Exira/EHK Ends Hawkettes’ Season

EG TAKES 2-19 RECORD INTO REGIONAL PLAY

Conference champion Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton proved to be too much to handle for East Greene Tuesday night, rolling to an easy 62-15 win in Rippey. The game closed out the Hawkettes’ regular season at 2-19. EG finished last in the Rolling Hills Conference at 2-16 while Exira/EHK took top honors with a 17-1 mark. The Spartans are 18-3 overall.

Both teams enter regional play tonight. EEHK is a favorite in Region 7, which also features Adair-Casey from the Rolling Hills and Coon Rapids-Bayard from the West Central Conference. East Greene is in Region 2 which includes teams from west central, north central and northwest Iowa. Each region has 16 teams playing for a spot in the eight-team field in the Class 1A State Tournament.

The Hawkettes travel to Burnside to take on Southeast Webster-Grand (5-16), a team EG lost to by six points in the first game of the season, 32-26. The winner tonight at Burnside faces the winner of a game in Jewell tonight between Madrid (2-19) and Northeast Hamilton (10-11) in a quarterfinal tilt on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at Burnside.

Rolling Hills Conference foes Glidden-Ralston (5-15) and Paton-Churdan (3-17) face each other for the third time tonight in Glidden. The winner advances to play the winner of tonight’s St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) and Newell-Fonda game at Newell on Feb. 14 in Newell. St. Mary’s (10-12) and Newell-Fonda (16-5) are both members of the Twin Lakes Conference. Newell-Fonda took the league crown with a 9-1 record, besting two solid 2A teams, Manson-Northwest Webster and Sioux Central (Sioux Rapids).

The Newell quarterfinal winner will meet the Burnside quarterfinal winner in a semifinal game on Friday, Feb. 17 in Manson. (If Manson-Northwest Webster plays that night in the Class 2A semifinal round, the game will be moved to Fort Dodge St. Edmond).

The semifinal winner from the Manson bracket will go up against the winner of a semifinal game in Le Mars on Monday, Feb. 20. Teams in the Le Mars bracket are Whiting (6-15), Charter Oak-Ute (10-11), Siouxland Christian (6-15), River Valley (15-7), Remsen St. Mary’s (7-13), Kingsley-Pierson (2-18), Akron-Westfield (5-15) and West Sioux of Hawarden (19-1), the No.5 team in the state.

The favorite in Region 2 is Newell-Fonda, ranked No. 7 in the state. Newell-Fonda (16-5) has been to three of the last four Class 1A state tournaments. Last year the Mustangs were sidelined by eventual champion Martensdale-St. Mary’s in the first round. Two years ago, Newell-Fonda fell to Exira in the semifinal round. Exira went on to win the state championship over Mt. Ayr. In 2008, Newell-Fonda advanced to the final, losing to Springville.

Last year Exira began sharing sports with Elk Horn-Kimballton, creating a program with recent experience at the state tournament level on the Exira side and deep tradition in girls basketball success on the Elk Horn-Kimballton side. Exira had been to state in 2008 but was highly ranked in 2009, but was sidelined the next year by Coon Rapids-Bayard in a regional quarterfinal game.

Exira/EHK has been ranked in the Top 15 in Class 1A all season but fell from 11^th to 15^th after losing to Adair-Casey, 51-44, on Jan. 17, and then dropped out of the rankings altogether after losing 59-48 to Guthrie Center (8-14) on Jan. 21. EEHK then closed out the season with five straight wins, capped by the 48-point thrashing of EG on Tuesday.

EEHK’s exit in the rankings allowed CRB (16-5) to move into the No. 15 last week, a position it held in the final poll released today by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. CRB faces CAM (9-12) in Coon Rapids tonight with the winner to face the winner of the Guthrie-EEHK battle in quarterfinal game Tuesday in Elk Horn.

The Elk Horn winner will meet the Adair quarterfinal winner in a semifinal battle on Feb. 17 in Atlantic. Orient-Macksburg (13-8) hosts last year’s champ, Martsendale-St. Mary’s (11-11), in Orient while Adair-Casey takes (19-2) takes on Earlham (8-13) in Adair in the Adair sub-bracket.

