10 31 game day

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Friday, October 31, 2014

2 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 31, 2014

Klint Cleveland - Provided Photo

CHS girls’ cross-country State A champions - Back row: Assistant Coach Mark Yoakam, Mary Royce 28th, Abbey Dunn 30th, Grace Kurfman 14th, head coach Joanne Cleveland Front row; Albany Jessop 5th, Lynn Reynoso 15th, Amelia Gardner 3rd, Rachel Jaquith 49th

Class A schools perform well at state MICHELLE McCONNAHA Ravalli Republic

Corvallis High School and Hamilton High School brought home the Class A state cross-country hardware this year.

Hamilton took first place in boys and third in girls and Corvallis placed first in girls and second in boys.

The Hamilton Bronc boys’ cross-country team won their third State A championship in the last six years, while the Corvallis Blue Devil girls won their fourth State A championship in a row.

Hamilton coach Mark Albert said the HHS team “couldn’t have run better.”

“Our top three kids grouped up and stayed together for over

two miles, while Tanner [Lehr] and Jacob [Rogers] really ensured the victory with their performances as our four and five runners,” said Albert. “We knew we had to have a great day to give ourselves a chance to win it again; the competition was so much better than last year.”

After losing the divisional title just a week before, the Hamilton Bronc boys came back to nearly duplicate last season’s low point total for their third state A championship in the last six years. The Broncs were able to overcome the loss of all-staters Anthony Schmalz and Easton Albert to graduation and still place four in the top 15 to hold off a young and very talented Corvallis team, which won the divisional meet just a week before.

Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 31, 2014 - 3

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4 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 31, 2014

The Broncs’ Cameron Meikle came in 3rd, while Karill Apedaile placed 5th, Kole Tison 6th, and Tanner Lehr 15th. All made the podium.

Senior Kole Tyson said that he finds motivation in everything to run. “The cross-country team is a family that will last a life time,” said Tyson.

Senior Tanner Lehr said that emotions were running very high at their last race, but they were as confident as ever.

Kole Tyson and coach Albert said that there were a lot of tears from the guys.

The Hamilton girls also came away with some hardware on Saturday, placing third behind second place Whitefish and state champion Corvallis.

“We might have been more excited for the girls to be honest,” said Albert. “We knew we ran well, but from watching the race we could have finished anywhere from 3rd to 6th, we wouldn’t know for about two hours. Our girls haven’t placed at state since 2007, so when they called our team to the podium, it really added to a perfect day for our program.”

“Senior Kaitlin Stromberg made the podium for the second year in a row by placing 10th. But perhaps the best story of the day may

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have been the 4th place finish by Jaycie Schmalz, who was just two weeks removed from having her appendix removed. Jaycie showed so much resiliency and toughness the last two weeks. For her to run so well at state was really impressive.”

Corvallis High School girls’ head coach Joanne Cleveland said the state championship was especially sweet, as three of their key runners were out at the beginning of the season due to non-crosscountry injuries.

“We had only two of our runners back from last year and all the other girls stepped up,” said Cleveland. “Every single one of them had a PR [personal record], and as they were coming down and finishing it was quite emotional to see them come together. It was cool – they did very well.”

Corvallis girls’ state placings were: Amelia Gardner - 3rd, Albany Jessop - 5th, Grace Kurfman - 14th Lynn Reynoso - 15th – four AllState runners.

“Our boys did well,” said Cleveland. “They got second and were a little disappointed because you always want first. But they ran well – Hamilton kids ran better. We don’t have any juniors on the boys’ team, so this effort was done with underclassmen.”

CHS boys’ state placings were: - Ronald Venema - 4th, Josh Jessop - 11th, Carson Jessop 13th – three All-State runners.

Cleveland said they did feel that after three straight years of being state champion other teams were gunning for them, but they didn’t dwell on that – and just thought about winning.

“We wanted it,” she said. “And to have kids step up make it so special instead of ‘we lost these people we can’t do it’. It gave some kids that were on the team for four years the opportunity to be on the state team. Kids were excited to win – it was a good year.”

Corvallis is not losing many runners to graduation and is expecting to be tough again next year.

Cleveland has been coaching since 2001 and head coach for the last 10 years

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The HHS Volleyball team wearing their “Dig Pink” shirts at the Pinkout game. “It was a super fun night,” said DeEtte Monson head Bronc Volleyball coach. “The energy of the crowd was awesome they responded to the Sprinkle Pink and it was so fun to bring that community spirit in to our gym.”

