ANAMOSA — There’s no question the Tri-Rivers Conference will miss the Anamosa boys basketball team next winter.

The Raiders brought an exciting brand of basketball to the league the last four years finishing the 2006-2007 campaign, their last as members of the league, with an 8-8 record.

Next season Anamosa will make the move to the WaMaC along with former Tri-Rivers foe Center Point-Urbana.

“We’ll miss the Tri-Rivers too,” said Anamosa boys basketball coach Kevin Barnes who has seen the program through the Big Bend, Tri-Rivers and now into the WaMaC over the past 12 years. “I really don’t know what the WaMaC is going to bring next year. I do know every team we play is going to be very tough. But we’re not going to focus on what team we play. We’re going to focus on just playing the best basketball we can possibly play and whatever happens, happens.”

What happened this past season was an Anamosa team that battled through injury and illness to a 10-11 record overall.

“This might be the most fun I’ve had with a group of kids as long as I’ve been here,” said Barnes who loses the services of seniors Adam Andreesen, Andrew Peters, Drew Carrier, Mitch Kelly and Nate Vaughn as the team makes the big conference switch next winter.
“There was not a single day in practice that I didn’t enjoy. There were even times when the team picked me up but what this team wanted more than anything else was to win. They all worked very hard towards that goal and it’s the seniors you have to credit with instilling in the team the will to win and work hard.”

The Raiders started the season well winning three of their first four games.

“Not having Tony Lueken at the start of the season really affected us,” said Barnes as his star junior point guard missed most of the first month of the season due to illness. “We didn’t come out of the Christmas break ready to play and it took us some time to find our rhythm.”

Anamosa dropped four of their next five games before going on their longest winning streak of the winter taking four in a row.

“We played some of our best basketball down the stretch and that’s always good to see too,” said Barnes. “That Mount Vernon game beating a ranked team after falling behind 18-4 in the first quarter says a lot for how this team matured during the season. If we had played that game a month earlier, we don’t come back from that kind of deficit and win. We learned how to come back and we learned how to finish.”

The 54-50 triumph over the Mustangs was followed by another impressive 54-35 rout of Oelwein as Anamosa finished their campaign playing four straight class 3A opponents.

“We battled the WaMaC champion Marion team tough then beat Mount Vernon and Oelwein before heading into a very tough district environment at DeWitt,” said Barnes. “Once again we showed our resiliency battling back from a 17-point deficit to cut it to four in the fourth quarter.”

The confidence Anamosa gained during the 2006-2007 run fueled the late season surge.

MOUNT VERNON— Giving the WaMaC Conference a taste of what it’s going to be like having Anamosa added to the league next season, the Raider boys track team made a good first impression at the WaMaC Conference Indoor meet held on the Cornell College campus in Mount Vernon Tuesday, March 20.

“We had some pleasant surprises and some expected success so all around, it was a very good day and a good taste for us getting this kind of experience in the WaMaC,” said Anamosa boys track coach Wes Wilson as his team claimed three titles at the meet. “Overall the kids competed very well and we showed we can compete at this level.”

Leading the charge were title-winning effort from the Anamosa 4x800 team as well as Nate Vaughn in the 800 meter run and Colten Kelly in the high jump.

Nate was one of the top 800 runners last year so his performance wasn’t that big of a surprise,” said Wilson. “Everyone knows about Colten and his ability in the high jump, so him winning that event was pretty much expected too. But the way our 4x800 team ran away from the rest of the WaMaC was a pleasant surprise. We could really score some points with that group at meets this season.”

Nate Vaughn, Brady Vaughn, Justin Cook and Mitch Hewitt claimed the conference indoor 4x800 title posting a time of 8:53.50 winning the event by a whopping 18 seconds over runner-up Waterloo Columbus.

MOUNT VERNON — Running in their second indoor meet already this spring, the Anamosa girls track team got a taste of WaMaC Conference track taking part in the league’s annual indoor meet on the Cornell College campus in Mount Vernon Monday, March 19.

The Raiders, who will join the new league starting with volleyball and cross country this fall, finished ninth in the 12-team meet scoring 29 points.

“We’re getting better and building for the outdoor season,” said Anamosa girls track coach Phil Kauder. “It was nice to get out and run against other WaMaC Conference schools and see where we stand and what we’re going to need to improve upon to compete at this level next year.”

Cammy Dole led the Anamosa effort at the WaMaC Indoor meet finishing second in the 400 meter dash with a solid time of 1:03.95.