No. 2 Bedford is the favorite in the lower half of the Region 7 bracket. Bedord (20-1) will host Lenox (3-19) tonight. Bedford lost its first game to Nodaway Valley (Greenfield) on Tuesday in the regular season finale, giving Nodaway Valley a tie with Bedford for the Pride of Iowa Conference title. Nodaway Valley, a 2A team, is 19-2 but not ranked. They are in the same 2A region as No. 8 Panorama, which won the West Central Conference with a perfect 18-0 mark, and area teams Jefferson-Scranton, Ogden and Des Moines Christian.

The Bedord-Lenox winner will take on the winner of East Union (5-16) and Diagonal (3-17). Also in that side of Region 7 are Mormon Trail (6-14), Murray (15-6), Lamoni (6-14) and Mount Ayr (11-10).

This is a power-packed region with last year’s state champion, Martensdale-St. Mary’s, and both the 2010 champion and runner-up—EEHK and Mount Ayr—plus Murray, a perennial southern Iowa power, and state-ranked teams Bedford, Adair-Casey and Coon Rapids-Bayard. The final is Monday, Feb. 20 in Greenfield.

Hawkettes End Regular Season 6-15

OPEN REGIONAL ACTION TONIGHT AGAINST CRB

East Greene ended the girls basketball regular season on a sour note, falling to Iowa Christian Academy, 52-20, on Tuesday night in Rippey. The loss dropped the Hawkettes to 6-15 for the season and to 5-13 in the Rolling Hills Conference, where they finished seventh in the 10-team league. Iowa Christian finished in fourth place with a 13-5 mark.

It marked the final home appearance for four EG seniors: Katlynn Gannon, Tia Lowe, Molly Neese and Jasmine Kinney. Lowe and Gannon were the only two Hawkettes to get on the board with 11 and 9 points respectively. Karlie Schut had a big night for the Blazers with 19 points and 16 rebounds. She was 9-of-10 scoring from the field. ICA held the Hawkettes to just 1 point in the second quarter, allowing them to take a 30-7 lead and halftime and then coast to the win.

Both teams head into regional action tonight. EG travels to Coon Rapids to face Coon Rapids-Bayard, a team that tied with Guthrie Center and Woodward-Granger for fourth in the West Central Conference with a 9-7 mark. CRB is 11-9 overall, with a season-opening win over IKM-Manning (15-4), the No. 11 team in Class 2A to its credit, along with a 30-28 victory over Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton, which tied for second this year in the Rolling Hills.

Iowa Christian (14-6) heads to Guthrie Center (11-10) to take on the Tigerettes in a first-round regional game. The winner of that game will advance to the quarterfinal round in Adair next Tuesday to take on the winner of second round game scheduled for Saturday night in Adair that will match up Adair-Casey (18-3) with the winner of tonight’s EG-CRB clash. Adair-Casey locked down the Rolling Hills title on Tuesday with a 16-2 league mark, and made its first appearance in the Class 1A rankings yesterday, coming in at the No. 15 spot.

The winner of next Tuesday’s Region 8 quarterfinal game in Adair will advance to the semifinal game to be played in the new West Central Valley gym in Stuart. The four teams vying to reach the semifinal round in the lower bracket of the region are Ankeny Christian, Earlham, Grandview Park Baptist and Martensdale-St. Mary’s.

Ankeny Christian (13-9), which finished strong with a fifth-place finish in the Rolling Hills at 10-8, will head to Earlham. The Cardinals were 7-13 overall and 3-12 in the West Central, tying them with Van Meter for seventh place. The winner tonight in Earlham will take on the winner of tonight’s battle between Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Grandview Park Baptist in a quarterfinal round game on Tuesday night in Martensdale. MStM will be heavy favorite, as they are the No. 1-ranked team in Class 1A with a 19-2 record. MStM’s only losses were to OA-BCIG, the top-ranked 2A team in the state, and Southeast Polk, a 4A team. The Blue Devils, who won the Pride of Iowa Conference with a perfect 16-0 mark, have posted big wins over West Central champion Panorama, a 2A school, and Mt. Ayr, also a 2A school and a Pride of Iowa league rival. Mt. Ayr (18-2) heads into 2A tourney action ranked fourth in the state. The Blue Devils’ drubbing of Panorama, 61-26, came in the first game of the season. Both MStM and Mt. Ayr were in the field of last year’s 1A state tournament with Mt. Ayr advancing to the championship game, losing to Exira, last year’s Rolling Hills Conference champion.

Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton posted a strong team again this year, finishing second in the Rolling Hills tied with CAM (Anita). Both posted 15-3 marks, just a game behind Adair-Casey. Each has been ranked among the Top 15 in Class 1A this season.

CAM takes on league foe Walnut in Anita tonight while EEHK hosts AHST (Avoca) in the upper half of the Region 8 bracket. Both will be heavy favorites to advance to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday in Anita. The quarterfinal round winner will move on to the semifinal round game scheduled for next Friday, Feb. 18, in Red Oak against one of the other four teams in the upper bracket of the region: Fremont-Mills, Riverside, East Mills and Sidney.

The Red Oak semifinal game winner will take on the team to advance from the Stuart semifinal tilt in the Region 8 final on Monday, Feb. 21, Atlantic.

Seven of the 10 teams in the Rolling Hills are in Region 8—which pulls together teams from central, west central, western and southwest Iowa—while Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan are in Region 2 (western and northwest Iowa) and Orient-Macksburg is in Region 7 (far southwest and deep southern Iowa).

Orient-Macksburg hosts Corning tonight while Paton-Churdan takes on Southeast Webster-Grand at Burnside and Glidden-Ralston has the unenviable task of taking on Ar-We-Va, the second-ranked 1A team in the state, on the Rockettes’ home court in Westside. If OM wins, it will travel to Villisca to take on the Lenox-Villisca winner. Winners of the games at SWG and Ar-We-Va will face each other Tuesday in Westside with the winner advancing to the semifinal game in Denison. Semifinal winners from Denison and Orange City will meet in the Region 2 final on Feb. 21 in Mapleton.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Hawkettes showed real promise early this season, getting out of the gate with a 5-3 record through the Christmas break. EG was only able to post one additional victory since then, however, downing winless Paton-Churdan in Rippey. EG fell to teams it had beaten earlier in the season—Walnut, Glidden-Ralston and Ankeny Christian—yet the Hawkettes were competitive in all of those games and in two close losses to Orient-Macksburg (each by three points).

It will be interesting to see how the Rolling Hills stacks up to the competition in the regionals, especially in Region 8, which features the top 5 teams in the league: Adair-Casey, CAM, EEHK and the two Christian academies from Des Moines.

The opening round has some interesting matchups, especially Iowa Christian at Guthrie Center, and Ankeny Christian taking on Earlham. Guthrie has a deep girls basketball tradition and the West Central is a solid conference while Iowa Christian was a real threat in the Rolling Hills this year, downing CAM by 10 points and losing to EEHK by only 3. Guthrie played four games in a six-day period that ended Tuesday night, marked by two big wins over West Central Valley; a near upset of Des Moines Christian, falling 47-44; and a loss to CRB, 33-25.

Other than Exira’s run to the championship in 2010 and a state tournament trip in 2008, the only other area 1A or 2A teams to advance to state in recent years have been tradition-rich Guthrie and CRB of the West Central, and Southeast Webster-Grand, a longtime area rival of EG. Guthrie Center most recently qualified for state in 2007 and 2002, and is widely known as a “girls basketball town” as the Tigerettes have qualified for state an amazing 21 times, topped only by Ankeny (23) trips and equaled by Mediapolis. Coon Rapids-Bayard made it to state in 2009, giving the school 9 total trips—7 by Coon Rapids and 2 by CRB. SWG qualified in 2006 and 2008. Coupled with appearances at state by Grand in 1960, Dayton in 1974, and Central Webster in 1983, SWG has 5 total appearances to its name.

If CRB gets by the Hawkettes tonight, they will face Adair-Casey on the Bombers’ home floor for the right to move on to the quarterfinal round, yet another matchup between Rolling Hills and West Central teams. CRB has big wins over EEHK, 38-30, in December and its win on Tuesday over Guthrie, a team it lost to earlier in the season 34-31. AC split with both CAM and EEHK on its way to the Rolling Hills title and interestingly, its only other loss on the year was to Guthrie Center. A rematch of those two teams is a possibility in the quarterfinal round also.

Panorama won the West Central title this year 15-1, just ahead of another 2A school, Des Moines Christian. 13-2. CRB, Guthrie, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger were all bunched together in the middle of the league with WCV going 9-6 with one game cancelled due to snow and the other three teams right behind at 9-7.

