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SPORTSSECTION C • APRIL 2, 2015
PREVIEW
Jackson County Central baseballHead coach: Mike Wierson
3-30 vs. Mt. Lake Area4-2 at Fairmont (doubleheader)4-9 vs. St. James Area4-13 vs. Heron Lake-Okabena4-16 at Windom4-18 vs. Pipestone (doubleheader)4-21 at Redwood Valley4-23 at St. James Area4-27 at Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial4-28 at Worthington4-30 at Luverne (doubleheader)5-4 at United South Central5-5 vs. Windom5-14 vs. Adrian5-16 BSC tournament5-19 at Martin County West5-23 — 6-4 Section 3AA tournament6-11 — 6-13 Class AA state tournamentFAMILY
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PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Jackson County Central baseball team are (front, from left): Chris Gumto, Easton Bahr, Zach Holm, Ryan Timko and Andrew Hesse. Back: Jared Bakalyar, Brody Anderson, Ryan Christopher, Nick Arp and Scott Christopher.
The Jackson County Central softball team re-turns a bevy of talent this spring, including three players who set school re-cords last season.
The Huskies return all but three players from a team that went 15-7 last season, giving head coach Shelly Hotzler plenty of reason for optimism.
“I think we’ve got some high expectations,” she said. “We’re looking to pos-sibly place at sections and get to state.”
The Huskies will rely on an offense that has a bal-ance of speed and power to carry the team this season.
JCC hit 22 home runs last season, with 19 of those by players who are back this year.
Senior Mo Carlson hit seven bombs last season, which tied a school record. She also drove in a school-record 39 runs.
Freshman Kelsey Kan-nenberg hit a school-re-cord .526 with five home runs last season and also set three pitching records.
Those two will be in the heart of the order, as will
JCC softball team has high hopesThree players who broke school records last season return for Huskies
by DAN CONDONSports Editor
PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Jackson County Central softball team are (front, from left): Jadin Bezdicek, Rachel Johnson, Mo Carlson, Bailey Schneekloth, Megan Edlin and Kaitlin Sundall. Back: Sydney Nyborg, Kathryn Nasby, Blaney Markman, Jayni Anderson, Stephanie Sauter, Elyse Johnson and Kelsey Kannenberg. Missing: Tearza Brewer.
senior Blaney Markman (.461 average with five homers and 22 runs batted in last season) and junior Sydney Nyborg (16 RBI last season).
“That’s a pretty solid core,” Hotzler said.
To complement the big boppers, the Huskies will have speed at the top and
bottom of the lineup.Senior Kathryn Nasby
stole nine bases and hit .342 last season and figures to be at the top of the order. Seniors Megan Edlin (who had a school-record 11 sac-rifices last season), Bailey Schneekloth and Rachel Johnson, junior Jadin Bez-dicek and sophomore Jayni
Anderson also provide speed for the Huskies.
“We’ve got some team speed this year, so that will be a good thing,” Hotzler said.
Kannenberg posted a 3.34 earned-run average last season as she pitched 86 innings. She’ll be back to lead the Huskies in the
circle and will be joined by Nyborg (3.82 ERA) and eighth-grader Blaney Johnson. Kannenberg will also play first base and Ny-borg will play third.
Carlson will play first and Markman will be at shortstop. Schneekloth and Bezdicek will both play at second base. Carlson will
also do some catching and Bezdicek can play in the outfield.
Anderson returns as catcher and Nasby is back patrolling center field. Ed-lin will play left field and Johnson will play in right after missing most of last season with a concussion.
See JCC SB on C6
The Jackson County Cen-tral baseball team is hoping a year of experience and a strong second half to last season will help as it enters the 2015 campaign.
The Huskies were win-less in their first 11 games last season, but went 4-3 the rest of the way to fin-ish strong.
Back from that team are 10 players, including the team’s leading hitter and top pitchers.
Head coach Mike Wi-erson said his team could look different in the field every game this season, mostly depending on who is on the pitcher’s mound.
“Basically all of our pitchers are starters at one of our other spots,” he said. “Depending on who is pitching, it’s going to change our lineup and po-sitions every game.”
The Huskies return se-nior Scott Christopher and sophomore Chris Gumto to the mound after the two were JCC’s top hurl-ers a year ago. Gumto will also play at third base and Christopher will play shortstop, but can play just about any position.
Sophomore Ryan Chris-topher will also pitch, as will seniors Zach Schwart-ing, Ryan Timko, Jared Bakalyar, and Nick Arp and juniors Dalton Mortenson,
Versatile Huskies hope second-half surge carries overJCC baseball team finished strong last season, brings back 10 players
by DAN CONDONSports Editor
Avery Henderson and Levi Salberg.
Senior Brody Anderson will play first base, but Schwarting could also see time there and in the out-field.
Bakalyar will play catch-er and Timko can play there or at third. Junior Nate Monson will also see time at catcher and could also play in the infield or outfield.
Senior Andrew Hesse will play second base and left field and sophomore
Easton Bahr will play in the middle infield.
