CreightonCOACH: Ward BaldwinASSISTANT: Pat WintzVITALS: District C-3, Northeast

Nebraska Activities ConferenceLAST YEAR: The team qualified

for the state tournament. HoldenWetzler, who placed 15th in thestate tournament, and AndrewLargen graduated from that squad.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Ryan Mitteis (Sr., state quali-fier), Logan Pierce (Sr., statequalifier), Ian Fuchtman (So.), Tan-ner Homan (So., state qualifier)

CroftonCOACH: Barb Bowers (1st

year)ASSISTANT: Allen ArensVITALS: District C-2, Northeast

Nebraska Activities ConferenceLAST YEAR: Christian Nohr,

who placed 15th at state, gradu-ated.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Josh Crawford (Sr.), Bran-don Hegge (Jr.), WesdonWortmann (Jr.)

TOP PROSPECTS: Brent Evans(Fr.), Brock Mueller (Fr.)

HartingtonCOACH: Ken Kneifl (17th year)VITALS: District D-1, Lewis &

Clark ConferenceLAST YEAR: The Wildcats

graduated three letterwinnersfrom their 2011 squad, all varsityregulars.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Ethan Steiner (So., best re-turning average), Trey Morten(So.), Riley McLain (So.)

TOP PROSPECTS: ChaseDendinger (Fr.), Cole Fischer (Fr.),Derek Jueden (Fr.), Kolby Jueden(Fr.)

Hart. Cedar CatholicCOACH: Michael Johnson

(14th season)VITALS: Class C, Mid-State Con-

ferenceLAST YEAR: The Trojans qual-

fied for Class C state tournamentas a team last season. Tyler Leisegraduated from that squad.

RETURNING LETTERWINNERS:Josh Anderson (Sr., state quali-fier), Seth Howell (Sr., state quali-fier), Kyle Klug (Sr., state qualifier)Eric Kruse (Sr., state qualifier),Zach Kathol (Sr.), Derek Klug (Jr.),Grant Howell (So.), Dalton Lam-mers (So.), Logan Schumacher(So.), Jared Burbach (So)

Laurel-Concord/Coleridge

COACH: Scott Petersen (5thyear)

VITALS: Class C, Northeast Ne-braska Activities Conference

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Nate Grontquist (Jr.),Shawn McCoy (Jr.), NathanSchmidt (Jr.), Brendon Groene(So.), Jamy McCoy (So.), Cory Pe-terson (So.)

TOP PROSPECTS: Shawn Leo-

Alcester-HudsonCOACH: Sally J. Thompson

(2nd year)VITALS: Region 3BRETURNING LETTERWIN-

NERS: Christine Hakl (Sr.), JamyeMcKee (Sr.), Kassie Van Wyk(So.), Abigale Farley (Fr.)

TOP PROSPECT: Brigita Ras-mussen (7th)

Andes CentralCOACH: Tom Cooney (9th

year)ASSISTANT: Randy WincklerVITALS: Region 4BLAST YEAR: Andes Central

placed fifth at the state tourna-ment last year. They return threeof those players that attended.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Kellie Winckler (Jr., fourtime state qualifier, two timestate medal winner), KristaWinckler (Jr.), Rebecca Lehmann(Fr.)

TOP PROSPECTS: DennishaJohanneson (So.), Sydney Mey-ers (So.), Brooke Deurmier (Fr.)

AvonCOACH: Jay Weber (12th

year)VITALS: Region 4BTOP PROSPECTS: Mallory

Cihak (So.), Amanda Reiff (Fr.),Katelyn Buchholz (Fr.)

Bon HommeCOACH: Lawrence Namminga

(6th year)ASSISTANT: Mike DuffekVITALS: Region 3ALAST YEAR: State qualifiers

Gena Ludens and Jocie Einremgraduated. Ludens now golfs forthe Mount Marty Collegewomen’s team.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Brittany Cihak (Sr.), KassieBoese (So.), Megan Burbach

(So.), Brenda Walloch (So.)TOP PROSPECTS: Tajia

Schamp (So.), Christene Pinkel-man (So.), Jodi Kriz (Jr.), TaylorAhrens (So.)

Dakota ValleyCOACH: Paula Wilson (16th

year)VITALS: Region 2A, Big Sioux

ConferenceLAST YEAR: The Panthers

sent two golfers to state. Both re-turn this season.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Shyler Funck (Jr., placed6th at state last season), AlyssaHunt (Sr., state qualifier), AnnieLong (Jr.), Abby Schmitt (Jr.),Mary High (8th)

TOP PROSPECTS: Allie Oak-ley (So.), Natalie Renfro (So.),MaKenna Krysl (7th)

Elk Point-JeffersonCOACH: Lee Clark (7th year)VITALS: Region 2A, Big Sioux

ConferenceLAST YEAR: EPJ finished

eighth in the state Class A meet.Kelsey Leif and Cassie Hilbrands,who tied for 14th, both gradu-ated.

RETURNING LETTWINNERS:Ashlee Stepp (Sr., state qualifier),Morgan Hueser (Sr., state quali-fier), Colby Irwin (Sr.), HannahStone (So.)

