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.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
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).
Friday, March 5, 2010
Campus News
BARDOLE NAMED TO SIMPSON DEAN'S LIST
Cassie Bardole has been named to the dean's list at Simpson College, Indianola, for the fall 2009 semester. Bardole, a freshman at Simpson, is the daughter of Tim and Lori Bardole of Rippey. She is a 2009 graduate of East Greene.
Lauren King of Churdan was named to the president's list for the fall semester at Simpson. King is a 2009 graduate of Paton-Churdan.
Students named the president's list attain a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Students named to the dean's list have a grade point average of at least 3.7.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Hawkettes Fall Short in Regional Semis
LOSE BY 4 POINTS TO RCL IN JEFFERSON
East Greene came close to playing for a berth in the state tournament, but a valiant effort against Rockwell City-Lytton came up short, 36-32, in a regional semifinals game in Jefferson on Friday, Feb. 19. The Hawkettes ended the season at 10-13 while RCL advanced to the Region 3 championship game against Lynnville-Sully in Ames.
The Hawkettes had advanced to the regional semifinal matchup after disposing of Glidden-Ralston in Glidden on Tuesday, 36-19 in the quarterfinal while RCL had upset Northeast Hamilton, ranked 12th in the state, 49-47, in Rockwell City. Northeast Hamilton came into the game with a 20-2 record and co-champions of the Iowa Star Conference.
The Hawkettes took command early in Glidden and were up 10-4 and 19-11 at the quarter and half breaks. EG poured it on in the third period, holding the Wildcats to just 2 points, and putting the game out of reach with a 32-13 lead at the end of the period. EG rested its starters the rest of the way in preparation for Friday’s game against RCL.
Malarie Gilley and Molly Neese proved to a formidable 1-2 punch for the Hawkettes. Gilley had 15 points, 9 rebounds, 7 blocks and 3 steals, and Neese had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. Jessie Beaman added 6 points, and Tia Lowe and Katlynn Gannon each added 2.
The game was a defensive battle as evidenced by EG’s 24 turnovers and the 26 miscues by GR. Key to the Hawkettes defensive attack were Beaman’s 7 rebounds and 5 steals and Lowe’s 6 rebounds and 6 steals. The Hawkettes outrebounded GR 35-20 while limiting the Wildcats to just 8 of 46 field goals, a very chilly 17%. GR connected on 1 of 6 three-point attempts and was just 2-7 at the free throw line for 29%.
EG was good on 15 of 40 two-point shots for 38% and misfired on two three-point shots. The Hawkettes had some trouble at the free-throw line, dropping just 6 of 18 attempts, for 33%.
The semifinal game was originally scheduled to be played in Boone, but then was moved to Gilbert, and then when it became clear that Rockwell City and Grand Junction are at a considerable distance from Gilbert, the IGHSAU moved the game to Jefferson.
East Greene had fallen to RCL in a non-conference game in Rockwell City on Saturday, Jan. 30 by 13 points, 46-33, so the Hawkettes knew they had their work cut out for them in this rematch. In the first game, senior Brenna Lantz, an All-Twin Lakes Conference 1st team selection last year, and sophomore Bailey Dettman proved to be a powerful 1-2 force, scoring 14 and 10 points respectively with Lantz pulling down a big 14 rebounds.
The EG team that took the court in Jefferson against the Wildcats was much improved, this timing holding Dettman to just 6 points. Lantz scored 18 but was held to just 4 boards.
The Hawkette defense held RCL in check for three quarters, but the Wildcats put up 14points in the last period, although the outcome was still in doubt with 30 seconds left in the game. The victory was doubly sweet for the Wildcats, as coach Dave Birks picked up his 400th career win.
Birks’ victory total will stay at 400, at least until next season, as the Wildcats suffered a tough 49-47 loss to Lynnville-Sully in the regional final Monday night in Ames, ending their season at 13-10. Lynville-Sully (18-6) advanced to the state tournament and will take on Martensdale-St. Mary’s (25-1) tomorrow, March 1, in a 5 p.m. first-round game at Wells-Fargo Arena. Exira (23-0), champions of the Rolling Hills Conference, also qualified for the 1A State Tournament and will open the six-day event with a 10 a.m. tip-off tomorrow against Prince of Peace (17-7) of Clinton. Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Exira were ranked 1-2 in the final IGHSAU basketball poll for Class 1A.
Panorama, which won the West Central Conference with a perfect 18-0 record, saw its bid for a berth in the Class 2A state tournament upended by Audubon, 61-55, in the regional final at Guthrie Center. Panorama ended its season at 19-3, with two of those losses coming at the hands of Audubon and the other to Martensdale-St. Mary’s.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: By any measure, this was clearly a successful season for the EG Hawkettes. Sure, a 10-13 season could be indicative of a “losing” season--one that ended “under .500.” But EG plays in the super-tough West Central Conference against teams from such storied girls basketball towns as Guthrie Center and Coon Rapids and emerging basketball programs like West Central Valley and Des Moines Christian.
When the regular season ended this year, more than 130 “small school” teams entered into regional competition with the goal to secure one of the coveted 8 spots in the 1A state tournament in Des Moines in March.
The fact that of those 130-plus teams, East Greene was just one of 32 to make it to the regional semifinals speaks volumes about this team and the school district it represents. EG was by far the smallest school (based on enrollment) in the West Central Conference, but of the 10 teams, the Hawkettes--only 9 members strong across all four high school grades--finished 5th, a coveted “upper division” finish. This is especially commendable considering that EG was competing among some of the largest 2A schools and a highly ranked 1A private school (Des Moines Christian) that is not limited by geographic or social pressures that impact schools like East Greene.
Senior Malarie Gilley ended her EG basketball career as the all-time best player in East Greene’s five-player era with more than 1,000 rebounds, 1,000 points, and 300 blocks during her career wearing the Green and White. She takes her place among the all-time greats in both the five- and six-player eras who preceded her from EG, Dana, GJ and Rippey such as Pam Slock, Doris June Thornburgh, Margaret Burke, Kathryn Clark, Norma Hillman, Kathy Kennedy, Sherri Peterson, Marlene Rueter, Linda Borgeson, Annie Fagen, Jessie Fagen, and Stephanie Hillman.
Congratulations to all the Hawkettes and co-coaches Traci Beger and Bud Fagen on a terrific season!
WEST CENTRAL CONFERENCE FINAL 2010 STANDINGS
Panorama 18-0
West Central Valley 15-3
Des Moines Christian 15-3
Guthrie Center 11-6
East Greene 8-10
Van Meter 7-11
Woodward-Granger 7-11
Coon Rapids-Bayard 6-11
Earlham 2-16
Madrid 0-17
East Greene came close to playing for a berth in the state tournament, but a valiant effort against Rockwell City-Lytton came up short, 36-32, in a regional semifinals game in Jefferson on Friday, Feb. 19. The Hawkettes ended the season at 10-13 while RCL advanced to the Region 3 championship game against Lynnville-Sully in Ames.