Ryan Christopher will man center field when he’s not pitching and other outfielders are senior Zach Holm, Henderson and Arp.
Salberg will also spend time at designated hitter and junior Austin Nunez will play at second base.
“A lot of guys have to be able to play multiple positions,” Wierson said, adding that is the case for most. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can play more
than one spot and we have a lot of quality players.”
With so many inter-changeable parts, Wierson said positions and a lineup will be fluid as the season goes on.
“It’s who is performing and taking advantage of their opportunities,” he said.
That was the case last year, as well, as the team used a variety of lineups and eventually brought up Bahr, Gumto and Ryan
See JCC BASE on C3
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C2 Thursday, April 2, 2015Sports Preview
Jackson County Central track and fi eldHead coach: Rafe York
3-28 at U of M indoor meet3-31 at Luverne4-2 at Mt. Lake4-7 at Luverne4-10 at Mt. Lake4-13 at Windom4-21 at Slayton4-23 at Fairmont4-30 JCC meet5-4 at Section 3A true team (in Luverne)5-7 at Worthington5-12 at BSC meet (in Redwood Falls)5-21 Sub-section 9A meet (in Windom)5-28 Section 3A meet (in Luverne)6-5 — 6-6 Class A state meet
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The Jackson County Cen-tral track and field teams enter the season with dif-ferent goals, as the girls hope a complete team can finish well in meets and the boys hope to build toward the end of the season.
Head coach Rafe York likes the talent the girls have and said a fairly inex-perience boys team could make strides during the spring.
Girls’ talent ‘spread out’The JCC girls have tal-
ented athletes in just about every event this season de-spite returning just three of its top 10 scorers last season.
“There are a lot of tal-ented kids who are spread around in a lot of events,” York said. “We’re very spread out.”
While there are a lot of good athletes, York said there isn’t a whole lot of depth on the 21-team ros-ter.
“We’re not as deep as I’d like to be, but we do have some depth,” he said. “We’ve got talent and they’re young.”
The leading returning scorer is freshman Jessica Christoffer, who had 113 points last season in dis-tance runs and relays.
Christoffer made it to the section meet in the 1,600-meter run and in two relays.
She leads a group of talented distance runners that also includes soph-omores Karli Cavness, Maximiliane Weber and Nora Schaer, freshman Kia Holm and Molly Boyum and eighth-grader Melissa Brandt. Brandt and Holm joined Christoffer in the 4x800-meter relay at sec-tions last season.
“We’ve got four or five distance runners who can place in every meet,” York said.
Eighth-grader Hailey Handevidt was ninth in scoring last season and freshman Brielle Scheep-stra was 10th.
Handevidt will compete
PHOTO BY DAN CONDONMembers of the Jackson County Central track and field team are (front, from left): Kia Holm, Kailey Koep, Melissa Brandt, Molly Boyum, Rion Bronson, Jessica Christoffer, Hailey Handevidt, Karli Cavness, Sarah Holmberg and Brielle Scheepstra. Second row: Marte Gabrielli, Sophie Johnson, Glory Meyer, Maximiliene Weber, David Strom, Wyatt Weier, Zoe Pohlman, Hunter Gustin, Lauren Buhr, Bobbi Murphy and Alyssa Post. Third row: Jade Holthe, Liberty Meyer, Aleigha Henderson, Curtis Pell, Damien Van Westen, Ryder Lesch, Cheyenne Minniss, James Thomas, Josh Ulbricht and Teague Schultz. Back: Nora Schaer, Dalton Mekosch, Warren Darling, Zach Holm, Andrew Hesse, Brandon Schmit, Demonte Thomas, Matt Strom and Jordan Hutzler.
JCC girls have talent, boys have eye on the futureby DAN CONDON
Sports Editorin pole vault and sprints and Scheepstra will com-pete in hurdles and jumps. Both qualified for sections last season, with Handevi-dt going in the 4x400-meter relay and 400-meter dash and Scheepstra qualifying in long jump.
Also jumping for JCC are sophomore Sophie John-son (who made it to sec-tions last year in triple jump), freshmen Alyssa Post, Boyum, Cheyenne Minnis and Bobbi Murphy and eighth-graders Aleigha Henderson and Zoe Pohl-man.
Sprinters are senior Jade Holthe, eighth-grader Kai-ley Koep and the afore-mentioned Henderson, Post, Murphy, Pohlman and Handevidt.
Henderson, Post and Pohlman ran in the 4x200-meter relay at sections last year and Post also made it in the 200-meter dash.
Hurdlers are Scheepstra, Johnson and Pohlman, with Koep joining Handevidt in pole vault.
“We’ve got three hur-dlers who might be able to place at most meets,” York said.
Throwers are Holthe, Minnis, seniors Marte Ga-brielli and Lauren Buhr, sophomore Liberty Meyer and freshman Glory Meyer.
Serving as the manager is senior Sarah Brandt, who is unable to compete this season as she recovers from knee surgery.
Trio to lead JCC boysThe JCC boys return
two of their fop five scor-ers from last season, but are pretty inexperienced after graduating a big se-nior class.
