MARION — It was a day full of surprises as well as expectations met and exceeded at the class 3A district track meet for the Anamosa boys Friday, May 12.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the boys for the way they went out and competed,” said Raider boys track coach Wes Wilson after his team placed eighth in the eight-team meet scoring 24 points.
“We knew coming in Colten Kelly was just about as close to a lock as we could have in the high jump, but after him, we weren’t too sure what we were going to be able to get through to state.”

Kelly claimed the 3A district high jump title clearing the bar set at 6’ 3’’ and will represent the Raiders at the 2006 boys’ state track meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines Thursday, May 18.

Wilson also had high hopes for several other events he put together for the pressure-filled win or go home meet, but coming out of nowhere to earn another one of those precious state meet berths was Anamosa junior Aaron Beadle.

MARION — It’s been tough, sometimes even painful for Anamosa’s Liz McAtee to watch as others less talented than herself were qualifying for the state track meet in the shot put event.

McAtee was good, very good her freshman, sophomore and junior season. Good enough to be at state, but for whatever reasons, it just didn’t work out for her come regional track time.

Friday, May 12, in her final bid competing for a coveted state track berth, McAtee shined in the 3A regional spotlight in Marion and rode a sensational effort in the shot put and discus to the state meet in Des Moines.

“Liz has deserved this for quite some time,” said Anamosa girls track coach Wes Wilson after McAtee claimed the regional title in the discus and was second in the shot put. “She was pretty excited to finally break through and get to state. She’s wanted this for a long time and now, as a senior, she did it. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Not only is McAtee going to be competing in Des Moines at the 2006 girls’ state track meet, but teammates Cassie Beadle and Cammy Dole are also making their way to state.

“We have 13 girls out for the team and three make it to state,” said Wilson. “That’s a pretty high percentage of the team going to the sport's highest level. We may not have a lot in the way of quantity, but we sure do have a lot of quality athletes on this girls team and they proved it at this regional meet.”

McAtee claimed the discus title as a slow drizzle dampened the Marion meet throwing 112’ 2’’ and in the shot put, the senior unleashed a sensational 38’ 9 3/4’’ toss to finish second in that event for the Raiders.

“Liz really stepped it up and had a great meet, obviously,” said Wilson. “She has one of the top throws in the state in the shot put and could even score points in the discus too if things fall together just right.”

McAtee’s regional effort in the shot put ranks fifth-best in Iowa in class 3A among state qualifiers while her discus toss ranks 12th in 3A.

Beadle, daughter of Raider throwers coach Joe Beadle, will make her trip to Des Moines after her 35’ 1/4’’ toss in the shot put, which was good enough for fifth in the regional.

“Cassie has been scoring points for us in the shot and the disc at most of the meets we’ve gone to this year and it would have been a shame not to see her make it to state in one of the events,” said Wilson. “She has state-type stuff and proved it.”

Dole, just a freshman who earned a state bid to the 2005 state cross country meet showed her versatility also running to the state level in track finishing third at Marion in the 400 meter dash.

“Cammy is a rare talent with the ability to run long distances as well as sprints very, very well,” said Wilson. “She ran a real good race at regionals and it was also her best time of the season.
Not a bad time to be doing that too. You want to run your best against the best and we were in a talent-loaded regional at Marion.”

Dole crossed the finish line in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:02.40, a personal-best clocking.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the way our girls went out and competed in a big meet like this one,” said Wilson. “This is about as pressure-filled a meet as we’ll see and the girls didn’t seem fazed by that. They went out and competed and did the very best they could. That’s all I can ask for. With the numbers and experience we have, I’m not sure we could have actually done a lot more.”

Beadle also placed fifth in the discus event for the Raiders after unleashing a 103’ 8’’ toss which was better than three automatic state qualifiers.

“The top two from each event earn automatic bids to state then it opens up to the rest of the state to fill out the 24-player field,” said Wilson. “Cassie just fell between the cracks on that one otherwise she’s in both the shot and disc events too.”

Dole also scored points for the Raider girls running the 1500 meters to a fifth-place showing with a time of 5:18.70.

Anamosa’s sprint medley of Maisie Timp, Katelyn Jamison, Christy Coons and Ashley Frasher ran to a seventh-place finish posting a time of 2:11.10 while Coons, Jentri Alderdyce, Jamison and Amy Engelbart tallied a time of 2:06.70 which was good enough for eighth in the 4x200 race.