The Hawkettes had advanced to the regional semifinal matchup after disposing of Glidden-Ralston in Glidden on Tuesday, 36-19 in the quarterfinal while RCL had upset Northeast Hamilton, ranked 12th in the state, 49-47, in Rockwell City. Northeast Hamilton came into the game with a 20-2 record and co-champions of the Iowa Star Conference.
The Hawkettes took command early in Glidden and were up 10-4 and 19-11 at the quarter and half breaks. EG poured it on in the third period, holding the Wildcats to just 2 points, and putting the game out of reach with a 32-13 lead at the end of the period. EG rested its starters the rest of the way in preparation for Friday’s game against RCL.
Malarie Gilley and Molly Neese proved to a formidable 1-2 punch for the Hawkettes. Gilley had 15 points, 9 rebounds, 7 blocks and 3 steals, and Neese had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. Jessie Beaman added 6 points, and Tia Lowe and Katlynn Gannon each added 2.
The game was a defensive battle as evidenced by EG’s 24 turnovers and the 26 miscues by GR. Key to the Hawkettes defensive attack were Beaman’s 7 rebounds and 5 steals and Lowe’s 6 rebounds and 6 steals. The Hawkettes outrebounded GR 35-20 while limiting the Wildcats to just 8 of 46 field goals, a very chilly 17%. GR connected on 1 of 6 three-point attempts and was just 2-7 at the free throw line for 29%.
EG was good on 15 of 40 two-point shots for 38% and misfired on two three-point shots. The Hawkettes had some trouble at the free-throw line, dropping just 6 of 18 attempts, for 33%.
The semifinal game was originally scheduled to be played in Boone, but then was moved to Gilbert, and then when it became clear that Rockwell City and Grand Junction are at a considerable distance from Gilbert, the IGHSAU moved the game to Jefferson.
East Greene had fallen to RCL in a non-conference game in Rockwell City on Saturday, Jan. 30 by 13 points, 46-33, so the Hawkettes knew they had their work cut out for them in this rematch. In the first game, senior Brenna Lantz, an All-Twin Lakes Conference 1st team selection last year, and sophomore Bailey Dettman proved to be a powerful 1-2 force, scoring 14 and 10 points respectively with Lantz pulling down a big 14 rebounds.
The EG team that took the court in Jefferson against the Wildcats was much improved, this timing holding Dettman to just 6 points. Lantz scored 18 but was held to just 4 boards.
The Hawkette defense held RCL in check for three quarters, but the Wildcats put up 14points in the last period, although the outcome was still in doubt with 30 seconds left in the game. The victory was doubly sweet for the Wildcats, as coach Dave Birks picked up his 400th career win.
Birks’ victory total will stay at 400, at least until next season, as the Wildcats suffered a tough 49-47 loss to Lynnville-Sully in the regional final Monday night in Ames, ending their season at 13-10. Lynville-Sully (18-6) advanced to the state tournament and will take on Martensdale-St. Mary’s (25-1) tomorrow, March 1, in a 5 p.m. first-round game at Wells-Fargo Arena. Exira (23-0), champions of the Rolling Hills Conference, also qualified for the 1A State Tournament and will open the six-day event with a 10 a.m. tip-off tomorrow against Prince of Peace (17-7) of Clinton. Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Exira were ranked 1-2 in the final IGHSAU basketball poll for Class 1A.
Panorama, which won the West Central Conference with a perfect 18-0 record, saw its bid for a berth in the Class 2A state tournament upended by Audubon, 61-55, in the regional final at Guthrie Center. Panorama ended its season at 19-3, with two of those losses coming at the hands of Audubon and the other to Martensdale-St. Mary’s.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: By any measure, this was clearly a successful season for the EG Hawkettes. Sure, a 10-13 season could be indicative of a “losing” season--one that ended “under .500.” But EG plays in the super-tough West Central Conference against teams from such storied girls basketball towns as Guthrie Center and Coon Rapids and emerging basketball programs like West Central Valley and Des Moines Christian.
When the regular season ended this year, more than 130 “small school” teams entered into regional competition with the goal to secure one of the coveted 8 spots in the 1A state tournament in Des Moines in March.
The fact that of those 130-plus teams, East Greene was just one of 32 to make it to the regional semifinals speaks volumes about this team and the school district it represents. EG was by far the smallest school (based on enrollment) in the West Central Conference, but of the 10 teams, the Hawkettes--only 9 members strong across all four high school grades--finished 5th, a coveted “upper division” finish. This is especially commendable considering that EG was competing among some of the largest 2A schools and a highly ranked 1A private school (Des Moines Christian) that is not limited by geographic or social pressures that impact schools like East Greene.
Senior Malarie Gilley ended her EG basketball career as the all-time best player in East Greene’s five-player era with more than 1,000 rebounds, 1,000 points, and 300 blocks during her career wearing the Green and White. She takes her place among the all-time greats in both the five- and six-player eras who preceded her from EG, Dana, GJ and Rippey such as Pam Slock, Doris June Thornburgh, Margaret Burke, Kathryn Clark, Norma Hillman, Kathy Kennedy, Sherri Peterson, Marlene Rueter, Linda Borgeson, Annie Fagen, Jessie Fagen, and Stephanie Hillman.
Congratulations to all the Hawkettes and co-coaches Traci Beger and Bud Fagen on a terrific season!
WEST CENTRAL CONFERENCE FINAL 2010 STANDINGS
Panorama 18-0
West Central Valley 15-3
Des Moines Christian 15-3
Guthrie Center 11-6
East Greene 8-10
Van Meter 7-11
Woodward-Granger 7-11
Coon Rapids-Bayard 6-11
Earlham 2-16
Madrid 0-17
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CRB Ends East Greene's Season
HAWKS FALL IN DISTRICT OPENER, 54-36
Coon Rapids-Bayard ended the Hawks’ basketball season on Feb. 18 with a 54-36 first-round win in district action in Coon Rapids. East Greene ended the season at 9-12. The Hawks had concluded the regular season on a high note, downing Adair-Casey 61-39 in Rippey on Friday, Feb. 12. EG’s final West Conference game against Madrid had been postponed due to weather from Tuesday, Feb. 9, to Monday, Feb. 15, and then cancelled due to more bad weather that night.
Cancellations and postponements were the watchword for the 2009-10 basketball season throughout the state. Despite all the missed days of school due to bad weather, the Hawks were able to play all the games on their schedule except the final home tilt with league foe Madrid.
EG finished in seventh place in the West Central Conference at 7-10, showing considerable improvement from last year’s 4-14 mark, which tied them for eighth place with Madrid. This year’s 9-12 mark is a step ahead from the 2008-09 record of 5-17.
EG and Coon Rapids-Bayard had split during the season, with the Hawks squeaking by the Crusaders in Rippey, 39-37, and CRB getting the win on its home court in the second half of the season, 49-38.