“We’re very thin,” York said of his 19-man roster. “We lost a lot. We’ve only got six or seven guys back from last year.”
One of them returning is senior Warren Darling, who was third on the team in points last season. He went to sections in long jump and was part of the 4x4 and 4x1 teams that competed at the section meet.
Darling has the school record in long jump and was the conference cham-pion last season.
The Huskies also return sophomore Matt Strom, who was fifth in points last season. He ran in the 800-meter run at sections last season, as well as the 4x4.
Both Darling and Strom will compete in sprints, as will seniors Andrew Hesse, Zach Holm and Demonte Thomas, junior Curtis Pell, sophomore James Thomas and freshmen Dalton Me-kosch, Rion Bronson and Damian VanWesten.
Darling will also com-pete in jumps, as will Mekosch, junior Jordan Hutzler and sophomores Josh Ulbricht and Teague Schultz. Hutzler will also compete in hurdles.
Strom will compete in throwing events and will be joined by senior Bran-don Schmit and Demonte Thomas, James Thomas and Schultz.
Schmit nearly made it to state in discus last season, placing third at the section meet. He was also seventh in shot put.
Distance runners are sophomores Carter Hein-richs and Wyatt Weier, freshman Hunter Gustin and seventh-grader David Strom.
Pell will pole vault (he was 13th in the section last season), as will VanWest-en and sophomore Ryder Lesch.
York said the team will rely on Darling, Matt Strom and Schmit to score a lot of points this spring.
“We’re looking for big things out of them,” he said. “Brandon is one of the top throwers in the section and Warren will be one of the top jumpers.”
York said the team’s un-official indoor meet at the University of Minnesota last Saturday was impor-tant because it gave his in-experience team a chance to get its feet wet.
“A lot of the guys are just learning their events,” he said. “Going up to an in-door meet like yesterday was a huge help. Jordan Hutzler, he’s learning to hurdle, triple jump and high jump all at the same time.”
With that in mind, York said the goal is improve-ment all season long.
“We had a huge senior class last year so most of our kids are sophomore or younger,” he said. “We’re building for the future and hoping to establish the program.”
Season started TuesdayThe Huskies started the
outdoor season Tuesday in Luverne, home of the team York said will be the tough-est to beat in the section.
“They’ll be good again,” he said of the Cardinals. “Their girls are outstand-ing.”
Montevideo wil l be strong in the boys’ stand-ings and York expects Red-wood Valley to be good again.
JCC hosts a meet this season, which is set for April 30.
The Huskies will com-pete in the small-school Big South Conference tour-nament at Redwood Falls on May 12 and will com-pete in the sub-section meet May 21. The section meet is May 28 in Luverne.
Assisting York this sea-son are Jack Walsh (throw-ers), Greg Maday (vault), Brian Cook (horizontal jumps and sprints) and Kerri Kocak (distance). Josh Wacker is volunteer-ing and “doing a great job” with the kids in the weight room, York said.
C3 Thursday, April 2, 2015Sports Preview
Jackson County Central golfHead coach: Keith Eggink
4-6 vs. Spirit Lake (girls only)4-9 at Spirit Lake (boys only)4-14 at Marshall4-16 at Worthington4-18 at Worthington tournament4-20 vs. Fairmont4-21 at Martin County West4-24 — 4-25 at Jordan tournament4-27 vs. Luverne4-28 at Redwood Valley4-30 at Red Rock Central5-1 vs. Estherville Lincoln Central5-2 at Fairmont tournament5-5 vs. Pipestone (boys only)5-7 vs. Pipestone (girls only)5-12 vs. Windom5-15 at Blue Earth Area5-18 at BSC tournament (in Fairmont)5-21 Sub-section 3AA tournament (Boys in Willmar; Girls in Buff alo Lake)5-28 Section 3AA tournament (in Buff alo Lake)6-9 — 6-10 Class AA state tournament (in Jordan)
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The Jackson County Central boys’ and girls’ golf teams have high hopes as the new season begins, although the lofty goals are a bit different.
The JCC boys have aspi-rations of making it to state as a team, while the girls have a chance at sending multiple individuals to the state tournament.
The season starts Mon-day for the girls as they host Spirit Lake, Iowa. The boys kick off their season next Thursday at Spirit Lake.
‘Goal is to go to state’Four spots on the six-
man varsity team are all but locked up for the JCC boys, but head coach Keith Eggink said the other two are up for grabs.
Seniors Joe Brinkman, Austin Olson, Jack Ring-kob and Kyle Kapplinger
Christopher from the B squad.
Bahr ended up leading the team with a .400 bat-ting average and had a team-leading .516 on-base percentage.
Bakalyar hit .311 last season and drove in five runs. Hesse had a .381 on-base percentage, thanks, in part, to nine walks. Scott Christopher had a .300 on-base percentage. He and
Hesse both scored 11 runs.When guys are on base,
Wierson said, they will be on the move.
“We have good team speed,” he said. “We’ll use that to our advantage. We’ll make the other teams make plays, sometimes to a fault. If they make a play, they make a play.”