In the bottom of the Region 8 bracket, Ankeny Christian has come on strong at the end of the season, posting a big win over CAM on Monday, knocking the Cougars out of the league lead. ACA has gone 3-1 in non-conference play beating Grandview Park Baptist, Madrid and Twin Cedars (Bussey) and losing to Clarke (Osceola), a 2A school. This the best the small Christian academies have done in the Rolling Hills since they joined the league a few years ago after first fielding varsity high school athletics. Last year, ICA and ACA finished fifth and seventh in the league and this year they improved to fourth and fifth—even more impressive when considering the competition included another larger school that moved in from the West Central (EG) and a team formed by two individual competitors from last year (Exira and EHK), which made for a combined enrollment of 119, considerably more than ICA, 56, and ACA, 38.

For comparison purposes, enrollment for the other league teams breaks down like this: CAM 103, GR 102, AC 83, EG 81, OM 57, Walnut 43, and PC 35.

All in all, Martensdale-St.Mary’s looks to be the solid favorite to come out of EG’s half of the bracket with what should be an easy first-round win over Grandview Park Baptist (4-17) and then a solid tussle with Ankeny Christian in the quarterfinal round. It should be interesting in the semifinal round because ICA, GC, CRB and AC would each give them a real challenge—especially with the basketball heritage of CRB and GC—but MStM is also a tournament-tested team as the Blue Devils advanced to state last year as did league foe Mt. Ayr, which attest to the strength of the Pride of Iowa.

Either CAM or EEHK should make it to the semifinal round to most likely face Sidney (15-6), the only other team with a winning record on the Red Oak side of the region.

EG Heads to Guthrie for District Meet

TOP PERFORMERS MOVE ON TO STATE @ DRAKE



East Greene tracksters head to Guthrie Center today for the district track meet. The Hawks will be facing stiff competition in one of toughest of the state’s 12 district meets in Class 1A.

In addition to East Greene and the host school, Guthrie Center, other girls and boys teams competing in the co-ed district meet are Adair-Casey, CAM (Anita), Coon Rapids-Bayard, Des Moines Christian, Earlham, Griswold, Madrid, Orient-Macksburg, Van Meter, Woodward Academy (boys only) and Woodward-Granger.

The Hawks went head-to-head with seven of those teams in the recent West Central Conference meet, which Madrid won going away. EG and Madrid both competed in the district at Southeast Webster-Grand at Burnside last year. Madrid won that district and then went on to win the state meet in Des Moines. So this will be a very tough district as Madrid looks even stronger than last year. Griswold is another strong team, having finished fifth at the state meet last year and winning several large meets this year, including the Western Iowa Conference meet, its fourth conference crown in the last five years.

EG will get a good look at three of next year’s Rolling Hills Conference competitors in Adair-Casey, CAM and Orient-Macksburg at the meet today. Woodward Academy, which is strong in several boys sports, rounds out the 13-team field on the boys’ side.

The first- and second-place winners will advance to the state meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on May 21 and 22.

In the girls meet, the same event is called a regional, and the winner of each event in the regional advances (12 total) to the state meet in Des Moines along with the 12 next best performances among all the regional competitors.

The Hawks tuned up for the district with meets last Thursday at Ballard (Huxley) and on Tuesday at Southern Cal (Lake City), a co-ed meet. Madrid was in the field with the Hawks in Class B at Ballard and won the event by one point over Roland-Story. It was a very competitive field with the returning state 1A champion (Madrid) and three solid class 2A teams—West Marshall, Roland-Story and South Hamilton.

EG scored 7 points with the 4 x 200 finishing fifth just behind Madrid. The three 2A teams swept the first three places in the 4 x 200 with West Marshall edging out Roland-Story at the tape for the win and both teams breaking the meet record.

Madrid took the 4 x 100 in another fast field as the Tigers (43.86) and the second- and third-place finishers, Roland-Story (43.89) and South Hamilton (44.03), all broke the meet record.

EG’s 4 x 100 relay finished fifth (48.96) and the 4 x 400 relay was sixth (4:11.75). Also finishing sixth were Reed Ostrander in the long jump (18-5.25) and Schyler Bardole in the shot put (39-8.5).

Jefferson-Scranton rolled to the title in Class A with 159 points, well ahead of runner-up Boone with 103.

Team scoring in Class B @ Ballard: Madrid 145, Roland-Story 144, West Marshall 120, South Hamilton 76, Woodward-Granger 49, Southeast Webster 13, EAST GREENE 7.