The “rubber match” between the two teams proved to be another defensive struggle. The Hawks got out of the gate strong, taking a 17-13 lead after the first quarter, but CRB put on the defensive clamps, holding the Hawks to just 4 points in the second period while scoring 19. The 32-21 halftime lead would hold up as the Hawks could not mount a challenge, although they played even with CRB in the third quarter with each team scoring 10 points. EG got just 5 points on the board in the last stanza, and the Crusaders moved on to a semifinal round match-up against Glidden-Ralston.
CRB and GR had locked horns in the first game of the season with GR prevailing in a defensive struggle, 40-32. GR went on to post one of its better seasons in recent years, finishing 11-9 and tying with Exira for fifth place at 8-9 in the Rolling Hills Conference. GR had secured the No. 2 seed in District 13 and drew Rolling Hills foe Adair-Casey in a first round (quarterfinal) game in Glidden. The two teams had split during the regular season, but this game was all GR as the Wildcats got the win, 53-41.
Coon Rapids-Bayard got off to a sluggish start in the early part of the season. After losing the season opener to GR, the Crusaders struggled to a 3-4 mark in the West Central and 4-6 overall. But after a loss to Panorama, a Class 2A team that went on to finish second in the conference, the Crusaders went on to win 8 of their next 11 games, including a five-game winning streak. CRB’s only losses came at the hands of 2A teams Guthrie Center and Des Moines Christian. DMC is the state’s undefeated top-ranked 2A team and West Central champion, while perennial power Guthrie finished third in the league just behind DMC and Panorama. Each team was crowned champion of its 2A district tournament on Tuesday and has advanced to the substate round on Saturday night. Guthrie (19-5) takes on IKM-Manning (23-0) in Council Bluffs for the Substate 8 championship, while DMC (25-0) tangles with West Marshall (22-3) in Johnston for the Substate 7 crown. The winners advance to the State Tournament March 8-13 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
CRB MOVES ON: The Crusaders got revenge for that season opening loss with a big 40-28 win over GR last night on the Wildcats home court. CRB takes on Rockwell City-Lytton (15-4) tonight for the district championship in Guthrie Center. RCL opened tourney play with a 69-44 win over Southern Cal and then sidelined Southeast Webster-Grand last night in a semifinal game in Rockwell City, 67-54. SWG had advanced with an opening round squeaker over Paton-Churdan, 54-52, which ended PC’s season at 2-19.
RCL finished third in the tough Twin Lakes Conference at 8-4 just behind East Sac (8-3). Manson-Northwest Webster won the Twin Lakes with an 11-1 mark while Pocahontas/Pomeroy-Palmer was fourth at 7-4. RCL was the only 1A school among those upper division teams, finishing ahead of 2A Prairie Valley (3-9) and the only other 1A schools in the conference, Southeast Webster-Grand (3-9) and Southern Cal (1-11).
One of RCL’s seven non-conference wins came against East Greene, 63-53, on Jan. 30 in Rockwell City. Comparatively, CRB has two home court wins over EG of 11 and 18 points. CRB racked up a fourth-place finish in a league dominated by 2A schools as well, including the top-ranked team in the state.
The winner of tonight’s District 13 championship takes on the District 14 champion in the Substate 7 championship game on Saturday night in Denison. CAM (Anita) upset Rolling Hills foe Elk Horn-Kimballton last night in Elk Horn 32-30 to advance to the D14 championship game tonight against Boyer Valley (Dunlap) in Missouri Valley.
EG SENIOR NIGHT VS. AC: Six Hawk basketball seniors were honored at the Friday, Feb. 12, game against Adair-Casey in Rippey which was the final scheduled home game for the season, although a makeup game with Madrid was planned for the following Monday but cancelled due to the weather. Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Tyler Gathercoal, Josh Neese, Jesse Priest, and Joe Swanson made their last appearance on the EG court. Also honored were senior cheerleaders Kelsey Hatfield and Leah Perry along with senior girls basketball players Jessie Beaman and Malarie Gilley. The Hawkettes had already ended their regular season and had advanced in the first round of post-season play the previous night at Madrid.
Five of the senior Hawks made up the starting line up and got the team off to an 8-0 start. EG was up 11-5 at the quarter break and 25-21 at the half. The Bombers were still in it after three quarters of play, trailing 40-33 but the Hawks’ depth came through in the final period as they scored 21 points and limited AC to just 6, going on to post a big 61-39 win over a team that had advanced last year to the 1A state tournament, but was rebuilding this year.
Priest led the scoring with 16 points. All 15 members of the Hawk varsity saw action with Beger scoring 8, Neese 4, and Gathercoal 2 in their final appearance on the EG home floor. Junior point guard Aaron Lyons had a big night going 5-5 from the field and 2-2 from behind the arc for 12 points. 6-5 junior center Nic Nicolaisen put up 9 points and led the rebounding brigade with 6, with Neese also pulling down 6 boards and Priest 5.
Rounding out the scoring with 2 points each were juniors Chaz Wessels, Tyler Cooklin, Schlyer Bardole, Wes Onken, and Zach Dearborn. Freshman Tory Beger, younger brother of Tom, added 2 points, and fellow freshman Reed Ostrander, a 6-4 center, pulled down a rebound as they made their mark on the future of Hawk hoopsterdom.
The Hawks’ effort was solid all around with 23 of 44 shooting from the field for 52% and 3 of 11 from three point land for 28%. EG was 12-19 from the charity stripe, a solid 64% clip. EG pulled down 29 rebounds and turned the ball over just 9 times. EG allowed the Bombers to get to the free throw line six times, where they made 4 for 67%, and held them to 15 of 39 two-point shots, a 38% mark. The Bombers did have success behind the arc, though, connecting on half of their of 10 attempts. Senior point guard Michael Christofferson led AC with 16 points.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: CRB in Coon Rapids was a tough draw for the Hawks. Coach Dean Lyons and the entire Hawk squad are to be commended for a fine season. EG loses Jessie Priest and Tom Beger off the starting five, but returns a very solid nucleus in its returning junior class and the two freshmen on the varsity.
EG played improved ball in the latter half of the season and scored big wins over Guthrie Center, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger in January--all teams that had topped the Hawks in the first half of the conference season. EG made a good showing against a very fine Rockwell City-Lytton team and scored big wins in its non-conference tilts against 1A schools Southeast Webster-Grand and Adair-Casey, winning by 25 and 22 points respectively against those teams from the Twin Lakes and Rolling Hills conferences.
This was a bittersweet year for several teams in the Twin Lakes and Rolling Hills. RCL and Southern Cal played their last basketball games as competitors as the two Calhoun County schools have agreed to merge all sports (wrestling and summer sports have been shared for several years) starting next year, 2010-11, although since they already share softball and baseball, the shift is really occurring now at the end of the basketball season and into track and golf this spring. The schools have also agreed to move toward a whole-grade sharing arrangement in the year following (2011-12) but are still working out the details as to which school and town (Rockwell City or Lake City) would host the high school and which the middle school, although it looks likely each town would continue to have an elementary school. RCL closed its school building in Lytton at the end of last school year. Also unknown is the fate of the Southern Cal elementary building in Lohrville, which merged with Lake City to form the Southern Cal district in the 1990s.
