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The Lone Tree Reporter, Thursday, March 3, 2005
SPORTS P00g,7
Lady Lions end season in [Splinters
Regional Semi-Finals From the Bench
So, the Lone Tree girls' sea-
By Coach Tom Dickey
Contributing Writer
The Lone Tree Lady Lion
basketball team, after starting
the season with a 2-6 record,
ended the season on a 11-5 run
with a district championship
and a trip to the regional semi-
finals vs. Ft. Madison Aquinas.
Unfortunately, the Lady
Lions met Ft. Madison on their
best offensive night of the sea-
son and lost 64-53. Aquinas
shot 54% from the field and had
3 girls in double figures for the
first time all season.
The Lady Lions got off to a
slow start, getting behind 20-9
before closing the gap to five
points. Aquinas stretched the
lead t o 12 points, at halftime.
Twice in the second half
Lone Tree was able to cut the
lead to 7 points but just couldn't
get the critical shot to fall and
gain the much needed momen-
tum.
The Lady Lions were led by
their leading scorers all season;
Kylie Ronan with 21 and Amy
Smith with 20. Amy also gar-
nered 15 rebounds to end her
brilliant career. Amy ended
her career with 1,113 points and
543 rebounds. Amy was named
unanimous first-team all-con-
ference for the second consecu-
tive season.
Amy is a great talent that
played a big part in our success
over the last three years. Dur-
ing the last three seasons,
teams Amy played on finished
3rd and 1st in the conference
and won a district title. Amy
will go down as one of the best
players to ever wear a Lady
Lion uniform.
Kyli¢ Ronan again had anoth-
er stellar season. Kylie was
able to break the 1,000 pt. barri-
er for her career and is on pace
to shatter our all-time scoring
record currently held by for-
mer 1st team all-stater Megan
Ripperton.
Kylie was also named unani-
mous first team all-conference
for the second consecutive sea-
son. Kylie-was also named
IGCA first team all-district for
the second consecutive season.
Kylie will be the lone senior
next year leading her young
teammates into what should be
another exciting season for the
Lady Lion basketball team.
Also receiving all-conference
honorable mention were sopho-
mores Brittany Danielson and
Danielle Forbes.
Coach Johnson and I are very
proud of the improvement our
young team made over the
course of the season. We lost a
lot of close games throughout
the season. Out of our 11 losses
9 were by 11 points or less.
Despite the losses, we always
felt that we would be a tough
tournament team at the end of
the season.
We certainly represented
ourselves well in the tourna-
ment. Next year with our
returning experience and
another good class of freshmen
coming in, we expect to have
very good freshman/ sopho-
more and varsity squads. The
players and coaches all will
have to work very hard during
this next offseason if we hope
to go beyond the regionat semi-
finals next year.
The Lady Lion players and
coaches would like to thank the
parents, fellow students, and
the people of Lone Tree for
their great support throughout
the season. Come back next
year and watch a very exciting
and athletic Lady Lion basket-
ball team.
We can't wait until next sea-
son!
The Lady Lions ended with a
13-11 overall record and were 7-
7 in the SEISC North Division.
Little Lion Wrestlers roar at
tourney on home turf
By Nancy Viner
Contributing Writer
On Sunday, February 20th, 23
Little Lions got to show off
their stuff for the home crowd
during their annual wrestling
tourney.
There were 226 wrestlers and
thanks to the many wonderful
volunteers, things moved pret-:
ty efficiently from start to tim-
ish.
The Little Lions had 5 cham-
pions, 5 second place, 10 third,
and 5 fourth place finishes.
Champions were Jake Viner
(lst grade), Travis Gillham
(2nd grade), Keaton Kane (3rd
grade), Ty Robertson (3rd
grade), and Austin Ronan (6th
grade).
Second place finishers were
Michael Schmidt (Kinder-
garten), Niko Gosnell (Kinder-
garten), Alex Yedlik (2nd
grade), Taylor Tucker (3rd
grade), and Jackie Moore (7th
grade).
Third place finishers were
Logan Carter (Kindergarten),
Levi Tripses (Kindergarten),
Koby Moore who tied for 3rd
(2nd grade), Levi Saterfield
(3rd grade), Trenton Gosnell
(3rd grade), Ty Robertson who
wrestled up in the 5th/6th
grade division also (3rd grade),
Tyler Gosnell (Sth grade), Con-
nor Larew (Sth grade), Dillon
Buline (Tth grade), and Devon
Griffin (Sth grade) who had to
settle with 3rd although he tied
for 1st place.
Based on the criteria scale
used for tie-breaking situa-
tions, Devon unfortunately got
the 3rd place trophy instead of
a 1st place one. It was an even
Photo by Jeff Quigley
Little Lion Jake Viner goes for a pin dudng the touma-
ment on Sunday, February 20. Viner was the first grade
champion at the tourney.
more difficult reality for his
dad, Doug Griffin, who was
called upon in the wall chart
room to distinguish the four
places in Devon's bracket.
"Each of the wrestlers had 2
wins and I loss. It was so hard
to come to the conclusion that
Devon would come away with a
third when he tied for 1st."
Fourth place finishers wer
Keaton Kane who also wrestled
up in the 5th/6th grade divi-
sion (3rd grade), Jenny Sexton
(4th grade), Austin Brenneman
(3rd grade), Max Larew (Sth
grade), and Zach Larew (8th
grade).
