to the state tournament.

“You have a lot to be proud of,” said Coach Brian Michelson.

“We knew were were going to have a good team this year,” said volunteer Kendall Cooreman. “There isn’t anything to be disappointed about for the season.”

Michelson gave special accolates to the Panthers’ state wrestlers: 171 pounder Paul Carlson, who ended the year with a 38-5 record; 125-pounder Cole Cooreman, who went 36-5; and Luke Prairie, who ended 18-12. Each wrestler has much to be proud of, even though Carlson was the only one to win a match at state.

“It’s tough, you’ve got 16 guys at state, you run into some tough matches, and it doesn’t work out,” said Michelson, who noted that the TMB wrestlers lost close matches that could have gone the other way.

Cooreman ended his his school career with a 119-40 record, with Carlson with a career 112-79 mark.

Carlson and Cooreman were honored as co-most valuable wrestlers. Chia Thao was honored for the most takedowns (92), Andy Nelson was “most improved” and Cooreman and Zach Campbell tied for most pins at 16. Campbell, who set a record for most varsity wins by a seventh grader (27), was the team’s “rookie of the year.”

Individual records this year were: Cody Arnold (11-9), Tyler Bauer (17-23), Campbell (27-14), Carlson (38-5), Chad Cooreman (31-12), Cole Cooreman (36-5), Erik Cooreman (5-6), Andrew Dieter (1-11), Dan Dieter (10-20), Colton Evans (0-5)), Derek Evans (26-18), Drew Hebig (24-18), Nathan Jacob (12-11), Andy Lackie (0-2), Kyle Lanners (6-7), Dan Malmberg (0-2), Sher Moua (1-0), Andy Nelson (22-20), James Prairie (16-7), Luke Prairie (18-12), Jordan Rolling (10-10), Cody Schons (7-8) Chia Thao (26-15).

Panther girls 'never gave up'

The Panther girls’ basketball team was honored at a program Tuesday night in the high school cafeteria.

Panther Coach Rick Haberman summarized the 8-17 season as one “full of injuries” and remarked that it was difficult to work around the injuries and keep the team together.

“We had a very challenging schedule,” he said. “We did a good job of hanging in there and never gave up. We probably played our best basketball of the season in the second half of our last home game against Renville County West.”

Senior plaques were awarded to Krysta Tholen, Emily Miller, Ashlei Carpenter, Alyssa Kirk, Ashlee Domine, Jackie Coulter and to Manager Cayla Caron.

Underclassmen who received letters, in addition to the seniors, were: Jackie Haecherl, Molly Miller, Michele Lanoue, Lindsey Daniels, Ashley Kirk, Mallory Fultz, Jen Vroman and manager Rita Ryan.

Krysta Tholen was recognized as an All-State Academic selection. Alyssa Kirk and Emily Miller were honored as Camden Conference South All Conference selections.

It was noted that Ashlee Domine was poised to have an exceptional year until sidelined at mid-season by a knee injury. Domine came back after the injury and scored 237 points in just 15 games, averaging 15.8 points per game and pulling down 130 rebounds. Alyssa Kirk led the team in scoring with a 16.9 points per game average. She amassed 969 points (just 31 points shy of the coveted 1000 point club) in her career and hit a total of 171 three-pointers.

Season statistics showed that the Panthers were out-scored 1,638 points to 1,470, while TMB committed 465 turnovers to 429 for their opponents.