Similarly, Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira will extend what began as a football sharing agreement this fall (2009). EHK and Exira will formally link together in a similar whole-grade sharing agreement and begin sharing all sports next year, although they had been sharing wrestling and girls golf the past few seasons.
As both EHK and Exira are in the Rolling Hills, the league will drop down from 10 teams to 9. Last year, East Greene had applied to the Rolling Hills but it was agreed to keep the league membership at 10, so East Greene remained in the West Central, where it has been a member since 1996-97. East Greene is the smallest of the 10 West Central Conference schools and former members Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan had already left the West Central to join the Rolling Hills in 2009 and 2007, respectively. These are EG’s two longest rivals, all having been members of the same conference since the late 1970s, when East Greene and Paton-Churdan left the original West Central Conference (formed in 1966-67) and joined with Glidden-Ralston, YJB, Bayard, Coon Rapids, Scranton and Cedar Valley to form the Central Valley Conference. That league remained intact until around 1990 when another wave of school reorganizations saw the demise of Scranton, YJB and Cedar Valley, while Coon Rapids and Bayard had already merged to form Coon Rapids-Bayard. YJB merged with Panora-Linden to form Panorama and Cedar Valley merged with Prairie (Gowrie) to form Prairie Valley. Greene County rival Scranton merged with Jefferson, the county seat and largest school in the county, to form an even larger school, Jefferson-Scranton, reducing the number of high schools in Greene County to three.
East Greene, Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston then joined with Southeast Webster and four northwest Iowa schools to form the Coon River Valley Conference. Conference foes Schaller-Crestland, Newell-Fonda, Pomeroy-Palmer and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) were new to East Greene, but Southeast Webster was not, as it had been created by a merger of Central Webster and Dayton. Those were two of the original members of the Little Central Conference formed in 1959-60, the same year that Grand Community of Boxholm was formed, as was East Greene, a merger of Grand Junction and Dana, and Central Webster, the new district formed when Lehigh, Burnside and Harcourt merged together.
The original Little Central Conference participated in boys and girls basketball and baseball only, with softball and track not yet official sports in most schools in the early 60s. None of the six schools offered football, as the boys played baseball in the fall. The original six members of the Little Central were East Greene, Central Webster, Dayton, Grand, Stratford and Churdan. The league had a slight but perceptible shift in 1962-63 when East Greene and Rippey merged, expanding the size of East Greene, and in 1964-65 when Churdan merged with Paton to form Paton-Churdan, although the high school at Paton had been closed the same year Rippey was closed, 1961-62. For three years, 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1961-62 there were separate and distinct high schools--East Greene and Rippey on the east side of the county, and Churdan and Paton in the north. Debate raged among Paton town and rural residents about whether they should merge with Churdan or Jefferson. As it was, a number of families to the west and southwest of Paton aligned with Jefferson, which is why when looking at the district map of Paton-Churdan, the Jefferson district’s northern-most boundary exceeds the line drawn straight west along the paved county road that heads west out of Paton, which is the main conduit between Paton and Churdan in Paton and Dawson townships.
The official vote was not taken until 1965, although families had pretty much chosen where they were going to send their kids to school by then. So for 1962-63 and 1963-64, the record books will show competition between East Greene and Churdan, but no contests between EG and PC until 1964-65.
The Eye Guy believes that Grand Junction, Rippey, Dana, Paton and Churdan were all members of a Greene County Conference along with Cooper throughout much of the 1950s, but the Greene County Conference is not to be confused with the annual boys and girls Greene County Tournaments in basketball (and possibly baseball). Those events throughout the 1940s and 1950s also included Scranton, Jefferson and Farlin, until that school closed. The Greene County Conference was most likely disbanded after the 1958-59 season, as Dana, Grand Junction and Cooper, which merged with Jefferson and closed its high school, all would have left the conference, leaving just Rippey and Paton. No doubt those were also bittersweet county tournaments in the early 1960s as so many changes were underway among the county high schools. Records show that one of the final girls county tournaments (1961) was hosted by East Greene in the Grand Junction gym and was a win for EG (undefeated up until the district finals and led by All-Stater and Hall of Fame member Pam Slock) over Rippey. The following year would most likely have been the last tournament and marked the last appearance by teams from Paton and Rippey. It would have been just a five-team event (East Greene, Paton, Rippey, Churdan and Scranton) as Jefferson did not field a girls baskeball team until the early 1970s, after Title IX was enacted.
When EG and PC became larger schools, each introduced football. EG in the fall of 1963 (the second year after Rippey came in) and PC in the fall of 1965. The following year, 1966-67 those two schools joined six other schools to form the first West Central Conference, extending the Central from “Little Central.” Those charter members were EG, PC, Central Webster (Burnside), Prairie (Gowrie), YJB, Ogden, Story City and United (Boone). The “Boone” in United of Boone actually stood for rural Boone County, as the district had been formed in the late 1950s when three towns in eastern Boone County--Luther, Jordan and Napier--merged together to form United. The actual high school was first housed in the existing Luther school building but then a new school building was built in the country along a site on U.S. Highway 30 very close to the county line with Story County putting the new United High School closer to Ames than Boone, hence creating much confusion of who or what made up the United of Boone district. (The district still exists today as a K-6 entity with high school and middle school students open enrolling out to adjacent larger districts Ames, Boone, Gilbert and Ballard.)
Big changes will be occurring among the teams remaining in the Twin Lakes after the RCL-SC realignment, as there will be just six teams remaining: RCL-SC, East Sac, Manson-Northwest Webster, Prairie Valley, Southeast Webster and Pocahontas/Pomeroy-Palmer. Similarly, the Northwest Conference has been shrinking as the schools that formed the league after the Coon River Valley disbanded (St. Mary’s, Newell-Fonda, Schaller-Crestland and Pomeroy-Palmer) along with Alta, Aurelia and Sac City (members of the Twin Lakes up until 1996) and Albert City-Truesdale and Sioux Central to make a nine-team league, are very much in transition.
The first to go was Albert City-Truesdale, which formed an alignment (later merger) with Laurens-Marathon, also a Twin Lakes member up until a few years ago. Pomeroy-Palmer aligned its athletics with Pocahontas, dropping the Northwest down to 7 members, but then Laurens-Marathon shifted over from the Twin Lakes, making it an eight-league team again, but dropping the Twin Lakes from seven to six members. However, Southeast Webster-Grand left the North Star Conference and joined the Twin Lakes to move it to the present seven members.
Sac City merged with Wall Lake View Auburn two years ago to form East Sac, so that dropped the Northwest down to 7 teams again but kept the Twin Lakes intact at 7, occupying the WLVA slot.
This season marked the end of Schaller-Crestland, which kept is state-ranked volleyball team intact in the fall, but merged all sports thereafter with Galva-Holstein to form Ridge View, again dropping the Northwest to just 6 teams.
As the scenarios involving the Twin Lakes and Northwest teams were playing out last year, discussions got underway to form a Super Conference among the two, which at that time involved 7 teams from each league, forming a 14-team league. Now, with just six remaining in each league, a 12-team league seems more feasible.
