EG Wins District Opener

HAWKS DOWN SWG; CRB IS UP NEXT

East Greene upended Southeast Webster-Grand 4-1 in Coon Rapids last night in district tourney first-round action. The Hawks advance to the semifinal round where they will face Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Hawks had 9 hits in picking up the win, moving their season record to 17-11. SWG ended the year at 0-25.

CRB beat Glidden-Ralston 13-4 in the second half of a twin bill in Coon Rapids last night. CRB broke open a tight 3-2 game with six runs in the fourth inning. The Crusaders added four more runs in the sixth to secure the win. Tyler Boeke got the win for CRB, moving his record to 8-0 with Gage Reis pitching the last inning in relief.

CRB, co-champs of the West Central Conference, improved to 24-7. GR bowed out at 10-10.

In the other side of the District 12 bracket, Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira, the No. 4 ranked team in Class 1A, moved its season mark to 26-0 with a 9-0 win over Adair-Casey, which made it to the state tournament last year. EHKE’s Carson Smith struck out 17 Bomber batters and gave up just 3 hits in the shutout win, which moved his season record to 11-0. It was the Spartans fourth win this season over AC, which ended the year 8-16. AC finished fifth in the seven-team Rolling Hills Conference with a 4-8 record.

EHKE will be going for its third win against CAM (Anita) in its semifinal matchup in Adair tomorrow night. The Spartans downed CAM 14-5 and 14-3 in Rolling Hills action, the second win coming last Friday in Anita. CAM finished in sixth place in the league at 3-9. The Cougars received a bye in the first round. They head into the EHKE game with a 4-14 overall season mark.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: It was last year in the semifinal round at Coon Rapids that AC soundly beat the Crusaders 8-3 to move on the district and substate championship games, where they downed Walnut 9-1 and AHST (Avoca) 6-4. CRB was hosting the first round, semifinal and final games in the district, and hosting the substate game, so with a glossy 24-6 record and having just been edged out for the league title in the West Central (tying with Earlham at 13-5 for runner-up spot with Des Moines Christian and Panorama winning the title at just one game ahead, 14-4), the Crusaders looked to be the solid favorite, although AC was 17-4 heading into that game and had finished second in the RH to Iowa Christian.

Hopefully, the Hawks can pull the same “home diamond surprise” on CRB this year. CRB has already downed the Hawks twice in their run to the league co-championship. The first win was in Coon Rapids on June 29, 5-2, with the Hawks’ Tyler Cooklin taking the loss on the mound, despite giving up just one hit and striking out 10 batters. The Hawks were hampered by Cooklin walking 8 batters and the defense committing 5 errors. Freshman Reed Ostrander and seniors Nathan Beyerink and Jessie Priest shared mound duties in the 17-6 pounding suffered by EG at home last Friday, which was ended by the 10-rule after six innings. Ostrander pitched four innings and Priest and Beyerink, primarily outfielders, pitched an inning each in relief. Combined, they gave up 10 hits, 11 walks and hit 4 batters while striking out 3.

The Hawks did rack up 7 hits in the game against CRB hurler Boeke and the defense showed improvement from June 29 game with just 2 errors. Boeke struck out 8 Hawks but walked 8, yet his teammates played error-free ball to back him up.

Hopefully the Hawks can catch the Crusaders looking past EG—a team they’ve beaten twice—to unbeaten and highly-ranked EHKE, which looks to be the likely opponent in the district final. Perhaps the earlier victories over EG and the home field advantage on Thursday and again on Saturday in the final will give them a slight bit of over-confidence.

The Hawks will need to reach deep and remember they moved on in the semifinal round last year with a win over Madrid that propelled them to wins in the final over GMG (Garwin) in Ames and then Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines) in the substate game in Ankeny. That team started the tourney trail at 10-14 while this year’s squad racked up a higher finish in a tougher West Central as GR (3-15 in the league last year) was replaced by Woodward-Granger, the 2009 champion of Heart of Iowa-Small Conference that racked up a 20-9 overall record. WG beat EG by just one run in each of the two Hawks vs. Hawks showdowns this year in the conference. And this year’s team entered the post-season with 16 wins against 11 losses and moved up from seventh to fifth in a more competitive West Central.

EG Heads Down the Homestretch

14-YEAR RUN IN WEST CENTRAL IN FINAL WEEKS

East Greene is headed down the home stretch of its 14-year run in the West Central Conference as the softball and baseball seasons enter their final weeks.

When the bats and gloves are hung up for the year, the Hawks will leave the West Central behind and begin competition this fall in the Rolling Hills Conference.

Coming on the heels of last year’s march to the State 1A Baseball Tournament, the Hawks had high hopes of winning the West Central baseball crown in their final year in the league. As last week got underway, the Hawks picked up a big win against Earlham, 5-3, in Rippey. That win came after a good showing at a tournament the Hawks hosted on Saturday. EG took on two Class 2A teams and came out with a split. EG opened the tournament with a 10-4 win over East Sac County but fell to Interstate 35 (Truro) in the championship game, 7-4. EG had the same experience at I-35’s tournament earlier this season, beating another “East” (East Union of Afton) in the first game but losing in the final to the Roadrunners.

The Earlham game was significant as the Cardinals were runner-up in last year’s WC race and one of the pre-season favorites to win the 2010 crown. The loss dropped Earlham to 4-4 in the conference while putting the Hawks at 5-2, just behind co-leaders Woodward-Granger and Des Moines Christian at 7-0 and Coon Rapids-Bayard at 6-1.

However, the Hawks fell 10-9 to Van Meter the following night, June 20, to drop to 5-3 in the league. Each of the three league losses was by just one run. EG took another hit on Thursday, falling to league co-leader Des Moines Christian in Urbandale, 4-1. The Hawks did bounce back to beat Iowa Christian, 4-2, in a big game the following night on the Blazers’ home field in Waukee. That moved the Hawks overall record to 12-6. Iowa Christian is the defending Rolling Hills champion and vying with Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira and Glidden-Ralston for this year’s title.

The win over ICA gives EG a good look at how it stacks up against RH teams as the Hawks have already beaten GR this season. EHKE leads the Rolling Hills with a perfect 9-0 mark. The Spartans, in their first year of shared baseball between EHK and Exira, are 18-0 overall and ranked 5th in Class 1A.

Rolling Hills Baseball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 9 – 0 18–0
Iowa Christian Academy 8 – 2 9–6
Glidden-Ralston 7 – 4 9–6
Walnut 5 – 5 11–10
CAM 1 – 6 2–10
Adair-Casey 1 – 6 3–11
Orient-Macksburg 1 – 9 4–12

EG got back on the winning track this week with a win Monday over Guthrie Center but fell to Coon Rapids-Bayard Tuesday night in Coon Rapids, 5-2. CRB started the week at 8-1 in the league and on Monday won both games of a doubleheader against Des Moines Christian, which had been unbeaten in the conference, to tie with Woodward-Granger for the league lead at 10-1 and drop DMC to third place at 9-2.

DMC fell again on Tuesday, losing at Earlham to fall further behind the co-leaders at 9-3 while Earlham improved to 8-4, good for fourth place, with EG at 6-5 for fifth. In a make-up game from a rainout earlier this season, Woodward-Granger beat Madrid, 9-0, to move back up on top of the league standings at 12-1, a half-game over Coon Rapids-Bayard. DMC disposed of West Central Valley, 12-2, in a game shortened by the 10-run rule after 5 innings, moving its mark to 10-3 and keeping the Lions in the league hunt. Elsewhere in the league, CRB downed Boyer Valley (Dunlap) in a non-conference game, moving its season record to 17-4, and Van Meter nearly scored the upset of the season, putting a real scare into Class 1A top-ranked and undefeated Martensdale-St. Mary’s, before falling 6-5.

West Central Baseball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Woodward-Granger 12–1 17–4
Coon Rapids-Bayard 11–1 17–5
Des Moines Christian 10–3 11–6
Earlham 8–4 12–8
East Greene 6–5 13–7
Van Meter 5–8 13–10
Panorama 5–8 6–11
Madrid 3–10 5–13
West Central Valley 2–11 4–16
Guthrie Center 1–12 3–18

Conference competition resumes tonight with EG hosting West Central Valley. In other key games Des Moines Christian hosts Woodward-Granger and CRB travels to Earlham for a doubleheader.

