MAQUOKETA — WaMaC Conference, meet the Anamosa girls golf team. Anamosa girls golf team, meet the WaMaC Conference.
Participating in their first big golf meet as new members of the WaMaC this spring, the Raiders not only made a very good first impression on the rest of the conference, they stole the show winning the league’s East Division golf championship Monday, April 28, in Maquoketa.
Taking the first of what Raider girls golf coach Andrew Buck hopes will eventually will be two league championships, Anamosa kept their stellar golfing ways going firing a 196 team score tying with Western Dubuque for the top spot at the cold, windy and wintry-like nine-hole tournament held at the Maquoketa Country Club.
The divisional championship came down to which team had the better fifth counting score, and thankfully for the Raiders, Lauren Herren’s round of 53 easily topped Western Dubuque’s fifth-counting score of 58.
“Our girls really battled through the tough conditions and played some great golf,” said Raider girls golf coach Andrew Buck. “Ryann Pratt had a fantastic round playing all her par-4’s at only 2-over par. That is great work on a windy day, especially for these girls having never played this course.”
Pratt carded a meet runner-up medalist score of 44 to lead the way for the Anamosa girls while Jordan Bickford made her way through the cold course with a solid 48. Anne Daily (52) and Erin Ridgeway (52) also counted for the team in the clutch triumph.
“Jordan had a good day too in the No. 2 spot for us,” said Buck. “Especially playing with a few other school’s No. 1 golfers. Both she and Ryann kept the ball in play and gave themselves chances at the green.”
Paige Goetz fired a 57 as well for the Raider team.
With Anamosa winning the championship and Western Dubuque securing second with identical 196 team score, Central DeWitt’s 202 was good enough for third while West Delaware (208), Beckman (209) and the host Cardinals (220) rounded out the East Division scoring.
“Our putting seems to have really improved over the last few weeks,” said Buck. “That has lowered our scores by at least 5-7 strokes per round.”
Anamosa made their way to Tipton Monday, April 21, and in an 18-hole, seven-team tournament, topped the entire field with a sizzling team card of 384.
“The whole team did a really nice job of keeping their composure with the slow pace of play,” said Buck. “It was really nice to see Paige, Ryann, Jordan and Lauren take four of the top-6 medalist spots at the tournament.”

ANAMOSA — Having already had their Early Bird meet wiped out due to weather three weeks ago, Mother Nature finally cooperated with the Anamosa girls track team Tuesday, April 22, as warm weather and actual sunshine greeted all 12 teams for the annual Lady Raider Invitational.
“Finally,” said Anamosa girls track coach Phil Kauder. “We finally have a decent night to run. We have had so many meets cancelled this year, it just felt good to get out and perform. This has been one of the wildest springs I can ever remember with so many meets lost to the rain, snow, cold or whatever, so having our girls out performing in front of their home parents and fans was very important to us and I thought they did as well as they possibly could have, considering some of the injuries and different things we’ve had to battle through.”
Anamosa scored four points at their home meet placing 12th in the 12-team meet.
“We’re looking at improving and dropping our times and increasing our throws and for the most part, the girls have been accomplishing exactly that,” said Kauder as Kellie Vaughn scored the lone Raider points at the invitational placing fourth in just her second-ever 3000 meter run attempt. “Kellie ran her first 3000 at DeWitt and posted a 12:42, then came back home and ran a 12:13.83. That’s some serious improvement in just a 24-hour span for a freshman.”
Jackie Russ also crossed the finish line eighth for the Anamosa girls in the 400 meter dash tallying a time of 1:08.06.
“We’ve really relied quite heavily on our freshmen this year and Kellie and Jackie have come through and helped out a lot,” said Kauder. “They’ve stepped in and shouldered some of the load with the injuries and have been willing and able participants.”
Mount Vernon-Lisbon claimed the Lady Raider Invitational team title scoring 127 points overall. Tipton tallied 95 points to finish second followed by Maquoketa Valley (84 points), Beckman (53), Starmont (42), Independence (40), North Cedar (36), West Liberty (36), Monticello (34), North Linn (24), West Delaware (14) and the Raiders.
Kelly Colehour also came through with a personal-best effort in the discus after her 86’ 3 1/2” toss while Heidi Wheeler unleashed an 86’ 4” effort.
“Heidi, Kelly and Helena McNamara have been working hard and improving,” said Kauder. “They’re all starting to pick things up and we’ll need that extra effort as we get set for conference and districts right around the corner.”
Anamosa competed in DeWitt Monday, April 21, scoring 12 points finishing 11th in the 13-team Saber Invitational.
Cammy Dole returned from injury and responded well finishing second in the 3000 meter run crossing the finish line in 12:17.41 while Vaughn also scored for the Raiders in the event after her 12:42.85 effort was good enough for fourth overall.

ANAMOSA— Defending their home turf against Central DeWitt Friday, April 25, during extremely windy and chilly conditions, the Anamosa boys soccer team continued their stellar start to the 2008 campaign rolling to yet another win.
“We’ve done a lot of good things over the years with the soccer program here at Anamosa, but in all those years, I don’t think we’ve ever started a season winning our first five matches,” said Anamosa boys soccer coach Dr. Mike Weston who has been a part of the Raider program its inception back in 2000. “We’ve made it through some inconsistent play early on and won and have played well and won then too. Right now everything has fallen into place quite nicely, but we still have a lot of work yet to accomplish.”
Anamosa (5-0) accomplished an impressive 2-1 triumph hosting the Sabers reeling off their fifth-straight win to start the season.
“The wind made things tough on both teams,” said Weston. “We went with the wind offensively in the first half and it wound up being a good call as we scored both of our goals in that half.”
Sean Corpstein ripped the first goal into the net with just 10 minutes remaining in the first half for the hosts.
Just seven minutes later, Corpstein went back to work again taking a Kyle Gerber pass and firing a shot past the Saber keeper handing the Raiders a 2-0 advantage.
Just seconds later however, Central DeWitt answered with a goal of their own and at the half Anamosa held the 2-1 lead.
“This match wasn’t without its excitement as three DeWitt shots hit our cross-bar above our goal and deflected away,” said Weston as his team was outshot by the Sabers 9-7 in the contest. “For the most part DeWitt matched us shot-for-shot, we just better advantage of the ones we had and we also used a little luck too to win.”
Tobi Huisgen led the Raider offense firing four shots at the Central DeWitt net while Corpstein tallied two and Jordan Fliehler one.