If East Greene is accepted into the Rolling Hills, it will again compete head-to-head with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston. In addition to Adair-Casey, the other teams in the present Rolling Hills are Elk Horn-Kimballton, Exira, CAM (Anita), Ankeny Christian, Iowa Christian, Walnut and Orient-Macksburg.
Coon Rapids-Bayard ended the Hawks’ basketball season on Feb. 18 with a 54-36 first-round win in district action in Coon Rapids. East Greene ended the season at 9-12. The Hawks had concluded the regular season on a high note, downing Adair-Casey 61-39 in Rippey on Friday, Feb. 12. EG’s final West Conference game against Madrid had been postponed due to weather from Tuesday, Feb. 9, to Monday, Feb. 15, and then cancelled due to more bad weather that night.
Cancellations and postponements were the watchword for the 2009-10 basketball season throughout the state. Despite all the missed days of school due to bad weather, the Hawks were able to play all the games on their schedule except the final home tilt with league foe Madrid.
EG finished in seventh place in the West Central Conference at 7-10, showing considerable improvement from last year’s 4-14 mark, which tied them for eighth place with Madrid. This year’s 9-12 mark is a step ahead from the 2008-09 record of 5-17.
EG and Coon Rapids-Bayard had split during the season, with the Hawks squeaking by the Crusaders in Rippey, 39-37, and CRB getting the win on its home court in the second half of the season, 49-38.
The “rubber match” between the two teams proved to be another defensive struggle. The Hawks got out of the gate strong, taking a 17-13 lead after the first quarter, but CRB put on the defensive clamps, holding the Hawks to just 4 points in the second period while scoring 19. The 32-21 halftime lead would hold up as the Hawks could not mount a challenge, although they played even with CRB in the third quarter with each team scoring 10 points. EG got just 5 points on the board in the last stanza, and the Crusaders moved on to a semifinal round match-up against Glidden-Ralston.
CRB and GR had locked horns in the first game of the season with GR prevailing in a defensive struggle, 40-32. GR went on to post one of its better seasons in recent years, finishing 11-9 and tying with Exira for fifth place at 8-9 in the Rolling Hills Conference. GR had secured the No. 2 seed in District 13 and drew Rolling Hills foe Adair-Casey in a first round (quarterfinal) game in Glidden. The two teams had split during the regular season, but this game was all GR as the Wildcats got the win, 53-41.
Coon Rapids-Bayard got off to a sluggish start in the early part of the season. After losing the season opener to GR, the Crusaders struggled to a 3-4 mark in the West Central and 4-6 overall. But after a loss to Panorama, a Class 2A team that went on to finish second in the conference, the Crusaders went on to win 8 of their next 11 games, including a five-game winning streak. CRB’s only losses came at the hands of 2A teams Guthrie Center and Des Moines Christian. DMC is the state’s undefeated top-ranked 2A team and West Central champion, while perennial power Guthrie finished third in the league just behind DMC and Panorama. Each team was crowned champion of its 2A district tournament on Tuesday and has advanced to the substate round on Saturday night. Guthrie (19-5) takes on IKM-Manning (23-0) in Council Bluffs for the Substate 8 championship, while DMC (25-0) tangles with West Marshall (22-3) in Johnston for the Substate 7 crown. The winners advance to the State Tournament March 8-13 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
CRB MOVES ON: The Crusaders got revenge for that season opening loss with a big 40-28 win over GR last night on the Wildcats home court. CRB takes on Rockwell City-Lytton (15-4) tonight for the district championship in Guthrie Center. RCL opened tourney play with a 69-44 win over Southern Cal and then sidelined Southeast Webster-Grand last night in a semifinal game in Rockwell City, 67-54. SWG had advanced with an opening round squeaker over Paton-Churdan, 54-52, which ended PC’s season at 2-19.
RCL finished third in the tough Twin Lakes Conference at 8-4 just behind East Sac (8-3). Manson-Northwest Webster won the Twin Lakes with an 11-1 mark while Pocahontas/Pomeroy-Palmer was fourth at 7-4. RCL was the only 1A school among those upper division teams, finishing ahead of 2A Prairie Valley (3-9) and the only other 1A schools in the conference, Southeast Webster-Grand (3-9) and Southern Cal (1-11).
One of RCL’s seven non-conference wins came against East Greene, 63-53, on Jan. 30 in Rockwell City. Comparatively, CRB has two home court wins over EG of 11 and 18 points. CRB racked up a fourth-place finish in a league dominated by 2A schools as well, including the top-ranked team in the state.
The winner of tonight’s District 13 championship takes on the District 14 champion in the Substate 7 championship game on Saturday night in Denison. CAM (Anita) upset Rolling Hills foe Elk Horn-Kimballton last night in Elk Horn 32-30 to advance to the D14 championship game tonight against Boyer Valley (Dunlap) in Missouri Valley.
EG SENIOR NIGHT VS. AC: Six Hawk basketball seniors were honored at the Friday, Feb. 12, game against Adair-Casey in Rippey which was the final scheduled home game for the season, although a makeup game with Madrid was planned for the following Monday but cancelled due to the weather. Tom Beger, Zach Beyerink, Tyler Gathercoal, Josh Neese, Jesse Priest, and Joe Swanson made their last appearance on the EG court. Also honored were senior cheerleaders Kelsey Hatfield and Leah Perry along with senior girls basketball players Jessie Beaman and Malarie Gilley. The Hawkettes had already ended their regular season and had advanced in the first round of post-season play the previous night at Madrid.
Five of the senior Hawks made up the starting line up and got the team off to an 8-0 start. EG was up 11-5 at the quarter break and 25-21 at the half. The Bombers were still in it after three quarters of play, trailing 40-33 but the Hawks’ depth came through in the final period as they scored 21 points and limited AC to just 6, going on to post a big 61-39 win over a team that had advanced last year to the 1A state tournament, but was rebuilding this year.
Priest led the scoring with 16 points. All 15 members of the Hawk varsity saw action with Beger scoring 8, Neese 4, and Gathercoal 2 in their final appearance on the EG home floor. Junior point guard Aaron Lyons had a big night going 5-5 from the field and 2-2 from behind the arc for 12 points. 6-5 junior center Nic Nicolaisen put up 9 points and led the rebounding brigade with 6, with Neese also pulling down 6 boards and Priest 5.
Rounding out the scoring with 2 points each were juniors Chaz Wessels, Tyler Cooklin, Schlyer Bardole, Wes Onken, and Zach Dearborn. Freshman Tory Beger, younger brother of Tom, added 2 points, and fellow freshman Reed Ostrander, a 6-4 center, pulled down a rebound as they made their mark on the future of Hawk hoopsterdom.
