ANAMOSA — You can’t help but be excited about the possibilities for the 2007 Anamosa football team, even after watching the Raiders in their season-opening 35-7 setback hosting a talented Monticello team Friday, August 31.

While on the scoreboard it appeared Anamosa was completely dominated by the Panthers from start-to-finish, there were telling signs and positive proof this football program, under new coach Matt Malausky, is pointed in the right direction.

“This isn’t exactly how we drew it up wanting to get beat 35-7, but we did see some good things happen on the football field that we can build from and more forward as we get ready for Cascade this Friday night,” said Malausky who walked the high school football sidelines as a head coach for the first time in the contest. “I guess I had hoped for a more competitive game than the one we saw play out, but it’s just the first one with our new offense. This will be a work in progress this year. I expect us to get better each and every week. This was just week one. Yes, this was a tough loss in a rivalry game, but now we need to get over it and learn from it and get ready for the next one.”

Anamosa (0-1) struggled at times running the new five-wide offense that had Raider receivers lined up all over the field, but also showed flashes of brilliance when things did get to clicking near the end of the first half.

“That’s when I thought we really found our rhythm and started running the offense the way it was meant to be run and had the kids running the routes they were supposed to be running,” said Malausky. “Finding the rhythm offensively was the big problem all game long. We just couldn’t sustain it consistently and then an offense like this one isn’t consistent, it’s hard to make it work.”

Anamosa scored to end the first half on the short end of a 28-7 score when quarterback Nathan Kaufman hooked up with Tucker Vondracek on a ??-yard touchdown strike, pulling momentum away from Monticello, who had controlled it for most of the first half.

“Cammy crashed after the race but ran well during,” said Kauder. “She battled all the way through”

Dole finished 14th overall with a time of 17:16 and led the Anamosa girls with the effort.

Kayla Sanborn added a time of 18:21 and was 32nd overall while Kellie Vaughn, making her varsity cross country debut, posted a time of 18:51, which was good enough for 39th in the race.

Katie Grassi finished 57th after crossing the finish line with a time of 19:49 while teammate Chelsea May was right on her heels finishing 58th after her 19:51 clocking.

Rebecca Moyer rounded out the Raider varsity running effort turning in a time of 22:47 to placed 63rd overall.

Iowa City West dominated the girls’ varsity field scoring just 33 points in the primarily class 4A event. Cedar Falls was runner-up with 46 points while Cedar Rapids Washington was third scoring 97 points. Only the Raiders, Cedar Rapids Xavier, Marion and Solon were non class 4A schools to take part in the race.

Anamosa defeated the Spartans (212 points) and the host Hawks (219).

Ashton Darrow also opened the varsity race for the Anamosa girls but succumbed to heat exhaustion, as many runners did, mid-way through the race.

Cedar Rapids Xavier’s Meaghan Nelson topped the varsity girls’ field winning the event with a time of 15:35.

The Raider boys were led by Ryan Dolan who worked his way to a solid 49th-place finish in 21:00 while Jacob Schwaegler and Jordan Wilson placed 54th and 55th with times of 21:35 and 21:38, respectively. Brice Antons ran 58th in 22:15 with Garett Long (23:00) and Ken Beadle (24:34) were 59th and 60th overall, respectively.

Andy Engelbart also took to the course for the Raiders but rolled is ankle early in the race.

Iowa City West’s Shaw Akutsu bested the boys’ field with an 18:24 clocking individually while Cedar Rapids Xavier took the boys’ team title scoring 56 points winning a tie-breaker over Iowa City West. Cedar Rapids Washington was third with 68 points.

Steph Vernon tallied a time of 25:13 in the fr/so girls’ race while James Bowers (22:46), Justin Kaufman (22:53), Tyler Day (24:03), Zak Fortune (25:19), Peter Obando (25:20) and Sam Hunt (26:58) finished 49th, 51st, 62nd, 71st, 73rd and 79th in the JV boys’ race.