Coons, Jamison, Frasher and Kandis Bieber ran the distance medley team to an eighth-place showing with a time of 4:58.50 while the 4x100 team (Timp, Alderdyce, Courtney Schnepf and Engelbart) and 4x400 team (Frasher, Jamison, Bieber and Ashton Darrow) both placed eighth with times of 1:00.60 and 4:53.90, respectively.

McAtee will compete in Des Moines Thursday, May 18, in the discus at 2:00 p.m. and Friday, May 19, in the shot with Beadle at 2:00 p.m. Dole will take to the newly renovated Drake Stadium track Thursday at 6:20 p.m.

Central DeWitt won the regional team title scoring 118 points while Dubuque Wahlert was runner-up with 107 points. Marion (80 points), West Delaware (74), Cedar Rapids Xavier (69), Western Dubuque (58), Maquoketa (46) and Anamosa (30) rounded out the field.

INDEPENDENCE — A solid showing by a stellar senior class of golfers led the Anamosa boys golf team through the challenging class 3A sectional golf tournament Friday, May 12, in Independence.

The rain, cold and windy conditions made for treacherous golf as a tough course only added to the tension but with Dillon Eggers leading a pack of four senior scorers for the Raiders, Anamosa will golf again at the class 3A district tournament in Marion Friday, May 19, at Gardner Country Club.

“This was an absolutely nasty day to golf but our kids battled through the best they could,” said Raider boys golf coach Brad Mangler after his club fired a 342 team score and took second-place at the eight-team sectional tournament. “A couple of the scores were a little higher than I and especially they would have liked, but we did what we had to do to get through to the next round.”

Independence claimed the 3A sectional team championship edging the Raiders by six strokes for the crown on their home course. With the host school placing in one of the top two spots also allowed third-place Marion to advance after the Indians carded a team score of 346 at the 18-hole tournament.

While the Mustangs claimed the top team honor, it was Anamosa who dominated the individual leader board claiming two of the top four spots at the tournament.

“With the conditions the way they were we thought some of the scores would be a little higher than they normally would be,” said Mangler. “And for the most part, except for a few kids, they were.

But Dillon Eggers really came through in the clutch and stepped forward firing a great round of golf on a day that didn’t see too many great rounds.”

Eggers led the Raiders and was second overall at the sectional tournament carding an 18-hole score of 79 (39-40).

“Dillon could have easily shot a 77 if it weren’t for a double-bogey on his final hole,” said Mangler. “That’s how well he was playing. He was in the zone all day long.”

The 77 would have claimed the 3A sectional individual title as Independence’s Jake Thomas took that honor firing a 78 (40-38) for the host Mustangs.

Marion’s David Simcox added a round of 80 (39-41) and was third overall while Anamosa’s Shawn Parmenter scored the fourth-best score and earned the final individual automatic bid to districts with an 84 (42-42).

“Having two golfers in the top-4 says a lot about the quality of golfers we have here on this team,” said Mangler. “But we’re going to need each and every one of them to even step it up a notch at the 3A district meet in Marion Friday. There’s going to be quite a few very good golfers there and some pretty good teams to. We’re one of them and we’ll have to prove it again.”

Clear Creek-Amana finished fourth in the 3A sectional team standings carding a 359 while South Tama was fifth firing a 363.

ANAMOSA — It’s getting to be as though ‘The Ball’, the Anamosa and Monticello soccer boys’ version of the football ‘Cowbell’ is finding a comfy home in the Anamosa High School trophy case.

The Raiders defeated a scrappy Panther team 1-0 Tuesday, May 9, and retained the rights to ‘The Ball’ for yet another year.

“Last year Monticello made a concerted effort to stop Jake Gerber from scoring, playing most of their players back on defense and they used that same strategy again this year too,” said Raider boys soccer coach Dr. Mike Weston. “They really packed in it on their defensive end and tried making things as tough as they possibly could for our offense. And for quite a while, it worked just fine for them.”

Anamosa (8-4-1) continued to pressure the Panther defense all game long but with more defenders clogging passing lanes for the Raiders, shots were a challenge.

“We still managed to get in there and get some pretty decent looks at their goal, just not very many of them though,” said Weston. “We finally broke through in the second half.”

With just 12 minutes remaining in the contest, Cameron Weston broke free taking a pass from Tyler George and out-ran the Monticello defense to the Panther goal.

“Cameron forced Monticello’s goalie to make a decision and he decided to come out and challenge Cameron for the ball,” said Weston. “Cameron beat him and had the wide-open shot.”