The Hawks’ effort was solid all around with 23 of 44 shooting from the field for 52% and 3 of 11 from three point land for 28%. EG was 12-19 from the charity stripe, a solid 64% clip. EG pulled down 29 rebounds and turned the ball over just 9 times. EG allowed the Bombers to get to the free throw line six times, where they made 4 for 67%, and held them to 15 of 39 two-point shots, a 38% mark. The Bombers did have success behind the arc, though, connecting on half of their of 10 attempts. Senior point guard Michael Christofferson led AC with 16 points.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: CRB in Coon Rapids was a tough draw for the Hawks. Coach Dean Lyons and the entire Hawk squad are to be commended for a fine season. EG loses Jessie Priest and Tom Beger off the starting five, but returns a very solid nucleus in its returning junior class and the two freshmen on the varsity.
EG played improved ball in the latter half of the season and scored big wins over Guthrie Center, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger in January--all teams that had topped the Hawks in the first half of the conference season. EG made a good showing against a very fine Rockwell City-Lytton team and scored big wins in its non-conference tilts against 1A schools Southeast Webster-Grand and Adair-Casey, winning by 25 and 22 points respectively against those teams from the Twin Lakes and Rolling Hills conferences.
This was a bittersweet year for several teams in the Twin Lakes and Rolling Hills. RCL and Southern Cal played their last basketball games as competitors as the two Calhoun County schools have agreed to merge all sports (wrestling and summer sports have been shared for several years) starting next year, 2010-11, although since they already share softball and baseball, the shift is really occurring now at the end of the basketball season and into track and golf this spring. The schools have also agreed to move toward a whole-grade sharing arrangement in the year following (2011-12) but are still working out the details as to which school and town (Rockwell City or Lake City) would host the high school and which the middle school, although it looks likely each town would continue to have an elementary school. RCL closed its school building in Lytton at the end of last school year. Also unknown is the fate of the Southern Cal elementary building in Lohrville, which merged with Lake City to form the Southern Cal district in the 1990s.
Similarly, Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira will extend what began as a football sharing agreement this fall (2009). EHK and Exira will formally link together in a similar whole-grade sharing agreement and begin sharing all sports next year, although they had been sharing wrestling and girls golf the past few seasons.
As both EHK and Exira are in the Rolling Hills, the league will drop down from 10 teams to 9. Last year, East Greene had applied to the Rolling Hills but it was agreed to keep the league membership at 10, so East Greene remained in the West Central, where it has been a member since 1996-97. East Greene is the smallest of the 10 West Central Conference schools and former members Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan had already left the West Central to join the Rolling Hills in 2009 and 2007, respectively. These are EG’s two longest rivals, all having been members of the same conference since the late 1970s, when East Greene and Paton-Churdan left the original West Central Conference (formed in 1966-67) and joined with Glidden-Ralston, YJB, Bayard, Coon Rapids, Scranton and Cedar Valley to form the Central Valley Conference. That league remained intact until around 1990 when another wave of school reorganizations saw the demise of Scranton, YJB and Cedar Valley, while Coon Rapids and Bayard had already merged to form Coon Rapids-Bayard. YJB merged with Panora-Linden to form Panorama and Cedar Valley merged with Prairie (Gowrie) to form Prairie Valley. Greene County rival Scranton merged with Jefferson, the county seat and largest school in the county, to form an even larger school, Jefferson-Scranton, reducing the number of high schools in Greene County to three.
East Greene, Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston then joined with Southeast Webster and four northwest Iowa schools to form the Coon River Valley Conference. Conference foes Schaller-Crestland, Newell-Fonda, Pomeroy-Palmer and St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) were new to East Greene, but Southeast Webster was not, as it had been created by a merger of Central Webster and Dayton. Those were two of the original members of the Little Central Conference formed in 1959-60, the same year that Grand Community of Boxholm was formed, as was East Greene, a merger of Grand Junction and Dana, and Central Webster, the new district formed when Lehigh, Burnside and Harcourt merged together.
The original Little Central Conference participated in boys and girls basketball and baseball only, with softball and track not yet official sports in most schools in the early 60s. None of the six schools offered football, as the boys played baseball in the fall. The original six members of the Little Central were East Greene, Central Webster, Dayton, Grand, Stratford and Churdan. The league had a slight but perceptible shift in 1962-63 when East Greene and Rippey merged, expanding the size of East Greene, and in 1964-65 when Churdan merged with Paton to form Paton-Churdan, although the high school at Paton had been closed the same year Rippey was closed, 1961-62. For three years, 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1961-62 there were separate and distinct high schools--East Greene and Rippey on the east side of the county, and Churdan and Paton in the north. Debate raged among Paton town and rural residents about whether they should merge with Churdan or Jefferson. As it was, a number of families to the west and southwest of Paton aligned with Jefferson, which is why when looking at the district map of Paton-Churdan, the Jefferson district’s northern-most boundary exceeds the line drawn straight west along the paved county road that heads west out of Paton, which is the main conduit between Paton and Churdan in Paton and Dawson townships.
The official vote was not taken until 1965, although families had pretty much chosen where they were going to send their kids to school by then. So for 1962-63 and 1963-64, the record books will show competition between East Greene and Churdan, but no contests between EG and PC until 1964-65.
The Eye Guy believes that Grand Junction, Rippey, Dana, Paton and Churdan were all members of a Greene County Conference along with Cooper throughout much of the 1950s, but the Greene County Conference is not to be confused with the annual boys and girls Greene County Tournaments in basketball (and possibly baseball). Those events throughout the 1940s and 1950s also included Scranton, Jefferson and Farlin, until that school closed. The Greene County Conference was most likely disbanded after the 1958-59 season, as Dana, Grand Junction and Cooper, which merged with Jefferson and closed its high school, all would have left the conference, leaving just Rippey and Paton. No doubt those were also bittersweet county tournaments in the early 1960s as so many changes were underway among the county high schools. Records show that one of the final girls county tournaments (1961) was hosted by East Greene in the Grand Junction gym and was a win for EG (undefeated up until the district finals and led by All-Stater and Hall of Fame member Pam Slock) over Rippey. The following year would most likely have been the last tournament and marked the last appearance by teams from Paton and Rippey. It would have been just a five-team event (East Greene, Paton, Rippey, Churdan and Scranton) as Jefferson did not field a girls baskeball team until the early 1970s, after Title IX was enacted.
When EG and PC became larger schools, each introduced football. EG in the fall of 1963 (the second year after Rippey came in) and PC in the fall of 1965. The following year, 1966-67 those two schools joined six other schools to form the first West Central Conference, extending the Central from “Little Central.” Those charter members were EG, PC, Central Webster (Burnside), Prairie (Gowrie), YJB, Ogden, Story City and United (Boone). The “Boone” in United of Boone actually stood for rural Boone County, as the district had been formed in the late 1950s when three towns in eastern Boone County--Luther, Jordan and Napier--merged together to form United. The actual high school was first housed in the existing Luther school building but then a new school building was built in the country along a site on U.S. Highway 30 very close to the county line with Story County putting the new United High School closer to Ames than Boone, hence creating much confusion of who or what made up the United of Boone district. (The district still exists today as a K-6 entity with high school and middle school students open enrolling out to adjacent larger districts Ames, Boone, Gilbert and Ballard.)