HAWKETTES GET BIG WINS OVER DMC, CRB

While the Hawks were getting their hats handed to them on the baseball fields at Des Moines Christian and Coon Rapids-Bayard, the Hawkettes notched big wins on their hosts’ softball diamonds.

EG left Urbandale with an 8-7 win over DMC last Thursday to pick up its second win in the conference. The Hawkettes are short in numbers this season with just 11 girls on the roster—leaving just two on the bench. But the team has made remarkable strides from the beginning of the season and has become a formidable competitor. Just two nights before beating DMC, which had been ranked as high as 14th in Class 1A, the Hawkettes nearly upset Van Meter before falling 5-4 to the [then] Class 2A 12th-ranked Bulldogs.

Earlier in the season, DMC had pummeled the Hawkettes 13-0 in 5 innings in Grand Junction just one night after Van Meter had rolled over EG 15-4, so the Hawkettes are clearly making big strides. And they play in a power-packed conference. Five of the 10 teams in the West Central have been ranked this season, and two are currently among the state’s leaders. Woodward-Granger (22-1) is ranked 4th in Class 1A (moving up from 5th last week) while Van Meter (20-6) is 13th in 2A. Earlham, last year’s West Central champion, went on to win the 2009 State 1A Championship and is competing in 2A this year. Des Moines Christian and Madrid have also been ranked in Class 1A.

Against DMC, the Hawkettes pounded out 8 hits with Malarie Gilley and Katlyn Gannon each going 2-4 with 2 RBIs and a double while Tia Lowe went 2-3 with 2 RBIs. Gilley was on the mound for EG and the Lions pounded her for 14 hits, including two home runs by shortstop Annette Bosman. Gilley struck out 3, walked 1 and hit one batter.

DMC’s offense was undone by its defense as the Lions logged 6 errors compared to EG’s 2. Leah Harris, daughter of DMC coach Howard Harris, took the loss, giving up 7 hits, striking out 7, and walking 2.

EG fell to Guthrie Center 5-1 on Monday night but came back the following night to get a big win over CRB in Coon Rapids in 8 innings, 6-4. EG pounded out 12 hits in the win and got big boost from 5 Crusader errors. The win gave EG the home-and-home sweep over CRB and moved them from 9th in the conference standings to 8th, dropping CRB down to the nine spot.

EG fell to Earlham 7-1 in Grand Junction in a makeup game last night but still remains a half-game ahead of CRB.

EG takes on West Central Valley, winless in 15 games in the conference, tonight in a home game that might be played as a doubleheader, since the two teams need to make up game rained out earlier this season. WCV is the last game on the EG schedule, but the Hawkettes still have a makeup game with Madrid.

WG clinched the title last night with a pounding of DMC, 14-2, in just 3 innings, and is now 16-0. Van Meter is in second at 13-3. Earlham moved into a tie for third place with Madrid and DMC at 10-5.

West Central Softball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Woodward-Granger 16–0 25–1
Van Meter 13–3 20–6
Des Moines Christian 10–5 10–9
Madrid 10–5 14–9
Earlham 10–5 15–12
Panorama 8–8 10–12
Guthrie Center 5–12 8–15
East Greene 3–12 4–13
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3–13 7–15
West Central Valley 0–15 2–18

East Greene opens Class 1A Regional Tournament action against Southeast Webster-Grand (10-12) next Wednesday night, July 7, in Ogden. The winner moves on to the quarterfinal round at Glidden on Friday against the winner of Wednesday night’s first round game between Glidden-Ralston (3-14) and Ar-We-Va (4-11). The winner at Glidden moves on to the semifinal round at Fonda on Monday, July 12. The other half of the Fonda semifinal bracket gets underway Wednesday with Aurelia taking on St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) in Fonda. Newell-Fonda, ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, gets a first-round bye and will meet the Aurelia-St. Mary’s winner in quarterfinal game in Fonda on Wednesday.

The Fonda semifinal winner will go up against Spencer semifinal winner in the Regional final at Manson on Wednesday, July 14.

Teams in the Spencer side of the bracket are Ruthven-Ayrshire, Clay Central-Everly, Graettinger-Terril, Harris-Lake Park, Twin River Valley, West Bend-Mallard, Laurens-Marathon and Alta. First and second round games will be played at Milford, Lake Park, Algona and Alta.

Glidden-Ralston is in its first year in the Rolling Hills Conference, after nearly winning the West Central Crown last year while racking up a 13-5 league mark, just behind conference champion Earlham at 15-3. The teams met in the regional semifinals with Earlham prevailing 5-1 and advancing on to win the regional and the State 1A tournament in Fort Dodge the following week, finishing the year at 33-8. GR, with a number of seniors, finished at 23-8, one of its best seasons in school history. This year’s squad is in a rebuilding year with many newcomers. The Wildcats got off to a good start with a 2-2 mark in the Rolling Hills, just behind leader EHKE (4-0) and CAM (2-1) but the team has struggled as of late, dropping to 2-7 and last place in the six-team conference.

EG beat the Wildcats in a non-conference game Friday, June 11, in Glidden, 7-2. EHKE has clinched the Rolling Hills title with 9-0 record and one conference game remaining with Adair-Casey (2-5). EHKE is 16-6 overall and opens regional play on Wednesday at Avoca against AHST. Conference foes CAM, Adair-Casey and Walnut area also in the same region, along with Coon Rapids-Bayard and Woodward-Granger from the West Central.

Rolling Hills Softball Standings (through Wed., June 30)
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 9 – 0 16–6
Walnut 5 – 4 7–14
Orient-Macksburg 4 – 4 6–13
CAM (Anita) 3 – 4 4–11
Adair-Casey 2 – 5 2–14
Glidden-Ralston 2 – 7 3–14

EYE ON GJ SAYS: EG and GR were moved “up north” in this year’s regional alignment. With Grand Junction and Glidden on Highway 30, which forms a line cutting through the middle of the state, EG and GR are the bottom border of a region that stretches all the way to the Minnesota state line. Harris is in Osceola County and Lake Park is in Dickinson County, as are Milford and Terril. Both counties border Minnesota, as does Kossuth County, where Algona is located.

The opening round will bring together East Greene and one of its longtime rivals, Southeast Webster-Grand. Before East Greene joined the West Central Conference in 1996-97, it was a member of the Coon River Valley Conference along with Southeast Webster, Paton-Churdan, Glidden-Ralston, Newell-Fonda, St. Mary’s (Storm Lake), Pomeroy-Palmer and Schaller-Crestland. Pomeroy-Palmer is now aligned with Pocahontas in sports, and Schaller-Crestland is aligned with Galva Holstein, playing as Ridge View.

East Greene and the three schools that make up Southeast Webster-Grand—Central Webster (Burnside), Dayton and Grand (Boxholm)—were charter members of the Little Central Conference that was formed in 1959-60 when East Greene, Grand and Central Webster were newly formed “community” school districts. Stratford and Churdan rounded out the 6-team league. EG and CW along with Paton-Churdan were also charter members of the first West Central Conference in 1966-67. This being the 50th anniversary of East Greene, it is interesting to note that EG will ends its girls’ athletic presence in the West Central with an old West Central and Little Central rival in the post-season.

Comparing the two, SWG has a better overall record and is the only 1A school in the Twin Lakes Conference. The other five are all 2A. SWG is currently in third place in the league at 5-3 with two games to go. Prairie Valley and East Sac are first and second. Prairie Valley was ranked 12th in Class 2A early in the season, but then fell out of the rankings.

EG plays the same number of 2A teams (5) that SWG does and in a much stronger league. EG also plays an 18-game league schedule while the Twin Lakes teams play just 10.

The Hawkettes have performed remarkably well with such a small group (11 players) in such a large conference—10 teams and half them in a higher classification. Plus, EG is the smallest of the five smaller schools.

Anything that can happen in these tournament games, so look for the Hawkettes to give the Eagles a tough time in the regional opener.

Look for the West Central overall to make a solid mark in the post-season. The five 1A schools are playing in four different regions. EG is in Region 2 (final at Manson) while Madrid is Region 3 (final at Fort Dodge). Des Moines Christian is in Region 6 (final at Pella) along with 8th-ranked Lynville-Sully. Woodward-Granger and Coon Rapids-Bayard are both in Region 8 (final at Atlantic) with each team opening the tournament at home. If both WG and CRB advance, they would play each other in a quarterfinal game in Woodward. Tenth-ranked Treynor is in the opposite side of the Region 8 bracket, so a possible WG-Treynor match-up is possible in the regional final.