Anamosa’s 4x200 team of Dole, Christy Coons, Becca Loy and Kayla Sanborn ran to a third-place finish after crossing the finish line with a time of 1:56.27 while Loy also jumped to a third-place finish in the high jump after her 4’ 8” effort.

Sanborn was sixth in the 200 meter dash closing with a time of 28.97 while the 1600 medley relay team of Jackie Engelbart, Brittney May, Maisie Timp and Jentri Alderdyce combined to place fifth in the conference after a 4:36.51 clocking.

Whitney Comried gutted out an eighth-place finish in the long jump after clearing 13’ 1” while Coons also scored eighth-place points for the Raider girls in the 55-meter hurdles with a 9.62 clocking.

Benton Community won the WaMaC Indoor team title scoring 121 points while the Raider girls topped Central DeWitt (26 points), Maquoketa (16) and Waterloo Columbus (2).

In JV events, Anamosa was led by Chelsea May and her runner-up showing in the 55-meter hurdles closing with a time of 9.62.

Ashley Frasher blitzed through the 200 meter dash finishing third in 30.58 while Coons was also third running the 400 meter dash in a time of 1:11.53.

Kandis Bieber ran the 1500 meter run in 6:11.49 which was good enough for fourth overall with Kelly Colehour throwing 26’ in the shot put which scored seventh-place points.

OLIN— It would have been easy for the Olin boys basketball team to have written off the 2006-2007 season before the Christmas break.

The Lions were winless and struggling to find an identity.

But first-year coach Kahm Sauer and his team never considered giving up an option and while the Olin boys struggled through a 1-20 campaign this past winter, the team played their best basketball down the stretch of the campaign giving fans plenty of thrills along the way.

“We had some close games and we struggled closing those out,” said Sauer as the Lions also logged a 1-11 mark in Big East Conference action. “But what I was most happy about was seeing the way we were playing our best brand of basketball at the end. We gave some good teams a run for their money there at the end of the year. We took better care of the basketball and even shot it a bit better too and also played some better defense. We just seemed to settle down and became better basketball players at the end of the year.”

Next year Olin will be without the services of two star seniors in Justin Smith and Justin Rix who were key members and team leaders to a young club this past season.

“We’ll miss Justin Smith’s offense next year,” said Sauer.

“He had the ability to create his own shot and could get to the hoop, shoot in the lane or pass the ball to an open teammate. He did it all.”

Smith tied for the Lion scoring lead tallying 11.0 points per game this past winter.

Rix ran the point leading the team with 16 treys.
“He always wanted the basketball in the clutch situations,” said Sauer. “And he came through too with some big baskets. He was our floor leader and defensively didn’t mind getting into the face of the other guy.”

By the end of the winter the Olin boys gave East Central, Preston and North Linn tough contests while also suffering narrow defeats at the hands of Springville, Alburnett, Lisbon and Camanche.

“We could very easily have been a near .500 team but just couldn’t close out the close games at the end,” said Sauer. “I think with all the youth on this team, we should be better at that next year.”

Sauer returns Dan Inglis, Kevin Kistler and Zach Brecht as starters as well as sixth-man Mason Smith and role players David Glover, Josh Heinsius and Travis McAtee.

The Eagles will have to do without four key seniors next winter as Scott Willimack, Cameron Sorgenfrey, Trevor Robinson and Riley Williams all bid farewell to the program after a successful four-year run.

Willimack leaves Wyoming as one of the school’s most prolific shooters ever setting Midland boys basketball marks for points scored in a season (448), 3-pointers made in a season (78), career 3-pointers made (184) and career 3-point percentage (36.4).

The points in a season mark had lasted for 24 years set by Brian Westphal during the 1982-83 campaign.

“I can’t say enough good things about Scott,” said Uthoff. “I knew coming in that he could shoot and I designed our offense around him and he did not disappoint. He was the focus of every team’s defensive effort and still scored almost 20 points a game. That says a lot about the ability he has.”

Willimack scored at a 19.5 point per game clip for the Midland team and was mid-boggling with his shooting ability from anywhere on the floor.

Sorgenfrey also set a school record swatting six blocked shots in a game at Calamus-Wheatland while also leading the team grabbing 6.6 boards a night.

“Cameron was our man in the middle and our only player over 6-feet tall,” said Uthoff. “It took him some time to find his role with this team, but once he did, he was a force for us the rest of the way. Like Scott he was a leader on this team too and was such a hard worker.”