Big changes will be occurring among the teams remaining in the Twin Lakes after the RCL-SC realignment, as there will be just six teams remaining: RCL-SC, East Sac, Manson-Northwest Webster, Prairie Valley, Southeast Webster and Pocahontas/Pomeroy-Palmer. Similarly, the Northwest Conference has been shrinking as the schools that formed the league after the Coon River Valley disbanded (St. Mary’s, Newell-Fonda, Schaller-Crestland and Pomeroy-Palmer) along with Alta, Aurelia and Sac City (members of the Twin Lakes up until 1996) and Albert City-Truesdale and Sioux Central to make a nine-team league, are very much in transition.
The first to go was Albert City-Truesdale, which formed an alignment (later merger) with Laurens-Marathon, also a Twin Lakes member up until a few years ago. Pomeroy-Palmer aligned its athletics with Pocahontas, dropping the Northwest down to 7 members, but then Laurens-Marathon shifted over from the Twin Lakes, making it an eight-league team again, but dropping the Twin Lakes from seven to six members. However, Southeast Webster-Grand left the North Star Conference and joined the Twin Lakes to move it to the present seven members.
Sac City merged with Wall Lake View Auburn two years ago to form East Sac, so that dropped the Northwest down to 7 teams again but kept the Twin Lakes intact at 7, occupying the WLVA slot.
This season marked the end of Schaller-Crestland, which kept is state-ranked volleyball team intact in the fall, but merged all sports thereafter with Galva-Holstein to form Ridge View, again dropping the Northwest to just 6 teams.
As the scenarios involving the Twin Lakes and Northwest teams were playing out last year, discussions got underway to form a Super Conference among the two, which at that time involved 7 teams from each league, forming a 14-team league. Now, with just six remaining in each league, a 12-team league seems more feasible.
If East Greene is accepted into the Rolling Hills, it will again compete head-to-head with Paton-Churdan and Glidden-Ralston. In addition to Adair-Casey, the other teams in the present Rolling Hills are Elk Horn-Kimballton, Exira, CAM (Anita), Ankeny Christian, Iowa Christian, Walnut and Orient-Macksburg.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Hawkettes Win Regional Opener
EG DOWNS MADRID, 44-30
After dropping four games to close the regular season, East Greene got back on the winning track last night with a 44-30 win over Madrid in a first-round regional game at Madrid.
The Hawkettes take on Glidden-Ralston at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, in a key quarterfinal matchup in Glidden. GR advanced with a win over Paton-Churdan last night in Glidden, 49-32. The Wildcats advance with a 4-15 season record while EG is now 9-12.
The winner of Tuesday's game faces the winner of the Rockwell City-Lytton vs. Northeast Hamilton tilt in a regional semifinal game on Friday, Feb. 19 in Boone.
After dropping four games to close the regular season, East Greene got back on the winning track last night with a 44-30 win over Madrid in a first-round regional game at Madrid.
The Hawkettes take on Glidden-Ralston at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, in a key quarterfinal matchup in Glidden. GR advanced with a win over Paton-Churdan last night in Glidden, 49-32. The Wildcats advance with a 4-15 season record while EG is now 9-12.
The winner of Tuesday's game faces the winner of the Rockwell City-Lytton vs. Northeast Hamilton tilt in a regional semifinal game on Friday, Feb. 19 in Boone.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Hawks Upend West Central Valley
EG AVENGES EARLIER LOSS, 53-43
East Greene turned the tables on West Central Valley Friday night in Rippey, topping the Wildcats 53-43 after having dropped a heartbreaker, 57-55, to WCV just before the holiday break back in December.
The win improved the Hawks’ season record to 7-9 and moved their West Central Conference mark to 6-9.
West Central Valley won the opener of the girl-boy doubleheader, 44-37, as the Wildcat girls moved their conference mark to 12-3, one game behind second-place Des Moines Christian. Panorama (15-0) is close to clinching the league championship after beating arch-rival Guthrie Center 51-42 in Panora on Friday.
EG dropped to 7-8 in the conference and 8-9 overall. With just three games remaining, the Hawkettes will need to win 2-of-3 to finish at .500 for the season and in the conference, and one of the three games is against Panorama, ranked 11th in Class 2A, in Panora on Friday. The Hawks and Hawkettes travel to Woodward-Granger tonight. The teams’ conference seasons conclude next Tuesday, Feb. 9, at home against Madrid. The Hawks host Adair-Casey in the season finale on Friday, Feb. 12, in a JV/varsity doubleheader.
After hosting Madrid on Tuesday, the Hawkettes will travel there two nights later for a rematch as the two teams are paired against each other in the opening round of the Class 1-A Regional tournament. EG beat Madrid on the road earlier this season 54-25.
HAWKS UPSET GUTHRIE CENTER
EG has battled all season to break out of the lower division of the West Central, but has found the sledding tough going as six of the 10 West Central Conference teams are in 2A. The Hawks did score a major upset over Guthrie Center on Friday, Jan. 22, with a big 62-46 win in Rippey. It was only the fourth conference loss all season for 2A Guthrie and two of those losses came at the hands of Des Moines Christian, the state’s top-ranked Class 2A team.
The Hawks opened a tight game up in the second quarter, taking a six-point lead at the half and extending that to a 44-36 advantage after three quarters. Guthrie pulled within five points with minutes left in the game, but EG took advantage when the Tiger’s 6-5 center Dustin Clark fouled out. Guthrie was forced to foul from there on, and EG took advantage, knocking down 14 of 18 free throws in the final quarter.
It was complete effort, as the defense held the Tigers to just 27% from the field and only 2-19 from behind the three-point line. EG out-rebounded Guthrie, 39 to 29.
Nic Nicolaisen, 6-5 center, had a big night for the Hawks, scoring 18 points and pulling down a big 18 rebounds.
CRB, PANORAMA TOP EG
The Hawks could not carry the momentum of their win over Guthrie Center to a tilt with Panorama, the league’s No. 2 team, the following night in Rippey, falling to the Panthers 56-38. The game had been postponed twice due to weather.
The Hawks were doomed by cold shooting and a tough Panorama defense, hitting just 12 of 43 two-point shots for 28% and turning the ball over 29 times. Against Guthrie, the Hawks had made 25 of 34 free throws (74%) but they were a cold 10-of-21 for 48% on Saturday. One bright spot was a 4-10 (40%) night behind the three-point arc.
Nicolaisen led the offense with 11 points. Reserve Schyler Bardole had a big game defensively as he lead the Hawks in rebounding with 9. Jessie Priest pulled down 8.
On Tuesday night (Jan. 25) on the road, Coon Rapids-Bayard got revenge for an two-point loss to the Hawks earlier in the season, 49-38. EG started out solid, posting a 16-12 first quarter lead and trailing by just two, 26-24, at the half. The Crusaders took charge in the second half, holding the Hawks to just 14 points.