In Class 2A, Earlham, Van Meter, Guthrie Center, Panorama and West Central Valley are all in Region 8 and all in the upper half of the bracket. In the opening round on Thursday, July 8, Earlham hosts Nodaway Valley (Greenfield) and West Central Valley travels to Interstate-35 (Truro). Those winners play Friday at Truro. Also on Thursday, Guthrie Center hosts Audubon and Van Meter hosts Panorama. The winners meet Friday at Van Meter. Van Meter is also the site of the Monday night semifinal match-up between Thursday’s winners. The final is on Wednesday in Creston. Van Meter is one of the favorites in the region along with I-35, ranked 10th, and Wayne (Corydon), ranked 8th. Corydon is the site of the first two rounds with the semifinal to be played in Mt. Ayr. Other teams on Wayne’s side of the bracket are
Clarinda, Red Oak, Griswold, Shenandoah, Clarke, Pleasantville and Central Decatur (Leon).

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.

Spring Sports Head Down 'Home Stretch'

CONFERENCE TRACK, GOLF MEETS THIS WEEK

East Greene closes out is final spring season in the West Central Conference this week with golf and track meets.

The Hawk and Hawkette track teams head to Guthrie Center tomorrow, May 4, for the conference track meet and the EG golf teams tee off today at the conference golf meet in Woodward. The track teams will return to Guthrie Center on Friday, May 14, for girls and boys district track action.

The EG boys are looking to move up in the team standings at the conference track meet. Last year EG scored 8 points for ninth place. The Hawks have some very good showings in meets this year, with upper division finishes in their own Hawkette/Toyne Relays meet held in Jefferson and at the Wildcat Relays hosted by Glidden-Ralston in Carroll. EG has founded it a little tougher going however in larger meets.

During a busy five day-stretch from Friday, April 16, and ending Tuesday, April 20, the Hawks finished fourth of eight teams at the Glidden-Ralston meet; seventh among nine teams at Southeast-Webster Grand Relays in Burnside; and third of eight teams at their own Toyne Relays in Jefferson.

EG crowned two champions at the G-R meet with Wes Onken winning the discus (126-7) and the 4 x 200 relay of Tyler Gathercoal, Aaron Lyons, Tom Beger and Schyler Bardole taking first with a time of 1:41.43. Freshman Reed Ostrander was second in the long jump (18-4) and the 4 x 100 relay (Jessie Priest, Gathercoal, Beger, Bardole) was runner-up to Adair-Casey (46.59) at 48.18.

The 1600 meter medley relay (Ostrander, Lyons, Priest, Tyler Cooklin) finished third at 4:14.89 as did the shuttle hurdle relay (Gathercoal, Beger, Cooklin, Ben Most) in 1:11.66 and Zach Dearborn in the high jump (5-6). EG secured fourth-place finishes in 4 x 800 meter relay, 100 meter dash (Bardole), shot put (Bardole) and 4 x 400 relay. Most rounded out the scoring with sixth in the 110 meter high hurdles (18.97).

TEAM SCORING @ GR: Audubon 143, Adair-Casey 108.5, Glidden-Ralston 81, EAST GREENE 74, Ar-We-Va 71, Coon Rapids-Bayard 50, CAM (Anita) 14.5, Aurelia 12.

Points and high finishes were harder to come by at Burnside the following Monday. The meet included three teams from the Twins Lakes Conference and several tough north central Iowa teams. Bardole brought home second in the shot put with a toss of 42-1 to lead the Hawks. The 4 x 100 relay (47.74) finished third, just being edged out by Southern Cal (46.18) and Rockwell City-Lytton (47.05). Those three teams went head-to-head in the 4 x 200 relay along with Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg). The same foursome as in the 4 x 100 (Priest, Lyons, Beger, Bardole) posted a very solid time of 1:39.85 in a tough field for fourth place. Southern Cal again came out on top at 1:36.43, just ahead of Northeast Hamilton (1:36.66) and Rockwell City-Lytton (1:37.46), but EG finished well ahead of conference rival Woodward-Granger (1:43.10).

EG coach Dean Lyons told the Jefferson Herald that the Hawks are putting particular emphasis on shaving times off the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays and seeing improvement from Priest in the 400 meter dash.

EG fared well in the field events overall at SWG as Wes Onken (119-4) and Tory Beger (109-0) finished fourth and sixth in the discus, Reed Ostrander was fourth in the long jump (17-10), and Zach Dearborn took sixth in the high jump (5-8).
The Hawks also picked up points from sixth-place finishes in the sprint medley and 4 x 400 relays, Most in the 110 meter high hurdles and Bardole in the 100 meter dash.

TEAM SCORING @ SWG: Northeast Hamilton 130, Rockwell City-Lytton 110, Southern Cal 88, Woodward-Granger 81, CWL 45, Southeast Webster-Grand 38, EG 33, Glidden-Ralston 22, Coon Rapids-Bayard 7.

The spotlight shone brightly on the Hawks as they hosted their own meet the following night on the all-weather track in Jefferson. EG scored 82 points to take third, trailing only meet winner Jefferson-Scranton JV, 127.5, and Des Moines Christian, 121. As Jefferson-Scranton is a 3A school in track, EG technically finished as runner-up among the seven same-size schools competing at the Toyne Relays. All of the other schools in the meet were 1A, with the exception of Ogden, a 2A school. And the J-S competitors were formidable as the varsity Rams have won big meets this season against 3A competitors at Creston, Prairie Valley (Gowrie) and Jefferson, and finished second at Winterset, so the level of JV competition in a track squad of that size (50 members) is pretty solid.

EG scored points in all the field event and all the relays, with the 4 x 100 meter team taking first with a time of 47.99. Priest took second in the 400 meters (53.95) and the 4 x 200 meter unit (1:40.47) came in second to West Central foe DMC. The Hawks scored somewhat of a runner-up sweep in the field events, taking second in three of the four events. Finishing second were Bardole (41-9.5) in the shotput, Onken (126-2) in the discus, and Ostrander (18-9) in the long jump. Tory Beger was fifth in the discus (100-1) and Zach Hiller’s sixth in the shot put (34-9).

The shuttle hurdle relay (1:11.1) came in third with the distance medley (4:14.66), 4 x 800 (11:22.08) and 4 x 400 (4:26.21) relays each placing fourth. Bardole was fourth in 100 meter dash (11.9) and Most was sixth in the 110 meter high hurdles (19.15).

Paton-Churdan had good showings from Taylor King and Brandon Tilley. King won the 3,200 meter run (11:18.45) and was runner-up in the 1,600 meter run (5:16.7). Tilley finished fourth in the 800 meter run (2:24.14).

TEAM SCORING @ EG: Jefferson-Scranton JV 127.5, Des Moines Christian 121, EAST GREENE 82, Ogden 78.5, Glidden-Ralston 65, Coon Rapids-Bayard 32, Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines) 24, Paton-Churdan 22.

The Hawk track team faced its toughest competition of the season last Tuesday in Audubon, tying for 12th place in very tough 13-team field. Griswold won the meet with 111 points followed by IKM-Manning at 101, Treynor 80.5, Tri-Center 51, Audubon 47.5, Guthrie Center 37, Adair-Casey 32, West Central Valley 25, Villisca 23.5, Walnut 22, Coon Rapids-Bayard 9.5, East Greene 9, CAM (Anita) 9.

It was the first meet of the season where EG placed behind conference rival Coon Rapids-Bayard, having finished ahead of the Crusaders in all three of its recent meets.

GIRLS TRACK: Heidi Kiner got a big win for the girls team in the Hawkette/Toyne Relays, breaking the tape in 18:31 to claim first in the 100 meter hurdles. Teammate Jessi Beaman was fourth in 19.83 in the same event. Kiner and Beaman teamed up with Tia Lowe and Bobbie Halterman to finish fourth (2:23.94) in the sprint medley relay. The 4 x 100 meter relay (Kiner, Molly Neese, Lowe, Beaman) took fourth (1:03.05) and Haltermann was fourth in the 1,500 meter run (6:04.1), two spots ahead of Stephanie Thompson of Paton-Churdan (7:22.62). Lowe rounded out the EG scoring with a sixth-place finish in the 400 meter dash (1:17.64).