The Hawks finished 9th among 11 teams at Southern Cal with 22 points. The 4 x 100 relay improved its time to 47.96 for fifth with Woodward Academy wining the event in 44.66 and three Twin Lakes Conference teams finishing in the next three spots.

EG fared well in the field events as Wes Onken was third in the discus (129-02), Bardole fourth in the shot put (40-10) and Ostrander fifth in the long jump (17-4).

Bardole’s fourth place in the 100 meter dash (11.43) and Zach Hiller’s fourth place in the 200 meter dash (23.85) rounded out the scoring for the Hawks.

Boys team scoring @ Southern Cal: Woodward Academy 92, Manson-Northwest Webster 85, Prairie Valley 82, Rockwell City-Lytton 81, Southern Cal 69, Alta 44, Southeast Webster-Grand 35, Newell-Fonda 25, EAST GREENE 22, West Bend-Mallard/Twin River Valley 15, Paton-Churdan 8.

The Hawkettes were also in the field at Lake City and Bobbie Halterman took second in the 3,000 meter run (12:36.1) to give the Hawkettes 8 points. Stephanie Thompson of Paton-Churdan was fifth in the same event. PC’s Jaclyn Baldwin had a good showing with first place in the 100 meter dash (13.46) and fifth in the 400 meter dash (1:08.87). PC scored 14 points to finish just ahead of EG in eighth place in the nine-team field.

PC’s Taylor King had a mirror finish to Halterman, as he took second in the boys distance event, the 3,200 meter run (11.17.21), to give PC its eight points on the boys’ side.

Girls team scoring @ Southern Cal: Manson-Northwest Webster 177, Southern Cal 127, Guthrie Center 81.5, Rockwell City-Lytton 53, Southeast Webster-Grand 49.5, Alta 46, Newell-Fonda 29, Paton-Churdan 14, EAST GREENE 8.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Halterman has really improved her times in recent meets and could contend for the top spot today at Guthrie and move on to state. She finished fourth at the conference meet behind Gabi Wilson of Des Moines Christian and two Panorama runners. The latter two will be in the 2A district, leaving Wilson and Halterman the top two place finishers among the eight West Central teams that are in the field at Guthrie. Wilson had a considerable lead over Halterman at that meet, 11:46.01 to 13:15.38 but Halterman has really dropped her time in just a week with her 12:36.1 showing at Lake City on Tuesday. The fastest time at the Rolling Hills Conference meet on May 3 on the same track was 12:33.86 by Chansea Nelson of Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira but EHK/E is in the district meet at Audubon. Griswold does not have a threat in the 3,000 so it should come down to Halterman and Wilson. Hopefully it will be a fast pace, so if Halterman should come in second or third, she could still qualify with a good at-large time.

The Hawks are solid in several key sprint events, but unfortunately, in each of those events Madrid has dominated. The Madrid-EG finish of fourth and fifth places in the 4 x 200 at Ballard was separated by five seconds, so EG has a pretty big gap to fill to catch up to the Tigers today in the district. Neither EG or Woodward Academy were in the field at Southern Cal on Tuesday so it’s hard to determine how Woodward Academy might fare in the event.

Woodward Academy will be solid competition to Madrid in the 4 x 100 as its time at Lake City is less than a second slower than Madrid’s time in Huxley. EG was three seconds behind Woodward Academy (47.67 to 44.66) and Madrid had a full five-second advantage over the Hawks at Ballard last week. In the conference meet, it was Madrid, Earlham, Panorama and EG taking the top four spots, so with Panorama out of the mix it looks like Madrid will be the heavy favorite with a number of teams jockeying for second place and the right to move on to state. Adair-Casey posted a time of 47.26 in winning the 4 x 100 in the Rolling Hills meet on the Guthrie track. Underwood won the Western Iowa Conference meet in 44.99 and Griswold was third with a time two seconds slower. So look for AC and Griswold to be in the mix for second place along with EG, Earlham and Woodward Academy.