EG was lead by Wes Onken with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Onken was 7-8 from the field, 2-2 from behind the arc, and 2-2 from the free throw line. However, the Crusaders successfully shut down the rest of Hawks, with just three others making it into the scoring book: Priest with 8, and Nicolaisen and Tom Beger with 6 each.
The loss to CRB was key as both teams were jockeying for post-season seedings in District 13. Heading into the game, EG was 4-6 in the 10 of 11 games used for seeding purposes (games 5-15 of the season) while CRB was 5-5. If EG had won this 11th--and final seeding game--the Hawks would have tied CRB at 5-6 and won the tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed by virtue of winning both head-to-head contests against CRB, and by beating Southeast Webster-Grand in the first game of the season, as SWG played its 11th game two nights later, beating winless Southern Cal to also finish at 5-6. However, the Hawks lost to CRB, giving the Crusaders the No. 3 seed at 6-5 and dropping the Hawks to 4-7, which should give them the No. 5 seed. SWG finishes at the No. 4 spot at 5-6, and those two teams are most likely to be paired up in the opening round of district action with SWG getting the home court advantage as the higher seed.
Here are the seedings for teams in District 13:
5-15 Standings / Overall / 5-15 % / Head-to-Head Competition
1. RCL 7-4 11-5 0.636 3-0
2. GR* 6-5 8-9 0.545 5-1
3. CRB* 6-5 9-7 0.545 1-2
4. SWG 5-6 7-10 0.455 3-2
5. EG 4-7 7-10 0.363 2-2
6. AC 3-8 3-12 0.273 2-0
7. PC 2-8 2-12 0.200 0-4
8. SC 0-10 0-14 0.000 0-3
* GR holds tie-breaker for second place over CR. Overall standings are for games played through Saturday, Jan. 30, and reflect EG’s loss to RCL on Jan. 30.
East Greene turned the tables on West Central Valley Friday night in Rippey, topping the Wildcats 53-43 after having dropped a heartbreaker, 57-55, to WCV just before the holiday break back in December.
The win improved the Hawks’ season record to 7-9 and moved their West Central Conference mark to 6-9.
West Central Valley won the opener of the girl-boy doubleheader, 44-37, as the Wildcat girls moved their conference mark to 12-3, one game behind second-place Des Moines Christian. Panorama (15-0) is close to clinching the league championship after beating arch-rival Guthrie Center 51-42 in Panora on Friday.
EG dropped to 7-8 in the conference and 8-9 overall. With just three games remaining, the Hawkettes will need to win 2-of-3 to finish at .500 for the season and in the conference, and one of the three games is against Panorama, ranked 11th in Class 2A, in Panora on Friday. The Hawks and Hawkettes travel to Woodward-Granger tonight. The teams’ conference seasons conclude next Tuesday, Feb. 9, at home against Madrid. The Hawks host Adair-Casey in the season finale on Friday, Feb. 12, in a JV/varsity doubleheader.
After hosting Madrid on Tuesday, the Hawkettes will travel there two nights later for a rematch as the two teams are paired against each other in the opening round of the Class 1-A Regional tournament. EG beat Madrid on the road earlier this season 54-25.
HAWKS UPSET GUTHRIE CENTER
EG has battled all season to break out of the lower division of the West Central, but has found the sledding tough going as six of the 10 West Central Conference teams are in 2A. The Hawks did score a major upset over Guthrie Center on Friday, Jan. 22, with a big 62-46 win in Rippey. It was only the fourth conference loss all season for 2A Guthrie and two of those losses came at the hands of Des Moines Christian, the state’s top-ranked Class 2A team.
The Hawks opened a tight game up in the second quarter, taking a six-point lead at the half and extending that to a 44-36 advantage after three quarters. Guthrie pulled within five points with minutes left in the game, but EG took advantage when the Tiger’s 6-5 center Dustin Clark fouled out. Guthrie was forced to foul from there on, and EG took advantage, knocking down 14 of 18 free throws in the final quarter.
It was complete effort, as the defense held the Tigers to just 27% from the field and only 2-19 from behind the three-point line. EG out-rebounded Guthrie, 39 to 29.
Nic Nicolaisen, 6-5 center, had a big night for the Hawks, scoring 18 points and pulling down a big 18 rebounds.
CRB, PANORAMA TOP EG
The Hawks could not carry the momentum of their win over Guthrie Center to a tilt with Panorama, the league’s No. 2 team, the following night in Rippey, falling to the Panthers 56-38. The game had been postponed twice due to weather.
The Hawks were doomed by cold shooting and a tough Panorama defense, hitting just 12 of 43 two-point shots for 28% and turning the ball over 29 times. Against Guthrie, the Hawks had made 25 of 34 free throws (74%) but they were a cold 10-of-21 for 48% on Saturday. One bright spot was a 4-10 (40%) night behind the three-point arc.
Nicolaisen led the offense with 11 points. Reserve Schyler Bardole had a big game defensively as he lead the Hawks in rebounding with 9. Jessie Priest pulled down 8.
On Tuesday night (Jan. 25) on the road, Coon Rapids-Bayard got revenge for an two-point loss to the Hawks earlier in the season, 49-38. EG started out solid, posting a 16-12 first quarter lead and trailing by just two, 26-24, at the half. The Crusaders took charge in the second half, holding the Hawks to just 14 points.
EG was lead by Wes Onken with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Onken was 7-8 from the field, 2-2 from behind the arc, and 2-2 from the free throw line. However, the Crusaders successfully shut down the rest of Hawks, with just three others making it into the scoring book: Priest with 8, and Nicolaisen and Tom Beger with 6 each.
The loss to CRB was key as both teams were jockeying for post-season seedings in District 13. Heading into the game, EG was 4-6 in the 10 of 11 games used for seeding purposes (games 5-15 of the season) while CRB was 5-5. If EG had won this 11th--and final seeding game--the Hawks would have tied CRB at 5-6 and won the tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed by virtue of winning both head-to-head contests against CRB, and by beating Southeast Webster-Grand in the first game of the season, as SWG played its 11th game two nights later, beating winless Southern Cal to also finish at 5-6. However, the Hawks lost to CRB, giving the Crusaders the No. 3 seed at 6-5 and dropping the Hawks to 4-7, which should give them the No. 5 seed. SWG finishes at the No. 4 spot at 5-6, and those two teams are most likely to be paired up in the opening round of district action with SWG getting the home court advantage as the higher seed.
Here are the seedings for teams in District 13:
5-15 Standings / Overall / 5-15 % / Head-to-Head Competition
1. RCL 7-4 11-5 0.636 3-0
2. GR* 6-5 8-9 0.545 5-1
3. CRB* 6-5 9-7 0.545 1-2
4. SWG 5-6 7-10 0.455 3-2
5. EG 4-7 7-10 0.363 2-2
6. AC 3-8 3-12 0.273 2-0
7. PC 2-8 2-12 0.200 0-4
8. SC 0-10 0-14 0.000 0-3
* GR holds tie-breaker for second place over CR. Overall standings are for games played through Saturday, Jan. 30, and reflect EG’s loss to RCL on Jan. 30.
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