The Huskies had two-a-days for the first two weeks of practice, which
JCC BASE: Versatile Huskies hope last year’s second-half surge continuesContinued from C1
allowed them to get plenty of swings in.
“We’ve been getting a lot of cuts in,” Wierson said, adding that has been ben-eficial because the Huskies weren’t able to get outside much to practice in the first couple weeks.
In the gym and the few days they were outdoors, Wierson said the focus was on the basics.
“Fundamentals,” he said.
“Early in the season, that’s the biggest thing.”
The Huskies put those fundamentals to the test Tuesday as they opened the season against Mt. Lake. They play at Fairmont to-day (Thursday) against a team Wierson said will be one of the tougher teams in the Big South Conference and Section 3AA.
JCC opens play against fellow BSC small-school
teams April 9 at home against St. James. Also in the small-school divi-sion are Luverne, Pipe-stone, Redwood Valley and Windom.
In the big-school divi-sion of the conference are Marshall, Fairmont, New Ulm, Worthington, St. Pe-ter, Waseca and Blue Earth Area.
Only games against small schools will count
toward JCC’s conference record and the Huskies will play a crossover game against a big-school team in May.
Blaise Jacobsen is back as Wierson’s assistant coach. Kevin Holm and Nathan Boler are coaching the B- and C-squad teams.
Huskies enter golf season with lofty goalsState on the minds of JCC golfers
by DAN CONDONSports Editor
PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Jackson County Central softball team are (front, from left): Alison Benson, Abby Benson, Emmalie Benson and Abby Brinkman. Back: Austin Olson, Jack Ringkob, Joe Brinkman, Kyle Kapplinger and Caleb Kolander. Missing: Matt Ringkob.
will make up two-thirds of the varsity team and all have at least two years of varsity experience already.
“The last two spots are pretty open,” Eggink said.
In contention are juniors Caleb Kolander, Matt Ring-kob and Keegan Moore, freshman Zach Torger-son, seventh-grader Jack Brinkman and, possibly, a few others.
With four experienced seniors to lead the way, it’s no wonder Eggink said his boys have made their goal for the spring clear.
“Their goal is to go to state,” Eggink said. “That’s their goal and I support them on that.”
To do so, the Huskies will have to top Marshall and New Ulm, among oth-ers, in the newly-formatted section tournament.
This year’s tournament is a two-day, 36-hole event, with the two dates a week apart. Scores will carry over from the first 18 holes, but some golfers and teams will be eliminated before the final 18 holes a week later.
Eggink said he’s in favor
of the new format, which rewards consistency.
“It eliminates the one-day wonder,” he said. “We definitely have guys that can throw two good rounds together.”
The top team advances to state, as do the top five individuals.
Joe Brinkman has come close to state before and will lead the boys again after medaling four times last season. He’s qualified for the section tournament five times (when golfers had to advance from the sub-section meet) and, last year, averaged 40.9 strokes per nine holes.
Olson qualified for the section tournament last year and averaged 44.1 strokes per nine holes. Ringkob averaged 42.9 last year and Eggink said has put in a lot of time in the offseason.
The team played on the golf simulator at the Jack-son Golf Club during the winter, with Ringkob mak-ing it a habit.
“Jack’s out here all the time,” Eggink said. “He’s been playing really well.”
Kapplinger averaged 45.6 shots per nine holes, giving the Huskies a solid core.
Kolander also got some varsity experience, shoot-ing 99 in an 18-hole tourna-ment last season.
Although JCC is in the Big South Conference this year, their division is com-prised of all the teams from the old Southwest Conference: JCC, Luverne, Marshall, Pipestone, Red-wood Valley, Windom and Worthington.
Only matches against those teams count toward the conference record, but the BSC tournament in Fairmont on May 18 includes all 13 conference teams. The same goes for the girls’ teams.
JCC girls return fourThe JCC girls’ golf team
returns four golfers from last year’s 10-0 team and three are threats to ad-vance to state.
The team will be solid again, Eggink predicts, but he said Marshall is the clear-cut favorite in the BSC and section.
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“They’re by far the fa-vorite,” he said. “Their top two girls are really good. We’ve got to have some phenomenal rounds to beat them.”
That’s not completely out of the question as the Huskies return senior Ali-son Benson, juniors Abby Brinkman and Emmalie Benson and sophomore Abby Benson.
Alison Benson was med-alist five times last season and averaged 45.5 strokes per nine holes. Brinkman was medalist four times and led the team with an average of 44.7 shots per nine holes.
Abby Benson medaled twice last season and aver-aged 45.6 strokes per nine holes.
Those three will all be in the hunt at the end of the season.
“They can compete for a shot at state,” Eggink said. “We’ve got three pretty solid golfers, and Emmalie can put together some good rounds.”
Eggink said the top three golfers are quite competi-tive with each other, but the key for them this season will be consistency.
“Any day any of them could be a medalist,” he said. “Now we need more consistency out of all of
them.”Joining the four return-
ers will be freshman Tiara Menke. The sixth spot is up for grabs, with the leading candidates being eighth-grader Samara Hillmer and seventh-graders Grace Benson and Julia Bohl.