EG finished fourth of six teams with 37 points, its best showing of the year.

PC’s sprint medley relay team of Abby Koch, Makayla Minnehan, Taryn Jewett and Jaclyn Baldwin finished fifth (2:27.09) just behind EG. Baldwin took fifth in the 100 meter dash (13.75) and Minnehan was sixth in the 100 meter hurdles (21.61) to round out the PC scoring.

TEAM SCORING @ EG: Des Moines Christian 186, Ogden 166, Glidden-Ralston 83, EAST GREENE 37, Coon Rapids-Bayard 32, Paton-Churdan 14.

East Greene and conference foe Coon Rapids-Bayard have been going head-to-head this season with EG placing ahead of CRB in its own meet at Jefferson and at GR’s Wildcat Relays in Jefferson, but CRB came out ahead of the Hawkettes at SWG and an earlier season meet at Prairie Valley (Gowrie). EG’s season got off to a slow start with just 2 points scored at Gowrie, placing behind PC at 7 and CRB at 6. Halterman scored EG’s only points with fifth place in 3,000 meter run.

The Hawkettes have just a half-dozen team members and are limited to just five or six events per meet, so any points scored in the team standings are well earned. EG fared very well in the GR meet with 23 points to 12 for CRB, keeping the Hawkettes out of last place. Halterman was second in the 3,200 (13.07.4) and third in the 1,500 (6:04.53). The distance medley relay placed fourth, as did Lowe in the 400 hurdles. Kiner was sixth in the 100 hurdles.

TEAM SCORING @ GR: Audubon 185, Ar-We-Va 91, Adair-Casey and Glidden-Ralston 73, Aurelia 56, CAM (Anita) 43, EAST GREENE 23, Coon Rapids-Bayard 12.

The situation was reversed at Burnside with CRB scoring 19 points, ahead of CWL (Corwith) with 16 and EG in last place with 10. EG got points from Halterman finishing third in the 3,000, and sixth place finishes from Kiner in the 100 hurdles and the sprint medley relay.

TEAM SCORING @ SWG: Woodward-Granger 217, Southern Cal (Lake City) 138, Southeast Webster-Grand 62, Rockwell City-Lytton 56, Glidden-Ralston 45, Coon Rapids-Bayard 19, CWL (Corwith) 16, EAST GREENE 10.

Beyond tomorrow’s conference meet, the Hawks and Hawkettes will be looking for peak performances at the district meet on May 14. The top two finishers in each event of the boys district meet advance on to the 1A state track meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on May 22. In girls 1A track, each event winner of 12 regional meets advances to the state meet at Drake along with the next 12 best performances from among all 12 regionals. The girls state meet is run in conjunction with the boys meet in all four classes—1A, 2A, 3A and 4A.

BOYS GOLF: The Hawk golfers will be looking to improve on last year’s conference meet where they finished eighth among the 10 league teams, edging out Guthrie Center and West Central Valley (Stuart) and placing just behind conference newcomer Madrid.

EG has already notched a win over the Tigers, finishing second in a triangular on its home course at Lakeside Golf Course near Spring Lake. Woodward-Granger took first with 187, ahead of EG at 203 and Madrid’s 207. Josh Neese and Jessie Priest paced the Hawks with rounds of 48 followed by Zach Beyerink, 51, and Zach Hiller, 56.

The Hawks lost dual matches to Southeast Webster-Grand (178-194), Van Meter (187-228) and Guthrie Center (188-236). Josh Neese tied for medalist honors against Guthrie Center’s Patrick Ahrens and Zach Cain at 45 for the nine-hole round at Guthrie Center Golf Club.

Several of the Hawks’ top golfers are also on the track team, so the Hawks were a bit short-handed in a four-team tourney hosted by Southeast Webster-Grand at Dayton on April 20, the same night of the Toyne Relays. Prairie Valley won the meet with a 164 followed by SWG 174, Ogden 185, and EG 257. Neese paced the Hawks with a 52, followed by Zach Beyerink 54, Jacob Fester 60, and Brice Smith 90.

GIRLS GOLF: East Greene has just four members on the girls golf team and all but one are newcomers. It takes four golfers to combine for a team score and in some contests not all the Hawkette golfers are available. EG hosted Woodward-Granger and Madrid in a triangular on its home course, The Hill Golf Course at Grand Junction, on April 5 to open the season . WG won with a 219 followed by Madrid, 242, and EG, 329. Brandi Burrow and Kim Hatfield each shot 74 to lead EG. Leah Perry shot 78 and Tessa Lorentzen 103.

EG faced Van Meter on April 13 at River Valley Golf Course at Adel. The Bulldogs won the dual, 244-387. Hatfield led EG with 79, followed by Perry 88, and Lorentzen and Burrow both at 90.

EG took on SWG in dual at the Hill on April 14 with the Eaglettes shooting a 194, and two Hawkettes taking the course for EG. Perry shot 71 and Lorenzen 89. Hatfield and Lorenzen were on hand when EG hosted CRB on April 19 at the Hill. Hatfield shot a 68 and Lorentzen 114. CRB shot a 195.

The full Hawkette squad traveled to Guthrie Center on April 16, falling to the Tigerettes, 227 to 346.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Coon Rapids-Bayard has dominated both boys and girls conference golf the last few years but the Crusader boys team will face a challenge this year from Panorama. CRB won both boys and girls conference titles last year and both squads made it through section and district play to advance to the state golf tournament.

Panorama has racked up a 23-4 record so far this year (based on wins in dual and triangular meets and overall tournament finishes) and is ranked 12th in Class 2A by the Iowa Golf Coaches Association. Panorama got the best of CRB in a head-to-head competition, 179 to 200, on Friday at Lake Panorama National. The Panthers also had a sizable advantage over CRB in the 12-team Panorama Invitational on April 24. Panorama took third with 156 while the Crusaders were eighth at 176.

CRB and Panorama have dominated the conference meet with the Crusaders winning eight championships since 1993 and Panorama winning five, all since 2000.

Just as CRB could be upended in golf today, the same fate could await Panorama in track tomorrow. The Panthers have breezed to the title the last three years, adding to the previous 14 West Central Conference crowns the school has won since it was formed in 1990. Panorama faced a challenge from Madrid in several meets last year, but the Panthers prevailed at the conference meet in Guthrie Center. Madrid is as strong this year as the team that won the state 1A title last year, if not better. The Tigers have taken team titles at Southern Cal and Colo-Nesco. When the Tigers and Panthers went up against each other April 20 at the Ballard Classic Relays in Huxley, Madrid came away with the Class B team championship with 148 points while Panorama was fourth in Class B with 60. The same scenario prevailed last Tuesday at the Bengal Relays in Gilbert with Madrid taking the crown among eight teams with 167 points and Panorama finishing fourth with 71.5.

EG will look to move up from last year’s ninth-place finish, two points behind Glidden-Ralston, since departed from the West Central, and five ahead of West Central Valley. GR has been replaced by Woodward-Granger, a solid track program. CRB, however, had one of its best track teams in years and scored 36 points for sixth place. The Hawks have been getting the edge over the Crusaders in most meets, so hopefully EG can keep that advantage and stay head of WCV while moving ahead of CRB in the standings.

Madrid should take the league crown while Panorama and Guthrie Center battle for second. What’s not clear is how the middle of the pack will shake out and how strong Van Meter and Earlham are this year. DMC had a 40-point advantage over EG at the Toyne Relays so it doesn’t look like the Hawks could leapfrog over the Lions. At the Ballard meet, Earlham was just 14 points behind Panorama with WG and WCV not that far behind. Comparatively, Van Meter scored 47 points at the Gilbert meet to finish sixth of eight teams, but in strong field.

Last year, EG scored in just three events and no higher than fourth in any of them. Bardole and Onken are both back in their field events, and the Hawks’ 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays are looking solid. Priest is strong in the 400 and if some of the other events that the Hawks placed in can bring in some fifth or sixth places and the strong events can score close to the top, EG can certainly improve on last year’s showing.

The Hawks will need to do much better than they did among the 13-team meet last week in Audubon, where WCV was well ahead of them in the points tally and CRB was one-half point better, leaving the Hawks stranded at 9 points total, tying them with CAM for the bottom.

