MOUNT VERNON — Coming off their Tri-Rivers Conference River Division team championship just a week earlier at Starmont, the Anamosa wrestling team kept their outstanding season-ending run going Saturday, February 10, meeting the pressure of a tough 2A sectional tournament in Mount Vernon head on.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the way we wrestled once again,” said Raider wrestling coach Ron Timp after his club placed third overall in the six-team sectional scoring 179 points trailing only the sectional champion host Mustangs as well as runner-up Solon. “I thought we’d get five wrestlers through to districts and that’s exactly what we got. It wasn’t the five I thought would get through, but we had some pleasant surprises as well as some tough defeats.

When it comes to sectional wrestling, you just never know what can happen and quite a few weird things played out on the mat in Mount Vernon. Not just for us, but for quite a few teams. There were upsets everywhere.”

Making it through the pressure-filled tournament and continuing their 2006-2007 season were Raiders Dan Bieber, Derek Young, Robert Young, Jordan Alderdyce as well as Travis Keltner.

Bieber, Derek Young and Alderdyce all claimed sectional championships while Robert Young and Keltner advanced after solid runner-up finishes.

“As great as I feel for those kids who made it through, I feel bad for the ones who saw their season come to an end,” said Timp. “Sometimes it’s the pressure that catches up to kids and they get a little too caught up into things and sometimes it’s just them going up against a tough wrestler that causes their season to end. Overall though, I was very pleased about the way we performed. We’re peaking at just the right time and hopefully all five of our kids can make it through to state too.”

CASCADE— It’s not every game when a Division-I high major women’s basketball coach comes calling, but sitting in the stands in Cascade Tuesday, February 6, Iowa State women’s hoop coach Bill Fennelly cast a large shadow over the gym in Cascade buzzing about their talented Cougars.

“We talked before the game about Coach Fennelly being there and took it as an opportunity for us to maybe make an impression on him too,” said Raider girls basketball coach Jack Leighty as the Cyclone coach was on hand recruiting Cougar junior Ashley Arlen.
“Unfortunately we didn’t show up with one of our better efforts. Cascade came out ready to play and ran the floor extremely well. I think they were the ones who made a big impression on Fennelly.
It’s not every day you have a D-I coach come watch you play.”

Anamosa (9-12, 8-8) struggled on the offensive end putting the ball in the basket and also struggled corralling a Cougar club that raced up and down the floor at dizzying speeds turning Raider turnovers into lay-ups and misses into more lay-ups.

“The first half was tough to watch, for us anyway,” said Leighty who coached at Cascade before being named Anamosa’s coach three years ago.

“They got out and ran the floor and it wasn’t just their top two players Ashley Arlen and Lana Otting doing the scoring, this time they had everyone on the roster helping out.”

Otting, Arlen, Lauren Callahan, Amber Meyer and Chanda Goedken helped the hosts race to a 14-7 first quarter lead then built it to 17 points by the halftime horn holding Anamosa to a mere two points in the second stanza.

“They’re a team a lot like us. They can get out and run the floor a bit and they like to sit back in a zone and make us shoot. I have confidence we’ll show up ready to play Thursday night.”

Traci Dirks led the Anamosa scoring effort with eight points connecting on all six of her free throw attempts in the contest.”

WYOMING — There have been countless classic duels between rivals Midland and Olin on the basketball court over the years, but Monday, February 12, has to rank as one of the best-ever in the heated rivalry as the Eagle girls hosted the Lions in a class 1A district semi-final thriller.

With their season on life support late in the fourth quarter trailing 54-51, Caitlin Bisinger pumped new life into the Midland girls swishing a clutch 3-pointer with one second remaining in the contest and forcing an overtime session where the Eagles (11-11, 5-7) would go on to take a wild 65-63 final.

“We were fortunate to get a shot in that situation and Caitlin knocked it down,” said Eagle girls basketball coach Josh Bentley as his team out-scored the Lions 11-9 in the four-minute extra session to advance to the class 1A district final Saturday, February 17, at Calamus-Wheatland where the Eagles will play the host Warriors, who defeated Lisbon 42-39 in their district semi-final.

“We then played hard and tough enough to win with Katie Leonard knocking down the go-ahead basket in overtime.”

Midland was on the ropes late in the fourth quarter as after Olin’s Kalli Hansen knocked down two free throws with 17.1 seconds left in regulation and a Bisinger trey attempt with 4.7 seconds remaining went awry, Olin was on the verge of a huge district triumph.

Several Midland and Olin players corralled the loose ball after the Bisinger miss. Referees called a jump ball and with the alternate possession arrow favoring the hosts, the Eagles had one last chance to save their season.

Amanda Hansen made a perfect in-bounds pass under the Eagle basket to Bisinger, who came across a screen at the top of the 3-point arc and let fly with the game-tying trey that send the packed Midland crowd into hysterics when it swished through the net.

In overtime, Midland fell behind before Leonard drilled a long 3-pointer giving her team a 57-56 lead with 3:27 left in the extra session.

Olin’s Makenzie Ginn drilled two free throws with 3:07 left and Kalli Hansen added another field goal for the visitors who built their overtime lead to 60-57 with 2:18 remaining.

Another Bisinger 3-pointer knotted the score, this time at 60-60 with 2:06 to play but Ginn hit a field goal and Olin’s Danielle Frederick added a free throw to build the Lion lead back to three points yet again at 63-30 with 1:21 to go.

That’s when Leonard took over drilling two huge field goals, the first coming with 1:10 remaining trimming the Olin lead to a single point and the second with a mere 29.1 left to play giving her team a lead they would not lose, 64-63.

ANAMOSA— It felt more like a scrimmage than a huge Tri-Rivers Conference basketball tilt against the league’s top team as the Raiders hosted powerful Cascade Wednesday, February 7.

The game, originally slated for Tuesday, February 6, was wiped out due to the Alliant Energy agreement the high school signed allowing the utility company to power down the high school at a moments notice when temperatures get too frigid and power is needed elsewhere.

Quick scheduling allowed for the two teams to meet Wednesday, normally church night, but with a 4:30 tip-time the game was squeezed in.

“We all agreed this was a weird feeling,” said Raider boys basketball coach Kevin Barnes after his team was handed a lopsided 55-33 setback against the Cougars. “It has been 20 years since I coached an afternoon game and it has been several years since our kids have played in one. Couple that with the fact that at noon we found out we were playing without Colten Kelly, it was a weird feeling game.”

Anamosa (8-8, 8-7) struggled from the opening tip against Cascade as the visitors raced to a huge 18-6 first quarter advantage.

“We looked disoriented in the first half,” said Barnes. “I thought we put together a very solid second half however. It was just too late to do any good for this game.”