P A GE 2 B | AU G U ST 3 1, 2 0 1 6 | P I ER C E C O U N T Y H E R ALD

ELLSWORTH CROSS COUNTRY

CROSS COUNTRY

Pieces are in place for Ellsworth cross country Panthers teams take

fourth in Boyceville

By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

The Ellsworth girls cross

country team has a positive
outlook for the 2016 season
with the potential to return
three all-conference runners
from last year.
With this experienced
group, head coach Marcie
Jahnke said the Panthers will
have the opportunity to compete as one of the top teams in
the Middle Border Conference
if everyone returns healthy.
The Panthers nished second
at the MBC championship
meet last season, behind only
Prescott.
Almost every runner is set to
return from last years varsity
team. That includes all-conference runners Rachel Mancuso,
Julia VanWatermeulen and
Claire Straub.
The only runner who has
not been running with the team
is VanWatermeulen, who is
rehabbing from an ACL injury
she suered during the basketball season. Last season,
she nished fth in the Middle
Border Conference championship meet with a time of 20:44.
Jahnke
said
if
VanWatermeulen can return,
the Panthers will have a shot at
being one of the top teams at
the MBC championship meet
once again.
Were hoping Julia is back
by then, and that will give us a
much better idea if we will get
there, Jahnke said. Some of
our young runners are showing
some really amazing talent.
VanWatermeulen has been
able to run on her own, but
she has not yet been cleared to
return to organized cross country practice. Jahnke said she is
expected to be back before the
end of the season.
Rachel Mancuso was
Ellsworths top individual runner last season at the MBC

By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

Ellsworths Rachel Mancuso (right) runs next to Elmwood-Plum City runner Kassye Todd during a
Spring Valley cross country meet last October. (File photo)

championship meet last fall,

nishing third with a time of
20:31. Jahnke said the junior
has spent some time before the
start of the season perfecting
her race strategy
What I like that she is
doing right now is she is very
focused on the smaller details
that make her faster, not just
the strength and endurance,
Jahnke said. Strategy, pacing,
some of those more technical
aspects of running cross country, Rachel is giving a lot more
attention to those things.
Jahnke is predicting some
improvement for Straub. Last
season, Straub was named
Second Team All-Conference
after placing 14th at the MBC
championship meet.
She is coming back much
stronger than she was last year
at the same time, Jahnke said.

I am expecting one heck of a

run from her on Thursday (at a
meet in Boyceville).
Jahnke said Emma Swanson
is back healthy after she was
injured during parts of last
years season. Other returners include senior Christina
Kowalchyk and juniors Freya
Nelson and Lydia Anderson.
Boys team is young
Ellsworth boys cross country has a team full of underclassmen this season.
With only three seniors and
one junior, the rest of the 15
members of the boys team are
all sophomores or freshmen.
But with a large group of 10
sophomores, Jahnke said many
have an understanding of cross
country running after competing as freshmen last year.
They are a totally dierent
group in a lot of ways, Jahnke

said. They came in more prepared, and they ran throughout

the summer.
The Panthers were led in
the rst race of the season by
Mylon Anderson, a senior who
is running cross country for
the rst time. He completed
his rst ever high school cross
country race in 18:42.2.
Jahnke said coaches in the
program convinced Anderson
to run cross country this fall
after showing success in the
mid-distances in the track and
eld.
Toward the end of the season we realized the 800 was
his magic race, and we talked
him into coming out for cross
country, Jahnke said. And
he is competing at a very high
level right now.

ELLSWORTH TENNIS

Panthers lose twice to Mondovi, Amery

By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

The Ellsworth girls tennis

team lost two matches last
week, including one close one
to Mondovi last Tuesday.
The Panthers won three
individual
matches
last
Tuesday, falling one short in
a 4-3 loss. Anna Olson won
6-4, 6-4 at number two singles. The rst doubles team of
Allyson Stoetzel and Marissa
Schumaker won 7-5, 6-3; and
at number three doubles Maria
Cole and Mady Paquet won
6-0, 6-1. Head coach Jordan
Olson said she was excited to
see the doubles team of Cole
and Paquet play well for their
rst time as partners.
The Panthers fell 0-7 to
Amery on the road Thursday.
A last second injury before
the match to Stoetzel forced
Schumaker to play in the singles lineup for the rst time
since her freshman year. She
forced a third set with a 6-4
win in the second set but ended
up losing by a tiebreaker in the
third. The rst doubles team
of Paquet and Julie Tonsager
played a three-set match but
lost 6-3 in the third. The team
of Paquet and Tonsager played
together for the rst time
Thursday, and Olson said we
were very excited to see the
success that they had.
Jillian Jean and Ginger
Leonard lost in a second-set
tiebreaker 11-9, and Sophie The Ellsworth girls tennis team has finally started practice on the new tennis courts at Summit Hill
Cole and Riley Schumaker lost Park. Pictured on the first day of practice at the new courts are (left to right) Sophie Cole, Maria Cole,
a third doubles match 7-5, 6-2. Anna Olson, Ginger Leonard, and Jillian Jean. (Submitted photo)