The EG girls will be looking to get on the board as they were blanked at last year’s conference meet. Hopefully, that can get ahead of CRB, which scored just 3 points last year to take ninth. The hurdlers and Halterman in the distance events look to the best bets to score points.

The same scenario holds true in girls golf as EG will be hoping to field a full team and get on the team leaderboard. CRB looks to maintain its dominant position in the West Central. Panorama is a solid team, but not much of a threat as CRB beat them soundly in dual match earlier this season. Panorama has never won a West Central girls golf title.

Panorama’s girls team will most likely be unchallenged to snare an unprecedented 12th consecutive West Central track championship and 15th overall. Woodward-Granger looked to offer some solid completion to Panorama’s win streak, trailing the Lady Panthers by just a few points in some key meets but as the season moved along, Panorama returned to form and posted a big 42 point advantage over runner-up WG in winning the Tigerette Relays at Guthrie Center. The Lady Panthers have also won meets at Carroll and Perry and its own Kim Janvrin Invitational in Panora, while finishing second at the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn and Dallas Center-Grimes meets.

This year’s boys conference golf meet will be interesting as last year Glidden-Ralston nailed down the runner-up spot, just 20 strokes behind CRB. With GR now in the Rolling Hills Conference, it will be interesting to see how new member Woodward-Granger performs. WG does have a 16-stroke advantage over EG from the triangular meet that opened the season, but that was early so it will be interesting to see if EG can close the gap. Neese has greatly improved from the beginning of the season. A senior, he will be looking to close out his golf career at EG with a good showing. Priest is also a senior and a good outing from him could help move the Hawks up in the team standings. The Hawks have a good sized squad this year so they can send out their top six golfers on the course at Woodward with the best four counting in the team score.

Guthrie looks improved over last year’s ninth place showing, so EG will most likely fall behind them, especially since the Tigers took the Hawks to task in their head-to-head matchup. EG will need to keep the edge it had over Madrid in their triangular at Lakeside earlier this year. Van Meter and Des Moines Christian fielded strong teams last year, placing fourth and fifth in the conference and then placing second and third in the sectional meet at Pleasantville, which advanced them on to the district meet. VM had a 40-stroke advantage over EG in their dual meet, so they look to be strong again this year. Not clear is how strong DMC is this year, or Earlham for that matter, and if WCV is improved enough to move up from last place.

Next year the Hawks and Hawkettes will move to the Rolling Hills and resume conference competition with old rivals Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan.

East Greene Joins Rolling Hills Conference

WILL COMPETE AGAIN WITH PC, GR

East Greene will become a member of the Rolling Hills Activities Conference effective with the 2010-2011 school year. East Greene is currently a member of the West Central Conference.

Members of the Rolling Hills are 1A schools while the enrollments of the current West Central members are divided between 1A and 2A schools, depending upon the sport. In track, all but two of the West Central schools are 1A but in basketball this past season there were just 4 in 1A with the remaining 6 in 2A. In girls basketball and volleyball this year only EG, Madrid, Coon-Rapids-Bayard and Des Moines Christian were in 1A while Panorama, Guthrie Center, Earlham, Van Meter, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger were in 2A. The ratio was the same in boys basketball, but Des Moines Christian, the only private school in the league, opted to play up a class as its Basic Enrollment Data Survey (BEDS) enrollment of 159 was just under the 2A cutoff, which would have made it the largest 1A school in the state. As DMC moved up, that meant a 2A school had to move down to keep the numbers even, and that school was another West Central member, Woodward-Granger. So in boys basketball, EG, Madrid, WG and CRB were the 1A schools and the other 6 were in 2A.

Two current members of the Rolling Hills are Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston, longtime rivals of East Greene. Other members of the 10-team league are Adair-Casey, Ankeny Christian Academy, CAM (Anita), Elk Horn-Kimballton, Exira, Iowa Christian Academy (West Des Moines), Orient-Macksburg and Walnut.

Each of the current league members participates in volleyball and girls and boys basketball, but some have sharing arrangements in the other official league sports of boys and girls track, boys and girls golf, baseball and softball. Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira will share all sports next year, which dropped the league to nine members, creating a spot for East Greene.

East Greene had responded to an invitation sent out by the Rolling Hills last year, but no action was taken by the league, but the move was made in advance of proposed changes expected the following year due to declining enrollments in districts covered by the Rolling Hills area—central, west central, western and southwestern Iowa.

SHIFTING ALIANCES: East Greene has been a member of the current West Central Conference since the 1996-1997 school year, when it joined the league along with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston. All three had been members of the Coon River Valley Conference along with Southeast Webster, another longtime EG rival, and four schools categorized more as northwest Iowa schools—Schaller-Crestland, Pomeroy-Palmer, Newell-Fonda and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake). EG and GR formed the southern edge of the conference.

The West Central in 1995-96 was comprised of Guthrie Center, Panorama, Coon Rapids-Bayard, Van Meter, Martensdale-St. Mary’s, Earlham, Adair-Casey and Nodaway Valley (Greenfield). That year—1996—proved to be rather pivotal as each of these leagues—Coon River Valley, West Central and Rolling Hills—saw some major shifting, along with the Pride of Iowa Conference, which like the West Central, had more of a southern Iowa flavor or “below Interstate 80.”

Martensdale and St. Mary’s are in Warren County, Earlham is in Madison County, and the communities that formed Nodaway Valley—Greenfield, Bridgewater and Fontanelle—are in southern Adair County. Nodaway Valley was formed by merger of Greenfield with its smaller school neighbor to the south and west, Bridgewater-Fontanelle.

That year saw Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Nodaway Valley leave the West Central to join the Pride of Iowa which had been a six-team league—Mount Ayr, I-35 (Truro), Southeast Warren, Wayne (Corydon), Central Decatur (Leon), and East Union (Afton). Geographically, the Pride of Iowa was much more southern Iowa-oriented as where Warren and Adair counties are in the third row up from the Missouri border, Decatur and Wayne counties are in first tier or actual border counties, and Mount Ayr is the county seat of Ringgold, another border county, and Union is the county just to the north of Ringgold.

While the shift of Martensdale and Nodaway made the Pride of Iowa an 8-team league, the West Central was left with just four teams as Earlham and Adair-Casey had defected to the Rolling Hills which was a league of 7 teams in southwest Iowa—Lenox, Corning, Orient-Macksburg, Walnut, Exira, Elk Horn-Kimballton and CAM, which was and continues to be a whole-grade and activities sharing arrangement between the Anita and Cumberland & Massena school districts. Among those seven school locations, only Exira and Elk Horn were north of Interstate 80, and each by fewer than 10 miles.

Several years later, Corning and Lenox left for the Pride of Iowa and Earlham joined the West Central in 2006, leaving the Rolling Hills with just 6 members. But during that period, Iowa Christian Academy had added varsity level sports as had the new Ankeny Christian Academy in Ankeny. Those two became Rolling Hills members in the mid-00s, while Paton-Churdan left the West Central after the 2006-2007 season and Glidden-Ralston did the same after 2008-2009.

PC, GR and EG had initially joined the West Central the same year Des Moines Christian joined and those four schools along with Panorama, Guthrie Center, Van Meter and CRB were the nucleus of the league until West Central Valley (formerly the Stuart-Menlo and Dexfield of Redfield districts) joined in 2001.

DMC had been a K-8 school in the Beaverdale area of Des Moines but added high school program in the 1990s and was already planning to build a new high school campus in the western suburbs of Des Moines. That new campus has since opened in the Timberline area in Urbandale (west of I-35/80). After DMC came onto the scene, a second private Christian high school opened, Grandview Park Baptist, in northeast Des Moines. Iowa Christian and Ankeny Christian followed, giving the Des Moines are four small, independent schools. East Greene has competed with all of them since their founding, so a relationship with the ICA and ACA has already existed.

After West Central Valley joined the West Central, the league became nine members. A few years later, Earlham left the Pride of Iowa and joined the West Central, making it an even-numbered 10-team league. Despite the defections of PC and GR the league stayed at 10 members, as it added Madrid two years ago to replace PC and last year Woodward-Granger joined as a replacement to GR.

