Winter Sports

Girls Basketball

By Angelica Olson

It is no secret that our very own Saint Croix Central Lady Panthers had a successful season. Girl’s basketball finished the season with a record of 14-0 in conference. They were at the top of the conference with Amery in second with a record of 11-3. The team went into round two of playoffs, before being knocked off by Bloomer 50-38. Mia Krogseng lead the team in scoring with about 18 points per game, rebounds with nine per game, and assists with about 3 per game. Claire Frankiewicz was a close second in all three categories with about 10 points per game, 8 rebounds per game, and about 2 assists per game.

With a season as remarkable as this, there would have to be some excitement hidden beneath the surface. Claire Frankiewicz, one of the captains of the 2017-2018 season, had been asked a few questions about the season. She said that one of the highlights of the season was, senior, Mckenna Johnson’s hundredth point! The roar coming from both the team and the fans in the stands was deafening. As fun as it was to cheer for Mckenna, Claire had said her favorite memory this season was, “being conference champions and cutting down the nets. Not only did we win conference, but we went undefeated in conference.”

Next season will bring some big changes in coaching staff. When asked about the changes, Claire responded by stating, “ Going into next season, the new coaching staff is something that I am looking forward to because they seem eager to help us to improve. Obviously we are losing a few good players, but I think people are underestimating what our actual ability will be.”

This last season is a tough act to follow, but with the talent returning to the team and the excitement of a new coaching staff, our favorite girls should be able to pull it off!

Recapping The Year: Boys Basketball

By Scott Mousel

The 2017-18 SCC varsity Boys Basketball team, coached by head coach Zach Turpin, had a fascinating season that came to an exciting, but heartbreaking, finish, especially for seniors Justin Freyholtz, Brett Mousel, Collin Nelson, and Nick Weber.

The Panthers started off the season strong with a 67-59 win against rivaled Baldwin-Woodville. By mid season, they were on a roll with an 8-3 record. Heading into playoffs, they were 15-7 and on a three game win streak. After the seeding meeting, they received a first round bye. Round two, or the Regional Semifinal, was held at SCC High School since SCC was the four seed and Osceola was the five seed. SCC kept on rolling with a 62-49 win against Osceola. Their next game was the Regional Final at Prescott, their biggest challenge of the year. They were looking to avenge their two losses to Prescott in the regular season. The Panthers played their most physical and mental game of the season. They led 29-28 at halftime. It was back and forth the whole game, but the Panthers fell just short in a game that could have gone either way. They lost 59-56 in heartbreaking fashion to Prescott, the eventual Division 3 State Champions. The Panthers finished the season with a 16-8 overall record and a 9-5 conference record, which earned them a solid third place finish in the Middle Border Conference.

The leading scorer for the Panthers was Peyton Nogal (Junior) with 16.5 points per game. Nogal was also the leading rebounder with 8.4 rebounds per game. Collin Nelson (Senior) led the assist category with 4.2 assists per game. Nogal made first team All-Conference, Nelson made second team All-Conference, and Will Soderberg (Junior) was honorable mention All-Conference.

Girls Hockey

By Contributing Writer

The St. Croix Valley Fusion, a female co-op hockey team through Baldwin-Woodville, River Falls, and SCC had an exceptional year. Coached by Matt Cranston, the team finished the season with 17 wins and only seven losses during the regular 2017-2018 season. The varsity girls rocked an average of five goals per game and maintained a winning streak through the first two months of the season. The girl’s last game of the season was a loss against the soon-to-be state champions, Eau Claire. Fusion put up a good fight, with the score ending in just 3-4. The top three skater point leaders for Fusion were Kamryn Jacobs with 41 points, Anna Albrightson with 32 points, and Taylar Meier with 31 points. The top goalie save percentage leader was Sydney Seeley with a .913% save rate.

Boys Hockey

By Zac Holme

The Baldwin Blackhawk Hockey team, coached by Rick Coltrain, had a great season that came to a unfortunate ending.

The Hawks started the season with a 6-2-1 record before heading down to Madison for the Annual Culver's cup tournament. They took an unfortunate first round loss against Madison Memorial but went on to take a back to back victory against Oshkosh and Monona Grove.

