MONTICELLO— Keyed by solid performances from up and down the Anamosa girls track roster, the Raiders scored 35 points at a challenging Monticello co-ed meet Thursday, April 19, taking eighth overall team-wise at the nine-team invitational.

“Abby Weers had her best meet of the year,” said Anamosa girls track coach Phil Kauder after Weers scored for the Raiders in the discus and shot put events at the meet. “Her hard work is starting to pay off. Kayla Sanborn had her best 400 meter dash of the year and Cammy Dole had her best 200 meter dash of the year. The 4x400 team also ran their best time of the season so far. All in all a pretty good meet for this team against this competition.”

Sanborn ran second in the 400 meter dash crossing the finish line with a time of 1:02.92 while Dole did the same in the 200 meter dash after a solid 27.67 clocking.

Weers scored for the Raider girls in the discus as her 84’ 9 1/2” toss was good enough for third-place points while her 28’ 7” effort in the shot put placed her sixth in the event.

Sanborn also flew to a fourth-place showing in the long jump sailing 15’ 3”.

Becca Loy also scored field event points for Anamosa after clearing the bar set at 4’ 10” in the high jump which was god enough for sixth overall.

The Raiders’ distance medley team also came away with a solid effort placing third at the co-ed as Jentri Alderdyce, Christy Coons, Loy and Dole combined to post a time of 4:40.04 which topped fourth-place Monticello by a whopping 10 seconds and trailed only North Linn and champion East Buchanan.

MONTICELLO— It’s been several years since the Anamosa boys track team has had the numbers to compete on a regular basis in the team-standings race.
At a pair of tough co-ed meets this past week, not only did the Raiders shine with their sensational performances on the track, but also scored plenty of points soaring to a runner-up finish at the Monticello co-ed meet Thursday, April 19.

“We’re been moving higher and higher up the standings,” said Raider boys track coach Wes Wilson. “Our field event scoring has been pretty consistent but now we’re starting to score quite a bit with our running events too. The combination makes for a powerful 1-2 punch and we’re taking advantage.”

Anamosa claimed two titles at Monticello on their way to scoring a whopping 71 points trailing only the host Panthers’ 90-point total.

Colten Kelly continued his dominance in the high jump, soaring 6’ 6” to take the title while teammate Jason Breon added a fourth-place showing in the same event after flying 6’ 0”.

Anamosa’s field event scoring was amazing as the Raiders placed at least third in every event.

Tucker Vondracek flew second in the long jump soaring 19’ 5” while Kelly added a 19’ 4” effort to score third-place points for the Anamosa boys.

Josh English was third in the discus after a toss of 127’ 11” while Aaron Beadle added a fourth-place throw of 126’ 8”.

Beadle also scored in the shot put unleashing a 46’ 9” heave which was good enough for third.
Anamosa’s highlight running event came from the 1600 medley team as Vondracek, Kaleb Kilburg, Greg Vernon and Nate Vaughn combined to post a title-winning time of 3:48.30.

IOWA CITY— Some of the best collegiate track athletes from around the country made their way to Iowa City Saturday, April 21, for the University of Iowa’s annual Musco Invitational, and once again former Anamosa High School star Audra Ketelsen proved herself among the elite in the discus and javelin events.

Just a sophomore, Ketelsen unleashed a 136’ 9” effort in the discus event for Marquette University, which was good enough to place eighth in the event for the Golden Eagles.

Ketelsen also took part in the javelin event in Iowa City and also came away with an eighth-place finish after her 120’ 5” heave.

“It’s been a fun year to this point,” said Ketelsen who when she signed on with the Golden Eagles out of Anamosa High School had planned on spending her sophomore season as a red-shirt for Marquette. “That was the plan from the start but the coaches decided to red-shirt a different girl and wanted me to come back again this season.”

With the way Ketelsen finished her first campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, setting a freshman discus school record for Marquette, Golden Eagle coaches wanted to keep Ketelsen’s sensational run going as a sophomore as well.

ANAMOSA — Once again dominating their Tri-Rivers Conference foes during an extremely busy week on the course, the Anamosa boys golf team rolled to wins over Center Point-Urbana, Maquoketa Valley and Central City all at the Fawn Creek Country Club.

Monday, April 16, Anamosa rolled to a 173-186 victory over the Pointers with Tyler Parmenter firing a meet medalist score of 40 to lead all golfers on the course.

Kalib Seeley chipped in with a runner-up 43 as Colten Kelly (44) and Mitch Kelly (46) also counted for the hosts.

“Tyler came through with a nice round,” said Raider boys golf coach Brad Mangler. “We were solid. Not good, not bad, just solid and did what it took for us to win.”

Anamosa’s JV team rolled to a 190-224 rout over CP-U with Adam Andreesen leading the way with a 45. Drew Carrier added a 48 to take JV runner-up medalist honors.

MONTICELLO— Feeling just like they were at home, the Anamosa boys soccer team claimed their second straight Monticello tournament soccer championship Saturday, April 21, playing cool, comfortable and confident soccer defeating Cono Christian in the title tilt.

“We’re a confident team right now and the kids did a nice job putting it all together and winning this tournament defending their title,” said Raider boys soccer coach Dr. Mike Weston as Anamosa used a sensational second half to post a 3-1 triumph over Cono Christian in the final. “We didn’t know a whole lot about them coming in but watching them play Monticello we learned they were a very, very fast team. In the first half Cono Christian was beating us to the loose balls and we just seemed a step slow. But in the second half we turned it all around and with the aid of the wind and a quick goal by Krister Vistnes, we were right back in the game.”

Anamosa (4-4) trailed 1-0 against the Warriors, who hail from Walker as Cono Christian scored a mere five minutes into the contest.

The second half started with the Raiders taking the wind advantage and Vistnes wasted little time taking just eight seconds to score the game-tying goal.

Sean Corpstein took the opening tip and passed to Cameron Weston who found Vistnes open and before Cono Christian even knew what was going on, the score was tied 1-1.

“It was just that fast,” said Weston. “I’ve never seen something like it. Cono Christian was stunned and almost couldn’t believe what they had just seen.”

Weston put the Raiders up for good scoring a goal 13 minutes into the second half off a Vistnes assist. Ryan McLearnon added some insurance for Anamosa scoring 29 minutes into the second half and the Raiders had their 3-1 triumph and back-to-back Monticello tournament titles.

“We had three starters missing and some of the kids had to step up and they did that,” said Weston. “We bounded back from what I thought was our worst first half of the season and played with a lot of pride and passion in the second half.

This team really showed me a lot with the way they responded. They answered the call and got the job done. An excellent all-around effort against a pretty good team too.”

Vistnes and Weston led the 13-shot Raider offense with three shots each.
McLearnon tallied two shots while Mitch Nissen and Corpstein tallied one shot each.

Cody Bickford made 13 saves tending the Raider goal with nine of those coming in the first half.