Both Madrid and WG had been members of the Heart of Iowa, which divides itself up in Large and Small divisions. Both were in the Small division. As declining enrollments have been affecting a wide swath of schools, each time a team leaves the Heart of Iowa (comprised of mostly 2A but some 3A and 1A schools) another school from a larger league shifts down because they have found it hard to compete among the larger 3A schools. Jefferson-Scranton is a case in point. JS joined the HOI (Large) two years ago to replace Madrid, and this year Nevada became a member to take the spot vacated by Woodward-Granger. Each had been a member of the all-3A Raccoon River Conference. And Boone, which was either a small 4A or a big 3A, depending upon whichever IHSAA or IGHSAU enrollment classifications were in play for a particular sport, moved from the Little Hawkeye (big 3A schools like Norwalk, Pella and formerly Waukee, now a 4A) to the Raccoon River, replacing Nevada.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This move to the Rolling Hills seems to be a mixed bag for the East Greene Community School District. At first glance, it would seem to be a “no brainer” as it levels the playing field for the athletes competing for East Greene. No longer would a school with a BEDS enrollment of 81 (dropping to a projected 74 in three years) like EG have to go head-to-head in individual (golf, track) and team sports against schools with more than double the BEDS enrollment, such as West Central Valley and Panorama.

Yet on the other hand, the students and fans actually know pretty much where the towns that make up West Central Valley and Panorama are located, albeit they enroll more students. Stuart, Menlo, Redfield and Dexter of the WCV district are down by the Interstate (80), while Panora and Lake Panorama and the former YJB towns that make up the district (Bagley, Yale, Jamaica) are just over the Greene County line south into Guthrie County. Earlham, Van Meter, Madrid, Woodward—-all small towns in the “near Des Moines” realm not at all unlike Grand Junction, Rippey and Dana. And who in eastern Greene County is not familiar with Guthrie Center, Coon Rapids or Bayard?

But Walnut? Orient? Macksburg?? These are not words that roll easily off the lips of most Greene Countians. Walnut is in Pottawattamie County—as in Council Bluffs and the Missouri River—-which actually puts it closer to Omaha than to Guthrie Center, yet alone Grand Junction or Rippey. Orient-Macksburg is closer to Missouri than it is Churdan or Grand Junction. And Elk Horn and Exira are western Iowa towns, plain and simple. So we now seem to be stretching this “west central Iowa” and “rolling hills” concepts rather widely. If we stretch too far will they snap?

Think about it. When its 10 below degrees zero in Iowa in January how many fans are going to show up at the Rippey gym to see EG take on Orient-Macksburg, for gosh sakes? Or the “big” Walnut-EG game??

On the flip side, though, it will be good to re-engage year-round competition with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston, one a real-deal Greene County school and the other located just across our western county border. These are schools more in line with EG’s enrollment, as are Walnut and Orient-Macksburg, to be fair. And the proximity of Ankeny Christian (in Ankeny) and Iowa Christian Academy in West Des Moines will offset the long trips to Walnut, Orient and Elk Horn (or Exira depending how their sports sharing and whole grade sharing alignments shake out).

EG NETTERS FACE WG

Hawkettes Can Tie for Conference No. 2 Spot

East Greene heads to Woodward tonight for a key West Central Conference battle against Woodward-Granger. EG swept West Central Valley last Tuesday in a 3-zip match to move to 4-2 in the West Central, just one game behind Woodward-Granger at 5-1, after WG had disposed of Des Moines Christian 25-17, 32-30, 25-23.

WG’s win dropped DMC from second into a tie for third place with East Greene. Guthrie Center remains atop the league standings with a perfect 6-0 mark and has already beaten the other top 3 teams: WG, EG and DMC. Guthrie takes on Madrid tonight on the road, then closes its conference and regular season with home games against West Central Valley and Coon Rapids-Bayard (3-3), last year’s conference champion and state qualifier.

East Greene picked up a key win two weeks ago (Sept. 22) against CRB in Rippey, rolling over the Crusaders in a three-game match 25-23, 25-23, 26-24.

EG closes out the season with a tournament Saturday at Walnut and home matches against league foes Panorama (3-3) on Tuesday and Madrid (1-5) on Thursday. EG opens regional action the following Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Madrid against the winner of a first round tilt between Madrid and Glidden-Ralston on Monday, Oct. 19, in Madrid.

West Central Conference Volleyball Standings
Guthrie Center 6-0
Woodward-Granger 5-1
East Greene 4-2
Des Moines Christian 4-2
Coon Rapids-Bayard 3-3
Panorama 3-3
Earlham 2-4
Madrid 1-5
Van Meter 1-5
West Central Valley 1-5

EYE ON GJ SAYS: It’s a battle of the birds at Woodward tonight as the EG Hawkettes take on the WG Hawkettes. This is a good test for the EG team as they face a quality team in WG. They should see some good competition in the Walnut Tournament on Saturday and will need to prepared for a much improved Panorama team next week in Rippey. The regionals get underway next week and EG can’t overlook either GR or Madrid, their opponent in round two. State-ranked Southern Cal hosts Paton-Churdan in Lake City in the opposite bracket second round game and the SC-PC and EG-Madrid or GR winners face off in Lake City the following week in the quarterfinals. So if EG makes it to the quarters the likely opponent would be Southern Cal, and the Hawkettes would really need an all-out effort to upend the Mustangs, who made it all the way to the regional finals last year and are ranked 12th this year with a 16-7 record. The other favorite in the region is Exira (13-5) ranked 11th in the state and undefeated in the Rolling Hills Conference.

2009 VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW

Hawkettes Sweep SWG In Season Opener


East Greene got the 2009 season off on the right note last Thursday, Aug. 27, with a quick, three-game sweep of Southeast Webster-Grand on the Eagles’ home court in Burnside.

The Hawkettes were firing on all cylinders as their defense held SWG to an average of just 11 points in the three games, while the offense took charge with a solid night serving, connecting on 69 of 75 serves attempted for a 92% success rate and 16 ace serves.

Leaders at the service line were Malarie Gilley going 19-21 for 91%, Bobbie Halterman 13-14 for 93%, and Heidi Kiner and Jessi Beaman, both at 100%. Kiner was perfect in 12 serve attempts, Beaman in 9.

Gilley was a force at the net with 11 kills in 27 attempts with 5 errors and 7 blocks. As a team, the Hawkettes were 22 of 57 kills with 10 errors and 9 blocks. Katlynn Gannon led the team in digs with 11 and Kiner was the assist leader with 15.

CONFERENCE PREVIEW: EG takes a 1-0 record in tonight’s conference opener at Earlham. The Hawkettes will build on last year’s 6-3 record in the West Central, the Hawkettes’ best finish since joining the league in 1996. EG will look to improve its play out of the conference, as last year’s team finished 11-15 overall. East Greene returns five of six starters, losing only Megan Johnston to graduation, and seven letter winners.

The Hawkettes will contend for the conference crown along with Woodward-Granger, which joins the West Central after many years in the Heart of Iowa; Coon Rapids-Bayard, last year’s conference champions at 9-0; and West Central Valley (Stuart) and Guthrie Center, who tied for second at 7-2, just ahead of EG and Des Moines Christian who tied for fourth at 6-3

WCV is solid in girls athletics, winning a volleyball championship in 2007 (9-0) and finishing as runner-up at 8-1 in both 2006 and 2005, in addition to its second place tie last year. The Wildcats have also won four consecutive West Central basketball championships. WCV returns Maggie Marnin, a junior who was first-team all-conference last year and honorable mention in 2007, her freshman season.

Guthrie Center will field a veteran team led by three senior all-conference picks from 2008: Kaitlin Rosenbeck, first team; Bailey Knudson, second team; and Hope Wilson, honorable mention. GC has finished in the upper division of the conference in each of the last four years. Rosenbeck is a two-time, first-team pick to the all-conference team and Knudson was named all-district in 2A last year.

Des Moines Christian has long been a league powerhouse, and last year’s victory over the Lions was the first for EG. Since 2002, the Lions had finished no lower than second in the West Central and won championships in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. DMC will be led by junior Emily Horstman, a second team all-league pick, and senior Hannah Heilskov, honorable mention.