The Hawks returned back home to face an everlasting rival, the New Richmond Tigers. The game was an intense fight, with the hawks leading 4-3 going into the third period. Unfortunately, they were not able to hold the lead, and the game resulted in a 5-8 loss.

Right after the loss, the Hawks rebounded going on a six win streak, only to be cut short once against with a 2-5 loss against New Richmond.

Playoffs quickly came about, and the Hawks had a first round game against Amery. They had beat them 7-1 previously in the year and were feeling pretty confident. After a slow start, the Hawks were able to advance to the second round game against Hudson, with a 3-2 win over Amery. Unfortunately, after a 1-1 game going into the second, Hudson was able to pull ahead and advance to the next round with a 1-5 win.

The seniors on the team included Patrick Cieslak (SCC), Austin Buhr (BW), Colton Haney (BW), Marcus Hurtgen (BW), and Landon Albrightson (BW).

The season came to an end with an amazing 16-6-1 record, with many great accomplishments despite the second round loss.

Dance

By Scout Lindquist

From summer dance camp to the end of the winter season, the Saint Croix Central Dance Team has completed another successful season. The team is coached by Amanda Langman and assistant coach, Natalie Holter. Last summer, at the beginning of the dance season in July, they traveled to Wisconsin Dells Chula Vista for a National Dance Alliance camp. They performed their home routine, choreographed by seniors Josie Armagost and Ariana Carrasco, and received a Superior Home Routine Performance award for their performance. They also received many awards such as the 2017 Team Award, the Technical Growth award, and the Gold Team Performance award for their routine learned at camp. Josie Armagost and Ariana Carrasco were recruited to join the All American Team and were able to travel to Disney World in Orlando, Florida in December to perform a new routine in a parade.

The fall season was filled with many home football and volleyball game performances. They performed a variety of different routines throughout the season, each one choreographed by dancers on the team. For homecoming, they performed a pom dance at the middle school pep rally, a hip hop routine and a dance with the senior football players at the high school pep rally, and performed another pom routine at halftime of the homecoming game. They also got to perform at the State Football Championships during halftime, which was a highlight for the year.

This winter season, the St. Croix Central Dance Team made it to state for the second year in a row. With their pom routine created by the dancers with help from both coaches, they placed 4th at their regional competition in Wausau. They traveled to Lacrosse and danced at state, placing 9th out of 13th, a very proud accomplishment for the team.

These 12 dancers and their coaches had a very successful season, hopefully that continues in their future.

Wrestling

Historically Bad Season Sows Seeds For Bright Future

By Tadan Holzer

St. Croix Central’s 2017-2018 wrestling season was one to remember. The Panthers posted a dual meet record of 2-13, placing last in the Middle Border Conference. This year’s wrestling team was a very young one. The Panthers had eight wrestlers participate in their first varsity match. Their season low came on an 84-0 loss to Clear Lake. Having been beaten as badly as possible in the sport, the Panthers had nowhere to go but up. Injuries and inexperience plagued them through their season. At the Hall of Fame Duals, hosted at SCC, the Panthers had a team consisting of eight wrestlers, six short of a full team. After improving gradually over the season, the Panthers saw more and more production out of their rookies. The season ended with the Panthers advancing three wrestlers (Tadan Holzer at 126 lbs., Frank Holter at 138 lbs., and Ryan Larson at 195 lbs.) to the Sectional tournament in Amery. One of those three advanced to state. At the WIAA State Championships, Ryan Larson pinned his way through his three matches, defeating Stephen Ronnfeldt of Prairie Du Chien in overtime to secure the state title (see Town Hero Wins State Wrestling Championship). After a very positive end to the season, the Panthers graduated four seniors: Frank Holter, George Vondriska, Jimmy Brandvold, and Derek Rock. Head coach Brad Holzer said, “We had a very young and inexperienced team that through hard work grew and got better throughout the season.” As a testament to this, eight wrestlers earned their first varsity letter this year. The Panthers’ future seasons looks bright, as they are returning twelve varsity wrestlers for the 2018-2019 season.