Anamosa’s West Middle School runners turned in a sensational performance as the Raiders placed all six two-mile girls’ participants in the meet top-10.

Brianne Cook led the way with a runner-up finish in 15:16 while Rachel Schepanski was third overall crossing the finish line with a time of 15:59. Sophia Corpstein was fourth after her 17:06 clocking while Erin Day (17:12), Rebekah Bowers (17:18) and Nicole Sanborn (18:07) were the fifth, sixth and seventh girls to cross the finish line, respectively.

Desiree Christiansen ran the one-mile portion of the race in 6:55 and was 11th overall while Courtney Dole added a 7:33 clocking and was 30th. Kate Johnson (8:10), Kaity Meade (8:23) and Koal Klaus (8:31) were 43rd, 47th and 51st overall, respectively in the one-mile Middle School race.

WYOMING — “When we can pass the volleyball and set up the offense, we’re a pretty good team,” said Anamosa volleyball coach Angie Lawrence after her team’s season-opener at Midland Thursday, August 30. “But we struggled passing all night long at Midland and that made for what was a pretty short ride home on the bus, a lot longer than it seemed.”

Anamosa (0-4) was handed a 14-25, 7-25, 15-25 setback at the hands of a talented Eagles team, who many consider will contend for a Big East Conference championship this year.

“The thing was, we didn’t make Midland have to work too hard for their points,” said Lawrence. “We made so many mistakes it was a pretty easy win for them and a pretty good learning experience for our young team with players learning new positions and being thrown into their first match of the year.”

The Raiders struggled with their serve receive and their passing looking to get the volleyball to setter Kandis Bieber to set up the offense for hitters Katelyn Jamison, Maisie Timp, Jackie Engelbart, Christy Coons and Dakota Ahrendsen.

“Not only did we struggle in those areas, but also our serving game wasn’t quite on either,” said Lawrence. “The girls are trying and working hard, it just didn’t really show on the scoreboard much in this season-opening match.”

The Raiders tallied just four kills overall in the three-set setback as Jamison paced the visitors with two kills attacking the offensive net 12 times. Timp and Engelbart each came through with one kill each for Anamosa.

“Our passing was so much better not only in this match, but the entire day than it was at Midland. Our serving was better too and when we get those things rolling, we at least give ourselves a chance to win.”

Engelbart and Jamison each led the Raiders with three kills each attacking the net six times while Coons tallied 10 attacks with two kills.

Arensdorf came through with eight digs with Timp adding six more while Jamison was a perfect 15-of-15 serving the volleyball at the Trojans drilling two aces in the match. Ahrendsen fired home three aces going 7-of-8 at the service line.

“Everything revolves around passing and it was great to see the girls come out and improve in that area in this tournament,” said Lawrence. “We’re making some progress and finding the right mix of players who work best together on the floor.”

Anamosa’s next match saw a 21-19, 11-21, 6-15 defeat against the host Raiders.

Leading 20-19 after Anamosa made a late rally, East Central’s coach called for a timeout she didn’t have, allowing the visiting Raiders the game-one triumph with the penalty point.

“We were making a nice run there but just couldn’t keep the momentum going throughout the entire match,” said Lawrence. “We’re still learning how to finish off matches.”

Jamison tallied four kills while Bieber set four assists. Timp swatted back three East Central shots at the defensive net.

The final match of the tournament saw a 21-18, 7-21, 11-15 loss at the hands of Bellevue.

“Again we get off to a nice start and are looking to put the match away by winning the second game and just can’t get it done,” said Lawrence. “The last two games against Bellevue we just made so many mental mistakes. Even with all of our struggles, we made a run in that third game. We at least didn’t go out quietly.”

Jamison had a big match leading the Raiders with seven kills attacking the net 14 times.
Engelbart added three more kills. Bieber set four assists, tallied five digs and was 10-of-11 at the service line with an ace.

“I like the progress we’re making as a team,” said Lawrence. “From Thursday to Saturday we’ve gotten better. We just need to keep it up.”