ACL...

said. Otherwise, Im not

going to do anything.
Matzek is not the only
person in her family who
has needed to recover from
multiple ACL injuries. Her
father, Ken Matzek, has also
suered two ACL injuries on
opposite knees.
The rst came while playing football at Ellsworth High
School his senior year.
Although Ken said he was
worried about his daughter
after her rst injury, there
also was not a lot that could
be done to prevent it from
happening again.
Of course, we were concerned about it, Ken said.
Girls are more likely to have
ACL tears. We researched
it, and there is certain things
you can do. But if its going
to happen, its going to happen.

Although most athletes

might stop playing a sport
that has led to two signicant
knee injuries, Matzek said
she is not backing down. She
has vowed to return to the
basketball court next year.
A lot of people think Im
just going to be done with
basketball because I hurt
myself I cant say how many
times playing basketball,
Matzek said. But, my senior
year, Ive got nothing to lose.
I really like the girls in basketball. I love basketball. So
Im going to keep playing
basketball.
ACL reinjuries happen
The risk of having multiple ACL injuries like Matzek
is more common than many
non-medical professionals
might think.
JW Matheson has done
plenty of work with ACL

Three Pierce County cross

country teams got a start to the
fall season with the Boyceville
Cross
Country
Alumni
Invitational on Thursday.
Ellsworth led Pierce County
schools by placing fourth in
both the boys and girls races.
The Spring Valley boys team
nished seventh while the
Cardinals girls team placed
ninth. The Elmwood-Plum City
girls team took seventh place,
and the E-PC boys did not have
enough runners to score as a
varsity.
Elmwood-Plum City junior
Kassye Todd returned to her
competitive form, winning the
girls varsity race with a time of
21:32. Emily Pickerign nished
12th overall for E-PC in 23:23,
and Josie Tiany was 19th in
24:01.
Ellsworth had two girls run
to top-10 nishes on Thursday.
Junior Rachel Mancuso placed
sixth with a time of 22:46, and
sophomore Claire Straub was
ninth in 22:54. Brianna OBrien
was the top Spring Valley run-

recovery as the co-owner and

clinical director of Catalyst
Sports Medicine in Hudson,
where Matzek said she did
physical therapy on her
repaired knee.
He said the chances
are greater for a recurrent
ACL injury on a previously
healthy knee than one that
has been repaired. Not only
did Matheson say females are
four to six times more likely
to suer a non-contact ACL
injury than males, but he also
said factors such as favoring
one knee and lack of strength
could lead to another injury.
If you tear your right
ACL, and you have the surgery, you are more likely to
tear your left ACL than retear
the new graft on your right
leg, Matheson said.
In general, Matheson said
the new trend in physical

therapy with ACL injuries

is to lengthen an athletes
recovery time for one or two
extra months before returning
to full sports participation. He
said an athletes fast recovery
like Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson
could give high school players the wrong idea about how
quickly they can return to full
sports participation.
The risk of reinjury is
signicant, Matheson said.
Some recent research has
said that the longer we wait
to return the athlete to sports,
the less likely they are to reinjure. There is some concern
out there that we have been
returning athletes too fast.
We can signicantly reduce
the risk of reinjury if we wait
a couple of additional months
to get them back.

ner after nishing the 5K with a

time of 25:25
Mylon Anderson, running in
his rst ever varsity race, led
the Panthers with a sixth place
overall nish and a time of
18:42. Calvin Kotval led Spring
Valley with a 14th place nish
in 19:26. Chad Osteen was the
top E-PC boy with a time of
21:23.

