April 4, 2012
Harrison County Spring Sports Preview
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Missouri Valley Boys’/Girls’ Golf team ready for the links Jamie Wieme returns for his sixth season as the head boys and girls golf coach for Missouri Valley this year. He will be assisted by John Torrey. The boys team has 11 golfers out, including five returning letterwinners from last year’s squad. These are seniors Dan Waterhouse, Matthew Brown and Eric Ford, junior John Wohlers and sophomore Brady Kruckman. “We will be young with a lot of guys competing for varsity positions, which will hopefully result
in lots of improvement,” Wieme said. Wieme is hoping his team will show good improvement throughout the season and peak at the right time. “It would be nice to see the boys work their way back up towards the middle of the pack in the Western Iowa Conference,” added Wieme. The girls have only seven members on its team including returning letterwinners, seniors Janelle Smithson, Tierney Robinson, and Conner Marsh and junior Taylor
Gardner. Smithson and Gardner were both ranked in the top 50 high school golfers in the state last year. “We have a lot of girls with varsity experience who fell three strokes short of advancing out of our district for the second year in a row,” Wieme said. “Hopefully, they will be fired up to make a run at it again this year.” Even though the girls squad is small in number, Wieme feels the girls he has have a lot of valuable experience that will give his team good depth. “The girls finished
second in the Western Iowa Conference last year and third at districts,” Wieme added. “Hopefully, we can finish at or near the top of those again this year.” Wieme believes that both the Treynor boys and girls teams will be tough again this year. He also thinks that Audubon, Underwood and Tri-Center will show great improvement. Both the boys and girls teams play host to Logan-Magnolia March 29th to open the season.
Missouri Valley Boys’ Track team returns several strong runners The Missouri Valley boys’ track team did not qualify any athletes for the state track meet last spring but returns several athletes that played a key role for the Big Reds last season. “All of our kids that return from last year ended the season in quality fashion,” co-coach Ryan Victor said. Victor mentioned a couple of competitors in each discipline that
stood out from a year ago. Missouri Valley received contributions from Baron Norman and Tory Watson in the sprint races, Devon Jensen and Jacob Pagel in the middle and long distance races and Taylor Herman and Jordan Buss in the throwing events. The Big Reds also have nine other returning letterwinners from the 2011 varsity squad. Those student-athletes include: Austin
Stirtz, Caleb Wilson, Clayton Ferguson, Kyle Lorenzen, Logan Reining, Michael West, Ryan Carlson, Sam Schmitz and Scott Voss. Victor talked about a group of six newcomers that may figure into the equation in meets for the Big Reds in 2012. That group is comprised of: Drew Pauley, Justin Chapin, Reed Kirlin, Lake Mobley, Sage Lloyd and Cody Cunard.
In Western Iowa, Missouri Valley will have to deal with teams this spring like West Harrison and Treynor, who both finished in the top ten in 1-A last season. Victor said there are other solid teams around the area as well, however. “All the teams in our conference and area are quality track teams,” Victor said. “They will be good competition for our athletes.”
Missouri Valley Girls’ Track team has mixture of experience/youth Eleven letterwinners return from a Missouri Valley girls’ track team that did not qualify an event for state but still has three athletes that competed in Des Moines in 2010. Courtney Cunard and Hailey Hellstrom were a part of the distance medley relay team that ran on the blue oval at Drake Stadium two years ago and Jodi Roth competed in that meet as well.
The athletes on the track team have had plenty of success this season in volleyball and basketball, along with the cross country team qualifying for state. “We have a mixture of experience and youth so it should be an eventful season,” coach Scott Cihacek said. “We should be fairly solid in the sprint events as well as the throws.
“Our Juniors and seniors will need to step up as they did in other sports, so we can achieve some high goals.” Three of runners on the state qualifying cross country team played key roles as a part of the track team last season as well. Breezy Weaver ran a multitude of middle and long distance races in track last season and continued her
strong ways with a 24th-place finish as an individual in Fort Dodge this fall. Paige Pauley and Mia Feldman also finished in the top 100 at the state meet. “I think all of the area schools will have some areas that they will excel in,” Cihacek said. “I am looking forward to the first outdoor meet this week.”
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