Underwood was also the winner in the 4 x 200 relay at the WIC meet. Griswold though does not appear to be strong in that event but is pretty significant in the 4 x 400 and 1,600 medley relays. Orient-Macksburg won the 4 x 200 relay in the Rolling Hills meet at 1:40.72 so they will be a team to contend with for the Hawks, who ran 1:40.2 in their conference meet on the same track a day later. Madrid was disqualified in that event and Earlham and Guthrie Center finished 1-2 with times of 1:36.27 and 1:36.38. Panorama and West Central Valley finished 3-4 so they will not be a threat since they are in the 2A district at Tri-Center (Neola). EG will also have to contend with Woodward-Granger. EG had the advantage at the conference meet by 1.18 seconds and stayed ahead in the “battle of the Hawks” at Ballard but the difference had been whittled down to just .05 seconds.

Onken in the discus, Bardole in the shot put, and Ostrander in the long jump have all performed well this season with high placings in most meets, but again, Madrid has solid performers in all these events. Madrid’s Eric Simmons and Brock Hinkel were second and third in the conference meet in the discus. The winner was Seth VandeVoort from Des Moines Christian and the fourth place thrower was Andrew McCune from Woodward-Granger. Onken finished fifth, nine feet behind the WG thrower, so he will really need to uncork a all-out effort to finish first or second and move on to state.

Bardole will again be going up against Simmons and Tyler Ahrens of Madrid in the shot put. They took second and fourth in the conference meet and WG’s McCune’s third, just ahead of Colton Greer of Coon Rapids-Bayard (44-2.5) and Bardole (43-3.5) in fifth and sixth places among the 19 throwers. The winner was from Panorama, so that could be an advantage to one of the next five placings. Simmons made it to state last year and he threw 48-11 at the conference meet with the other four all within a 2.5-foot range of each other, from 45-10 to 43-3.5. Dayton Amdor of CAM is also solid as he won the Rolling Hills shot put crown at 46-10, and Demetrius Lloyd of Woodward Academy was second at Southern Cal on Tuesday at 43-0.5 while Bardole was fourth at 40-10.

Ostrander was just three inches from taking second at the conference meet. Madrid’s Nick Elfcamp, who is also a sprinter, took the event with a leap of 20-05 followed by Danny Clinton of DMC (18-11), Kaden Bruden of Van Meter (18-10.5 ), and Onken (18-8). Brendon McGinnis of Earlham and Jorge Spears of Woodward Academy are also competitive in this event. Elfcamp finished sixth at the state meet last year.

Jessie Priest will be going up against Michael Plasencia of Van Meter and Jeremy Johnson of Madrid in the 400 meter dash. Bardole ran a fast 11.42 at Lake City Tuesday after running 12.24 in the conference meet a week before, a time topped only by district competitors Louie Wickett of Madrid and Josh Arment of DMC. However, two of the three faster times at Lake City were posted by runners from Woodward Academy and AC’s Josh Cummings won the 100 at the RHC meet in 11.8, so Bardole will need to show even more improvement in this very strong field today at Guthrie. Wickett, who place sixth in the 100 at the state meet last year, won the conference meet in 11.21 and then posted an 11.16 at Ballard, good for second behind Aaron Arment of West Marshall, a 2A school.

While Madrid looks to be the hands-down favorite among the boys with most likely Griswold to finish second and Woodward Academy to take third, the situation is not nearly as clear-cut on the girls’ side. In a WIC meet sweep, Griswold also won the girls’ title, but Woodward-Granger has been particularly strong all season, finishing just 17 points behind WCC track power Panorama, the closest any team has come to the Lady Panthers in years. Earlham and Guthrie Center have also had strong meets this season, as had Des Moines Christian. So look for WG and Griswold to go head-to-head for the team championship.

While all eight 1A teams from the West Central are competing at Guthrie and the two 2A schools are at Tri-Center, the eight track teams in the Rolling Hills are all over the map. While CAM, AC and Orient-Macksburg are at Guthrie, Glidden-Ralston, Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, and Walnut are at Audubon. Paton-Churdan heads to Burnside to compete with the same Twin Lakes 1A teams that were in Tuesday’s Lake City meet (SWG, RCL, MNW and Southern Cal) along with seven teams from north central and northern Iowa and Colo-Nesco from the other side of Ames. Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian (a shared program) heads to Martensdale-St. Mary’s along with Grandview Park Baptist of Des Moines. The rest of the field is from southern Iowa.

Jefferson-Scranton will be among the favorites in an eight-team boys 3A district meet in Atlantic after winning the Heart of Iowa-Large and several other large meets with 3A teams this season. Perry will compete in the 3A district at Dallas Center-Grimes, and Ogden will host Prairie Valley (Gowrie) and 10 other teams in a 2A district meet.