TOP PROSPECTS: CamillaFowler (Sr.), Kelsey Abbey (Jr.),Katie Zeller (Jr.), Anna Chicoine(Jr.), Nicole Rupp (Jr.), SamanthaMerkley (So.), Hannah North(Fr.), Tori Johnson (8th), TiffanyBonham (7th), Katelyn Richards(7th)

FreemanCOACH: Ryan Mors (6th year)VITALS: Region 3BLAST YEAR: The Flyers

placed fourth in the state tourna-

ment. Gone from that team isCourtney Lickteig, who finishedeighth.

RETURNING LETTERWIN-NERS: Shelby Bauer (Jr., tied for21st at state last year), MarandaEgan (So., state qualifier), Megan

PAGE 2 PRESS & DAKOTAN ■ SPRING SPORTS 2012

Gazelles Set To Build On ‘11 SuccessBY JAMES D. CIMBUREKjames.cimburek@yankton.net

EDITOR’S NOTE: This articleoriginally appeared in the April 2edition of the Press & Dakotan. Ithas been updated to reflect the on-going season.

With four golfers — includingtwo of the top players in the state— returning from a squad that wonan Eastern South Dakota Confer-ence title and finished third in thestate, the Yankton Gazelles girls’golf team is looking to build on itssuccess of a year ago.

Yankton boasts two of the bet-ter young golfers in the state insenior Hannah Withrow and juniorMegan Mingo.

Withrow is a former state cham-pion, winning the 2010 title. Shetied for 13th in last year’s champi-onships.

Mingo finished third last yearand was the South Dakota Golf As-sociation Junior Golfer of the Yearlast summer. Her resume last sum-mer included a 20th place finish inthe SDGA women’s amateur andfourth in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Ama-teur qualifier.

Withrow and Mingo alsoteamed up to finish fourth in theSDGA Two-Woman Championship.The pair were also part of aGazelles team that ended Brook-ings’ 14-year reign at the top of theEastern South Dakota Conferenceand lost a second place tiebreakerto Brookings on its home course atstate.

Also back are junior WhitneySpecht, who finished 27th a yearago, and sophomore Amber Liv-ingston, who finished 66th.

“With four girls coming backfrom our state tournament team,we have a great nucleus to buildaround,” Yankton head coach BrettSime said.

One of the challenges facing theGazelles is that, while the team has15 golfers vying for varsity posi-tions, only six of them are highschoolers.

“We have a good group ofyoung kids, but we only have sixhigh school kids,” Sime said. “Wehave nine seventh and eighthgraders out, and they are all ex-cited about playing.”

Senior Gabby Horton and soph-omore Alyssa Schild are the othertwo high schoolers in the hunt forthe final two varsity positions.Eighth grader Becky Frick alsoplayed in one varsity event last sea-son.

“Becky did play in one tourna-ment last year, and a lot of theother eighth graders took winterlessons in Sioux Falls,” Sime said.“They’re coming off those excitedto get out and play. Hopefully itpays off in the end.”

Eighth graders Ashley Bilbrey,Rachael Frick, Alicia Gregoire,Kirsten May, Payton Pierce andAshley Van Meeteren are out, asare seventh graders Linze Cowmanand Darian Tramp.

The Gazelles will be testedearly.

After their season-opening vic-tory in a triangular with Brookingsand Brandon Valley on April 2, theGazelles headed to Mitchell for atriangular with the Kernels andWashington.

On April 10, Yankton heads toSioux Falls to face defending cham-pion Sioux Falls O’Gorman on thecourse that will host this year’sstate tournament.

“Early on in the season it’sabout getting back to playing goodgolf, going out and learning to com-pete again,” Sime said. “Girls’ golfis a short season. We kick off Mon-day, and six weeks later we’re tee-ing it up in Sioux Falls for state.”

HANNAH WITHROW • SENIOR

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GGOOLLFF HANNAH WITHROW, YANKTON (Sr.): Tied for 13th in Class AA girls, 2010 statechampionMEGAN MINGO, YANKTON (Jr.): Tied for 3rd in Class AA girlsKYLE KLUG, HARTINGTON CEDAR CATHOLIC (Sr.): Tied for 17th in Neb. Class

C BoysKELLY AMUNDSON, VERMILLION (Sr.): Tied for 19th in Class A girlsTRENTON PETERSON, PONCA (Sr.): Tied for 24th in Neb. Class C BoysLOGAN WAGNER, PARKSTON (Jr.): Tied for 3rd in Class A girls.SHYLER FUNCK, DAKOTA VALLEY (Jr.): 6th in Class A girls.

JORDAN BORMANN, PARKSTON (Jr.): Tied for 8th in Class A girls.SHELBY BAUER, FREEMAN (Jr.): Tied for 21st in Class B girls.PATRICK GILLESPIE, PARKER (So.): Tied for 18th in Class B BoysSYDNEY BORMANN, PARKSTON (8th): Tied For 21st in Class A girls.AATTHHLLEETTEESS TTOO WWAATTCCHH

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YHS Returns 4 From3rd Place Team In ‘11