Along with Marshall, Eggink said Windom will be tough in the conference and section, as will New Ulm.
New coaches, newtournament
The Huskies will play in a two-day, 36-hole tourna-ment in Jordan April 24 and 25. The tournament is at the site of the state tourney, which Eggink said could provide motivation.
“ They’l l know what they’ve got to strive for,” he said, “so that’s kind of nice.”
The tournament will also help prepare the boys’ and girls’ teams for the 36-hole section tournament, Egg-ink said.
Eggink is assisted this season by Mark Kocak, who has been a coach in the past.
“I’m happy that Mark’s back to help,” Eggink said.
Coaching the junior high team is Kaitlyn Kiehn, who played at St. Cloud State University.
C4 Thursday, April 2, 2015Sports Preview
Heron Lake-Okabena baseballHead coaches: Kevin Rogers
3-31 at Worthington4-6 vs. Minneota4-7 at Murray County Central4-9 vs. Adrian4-11 at MCW tournament4-13 at Jackson County Central4-14 at RRC/WWG4-16 at Edgerton/SWC4-20 at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton4-21 vs. Mt. Lake Area4-23 vs. Murray County Central4-27 at Martin Luther4-30 at Adrian5-5 vs. RRC/WWG5-7 vs. Edgerton/SWC5-12 at Mt. Lake Area5-16 at Canby tournament5-20 — 6-4 Section 3A tournament6-11 — 6-13 Class A state tournament
Heron Lake-Okabena softballHead coach: Angie Rogotzke
4-7 vs. Murray County Central4-13 vs. Windom4-14 vs. Red Rock Central4-16 vs. Edgerton/SWC4-17 at Worthington4-21 at Mt. Lake Area4-23 at Murray County Central4-24 at Martin County West4-27 vs. Martin Luther4-28 at Adrian/Ellsworth4-30 vs. Adrian/Ellsworth5-1 at Madelia5-5 at Red Rock Central5-7 at Edgerton5-11 vs. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton5-12 vs. Mt. Lake Area5-14 at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton5-15 — 5-28 Section 3A tournament6-4 — 6-5 Class A state tournament (in Mankato)
The Heron Lake-Ok-abena softball team had its first winning season in nearly a decade last season and brings back four play-ers who were honored by the Red Rock Conference and their team last season.
But head coach Angie Rogotzke said, despite the talent the Wildcats have back, they are still a young team with areas to im-prove.
The biggest area, she said, is offensively, where the Wildcats are working on slapping and bunting
Wildcats return four all-conference playersby DAN CONDON
Sports Editoras ways to get runners on base.
“We need to hit,” Rogotz-ke said. “Last year we lost a few games because we didn’t hit the first four in-nings and then it was too late. Scoring runs is the way you win the game.”
The Wildcats return se-nior first baseman Rachel Mathias, who was named the team’s best offensive player last season. She was named to the all-con-ference team last season, as were now juniors Me-gan Haberman (shortstop) and Ida Rogers-Ferguson (pitcher).
Haberman was named
the team’s best defensive player last season and Rog-ers-Ferguson was the most valuable player.
“She’s the leader of the team,” Rogotzke said of Rogers-Ferguson. “She takes charge out there.”
Also back is senior out-fielder Lizzie Rossow, who was an honorable-mention all-conference player last season.
Senior Whitney Evers is back out after not play-ing last season. She’ll play in the outfield, as will ju-nior Mariah Harvey and freshman Tessla Crowell. Crowell will also do some pitching for HL-O.
Joining Haberman and Mathias — who Rogotzke said “sucks everything up” at first base — in the infield will be freshman Jessica
VanWesten and sophomore Madison Leighty. Those two will play second and third base, but which one is where was yet to be deter-mined as of late last week.
Sophomore Samantha Obermoller will play catch-er and sophomore Brook-lynn Elder will play in the infield.
The Wildcats have just 11 players and don’t have a junior varsity team, so there isn’t a whole lot of depth.
“We can’t get anyone hurt,” Rogotzke said.
The strength of this year’s team, Rogotzke said, is its defense. That proved to hold true in a couple scrimmages in Rochester against Rochester Mayo and Chatfield.
“We played really well
defensively,” she said. “De-fense is our strength.”
But, Rogotzke said, de-fense is still something that will continue to be worked on all season.
“We have errors,” she said. “We’ve got to get the for-sure outs that we have.”
With four all-conference players back and a strong defense, Rogotzke said the goal is to improve on last year’s 8-6 record.
“We want to do better than last year,” she said. “We’ll hold our own. We’ll beat some teams that won’t be expecting it.”
Rogotzke said Edgerton and Red Rock Central are the conference favorites, but added Murray County Central will again be in the mix.
The Wildcats open their season against MCC next Tuesday at home in Okabe-na. After playing Windom, the Wildcats host power-houses RRC and Edger-ton/Southwest Christian at home, giving HL-O four tough home games to start the season.
