Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy,
Minnesota, since 1880
Sports from the week of November 10, 1999
State meet is triple thrill for runners
Oh, what a feeling!
The Panther girls' cross county team reveled in a triple-thrill weekend some athletes can only dream about.
Thrill No. 1: Julie Gifford wins a Class A state individual championship.
Thrill No. 2: The Panther team wins the third-place Class A team trophy.
Thrill No. 3: Jenna Boerboom earns All-State honors, along with Gifford, by finishing in the Top 25 at state.
"It's been a heck-of-a-year," summed up Coach Brian Michelson. "A team like this comes along only once or twice in a lifetime. You've got to enjoy them while you can."
The state meet, run on the campus of St. Olaf College, topped a banner year for Tracy-Milroy. The Panther harriers, Section 3A champions for the second straight year, compiled a 111-15 dual meet record. All told, the 1999 team won eight meets, including the 212 Conference meet for the third year in a row. At the Worthington Turkey Trot, Panther runners were so dominant they won both the varsity and JV meets.
Gifford's championship run capped an undefeated season. Her winning time of 14:30.2 was 23 seconds ahead of second-pace finisher Joanna Bea of Rochester Lourdes, and seven seconds ahead of Class AA champion Kasandra Hendricks of Hutchinson. Gifford's time was the second fastest 4,000 meter girls' time state meet history.. The only person to run faster was Carrie Tollefson of Lac qui Parle/Dawson-Boyd, who ran a 14.09.2 in 1994.
Winning strategy
Gifford, who often leads races from start to finish, used a different race strategy Saturday. Instead of grabbing an early lead, the Panther senior stayed right behind early leader Jen Hess of Paynesville.
"I didn't want to take the lead, because that hasn't worked for me in the past (at state)," Gifford explained.
The Panther waited to make her move until just past the halfway point, after the runners passed the soccer practice fields. Gifford, still feeling fresh and strong, decided that the pace was too slow.
"We were coming up to where the starting line had been. She (Hess) took the turn a little wide. I broke my stride and cut behind her and went ahead."
The fleet-footed runner in red, white and blue never looked back.
Bea was also running with Hess and Gifford. But as the runners headed up a hill for a loop in the woods, Gifford rapidly put distance between her and the rest of the field. When Gifford emerged from the woods, only about 400 meters from the finish, neither Bea or Hess were in sight.
With cheering fans lining the homestretch, Gifford sprinted home for the championship with energy to spare.
Tight team race
In contrast to last year, when Wadena Deer-Creek won the state team championship by 45 points, the 1999 race for team honors was close. Only 19 points separated the first place team from fifth place.
Deer River/Northland became state champion with 141 places, followed by St. Cloud Cathedral with 148. Tracy Milroy, as expected was a championship contender, finishing third with 153. Lewiston-Altura was fourth with also 153 points, losing out to the Panthers on the sixth runner tie breaker Visitation was fifth with 159.
Following Gifford for the Panthers were: 23) Jenna Boerboom, 15:42; 38) Kristen Sweetman, 15:56. 85) Johanna Schmidt, 16:48.4; 99) Debbie Gabel, 17.02.5; 103) Melissa Sweetman, 17:04.3; 106) DeAnn Johnson 17:07.7.
In adjusted placings, not counting the independent competitors, Panther runners finished 1-11-20-54-67-71-74, compared with Deer River/Northland's 12-16-25-41-47-92-95.
Coach Brian Michelson was philosophical about the third place. On the one hand, he noted, the team could have won a state team championship if the runners had done just a little better. On the other, the team could have easily finished sixth instead of third if Panther athletes hadn't performed as well as they had.
"All you can do, is go out and give it your best effort and see what happens. Third place is a great accomplishment."
Michelson noted that the Panthers finished higher than their sixth-place ranking in the final Class A cross country poll.
"That's a feather in our cap," Mickelson said. Some state ranked Class A teams, he pointed out, didn't even qualify for the state meet.
Tracy-Milroy improved on its 1998 showing, when the team was sixth at state with 204 points.
Boerboom all-state too
Boerboom, the Panthers No. 2 runner all season, finished 23rd with a time of 15:42.1 to earn all-state honors. (The top 25 runners receive all-state recognition). Her performance was an improvement over last year's state meet, when she was 26th with a time of 15:45.
The senior from Walnut Grove beat several runners who had finished ahead of her at the Section 3A meet one week earlier: Holly Joyce of Jackson County Central, Melissa Schoen of Martin County West, Hannah Diedrich of Luverne and Krista Beek of Murray County Central.
Improved times
Kristen Sweetman, Gabel, Johnson all improved their times from the 1998 state meet. Schmidt, running in her first state meet, improved her time from the Section 3A meet. Mel Sweetman, nursing a back injury, ran in her first race since the conference meet.
Laura Miller and Heather Engesser were the Panther alternate runners.
