ANAMOSA— While the weather wasn’t exactly ideal for thousands of fans to pack the stands, hopefully everyone who wanted to got a good look Tuesday, April 3, as the Anamosa boys hosted their lone track meet of the 2007 season running the Ken Fearing Relays in bitter cold temperatures that also saw flurries before the evening came to a close.

“That’s one of the coldest meets I’ve ever been associated with,” said Raider boys track coach Wes Wilson after his team ran extremely well in the arctic temperatures finishing third overall in the 16-team meet scoring 58 points. “I would have to say that third-place finish did surprise me a bit just because of the fact we didn’t get the field event points we’ve been getting in the early season meets so far. A great effort. This just shows how deep a team we are and that we’re getting effort from everyone.”

Nate Vaughn claimed the Raiders’ lone individual championship on the evening winning the 800 meter run while also opening the 4x800 race that also finished first.

“Nate has been our leader,” said Wilson. “He leads by example. He just goes out and competes so hard in every event. On this cold night he ran in four different races and placed in all four. He fought through exhaustion there at the end and still had it in him be the leader.”

Vaughn claimed the title in the 800 meters after a sensational 2:04.60 clocking winning the event by a whopping three seconds over Mount Vernon’s Aaron Schmidt who posted a 2:07.90 effort.

Vaughn also opened the title-winning 4x800 team racing the Raiders to a quick lead through the opening 800 meters before giving way to teammates Brady Vaughn, Justin Cook and Mitch Hewitt.

“In conditions like we saw at this meet, these guys ran their season-best,” said Wilson. “That’s amazing. They dropped eight seconds off their fastest time and Mitch and Justin dropped time off their 800 legs. Overall, another great effort from an event that just keeps getting better and better.”

Anamosa still fared well in their field events as Colten Kelly soared to a runner-up finish in the high jump and long jump while Aaron Beadle was third in the shot put.

ANAMOSA— While the play of the Raider boys soccer team on the field has been worthy of wins, so far this season, Anamosa had been shutout of a win and of even a goal.

That was until Monday, April 9.

“We knew it would just be a matter of time before we broke out and scored some goals and got a win,” said Anamosa boys soccer coach Dr. Mike Weston. “We’ve been playing some pretty good soccer already this season only to see us come out on the short end of the score, but against Marion, our offense came through with its best game of the season.”

Anamosa (1-3) was in complete control all game long hosting the Indians on a chilly, but sunny Monday afternoon and thanks to an explosion of offense and their regular stellar defensive effort, rolled to a convincing 6-0 rout over Marion.

Just two minutes later, Joel Fliehler stole a loose ball in the Marion defense and fired a quick shot that found the back of the Indian net.

Vistnes kept the wave of offense going four minutes later at the 34-minute mark of the second half and with six minutes remaining scored another goal, this one coming off a Weston assist.
But the Raiders still weren’t done.

With just four minutes remaining in the contest, Fliehler scored his second goal, with help from another Weston assist, and Anamosa had their impressive rout in hand.

“We were active and aggressive in the midfield and created our own breaks,” said Weston as Mueller, Brice Antons, McLearnon, Mitch Nissen and Kyle Gerber all worked the midfield keeping the Anamosa team in control. “We were on the attack all the time and it all started with their play.”

Weston led the 15-shot Raider offense blasting four at the Indian goal while Vistnes and Mueller tallied three more each. McLearnon had two shots while Sean Corpstein, Toni Spittel and Fliehler all tallied one shot for the hosts.

The Raider boys hosted Independence Thursday, April 5, and in another tight contest, were edged in a 2-0 final.

The Mustangs controlled most of the first half playing with a powerful wind scoring both of their goals in the game’s first 40 minutes.

“We chose to play defense against the wind and hoped we could keep it close enough for our offense to score with the wind in the second half and it just didn’t work out,” said Weston. “It wasn’t from a lack of effort though. The guys played hard and we had some good looks at their goal in the second half. The shots just didn’t go in.”

Vistnes led the Anamosa offense with three shots while Weston fired in two more at the Mustang goalie. Corpstein and Mueller each tallied one shot for the hosts.

Bickford played a sensational game tending the Raider goal making six saves.

“Cody played a great game,” said Weston. “His defense just didn’t help him out in a couple of situations and that was the difference in the match.”

The Raider JV team was edged in a 1-0 final at the hands of Independence.

Anamosa out-shot the visitors 4-2 with Fairbanks and Robert Young leading the Raider JV team with two shots each.

Independence scored the game’s lone goal with a mere minute remaining on the first half clock.