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Sprinkle Pink is the valleywide effort to raise awareness of breast cancer and gather donations for the Aid to Mammography Fund during the month of October.

Schools participated with pink-out games –where athletes and the crowd all wore pink. Enthusiastic high school sports teams raised money during pink-out games and the amount raised is still being tallied.

At Stevensville High School, a senior “Pink-Out” project by Liz Whitesell, Kim Roth and Carly Vercruyssen (Sponsor/Mentor is Kim Roth) was a big success.

They raised a combined total from their school of over $1,000 by selling T-shirts, a bake sale, silent auction, guess the number of chocolate kisses in a jar, and a 50/50 raffle (where the money was donated back to the mammography fund by the winner).

Vercruyssen said she and Whitesell worked on planning their project for months and are grateful that it all came together – with great community support at the end. The girls were quite busy as seniors,

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6 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 31, 2014

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA – Ravalli Republico

SHS Seniors Carly Vercruyssen and Liz Whitesell with their Provided Photo Volleyball coach Erin O’Riley display the shirts they designed for Steve Weber, the Bitterroot’s own Forrest Gump, sale in support of the Pink-out / Aid to Mammography Fund. made a guest appearance at the Victor Pink-out.

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volleyball players, cheerleaders, project coordinators, shirt designers/sellers and bakers.

“I didn’t think we would raise that much money, but everyone came and purchased items from our bake sale table,” she said. “At the end of the year, we have to do a senior presentation so we’re building that information as we go. If we don’t do well, we don’t pass advisory – but if you do a project you’re pretty much good.”

Erin O’Riley, Stevensville volleyball coach, said she was pleased with the girls’ efforts.

“Some kids wait until the end to work on their senior project – these girls really brought in the community. Volleyball games at 4 o’clock don’t usually bring in that many people, but we had a packed gym – and many who don’t usually come to games but came to support the cause.”

Whitesell said she, too, was surprised at the amount of money raised.

“I was overwhelmed at how much money we raised – I had a lot of fun doing it,” said Whitesell.

Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 31, 2014 - 7

“I think it brought people together at the gym – to help support breast cancer awareness - people also donated,” said Vercruyssen. “People put forth effort to help out – which is the second step.”

“It definitely brought community together – friends came from Missoula and Lake County to help,” said Whitesell.

They had helpers step up to man the table while they were playing the game.

The Stevensville Key Club raised and additional $239 towards the efforts.

Stacey Sager, SHS Key Club adviser, said Vercruyssen and Whitesell and the volleyball team really spearheaded Sprinkle Pink here at SHS. “The Key Club members rallied behind the Sprinkle Pink efforts of the two senior girls and volleyball team by selling 50/50 tickets at the games and baked goods to the student body to further involve the school community for such a great cause,” said Sager. “We just wanted to do our part and contribute.”

Provided Photo

Liz Whitesell, Sponsor/Mentor Kim Roth and Carly Vercruyssen – these two Stevensville High School Seniors coordinated the “Pink-Out Senior Project” raising combined total from their school of over $1,000 for the Aid to Mammography Fund.

Victor school had an all-school pep rally with competitions, student wore pink for the day and several classes had a dance-off at the

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8 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 31, 2014

Victor Volleyball students at the Victor Pink-out.

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assembly. Steve Weber, the Bitterroot’s own Forrest Gump, made a guest appearance as well.

Victor athletics had a Pink Night at their volleyball game against Darby. The crowd received free admission if they dressed in pink – with great attendance.

Pirate Jim was dressed in pink and the volleyball team wore pink jerseys.

Hamilton High volleyball donated $408.75 – from their bake sale silent auction and shirt sales at their pink-out game.

“It was a super fun night,” said DeEtte Monson, head Bronc volleyball coach. “The energy of the crowd was awesome. They responded to the Sprinkle Pink and it was so fun to bring that community spirit in to our gym. The girls responded to it – they wore the pink and knew the deeper meaning. We sold out of the pink shirts so we’ll make more next year.”

HHS cheer coach Jordan Ferris said they were enthused to participate and HHS cheerleaders cheered all of October using pink poms.

“We also created shirts which had “Tackle Breast Cancer” written on them,” said Ferris. “Part of the proceeds from this will go to a local teacher who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. We also had a donation jar at the last football game for this teacher.

We are hoping to continue to collect donations.”

Corvallis, Darby and Florence also joined the pink fun hosting pink-outs and raising funds.

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