Gridders conclude eight-win season
Multi-faceted Minnewaska wins, 28-6
The Tracy-Milroy/Balaton Panther football team saw its season come to an abrupt end Friday night as they lost 28-6 to No. 1 seed Minnewaska at their home field.
It was a most successful season, an 8-3 record, second place in the 212 Conference and one win away from the state tournament.With a team loaded with juniors and sophomores the Panthers will carry high hopes for an even more successful season next year.
The game concluded the prep football careers of ten Panther seniors: John Rialson, Peter Jacobsen, James Evans, Dan Flesener, Ben Lightfoot, Justin Morin, Jeremy Goltz, Cory Schmidt, Pat Coquyt, and Matt Jones. Rialson, who sustained a season-ending knee injury in the team's game against BOLD, cheered on his teammates from the sidelines.
Friday night, the Panthers ran into a team with great athletic ability and strength from a roster that listed 50 players in grades 10-12. (The Panthers suited up three dozen players). Being out-muscled up front, the Panthers were not able to establish a running game and had to pass. When the Panthers had no alternative to the pass it was much easier for the Lakers to defend against the aerial game.
They have a great team," said Panther Coach Gale Otto. "I am not sure that even if we played them ten times we could win. They are a senior dominated team and that extra experience means a lot. In addition to having more strength than we did they were very quick."
One win, one loss; oh so close, yet so far
Panthers overwhelm BDRSH to earn runner-up trophy
The Panther volleyball team advanced to the Section 3AA finals Thursday night at SSU with a surprisingly easy 3-0 win over BDRSH. The game scores were 15-11, 15-13 and 15-2.
The first two games were close with the Jaguars taking a 10-4 lead before Stephanie Welvaert served for a six point Panther run to tie the score at 10-10. Welvaert also finished the game off with 4 points, including 2 aces, when she came on to serve with T-M down 12-11.
The second game was close all the way with T-M ahead most of the time but never by more than 4 points.
The third game started with the Jaguars making the first point, but they had spent all their energy in the first two games and never threatened in the third. Heidi Peterson served to take the score to 6-1 and Welvaert, who had a tremendous match, served for 7 more to make it 13-1. Heidi Peterson came back to the serving line and finished off the game and match with an ace serve.
"The team was led by Senior Hitter Steph Welvaert," said Panther Coach Katie Gervais. "She had an all around game. She had 19 kills and was 26 of 26 serving with 6 aces. She also received 50% of the serves with 60% of those on our setter's head. I have been waiting for Steph to have a match like this and she certainly picked a nice time to have it. Steph was not the only player to have a good night, in fact we used all of our players (except Katie Lanoue who sprained her ankle). We were on our very last substitution that we could take. Going into the game we were confident that if it got down to our subs and their subs that we would have the advantage."
Maria Ankrum served 20 of 20 with 1 ace, Heidi Peterson was 17 of 19 with an ace and Welvaert was 26 of 26 with 6 aces. Welvaert led the team in hitting with 19 kills. She was followed by Maria Ankrum with 7 and Michelle Schreier and Marcia Ankrum with 5 each. Heidi Peterson had 47 set assists.
"We knew we needed to keep the ball away from #1 (Wicks) and if we did it could slow their offense down. She touched the ball on one serve receive and that was the last serve of the game when Heidi Peterson aced her," commented Gervais. "I was very proud of all the girls. We still have a lot of work to do but that goes for any team."
Jackson too much for Panthers
Improved T-M squad finishes one win away from state
The Panther volleyball team lost to Jackson County Central in the Section 3AA finals Saturday night at Southwest State University in Marshall 3-1. The game scores were 15-13, 4-15, 9-15 and 5-15.
The loss dropped the Tracy-Milroy record to ---- but the season was a very successful one. The team finished third in the 212 Conference and was one win away from a trip to the state tournament. The match concluded the Panther volleyball careers of seniors Stephanie Welvaert, Suzanne LaVoy and Heidi Miller.
The Jackson County Central Team proved to be too much for the Panthers to handle. They were just too tall and too athletic.
With the Panthers winning the first game in a long struggle, that included 45 side-outs, by a score of 15-13, the hopes of the Panther fans soared. However in the last three games, all won by the Huskies, JCC's height and athletic ability took their toll. The tall JCC hitters were able to use their jumping ability to drive the ball to the floor between the Panther players at the net and those in the back row.
"I thought we started out playing very aggressively," said Panther Coach Katie Gervais. "We normally come out a little gun shy but the girls did an nice job in the first game. "I didn't think we played particularly well in the second or third game but played much better in the fourth game. No one likes to lose but the girls did a nice job getting to the finals of the section tournament and JCC has a nice team with 2 all-state players. I thought it was important for our young team to get some tournament experience and the girls are looking forward to next year already."
Heidi Peterson led the team in serving as she was 19 of 20 with 5 aces. Marcia Ankrum was 15 of 17 with 4 aces and Maria Ankrum was 15 of 15 with 1 ace. Welvaert led the team in hitting with 14 kills and Maria Ankrum had 11. Heidi Peterson had 34 set assists.