ANAMOSA — Don’t even look at the team scores at the annual Lady Raider Early Bird track meet hosted by a youthful Anamosa girls’ team Tuesday, April 11.

Those numbers don’t matter one single bit to coach Wes Wilson as he watches and teaches this group to not only come together as a team, but work well with each other mixing and matches runners and looking to be as competitive as possible this spring.

“We do have some girls who are competing hard and running very, very well,” said Wilson after Anamosa ran at their own track for the first time this spring. “We also have some girls who may not be finishing in the front of the pack, but are giving it all they’ve got and are here trying to get themselves into better shape and are running and competing to help this program excel. Either way, this is a team that is improving and by the end of the season, will be posting some of their best times in just about every event.”

TIPTON — It could have been the beginning of the end for a promising Anamosa boys golf season Saturday, April 15, but seniors Shawn Parmenter, Derek Hart, Drew Corpstein and Dillon Eggers wouldn’t allow for any drop of play turning in phenomenal efforts guiding the team to a championship at the challenging Tipton Invitational.

“Our seniors really stepped it up and lead us to the title,” said Raider boys golf coach Brad Mangler after his team blew away the nine-team field firing a blistering 310 score overall at the 18-hole tournament. “I was interested to see what direction we were going to take after our tough loss against Monticello four days earlier and the team responded the way I knew and hoped they would.”

Like champions!

The Raiders dominated the leader board posting four scores in the tournament top-7 overall as Parmenter led all Anamosa golfers on the par-36 Tipton Country Club course with a round of 75 (38-37) which was also tied for second-best score overall on the beautiful day.

“I think that loss to Monticello was an early wake-up call for these guys,” said Mangler. “This was just a great effort at Tipton. I knew we were good enough to win this tournament, but even I didn’t know this score was possible and beating a pretty good field of teams like that.”

The Raiders topped runner-up North Cedar (326) by a whopping 16 shots and were 25 strokes better than third-place West Liberty (335). Rounding out the Tipton tournament field were the host Tigers (337), Mount Vernon (340), Central DeWitt (346), West Branch (347), Maquoketa (349) and Wilton (351).

“Hart added a round of 78 (37-41) and was fifth overall at the tournament while Corpstein was sixth with his 78 (38-40). Eggers fired a 79 (40-39) which was the seventh-best score at the invitational.

“I think the seniors just took things upon themselves,” said Mangler.

“They didn’t want to see this season washed away after just one frustrating performance and they showed what Anamosa golf is made of.”

Colten Kelly added a round of 86 (45-41) while Tyler Parmenter, playing in his first varsity tournament, carded an 89 (44-45).

“The first three games of the season we generated very little in the way of offense,” said Weston. “We had been shut out three times in a row and that was something we hadn’t experiences in quite some time. We knew it was just a matter of time before our offense began to kick things into gear and in this match, especially in the second half, it did.”

The Raiders ripped a total of 12 shots the the Marion goal while sensational play on the Anamosa defensive and mid-field kept the Indians almost without a shot over the game’s final 40 minutes.

“Marion only got a couple of shots in the second half,” said Weston.
“This is a big win. The guys showed a lot of heart and their teamwork was outstanding.”

Noah Worcester and George each ripped four shots at the Indian goal while Williams, Stefan Watermann, Sean Corpstein and Ben Yanda all added one shot each to the effort.

Cody Bickford made seven saves tending the Anamosa net.
The Raider JV team also posted a win coming away with a 2-0 victory over the Indians.

Corpstein scored seven minutes into the second half to start the scoring while Bickford added another Anamosa JV goal 17 minutes into the second half scoring off his own ricocheted shot off the post.

“Our JV defense continues to play very well,” said Weston. “Nile Price, Curtis Williams, Robert Young, Taylor Coons and Mark Hoyer all did a great job defending for us.”

Corpstein led the offense with five shots while Luis Ramirez and Kyle Gerber added three more each. Mitch Nissen and Bickford tallied one shot each.

Casey Krapfl made one save tending visitors’ net.

The Raiders returned home Thursday, April 13, and scored a 4-1 triumph playing what Weston called his team’s best effort of the season-to-date.

“This is the kind of soccer we’ve been expecting to see all year long,” he said. “We played with the kind of energy, enthusiasm and determination we had last year and hopefully this can keep going.”

WYOMING — The cream of the crop rose to the top Monday, April 10, as the host Eagles claimed a title hosting their own Midland co-ed golf tournament.

Midland’s Riley Williams and Ashley Coon as well as Gavin Wherry and Maisie Woodward tied for the top spot in the girl/boy alternating shot style tournament with rounds of 47 each. After the card-back it was determined Williams and Coon took the overall medalist award.

The host Eagles ran away with the tournament title scoring a 195 team score to top runner-up Calamus-Wheatland by eight shots. Lisbon was third with a 226 while North Cedar rounded out the four-team co-ed tournament with a 243.

Also counting for the Eagle team were Mitch Boots and Katie Andresen who together carded a 50 while Geoff Dammann and Katie Leonard turned in the final counting score for the hosts with a 51.