Isaac Dolan honored

The Panthers’ Isaac Dolan was selected to the Marshall Independent’s All-Area third team in basketball. David Schmidt and Anthony Dolan were honorable mention.

Isaac Dolan was among the statistical leaders in rebounds with 135 (5.2 p/g), was 26 of 43 in free throw shooting for .605, was 27 of 88 in three point shooting for .307, had 47 assists (1.8 p/g), had 31 steals (1.2 p/g) and 14 blocks (0.5 p/g).

Drew Nelson was 84 of 175 in field goal shooting for .480 plus having 14 blocks (0.5 p/g) and Steve Paradis was 69 of 145 for .476. Ryan Kaup was 11 of 15 in free throw shooting for .733 and 14 of 43 from three point range for .326 while David Schmidt was 39 of 61 on free throws for .639 and had 78 steals (3.0 p/g). Anthony Dolan 44 of 71 on free throw shooting for .620, 28 of 81 on three point shots for .346 and had 63 assists (2.4 p/g).

Basketball, wrestling coaches resign

By Dick Donaldson

The Panther Athletic Department has now lost two head coaches.

The school has received resignations from Nat Boyer, head coach of the boys’ basketball program, and from Brian Michelson, head coach of the wrestling program.

One of the problems is that the two programs, boys’ basketball and wrestling, are two of the more successful programs in the department. Each has had its successes recently and each looks for promising results in the future. The basketball team will lose only Taylor Rignell and Nick Soupir from the varsity squad of which almost all of the players had a lot of playing time. The wrestling squad returns two state tournament qualifiers and quality wrestlers in the sophomore and junior classes and very good numbers plus ability in the junior high athletes.

“It was time for a change, both for myself and the program,” said Nat Boyer, head boys’ basketball coach. “It is time to explore options and to think about what is best for my family. Most of our family members live about two hours east of here and it would be preferable to get a location closer to them. It is not written in stone that I will leave my teaching position here right away while I look for other opportunities. I think we have done a good job here. Five years ago the program was in a real mess with no direction and no program for developing talent in the lower grades in place. We have brought respectability and great improvement to the program.”

“I love coaching wrestling,” said Michelson. “However it is a time consuming position and our son Tanner is just entering seventh grade and I want to take some time off to follow his activities the next few years. Who knows, if he decides to try out for wrestling I might volunteer to spend a lot of time with the program. I am not leaving the cupboard bare for the next coach, we qualified for the sectional team final-four this year and will return two out of the three wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament. There is also good talent in the sophomore and junior classes and a bunch of good, hard-working kids in the junior high.”

TMB Track athletes compete at Mankato

The Panther track teams participated in the Mankato State Indoor Invitational Track Meet Saturday. The boys finished in second place and the girls were third.

“Our teams did very well,” said Panther Coach Monica Headlee.

The girls’ team scores were: 1) Comfrey/Cedar Mountain/Springfield, 177; 2) Mountain Lake/Butterfield/Odin, 108; 3)T/M/B, 72; 4)Jackson County Central, 64; 5) Wabasso, 48.

Scoring for the Panther girls were:

Bridgit Kirsh, 200M dash, second, 28.91;

Taylor Welu, triple jump, third, 27’-7”; Girls’ 4 X 400M relay , fifth, disqualified;

M’Hesi Haugen, high jump, second , 4’-8”;

Carly Miller, pole vault, first, 8’-0”;

Bridgit Kirsch, 55M dash, first, 7.90;

Karli Tholen, 16M run, third, 6:02.45;

Hannah Roseland, 55M HH, fourth, 10,01;

4 X 200M relay (Kirsch, Miller, Dayna Vosberg and Malinda Her), second, 2:06.62;

Hannah Roseland, 400M Dash, third, 68.29;

Karli Tholen, 800M run, third, 2:54.4.

The boys’ team scores were: 1) CCMS, 132; 2)T/M/B, 104; 3)JCC, 96; 4) MLBO, 68; 5) WWG/RRC, 57; 6) Wabasso, 26.

Scoring for the Panther boys were:

John Swenhaugen, 200M dash, fourth, 25.67,

Brandon Kirk, fifth, 25.72;

Andrew Prairie, shot put, second, 40’-0”;

Drew Nelson, triple jump, first, 41’-2 1/3;

4X400M relay (Nelson, Paradis, Tholen and Prairie), first, 3:47.0;

Drew Nelson, high jump, second, 5’-8”;

Steve Paradis, long jump, second, 18’-7 1/2”,

Brandon Kirk, fourth, 16’-71/2”;

Josh Hook, pole vault, first, 10’-0”;

Josh Hook, 55M dash, fourth, 7:06;

Ryan Tholen, 1600M run, first, 4:51.19;

Sam VanNevel, 55HH, fourth, 10:53;

Dalton Kirk, 55M HH, second, 9.10;

4X200M relay (Nelson, Paradis, Swenhaugen and Brandon Kirk) first, 1:39.83;

Derek Evans, 800M run, fourth, 2:33.59.

Youth wrestlers finish season at state

The Tracy/Milroy/Balaton wrestling club sent six individual wrestlers and a seventh and eighth grade team to the National Youth Wrestling Association state tournament held in Rochester this past weekend.

The seventh and eighth grade team lost to Plainview, defeated Blue Earth and Delano, then finished out the tournament with a win over Foley and a close loss to Minneota. Team members included Ian Mariner, Brandon Schroeder, Joe Ruppert, Cody Christian, Austin Peterson, Joe Kern, Linch Her, Aaron Hohler, Andrew Martinez, Zach Campbell, Jared Towne, Marcus Stefanick and Matt Wakefield, and were coached by Kent Cooreman.

Six wrestlers participated in the individual state tournament. In the seventh and eighth grade tournament, Brandon Schroeder placed fifth at 85 lbs., Zach Campbell placed second at 110 lbs., Aaron Hohler competed at 140 lbs. and Andrew Martinez wrestled at 235 lbs. Jake Byrne wrestled in the P-K 45 pound division and Ian Mariner took third place honors at 115 pounds in the fifth and sixth grade division.

Josh Coyle wrestled in the USA national tournament in Cedar Falls, IA over the weekend and placed fifth in the 112 pound novice division

Josh Coyle fifth in national youth wrestling tournament

Joshua Coyle placed fifth at the Asics Folkstyle National Wrestling Tournament held at the University of Northern Iowa last weekend.

The Tracy Elementary School fifth grader was among 2,165 wrestlers from across the country participating in the tournament.

Competing in the Novice 112 pound division, Coyle lost his opening match to last year’s 100- pound national champion. The Tracy wrestler then won his next three matches in the wrestle backs.

In the fifth round, Coyle had a re-match withWisconsin’s Dominic Flock who had pinned Coyle in the opening round. Coyle had a 1-0 lead going into the third period, but was caught and put to his back. Down 5-1, Coyle battled back to get an escape and take down, but lost 5-4.

In the consolation championship, Coyle beat a state winner from Indiana 4-2 to take fifth place.

“It was a blast. It was cool wrestling kids from different states,” Coyle said.

He is the son of Amy and Mike Coyle of Tracy.