It was a great day of wrestling
for the Lone Tree Little Lions.
Many will still continue to go
to tournaments for a few more
weekends. One highlight for
the younger bunch is the Super
PeeWee State Tournament to
be held in Waterloo on March
13th. Stay tuned for more
exciting results in these final
weeks of the season.
Once again, thank you very
much to all of the volunteers
who helped Friday night, Sat-
urday night, and all day Sun-
day. Without your help,the Lit-
tle Lions could not have had as
successful a tournament as
they did. There were many
compliments and appreciation
for everyone's hard work.
son came to an end last week.
These young ladies wound up,
against all odds, with a win-
ning record for the season.
When you consider that Lone
Tree only had one senior and
one junior and all the rest were
freshmen and sophomores who
were very short on experience,
the girls should be commended
for doing well.
I know some people say there
is no such thing as a 'moral vic-
tory.' However, after losing
rather badly to Highland in the
game at the U. S. Cellular Cen-
ter in Cedar Rapids in Decem-
ber, the Lions came back to bat-
tle Highland down to the wire
in the second half of the sea-
son. The 52-50 victory that
Highland finally got was one of
its closest games all yeaI:
Also, congratulations to the
Highland girls on making it all
the way to the State Tourna-
ment. It's Highland's first trip
to the State Tournament.
Speaking of State Tourna-
ments, congratulations, also, to
the Highland wrestlers for
their performance at the
wrestling tournament. The
Huskies came in 10th in Class
1A and had four medal win-
ners.
The Lone Tree boys are in
District Tournament play right
now. They had a game with
Keota Monday night. The win-
ner of that game is probably
going to meet Iowa Mennonite
at the end of this week. The
Lions (as has almost everybody
else) have had some trouble
with Iowa Mennonite during
the last few years, but this
would be a great time to get an
elusive win over IMS. Go
Lions!!!!
-OW-
On the Iowa scene, the Hawks
. finally won a road game in the
Big Ten. Even pessimistic old
me didn't see any way they
could lose at Penn State unless
the bus broke down and they
just didn't get to the arena.
I also told some people that,
if Iowa lost that game at Penn
State, Alford shouldn't even get
on the plane to come back to
Iowa City. He should just rent a
car, drive to someplace in Indi-
ana, call his wife and have her
get a moving company go pack
up their stuff and get it out of
Iowa City.
For once, apparently, the
Hawks loosened up and just let
things flow. They jumped out to
a big lead. They led by 27 at the
half. They held onto the lead in
the second half and won by 22.
They didn't blow a lead in the
last three or five or seven min-
utes.
Yes, Penn State closed the gap
a little bit in the second half,
but it was still a 22-point win.
Any player or coach will tell
you that when you have a giant
lead like that it is hard to stay
as focused and turn a 27 point
halftime lead into a 54 point
win.
Iowa has two games left, play-
ing Ohio State at home in the
middle of this week and then
traveling to Michigan for a
game on Saturday.
TheBY ROnLone RifeT?ee :: i"
Reporter
Ohio State has a pretty good
team and manhandled the
Hawks in Columbus early in
the Big Ten season. Even in the
aftermath of Saturday's win I
have no reason to expect Ohio
State to leave Iowa City with a
loss. Also, although Michigan
has been struggling, I wouldn't
bet on Iowa in Ann Arbor Sat-
urday. I hope I'm wrong.
The Iowa women finished the
home schedule in great style
last week, blasting Illinois. As
usual, the Three Blind Mice in
the striped shirts almost let
things get out of hand in action
underneath the basket. I will
never be able to understand
how play that almost draws
blood is allowed under the bas-
ket while just barely touching a
player out front draws a foul.
There was one instance in
that game where Jamie Cavey
looked as if she had decided
"Enough of this garbage. I got
the rebound and I'm going to
score even if it means breaking
somebody's neck."
Cavey had gotten an offen-
sive rebound and was sur-
rounded by orange-shirted Illi-
ni who were pushing her bodily
and hacking her arms with
theirs. She finally just straight-
ened up, threw a few elbows to
clear them out of the way Pad
put the ball up and through um
hoop. Barb Chiles, who sits
next to me at the games, said,
"Holy smoke. Where's THAT
Cavey been all year?"
Now comes the Big Ten Tour-
nament. It starts in Indianapo-
lis on Thursday and will be tel-
evised on Fox Sports Chicago.
Iowa will play Michigan on
Thursday night at 7 p.m. The
winner will then play either
Penn State or Ohio State on Fri-
day. They played in Columbus
on Sunday. Those two were tied
for 2nd-3rd coming into action
on Sunday and I'm writing this
before I fired out who won. Iowa
(assuming the Hawks beat
Michigan on Thursday night)
will get the loser.
The softball team has gotten
off to a good start. They went
into last weekend with a 5-1
record and won the first two
games in the tournament at
Louisville, Kentucky. The soft-
ball team will ffmally get home
to play near the end of March
and the baseball team will
finally get home on April 1.
Oh, yeah. There is also a
wrestling tournament going on
in Iowa City this weekend. The
Big Ten tournament will be
held on Saturday and Sunday. If
you still want to watch high
school wrestling the State Dual
Meet Championships will be
wrestled in Cedar Rapids at the
U. S. Cellular Center.