The Wildcats play RRC and Edgerton/SWC in back-to-back road games in April and end the regu-lar season at Tracy.
The section tournament starts May 15 and state is June 4 and 5.
Rogotzke said as long as the team has a good time, everything will be fine.
“I just want them to have fun and play their heart out and the other things will come,” she said.
PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Heron Lake-Okabena softball team are Tessla Crowell, Lizzie Rossow, Megan Haberman, Ida Rogers-Ferguson and Samantha Obermoller. Missing: Rachel Mathias.
PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Heron Lake-Okabena baseball team are (front, from left): Gage Dronen, Isaac Fest, Angel Esqueda, Marcelo Esqueda and Trey Cranston. Back: Adam Hietbrink, Logan Knutson, Brady Haberman, Ryan DeWall and Austin Hietbrink. Missing: Jacob Getzel.
by DAN CONDONSports Editor
For the Heron Lake-Oka-bena baseball team, a year of experience will hope-fully pay off this season.
The Wildcats were young last season and went 2-18. But seven of those games were decided by three or fewer runs and four were by just one run.
With a year of experi-ence, first-year head coach Kevin Rogers is hoping the Wildcats can come out on top of some of those close games and turn in a solid record.
To do so, HL-O will rely on what Rogers said looks like a solid defense.
“ O u r d e f e n s e i s a strength,” he said. “We’ve got some good, young arms.”
Rogers said the team is still pretty young, but hopes by the time the play-offs roll around the Wild-cats will be pretty good.
“We want to play good, steady, smart ball,” he said. “We want to try to be in every game. We want to improve and get to where we want to be at the end of the season.”
The Wildcats will be led by senior Isaac Fest, who was an all-Red Rock Con-ference player last season when he stole 33 bases.
Rogers said Fest will be at the top of the order, but not much is certain after that.
“Once we get going we’ll find out how these kids do,” he said of determining a
HL-O baseball team hopes experience pays off this springWildcats return 11 players from last year’s diamond team
batting order.Fest will play shortstop
and pitch for the Wildcats. Also on the mound will be seniors Jacob Getzel and Trey Cranston, sopho-mores Logan Knutson, David Volk and Adam Hiet-brink and freshman Taylor DeWall.
Junior Angel Esqueda will play catcher for the Wildcats and twin brother Marcelo Esqueda could also spend time behind the plate. Marcelo will also play third base.
Hietbrink will play first base, Knutson will play second and other infield-ers are Getzel, Cranston
and Volk.Outfielders are juniors
Brady Haberman and Ryan DeWall, junior Gage Dronen, Cranston and Tay-lor DeWall.
“We’re just trying to get better,” Rogers said. “We’re another year older. We’re looking for those younger guys to step up.”
The Wildcats opened the season Tuesday at Worthington and have their home opener next Monday against Minneota.
The Red Rock Confer-ence opener is April 7 at Murray County Central and then April 9 HL-O hosts Adrian, which Rog-
ers said is the team to beat in the conference.
The Wildcats also play at Adrian on April 30.
The Wildcats have a tournament April 11 in Welcome and play in a tournament May 16 at Can-by.
The section tournament starts May 20 and the state tournament begins June 11.
Lon Eichenberger is as-sisting Rogers at the var-sity level. Octavio Jimenez is coaching the junior-var-sity team, which Rogers said will have a number of games this spring.
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PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Heron Lake-Okabena track and field team are Logan Knutson (from left), MaKayla Edwards, Cheyenne Schaffer, Rachel Salentiny, Taylor Johanning, Brianna Preston, Bailey Collin and Vanessa Juarez. Missing: Matthew Poppe, Kaylan Untiedt and Sarah Schmid.
Heron Lake-Okabena track and fi eldHead coaches: Gary Hildebrandt
3-26 Blue Earth Area indoor (in Mankato)4-2 at Mt. Lake4-10 at Mt. Lake4-13 at Windom4-21 at Slayton4-24 at Mt. Lake5-1 at Fairmont5-2 at Howard Wood (in Sioux Falls)5-11 at Slayton5-14 at Red Rock Conference meet (in Slayton)5-21 Sub-section meet (in Pipestone)5-30 Section 3A meet (in Luverne)6-5 — 6-6 Class A state meet
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A loaded group of long distance runners will lead the Heron Lake-Okabena girls’ track and field team and one outstanding run-ner will lead the boys. Also expected to rack up points for both teams will be an elite thrower.
Girls can runThe HL-O girls’ track
and field team returns an exceptional group of distance runners, which helped the Wildcats to a strong showing in cross country last fall.
The depth of distance runners give the Wildcats a good shot at state in the 4x800-meter relay, which they just missed last sea-son.
Freshmen Rachel Sal-entiny, MaKayla Edwards, Cheyenne Schaffer and Brianna Preston finished third at the section meet in the 4x8 last season, miss-ing a trip to state by one spot. The four are joined by freshman Vanessa Juarez and seventh-grader Emma Golda as distance runners.