CRB graduated five key players off a team that made it to the state 1A tournament in Cedar Rapids last year. Gentry Sheer, Heidi Eisdohr, Lindsey Reis, Taylor Hilgenberg and Casi Willenborg earned numerous all-conference and all-state honors after last year’s league championship and state tournament qualification. Those players also served as the core of CRB’s basketball team which made it to state and finished as runner-up in the conference with Panorama last year. Back from last year’s volleyball squad are all-conference honorable mention choice Karly Grettenberg and 5-11 Katie Dentlinger who had an outstanding freshman season last year as a starter on both of the Crusaders’ state tournament volleyball and basketball teams.

Woodward-Granger finished 18-6 last year and won the Heart of Iowa-Small title with a 5-0 record, winning the crown over Ogden, Colo-Nesco, South Hamilton, Colfax-Mingo and Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines), all 2A schools with the exception of GPB, a 1A team that finished second in the HOI-Small at 4-1 and 32-11 overall and advanced to the state tournament along with CRB. WG returns four of their top seven players from last year. The Hawkettes beat Madrid in their season opener and inaugural West Central Conference game on Tuesday 25-8, 25-13, 25-8.

Gilley will serve as the anchor of the East Greene team this year. A 6-1 middle hitter, she was a unanimous first-team all-conference choice and one of 15 area Class 1A players named all-district. Like WCV’s Marnin, she moved up from honorable mention to first team for all-conference honors last year. Gilley was the only unanimous first team pick among the league’s 10 coaches.

Halterman and Gannon were all-conference honorable mention. Kiner, Beaman, Molly Neese and Tia Lowe are returning letter winners. Rounding out this years squad are senior Brittney Moss; junior Jasmine Kinney; and freshmen Tori Lowe, Alanna Orfield, Kim Hatfield, Brandy Burrows, Megan McElheney, Tylar Elliott, Brittany Gunn and Elizabeth Gunn. There are no sophomores on the team.

THE BIG PICTURE: Last year, the West Central was evenly divided with five teams competing in Class 1A (EG, CRB, Glidden-Ralston, Madrid and Van Meter) and five teams in Class 2A (DMC, WCV, GC, Earlham and Panorama). With WG now in the conference replacing 1A Glidden-Ralston, which has moved to the Rolling Hills, the balance shifts in volleyball classifications with WG joining WCV, GC, Panorama, Earlham and Van Meter in 2A, and DMC now in 1A with CRB, EG and Madrid, making a 6-4 split between 2A and 1A schools. Due to enrollment changes, VM and DMC have essentially switched from last year’s classifications.

EG will face each of the West Central teams once in conference competition-- four matches on the road and five on the home court in Rippey. The lone non-conference match on the schedule was SWG, and the rest of EG’s non-conference slate will come in tourney play at Coon Rapids on Saturday and at Walnut on Oct. 10 with playoffs getting underway on Oct. 19 in the districts.

The strongest area teams in 1A will be Exira to the west, Southern Cal to the north, and GPB to the east/southeast. The Defenders are the pick of the litter among a cluster of 1A central Iowa/Des Moines area schools including DMC, Iowa Christian Academy, Ankeny Christian and Madrid. South of Des Moines are two very strong teams: Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Twin Cedars (Bussey). GPB went 32-11 in 2008 and lost just two starters and one key reserve from its state tournament team. Victoria Weatherly, who was 1A First Team All State and 1A Player of the Year as a setter and outside hitter has graduated, but GPB returns junior Amanda Bell, second team all-state as an outside hitter last year, and senior Kayla Nikkel, honorable mention all-state as a setter.

GPB, ranked 8th in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) pre-season rankings, lost to Gilbert (1-3) in a four-game match last Tuesday (Aug. 25) but came back to sweep West Central Valley this Tuesday (Sept. 1) 25-11, 25-15, 30-28. Gilbert, a 2A school, dropped all three of its matches in a tournament on Saturday. GPB has maintained its No. 8 spot in the IGHSAU rankings released today.

Exira (20-5) is ranked seventh in the IGHSAU rankings. The Vikettes return senior Hallie Christofferson, an all-state special mention pick and all-district in the West Central district, as was Ann Walker, another senior veteran. Exira graduated just two players from last year’s team that won the Rolling Hills with an 8-0 mark. The Vikettes return two other starters along with Christofferson and Walker, and three key reserves.

Southern Cal was ranked fifth in the preseason by the IGHSAU after rolling up a 26-7 record last season and finishing as runner-up to Class 2A East Sac in the Twin Lakes Conference at 5-1. The Mustangs field a veteran team this year, losing just two starters and one key reserve off last year’s team which made it to the regional finals before falling to Schaller-Crestland, which is ranked fourth in the preseason rankings. Schaller-Crestland went 27-7 last season, falling to state runner-up AGWSR in the first round of the state tournament. Southern Cal is led this year by Meghan Monahan, a senior who was special mention all-state and all-district last year.

No 2A teams from central or west central Iowa are ranked in the Class 2A Top 15 poll.

EG’s 2009 Schedule:
(All WC Conference games start at 6 p.m. with the freshmen and junior varsity games preceding the varsity match)

Aug. 27 Southeast Webster-Grand @ Burnside
Sept. 3 @ Earlham
Sept. 5 CRB Tourney @ Coon Rapids
Sept. 8 Van Meter @ Rippey
Sept. 15 Des Moines Christian @ Rippey
Sept. 22 @ Guthrie Center
Sept. 24 Coon Rapids-Bayard @ Rippey
Sept. 29 West Central Valley @ Menlo
Oct. 6 Woodward-Granger @ Woodward
Oct. 10 Walnut Tourney @ Walnut
Oct. 13 Panorama @ Rippey
Oct. 15 Madrid @ Rippey

EYE ON GJ SAYS: A win over SWG is a terrific start for the Hawkettes, as EG got by the Eagles in the regular season last year 3-1 in early October but two weeks later were sidelined by them in a rematch in the first round of the districts, 3-2. EG should have some solid competition in Saturday’s CRB Tourney at Coon Rapids. EG could cross paths with longtime rival Paton-Churdan, which moved from the West Central to the Rolling Hills three years ago. PC won its opening match of the season over conference opponent Elk Horn-Kimballton on Tuesday, 21-25, 25-14, 25-20, 25-16. Along with host CRB, the tourney field includes Iowa Christian Academy, a team that went 20-8 and finished second to Exira in the Rolling Hills last year.

Overall, competition with six 2A schools in the West Central should help put EG in fighting shape for the 1A district and regional playoffs at the end of the season, In addition to EG at Earlham, other conference matches tonight are WCV @ DMC and Panorama @ CRB.

SOFTBALL

EG Loses Heartbreaker to WCV

A trip to Stuart on Thursday, July 2, resulted in a tough 2-1 loss to West Central Valley, leaving the Hawkettes mired at the bottom of the West Central Conference standings at 2-15.

EG had a good defensive outing, limiting the Wildcats to just the 2 runs off 3 hits, despite giving up 6 walks. WCV’s Molly Cox proved to be formidable on the mound though, as she gave up just 4 hits while striking out 12 Hawkette batters. Cox didn’t get much defensive backup from her teammates as WCV committed 5 errors.

It was not a good week all around for the Hawkettes as they got thumped by Coon Rapids-Bayard 12-3 on Tuesday, June 30, and Guthrie Center got the measure of EG with a 13-1 pasting called after 3 innings the previous night. Guthrie pounded out 14 hits in that game.

The Hawkettes had generated some momentum just the week before, winning 3 out of 4 games including solid wins over conference foes Madrid and Panorama. The Hawkettes fell to league-leader Earlham 10-0 on June 22 but came back two nights later to win 7-6 over Rockwell City-Lytton in non-conference action on the road.

EG lost another close one to Des Moines Christian the following night, Thursday, June 25. EG had played DMC tough on the Lions’ home field in Urbandale on June 4, dropping a well-played 6-3 game and was ready for some payback when DMC headed north to Grand Junction.

The Lions, who made it the state tournament the last two years and finished as runner-up game to Madrid in the conference last year, were contending for the league crown again this year. DMC was just a half game behind Glidden-Ralston going in to the EG game.

Despite racking up 15 hits in the game, the Hawkettes fell 8-7. DMC shortstop Hannah Heilskov drove in the winning run with a single in the top of the seventh. The Lions’ Britt Schoon notched her third home run of the season in the game.

Ashley Thorpe was pitched 4 innings and Malarie Gilley was on the mound for 3. Combined, they gave up 9 hits and 5 walks, while striking out 3. Gilley was 3-4 at the plate while Heidi Kiner went 2-3. Katylnn Gannon and Molly Neese were both 2-4 with 2 RBI’s apiece.