PRESCOTT FOOTBALL

Cardinals lose in
St. Croix Falls
By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

The Prescott football team

dropped to a 0-2 record on the
season Friday with a 21-0 loss
to St. Croix Falls.
Mistakes hurt the Cardinals
in the non-conference loss.
They turned the ball over four
more times than St. Croix Falls
and head coach Matt Smith said
many of their potential scoring
drives stalled because of missed
blocking assignments or penalties.
Joe Roosen led Prescotts
oense by gaining 96 yards on
15 carries. Both Luke Murphy
and Jonah Anderson played
quarterback, and Anderson led
the pair by going 2-for-5 for
32 yards.
Ty Henk led St. Croix Falls
by rushing the ball 16 times for
143 yards.
Quarterback Alex Johnson,
Henk and Clay Carney each
scored one rushing touchdown
for the Saints.
Smith credited outside linebackers Ty Sanford and Noah
Kylander for doing a good job
defending the edges on Friday.
Sanford led the team with eight
tackles, including one for a loss.

Kylander and Aaron Lubich

each had seven tackles, including one tackle for a loss from
Lubich.
The schedule does not get
much easier for the Cardinals
as they start the Middle
Border Conference schedule in
Ellsworth on Friday. Ellsworth
has won both of its games this
season and has outscored opponents 94-14. Smith said the
Cardinals need to focus in practice this week on playing some
cleaner football.
All-in-all, we are 0-2, but
its not about our record, Smith
said. We need to clean up some
small mistakes and focus in on
playing aggressive, fast football
on both sides of the ball.
Smith said Ellsworth will
also pose a challenge defensively with a balanced oense that
moves the ball with a rushing
attack and through the air.
We will need to be eective in defending them both the
on the ground and in the air as
they oer a variety that neither Rhinelander or (St. Croix
Falls) showed, Smith said. On
oense, we need to clean up the
turnovers and nish drives to be
successful.

PRESCOTT VOLLEYBALL

Prescott volleyball
goes 2-1 at SCC quad
By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

The Prescott volleyball team

won two matches at a quadrangular meet at St. Croix Central
on Thursday.
Prescott
defeated
Greenwood and Hudson in
three sets. Prescott lost set one
to Greenwood 25-19 but came

Win...

C on t i n u ed fr om p a g e 1 B

MEET RESULTS
TOP 5 - ELLSWORTH BOYS - Mylon
Anderson, 18:42; Jordan Schlichting,
20:46; Matthew Williams, 20:50; Jonah
Vogel, 21:02; Charlie Stuhl, 21:53
ELLSWORTH GIRLS - Rachel
Mancuso, 22:46; Claire Straub, 22:54;
Emma Swanson, 26:29; Freya Nelson,
26:49; McKenna Girdeen, 26:54
E-PC BOYS - Chad Osteen, 21:23;
Dalton Shields, 24:41
E-PC GIRLS - Kassye Todd, 21:32;
Emily Pickerign, 23:23; Josie Tiany,
24:01; Amanda Osteen, 29:08; Kaitlyn
Ahlers, 32:20
SPRING VALLEY BOYS - Calvin
Kotval, 19:26; Julian Davis, 20:17;
Patrick Cipriano, 21:43; Michael Lan,
21:57; Josh Hannack, 22:52
SPRING VALLEY GIRLS - Brianna
OBrien, 25:25; Katherine Dieckman,
26:07; Kathy Schreiber, 27:22; Holly
Anderson, 27:27; Tessa Cipriano,
29:39

back to win the next two 25-14,

15-5. The Cardinals won the
Hudson match 25-13, 19-25,
15-11.
St. Croix Central handed
Prescott a loss at the quad. St.
Croix Central won the rst set
25-15 and the third set 15-12,
with Prescott winning the second set 25-22.

Co ntinued f ro m page 1B

at the beginning because again

we were kind of slow. But Im
pretty satised with how we
played.
The Raiders are returning
some depth in their front row
hitters this season. Seniors
Sarah Larson, Welch, Kylee
Sabelko and junior Hannah
Feuker were among the teams
leaders in kills last season.
Sophomore Tori Olson is back
after playing as a setter last
season, and she is also expected to play some front row.
Challoner said sophomore
Rowan Rupakus will play
some setter for the Raiders as
well.
One challenge to the start
of the Raiders season has
been an injury to senior libero
Mikayla Afdahl.
Challoner said Afdahl has
tendinitis in her Achilles, and
could be out for a month or

longer.
She was our all-conference player last year. She was
seventh in the state for digs
Division One through Four,
Challoner said. So she is a
big loss, she is a huge loss. So
for the girls to come in, work
together and gure it out is
huge. It is going to be a good
season if they can continue
to work hard and do things
together.
The Elmwood players
expect to be competitive this
season with the core group
of players they have returning. The experience has helped
newcomers t into the remaining roles as well.
A lot of us are able to step
up and help those new (players) come in and ll their role,
Welch said. We are all able to
support each other.