EG Girls Make Mark at WCC Track Meet

HAWKS SCORE 21 POINTS FOR 9TH PLACE

Both East Greene track teams showed improvement at the 2010 conference track meet in Guthrie Center yesterday.

The Hawkettes got on the board with 4 points to take ninth of 10 teams. EG got the upper hand over Coon Rapids-Bayard, which failed to score points at the meet and ended up in last place. West Central Valley finished just ahead of EG with 10 points.

The Hawks were greatly improved over last year, scoring 21 points to take ninth, also finishing ahead of CRB (8) and just behind WCV (28). Last year EG scored just 8 points for ninth place.

Freshman Reed Ostrander and senior Jessie Priest had the best showings for the Hawks in the individual events, each with a fourth-place finish. Ostrander went 18-08 in the long jump and Priest posted a 54.73 in the 400 meter dash. Wes Onken was fifth in the discus (134-7.5), Schyler Bardole was fifth in the 100 meter dash (12.24) and sixth in the shot put (43-03.5), and Priest was sixth in the 200 meter dash (24.67).

The Hawks had good showing all the way around in the sprint events as the 4 x 100 meter relay (48.06) was fourth and the 4 x 200 relay (1:40.2) was fifth. The competition was stiff in all the sprint events, which included top runners from Madrid, last year’s 1A state champions. Madrid won the 4 x 100 relay in a new conference and stadium record (43.97) and is on the same pace that earned them the runner-up spot in last year’s 4 x 100 relay at state (43.73). Madrid’s Louie Wickett won both the 100 and 200 yard dashes, but Madrid was disqualified in the 4 x 200 relay.

As expected, Madrid won the team championship with 140 points, upending Panorama, the reigning champion since 2007 and owner of 14 West Central Conference titles.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS: Madrid 140, Panorama 112, Earlham 62, Van Meter 53, Des Moines Christian 50, Guthrie Center 49, Woodward-Granger 47, West Central Valley 28, EAST GREENE 21, Coon Rapids-Bayard 8.

Bobbie Halterman picked up EG’s points in the girls meet with a fourth place finish in the 3,200 meter run (13:15.38). The Hawkettes also had entries in the 100 meter dash and 100 meter hurdles.

Panorama continued its streak of West Central track championships, winning its 16th conference crown and 13th in a row with 141 points. Woodward-Granger put up the biggest challenge to the Lady Panthers in quite a few years with 124 points. Panorama swept all four sprint relays in the girls’ side of the meet: 4 x 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 400 and 800 medley.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS: Panorama 141, Woodward-Granger 124, Earlham 102, Guthrie Center 71, Van Meter 60, Des Moines Christian 54, Madrid 37, West Central Valley 10, EAST GREENE 4, Coon Rapids-Bayard 0.

GOLF TEAMS IN CONFERENCE MEETS

East Greene’s boys and girls golf teams both placed eighth and ninth in their respective conference golf meets on Monday.

The boys team score of 392 put them ahead of Madrid and West Central Valley. Josh Neese and Jessie Priest tied for top honors for the Hawks at 92 in 18 holes at the Woodward Country Club. Rounding out the team scores were Harrison Johnston 101, Zach Hiller 107, Alex Gordon 108, and Zach Beyerink 120. The top four scores counted for EG’s total score.

Panorama upended Coon Rapids-Bayard for the league title, the first time in three years CRB did not take the crown. Earlham took second with CRB third.

FINAL TEAM SCORES @ WOODWARD: Panorama 335, Earlham 346, Coon Rapids-Bayard 350, Des Moines Christian 356, Guthrie Center 365, Woodward-Granger 365, Van Meter 379, EAST GREENE 392, Madrid 415, West Central Valley 427.

The girls teed it up at Coon Rapids for the conference golf tourney with the host Crusaders coming out on top. EG placed ninth among nine full teams as West Central Valley did not field a complete team of four golfers to be counted in the team scoring.

FINAL TEAM SCORES @ COON RAPIDS: Coon Rapids-Bayard 440, Madrid 442, Panorama 462, Van Meter 466, Des Moines Christian 472, Woodward Granger 472, Guthrie Center 475, Earlham 512, EAST GREENE 779.