“The 4x8 team has a goal to take one more step up,” head coach Gary Hildeb-randt said.
Edwards won the sub-section in the 1,600-me-
Distance runners, throwers to lead Wildcat track and fi eld teamsby DAN CONDON
Sports Editorter run last season, was second at the Red Rock Conference meet and fifth at sections. Salentiny was the section champion in the 3,200-meter run and finished second at sub-sec-tions and fifth at sections.
Preston placed third in the conference in the 3,200-meter run.
The foursome of Ed-wards, Salentiny, Schaffer and sophomore Kaylan Un-tiedt was fourth in the sub-section in the 4x400-meter relay last season.
Joining Untied as sprint-ers are Schaffer, seniors Sarah Schmid and Vonique Swenson, sophomore Bai-ley Collin and freshman Taylor Johanning.
Jumpers are Schaffer, Untiedt, Edwards, Schmid, Johanning and Swenson. Untied will also compete in hurdles.
Collin leads the throw-ers after placing third at the conference meet last season. She tied her career high in an indoor meet last week, which head Hil-debrandt said is in part to volunteer throwing coach Katie Kaluza.
“She’s been great,” Hil-debrandt said of the coach. “That’s huge.”
He said having a coach who specializes in throws will help Collin and fel-low throwers Schmid and
freshman Ashley Wagner.The same holds true, he
said, for distance coach Les Knutson, sprint coach Donna Cook and hurdles coach Melissa Untiedt.
“We’ve got it all cov-ered,” Hildebrandt said. “We’ve got all those differ-ent events, and now they’re all covered.”
Hildebrandt said he ex-pects the girls to do well this season.
“The underlying goal for the team is to be able to take a step up in team standings,” he said. “We’ve got everybody back and some new ones. We can score some points in a lot of events now.”
But to do so will require hard work every day.
“They have to have a consistent desire to work hard,” Hildebrandt said. “They’re good; we’ve got some very capable girls.”
Boys are inexperiencedThe HL-O boys return
just two letter winners from last season, but have added a couple of talented seniors.
Back is sophomore dis-tance runner Logan Knut-son, who placed second at the sub-section meet and 12th at sections in the 1,600-meter run last spring.
The Wildcats also return
junior Matthew Poppe, who was third in the sub-sec-tion meet in shot put and discus despite not joining the team until the season had already started. Also throwing for the Wildcats will be freshman Pablo Esqueda.
Freshman Tyler Brunk also competed last season and will run distance races and compete in jumps this spring.
New this year are se-niors Dakota Schmid (sprints, hurdles, throws and jumps), Hunter Tim-ko (springs and jumps) and Isaac Fest (jumps and sprints), who Hildebrandt can do well.
“It’ll be kind of fun to see what they come up with,” Hildebrandt said.
The Wildcats don’t have a lot of boys to start with and could run in to trouble in meets on the same day as baseball. Knutson, Schmid and Fest are all baseball players.
“If we have everyone there, we can score some points,” Hildebrandt said. “That’ll be kind of fun.”
The best thing about the inexperienced Wildcats, Hildebrandt said, is their willingness to work hard and improve.
“They’re wide-eyed and ready to learn,” he said.
The team does have
some work to do, but has enough talent to do well, its coach said.
“They have to learn their events,” Hildebrandt said. “And they have to realize they can compete with other kids in our area.”
The season started with
an indoor meet last week and the first outdoor meet was Tuesday.
HL-O will compete in the Red Rock Conference meet May 15 in Slayton. The sub-section meet is May 21 in Pipestone and the section meet is May 30 in Luverne.
C6 Thursday, April 2, 2015Sports Preview
Heron Lake-Okabena golfHead coach: Jared Bourquin
3-31 at Red Rock Central4-6 at Westbrook/Walnut Grove4-9 vs. Hills-Beaver Creek4-13 vs. Adrian/SWC4-16 vs. Mt. Lake Area4-20 vs. Windom4-23 vs. Hills-Beaver Creek4-28 at Murray County Central4-30 at Adrian/SWC5-1 vs. Martin County West5-5 at Westbrook5-7 at Fulda5-11 at Mt. Lake Area5-12 Red Rock Conference meet (in Worthington)5-14 at Worthington5-15 at Martin County West5-20 Sub-Section tournament (in Worthington)5-27 Section 3A tournament (in Marshall)6-9 — 6-11 Class A state tournament (in Becker)
by DAN CONDONSports Editor
Wildcat girls looking for success,
boys are looking for experience
PHOTO BY DAN CONDONReturning letter winners for the Heron Lake-Okabena golf team are Kailey Wendland (from left), Brooke Freking, Ben Sheldahl, Hailey Ruesch and Sarah Madsen.
The Heron Lake-Oka-bena girls’ golf team will rely on a bit of experience as the new season begins, while the Wildcat boys are hoping to position the team for the future.
The girls are led by sec-tion qualifier Kailey Wend-land, who was fifth at the Red Rock Conference meet last season. They also re-turn three others from last year’s three-win team.
The boys return senior Hunter Timko and fresh-man Ben Sheldahl, but have four others who are new to the sport.