The win over RC-L helped up the Hawkettes overall win tally. Heading into tonight’s game at Glidden-Ralston the Hawkettes are 4-17.

Softball

Hawkettes Drop Season Opener to Madrid, 8-2

East Greene opened the 2009 softball campaign with an 8-2 loss at Madrid on Thursday.

It was the conference and season opener for the Hawkettes putting them at 0-1 in the league with Madrid starting the conference campaign at 1-0.

The Hawkettes will be out to improve on their 6-18 record last year and their 2-16 conference mark, which saw them finish last in the West Central Conference. Leading the team this year are seniors Ashley Thorpe and Megan Johnston and junior Malarie Gilley. Other letter winners returning are junior Heidi Kiner and sophomores Molly Neese and Katlynn Gannon.

Thorpe was a first-team all conference pick two years ago and was named to the second team as an infielder last year. She is projected to be the starting pitcher this year, taking over for the Jess Sillyman, who graduated in 2008, along with Emily Neese, Emily Gilley and Lacey Heater. Malarie Gilley, a junior, is a two-time all-conference honorable mention pick.

EG may have finished last in the league in 2008, but they were competitive with all the teams, rarely losing by more than three to four runs, with very close losses to top teams CR-B 9-8, DMC 5-3, and GR 8-5. Only one game was shortened by the 10-run rule, an 11-1 loss to Panorama at Panora, which was called after 5 innings. Twice the Hawkettes triumphed over two foes in games shortened by the 10-run rule: 11-1 over Adair-Casey in non-conference action and a 10-0 shutout of league foe Guthrie Center.

A few breaks and last year's record could have been much different as the Hawkettes lost tough one-run games to Panorama and West Central Valley and fell by just two runs to Van Meter in Grand Junction and by three runs to the Bulldogs in Van Meter. EG stayed with league champ Madrid, losing by just five and six runs in their home-and-home series. The Hawkettes ended the season in first round regional play at Madrid with another tough loss to Van Meter, this time by one run, 3-2.

The highlight of last season was a 2-1 win over Jefferson-Scranton at the Bob Morgan Tournament in Ogden, giving the Hawkettes and Hawks a clean sweep in baseball and softball in 2008 over their much larger rivals and neighbors to the west.

The high level of competition in the West Central was evidenced by EG's 4-1 non-conference record (with the exception of the regional first-round loss to Van Meter). In addition to the wins over J-S and Adair-Casey, the Hawkettes beat Southern Cal and Newman of Mason City, and lost to Ogden.

Madrid won the West Central championship with a 17-1 record. Des Moines Christian and Glidden-Ralston tied for second place at 15-3. Madrid made it to the regional finals before falling to Southeast Webster-Grand, 10-0. SWG advanced to the state tournament at Fort Dodge where they finished fifth.

SWG and Madrid have emerged as area softball powers in the last few years, supplanting Woodward-Granger, Coon Rapids-Bayard and Earlham. SWG competes in the Twin Lakes Conference and Woodward-Granger in the Heart of Iowa small school division. But W-G moves to the West Central next year, replacing Glidden-Ralston, as the Wildcats will be members of the Rolling Hills Conference next year, joining Paton-Churdan, which left the WC for the RH in 2007-08.

Glidden-Ralston could make its last year in the league its best ever as the Wildcats return both first team all-conference pitcher, Hallie Schon, and first-team all-conference catcher, Krystin Winkler, along with senior infielder Madison Ball. All three are seniors, giving G-R solid veteran leadership.

Earlham and Coon Rapids-Bayard look to be contenders for the conference crown too. Earlham returns seniors Rachel Gilmore, pitcher, and Jamie Imboden, infielder, both second-team all-conference picks last year. CR-B is having a phenomenal year in girls sports, as its volleyball, basketball and golf teams have all advanced to state, giving the Crusaders an across the board sweep in fall-winter-spring. They could make it a clean sweep of fall-winter-spring-summer with their softball squad this season as veterans Heidi Esdohr, Taylor Hilgenberg, Lindsey Reis and Gentry Sheer, all seniors, return to the diamond for their final appearances in a CR-B uniform. Eisdohr is a three-time, first-team all-conference pick. Hilgenberg was a first team wild card pick last year, while Eisdohr was picked as infielder.

Des Moines Christian can't be counted out as they have developed a strong tradition, winning conference champions in 2006 and 2007, the same year they advanced to the state tournament and finished as consolation champions (fifth place), ending the season 38-3.

Southeast Webster-Grand has been to the state tournament three of the last four years. Earlham made it to state in 2006, as did Madrid, competing then in the Heart of Iowa Conference.

WEST CENTRAL CONFERENCE
(through 5-28)
Coon Rapids-Bayard 1-0
Des Moines Christian 1-0
Earlham 1-0
Glidden-Ralston 1-0
East Greene 0-1
Guthrie Center 0-1
Panorama 0-1
Van Meter 0-1
West Central Valley 0-1

Conference Scores, Tuesday, May 28:
CRB 3, GC 2
DMC 5, VM 3
EAR 4, PAN 0
GR 2, WCV 1
MAD 8, EG 2

Area Scores, Tuesday, May 28:
J-S 9, Gilbert 4
SWG 11, CWL 0
WG 11, Roland-Story 1

Baseball

EG Beats Jefferson-Scranton in Season Opener, 4-2

East Greene made it a repeat in their head-to-head confrontation with Jefferson-Scranton last night in Jefferson, beating the Rams 4-2, to win their season opener.

It was a repeat of last year's matchup when EG dropped the Rams 11-7, which gives the Hawks bragging rights as the county's best baseball team two years in a row. But it doesn't get much easier for the Hawks, as they take their 1-0 record into tonight's matchup against Grandview Park Baptist in Des Moines. The Defenders went 21-11 last year and advanced to the state tournament. Last year, the Hawks dropped a close 3-1 game to GVP.

The Hawks' home and conference opener is Monday night against Earlham, then they travel to Van Meter on Tuesday and Des Moines Christian on Thursday, taking on two of the four teams that tied for West Central Conference championship last year. J-S (0-1) hosts Woodward-Granger Friday in a JV/varsity doubleheader starting at 5:30 p.m.

Scoreboard
West Central Conference teams (non-conference games):
Wednesday
Adair Casey 8, Glidden-Ralston 1
Tuesday
Creston at Guthrie Center, ppd. to May 27
Ogden at Coon Rapids-Bayard, ppd.
Monday
Van Meter 14, Winterset 4 (5 innings)
Area teams:
Wednesday
Humboldt at Southeast Webster-Grand, ppd.
Norwalk 6, Perry 1
Ogden 9, Prairie Valley 6

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This is a great start for the Hawks and it looks to be another strong year for the West Central Conference, as Van Meter has beaten Class 3A Winterset and now EG downs Jefferson-Scranton, one of the largest 2A schools with an enrollment of 290 (grades 9-11) where the cutoff between 3A and 2A schools is right around 300. East Greene has picked up players from Paton-Churdan this summer in baseball and softball, but its combined enrollment with PC (93 + 33) keeps it in the middle range of Class 1A enrollments at 126. Playing for the Hawks this year from PC are junior Jordan Burrell and sophomore Chris Anderson.

Sports

Hawks Open 2009 Baseball Season Tonight at Jefferson

East Greene takes on Jefferson-Scranton in its season opener tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Jefferson with the JV teams squaring off first with the varsity game to follow.

East Greene is coming off a 15-10 season that saw them battling for the West Central Conference crown up until the final game in a very tight championship race. The Hawks finished as runner-up with a 12-6 conference mark just behind four teams that tied for first at 13-5: Coon Rapids-Bayard, Des Moines Christian, Panorama and Van Meter.

EG beat the Rams last year 11-7 on a grand slam homer in the bottom of the seventh inning on the Hawks' home diamond at Rippey. J-S was playing as a 3A school last year, while East Greene is in 1A.

East Greene was originally scheduled to open the 2009 campaign against Southeast Webster-Grand last night (Tuesday) in Rippey but that game was rained out. The East Greene game is the home opener for J-S, which is a 2A school this year and in its second year in the Heart of Iowa Conference. Last year the Rams finished second in the Heart of Iowa large school division and were 17-13 overall.