The Bear Facts
February 17, 2018

Good morning! I’m Megan Wadle!

I’m Lexi Berte!

And I’m Caitlin Thilges! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where each week we bring you the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

As the Golden Bear basketball teams have advanced in playoffs, one Garrigan senior has broken two school records. In the Bears’ regional victory over West Bend—Mallard last Tuesday, Jenna Boelter passed the mark for most three-pointers in a season that Emily Bell had set in 2012. She also broke the career steals record, which had previously been shared by Maria Kohlhaas in 2003 – 2007 and Angie Froehlich in 1996 – 2000. Congratulations, Jenna! We hope you keep adding to those records in a long playoff run.

Three Garrigan boys compete on the Algona swim team, and we’re pleased to report that all three of them qualified for the state swim meet. Senior Sam Trainer made it to state as an individual in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle races and in the 100-meter breaststroke. His brother Joe Trainer was a state qualifier in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly; and Gabe Trainer made it to state in the 100-meter breaststroke. The Trainers also competed with teammate Carson Simpson in two relays that made it to state: the 200 freestyle relay and the 200-meter medley. Congratulations to Sam, Gabe, and Joe for making the state swim meet!


The Algona FFA recently competed in their sub-district contest, and three Garrigan students who are members of that organization took first place in different divisions. Lexi Berte received first place in Extemporaneous Speaking, Madelyn Cink was first in Public Speaking, and Bryce Garman won first place honors in the Chapter Program competition. All three also earned silver ratings for their work, and they’ll be advancing to higher levels of competition. Congratulations, FFA!

Today four Garrigan students are down in suburban Des Moines for a Great Plains Math League competition. Freshmen Amanda Thilges and Jack Snyder, junior Gabe Trainer, and senior Sam Trainer will be competing mostly against large schools from central and eastern Iowa. The tournament is being held at Johnston High School on the northwest side of Des Moines.

Math team competitions involve solving problems in four different formats. In the target and sprint rounds, the students work individually to answer questions. Calculators are allowed in the target round, but not in the sprint round. In the team round, groups of up to three students work together to answer questions, and in the relay round they work together to find the solution to groups of three problems that go in a consecutive order. Good luck today to Coach David Burrow and the math team.

Gala 2018 is just around the corner. The theme for this year’s big event is “The Big Apple: Start Spreading the News”. This is the twenty-ninth year for Gala, and over the past three decades the event has brought in nearly five million dollars to help support Garrigan and Seton. Gala 2018 will be the week after Easter, Saturday, April 7. Contact the Garrigan development office for more information.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Olivia Hart and Kyrah Larsen. Here to tell you about them is Sam Trainer.

Olivia Hart comes to Garrigan from the Emmetsburg area, and she joined us at Garrigan as a high school student. Among her activities as a Golden Bear have been basketball cheerleading, speech, and choir. After she graduates from Garrigan, Olivia will be continuing her studies at DMACC.
Kyrah Larsen also joined the Class of 2018 after most of her classmates. She comes from Humboldt and came to Garrigan as a sophomore. Away from school you might see Kyrah working at the Humboldt Fareway store. She’ll be at Iowa Lakes next year, and we wish both her and Olivia the best of luck in the future.

Thanks, Sam. On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s math team today in Johnston. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Lent.

There’s no school at Garrigan or Seton on Monday. That night is the girls basketball regional final at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.

Tuesday night the Bears will host a boys district basketball game. Wednesday there’s a reconciliation service in the morning, and we’ll have parent/teacher conferences after school.

The boys’ basketball district final will be Thursday night at Clarion. Friday we’ll have an out of uniform day for Gala, and that night the danz squad hosts their spring show.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.