Wendland to leadWildcat girls
Senior Wendland leads a HL-O girls team that head coach Jared Bourquin thinks can do well this spring.
Along with Wendland,
the Wildcats return junior Hailey Ruesch and sopho-mores Sarah Madsen and Brooke Freking.
“They have much more experience than last year,” he said. “Kailey will be the foundation of the girls team, but Brooke, Sarah and Hailey, with a year under their belt, should be able to compete.”
The Wildcat girls also have seventh-graders Sam Freking and Lexy Ruesch and sixth-graders Meakin Bang and Arianna Stearns out this spring.
“It’s nice to have four younger girls to refill the numbers,” Bourquin said.
Bourquin said the key for success this spring will de-pend on if the four return-ers can make a jump to the next level.
“Kailey, we need to get her from the mid 40s to the low 40s and high 30s,” he said. “We need the other three in the upper 40s and low 50s.”
For that to happen, Bourquin said, the girls just need to work on their consistency. Part of that preparation already took place since last season, as a few of the girls took lessons in the offseason.
Bourquin said Wendland has a real shot at state this season and said Madsen has a good chance to show quite a bit of improvement.
Boys to learn on the goTimko and Sheldahl re-
turn for the HL-O boys, but the Wildcats had a pair of players graduate and two others not come out this spring, leaving the team quite inexperienced.
New to the sport and team this year are fresh-men Wyatt Schumacher and seventh-grader Chase Little. Seventh-graders Ethan Koep and Ethan Untiedt both were out last season but too young to compete.
“We’re short on experi-ence,” Bourquin said. “Just competing in meets consis-tently will be a huge goal.”
Bourquin said the team’s success won’t necessarily be measured in terms of wins and losses, but im-provement.
“We want to keep making strides,” he said. “We’re not worried about low scores, necessarily.”
What Bourquin will have his players focus on is play-ing smart.
“Not throwing shots away,” he said. “Improve their game; work on the swing. We want them to get
consistent.”
Home meets at NorthValley Golf Course
For the second straight season, the Wildcats will call North Valley in Lakefield home.
Being back at the course provides the re-turners familiarity with the course, but also pro-vides a good place for the entire team to prac-tice — with the team or on their own.
“We get to play these holes for every prac-tice,” Bourquin said, adding he encouraged the Wildcats to come to the course on weekends for even more practice.
Bourquin, who is in his second season as HL-O head coach, is assisted by Brad Wend-land.
Season started TuesdayThe Wildcats were
scheduled to start the season Tuesday with a meet at Red Rock Cen-tral. They play at West-brook/Walnut Grove next Monday and the home opener is April 9 against Hills-Beaver Creek.
The Red Rock Confer-ence meet is scheduled for May 12 at Prairie View in Worthington.
The sub-section meet is May 20 in Worthing-ton and the Section 3A tournament is May 27 in Marshall. The state tournament is June 9 and 10 in Becker.
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JCC SB: High hopesContinued from C1
Jackson County Central softballHead coach: Shelly Hotzler
3-30 at Mt. Lake Area4-2 vs. Fairmont4-9 at Redwood Valley (doubleheader)4-13 at Belle Plaine4-23 vs. Luverne (doubleheader)4-25 at Shakopee tournament4-28 vs. Worthington (doubleheader)4-30 at St. James Area (doubleheader)5-7 vs. Pipestone (doubleheader)5-9 JCC tournament5-16 BSC tournament5-19 — 5-28 Section 3AA tournament6-4 — 6-5 Class AA state tournament
Kannenberg, Carlson and Markman were named to the all-conference team last season and Nasby and Nyborg were honorable-mention selections.
The Huskies will also have senior outfielders An-gelica Schwering and Tear-za Brewer, junior infield-ers Haley Bass and Elyse Johnson, junior outfielder Stephanie Sauter, sopho-more infielder Jacey Edlin, sophomore outfielder Kai-tlin Sundall and freshman outfielder Bailey Berkner on the roster.
While Hotzler said the offense will be solid again this spring, she said the team’s defense is always something that can be im-proved.
“Defense in general is something to work on,” she said. “We’re always looking to get that better.”
The Huskies opened the season Tuesday at Mt. Lake Area and are back on the diamond today (Thursday) with their home opener
against Fairmont.The Huskies are in the
small-school division of the Big South Conference, which includes Luverne, St. James, Redwood Val-ley, Windom and perennial powerhouse Pipestone.
JCC hosts Pipestone May 7 in what figures to be a battle of the top two teams in the division.
Hotzler said the top team from the big-school divi-sion is New Ulm — a team that also figures to contend for the section champion-ship. Also in the big-school division are Marshall, Fairmont, Worthington, St. Peter, Waseca and Blue Earth Area.
Just two days after host-ing the Arrows, JCC will host its tournament, which includes Pipestone, Mar-shall, Mankato Loyola, Montevideo and Water-town-Mayer.
Hotzler is assisted at the varsity level by Cory Paul-ing. Erica Colby is coach-ing the B-squad team.
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