Good morning! I'm Elizabeth Bormann!
And I'm Matt Courtney! Welcome once again to the "Bear
Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High
School.
Track season is drawing to a close. The Bishop Garrigan girls track team finished their season this past week with the district and conference meets. The girls ran well at district, and several events just missed qualifying for state. The four by 100 meter relay missed state by just .51 seconds, while the four by 200 missed by just .68 seconds. Garrigan also came close in the sprint medley and the 400 meter dash. Among the girls who ran well this spring were Jenna Kollasch, Lisa Thilges, Lindsay Becker, Miranda Boekelman, Rose Mayer, and Denise Kohlhaas. Greg Ahlers is the head girls track for BGHS.
The boys track team is running at district today, and they're hoping to have a long list of state qualifiers. The most successful group this season has been the sprint relay team of Lee Elbert, Justin Fickbohm, Joe Hellman, and Adam Gisch. Distance runners such as Jeff Hellman and Brandon Rowley have also been running strong, and the boys team as a whole is probably the best in school history. We wish them the best of luck today at
district.
Last week the quiz bowl team held their awards potluck. Seventeen students lettered in quiz bowl this year. Freshman letterwinners were Amanda Golwitzer, Jacob Hellman, Jeff Lappe, Andrew Missal, Seth Rogers, and Brandon Rowley. Matt Courtney lettered as a sophomore; and Amber Golwitzer, John Kohlhaas, Tyler Rolling, and Scott Stence were the juniors that lettered. Seniors earning letters this year included Mike Blocker, Nick Dahlhausder, Jeff Hellman, Steven Kellner, David Murphy, and Autumn Thompson. John Kohlhaas was named the overall captain for next year's team, and Mike Blocker won the Coach's Appreciation Award. Finally the MVPs for this year's team were announced. They are David Murphy and Autumn Thompson. Congratulations to these award-winners.
The speech and drama department also passed out awards last week. In addition to the Division I and II awards we announced earlier this year, six seniors earned trophies for outstanding achievement in speech and drama. They are all-staters Keshar Nadkarni, Jeff Hellman, Steven Kellner, Autumn Thompson, David Murphy, and Rosalind Kirsch. Congratulations to all of them!
A variety of senior awards are presented each year at baccalaureate. This year Matt Studer won the health department award, Rosalind Kirsch won top honors in art, and Lisa Even and Katie VonRuden shared the business award. Andrea Schiltz and Autumn Thompson won the English Award, while Mike Blocker won a special citation for creative writing and Steven Kellner was honored for journalism. Steve and Rosalind shared the math award, while Autumn and Andrea split the honors in science. Drew Miller won the social studies award; Keshar Nadkarni and Rosalind were honored for speech and drama; and Jeff Hellman, Autumn, and Steve won music honors. The theology department award was shared by Andrea Schiltz and Jenna Hansen, and Andrea also won the Principal's Leadership Award.
Jeff Hellman won the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizenship Award as well as the Bernie Saggau Activities Award. Jeff split the Student/Athlete Award with Lisa Even, and he shared the Ray Dorweiler Track Award with Lee Elbert, Justin Fickbohm, Nellie Fowler, Maria Paterson, and Janel Richter. Janel split the PRIDE Award with Joe Hellman, while Lee shared the G-Club honors with Jenni Erpelding and Amanda Wolf. Chelsie Wood and Mark McGregor were honored by the Algona Officials Association, Drew Miller and Andrea Schiltz won the Army Reserve Scholar/Athlere Award, Nicole Elbert won the Marine Corps Scholastic Excellence Award, and Joe Hellman and Katie Von Ruden were named Distinguished Athletes by the Marine Corps.
Every year students who participate in a variety of activities are honored with bronze, silver, or gold pins, depending on their level of participation. This year five gold pins were presented. The winners were Jeff Hellman, Steven Kellner, Janel Richter, Sarah Schmitt, and Autumn Thompson. Congratulations to all these senior award-winners!
We've saluted all of our graduating seniors in our weekly "Senior Spotlight", but there is one more student we should shine our spotlight on this week. Here's
Amber Golwitzer to tell you about her.
Rachel McGuire is officially a member of the Garrigan junior class, but she has chosen to graduate in 2003 so she can begin her college education. In her three years at Garrigan, Rachel has been active in music, speech, and drama, and she was one of the quiz bowl players who went to nationals last summer. Rachel plans to attend college out of state, and we wish her all the best.
Thanks, Amber. On our Golden Bear calendar there's the boys district track meet today. Then tomorrow at 2:00 the
Class of 2003 will graduate. KLGA will broadcast the commencement ceremony live tomorrow afternoon.
Monday the boys track team runs at Algona High and there's girls district golf. Then Tuesday we'll start our final exams. As always there's a special schedule for finals, and we all have open campus whenever we don't have a test.
Wednesday is Summer Sports Night, with pictures and scrimmages for the baseball and softball teams. Then Thursday morning we finish up our last finals and start summer vacation. The boys track team has their conference meet Friday night, and also that day the boys track team plays districts.
Finally this week we'd like to salute another group of award-winners, the people who earned activity letters for their work announcing on the "Bear Facts" this year. This year's letterwinners in broadcasting are Sarah Erdman, Jeff Hellman, Jenna Hansen, Sarah Schmitt, Rosalind Kirsch, and our outstanding broadcaster for 2003-Steven Kellner.
That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Thanks for listening. We'll be back one more time next Saturday to wrap up the school year and talk about what's going on this summer here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
