The Bear Facts
May 20, 2017

Megan: Good morning! I’m Megan Wadle!

Caitlin: I’m Caitlin Thilges!

Trevor: I’m Trevor Darling!

Ben: And I’m Ben Degen! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Megan: School’s out for the summer! Even though we had a lot of snow days last spring, an advantage of the new method of counting minutes instead of days is that there are a lot of extra minutes built into the calendar that allow us to finish on the scheduled date, even after time off for weather is accounted for. The minutes all added up, and now—finally—summer is here!

Caitlin: Today is the final day of the state track meet down in Des Moines. This year Garrigan had eighteen entries at state—ten on the boys side and eight for the girls. For the boys Drake Buscherfeld qualified in the shot put and Andrew Meister in the discus. Gibson Behr was a state qualifier in the 100-meter dash, Joel Vaske qualified in the 400-meter hurdles, and both John Meis and Ryan Kenyon made it to state in the 1600-meter run.

Trevor: The boys also had four relays qualify for state: the 4x400, 4x800, sprint medley, and distance medley relays. Split among those are Max Patkins, Gibson Behr, John Capesius, Joel Vaske, John Meis, Ryan Kenyon, Tristan Ferguson, Brad Capesius, and Sam Vaske.

Ben: On the girls side Caitlin Thilges was a state qualifier in both the discus and the shot put, and Alisa Altman made it to state in both the 100- and 200-meter dash. The girls qualified the shuttle hurdle, 4x200, 4x400, and 4x800 relays—which feature Livia Miller, Isabelle Davis, Aubrey McEnroe, Olivia Hall, Maddie Meister, Jenna Boelter, Alisa Altman. Katie Noonan, and Emory Miller. Congratulations to all the state track qualifiers!

Megan: Last week Bishop Garrigan participated in the Top of Iowa Conference Art Show, and many students brought home awards. Parker Schiltz earned “Best of Show” honors, while Bryce Capesius and Carlie Langerman took first place in their divisions. Jaden Becker and Emerald Shipler won second place honors, and Nolan Greene received third place. Congratulations, artists!

Caitlin: Summer sports start this Monday, when the baseball and softball teams take on Belmond—Klemme. At the core of the Golden Bear baseball team are seniors Joel Vaske, Andrew Meister, Chase Hatten, and Grant Buscherfeld. Juniors Drake Buscherfeld and Drew Bacha will also be playing hard, as will sophomores Luke Bormann, Brad Capesius, John Meis, Alec Studer, Drew Merron, Logan Heying, Gabe Trainer, and Sam Vaske. Freshmen in baseball include Andrew Arndorfer, Grayson Rowlet, Marcus Plathe, Colby Graves, John Joyce, and Dylan Lappe.

Trevor: In softball seniors Megan Brown and Sam Bormann are at the heart of the team. Also there are juniors Whitney Hovey, Jenna Boelter, Caitlin Thilges, Gigi Byrkeland, and Alisa Altman. There’s no sophomores in softball, but the freshman players include Madison Meister, Amanda Miller, Mackenzie Meister, Aubree Altman, Emma Fogarty, Jordan Hansen, Jenna Heinen, Emma Lichter, and Katie Noonan. Good luck all summer long, Golden Bears!



Ben: This coming Thursday the Golden Bear quiz bowl team will be making their eighteenth trip to the National Academic Championships. They’ll be headed down to New Orleans for nationals this year. Students participating include senior Levi Capesius, juniors Ben Degen and Sam Trainer, and sophomores Logan Heying and Gabe Trainer. Good luck at nationals, quiz bowl!

Megan: Last Sunday forty members of the Class of 2017 graduated from Bishop Garrigan. About two-thirds of the class also received scholarships and awards from a wide variety of generous local donors. The scholarships grow in value each year, and in 2017 $1,198,365 was given away to help students pursue their college education. Thanks to everyone who made those scholarships possible.

Caitlin: Among the awards presented to this year’s seniors, Logan Capesius won the Rotary’s “Service Above Self” Award, and Nick Mergen received the Bar Association’s American Citizenship Award. Logan Capesius and Andrew Thilges were honored by Algona Publishing, while Megan Brown and Levi Capesius received the KIMT awards. Danielle Plathe was this year’s valedictorian, and she received the Governor’s Scholar Award.

Trevor: In the department awards, Logan Capesius was honored by the math, English, foreign language, and theology departments. Miranda Book received the science award, and Megan Brown was honored in business. Other winners include Ben Fogarty in social studies, Sarah Skilling in art, Nick Mergen in vocational studies, Levi Capesius in speech and drama, and Andrew Meister in band and choir. Joel Vaske and Gracie Behr received the Outstanding Student and Athlete Award, and special service citations were presented to Andrew Thilges, Rebecca Bonstetter, Donovan Berte, Miranda Book, Andrew Meister, and Levi Capesius.



Ben: Finally each year pins are presented to students who participate in a wide variety of activities. This year Sam Bormann, Ryan Kenyon, Danielle Plathe, and Joel Vaske all received bronze pins. Silver pins went to Chloe Garman and Andrew Thilges. There were also two gold pins presented this year. The highest honor for school activities went to Levi Capesus and Andrew Meister. Congratulations to them and to all the members of the Class of 2017!

Megan: While we won’t go through a day-by-day calendar, we do want to point out some of the upcoming highlights this summer. The state track meet ends today, and regional golf is next week, followed by state.

Caitlin: The quiz bowl team will be headed to nationals this Thursday, with the competition happening next weekend. On Memorial Day the band plays at the Algona Courthouse, and then in June foreign language students will be taking a trip to Spain.

Trevor: Softball regionals start July 3, and district baseball begins July 8. We hope the Bears will continue in the post-season all through July. Then in early August fall sports practices will begin.

Ben: That wraps up our twenty-fifth season of the “Bear Facts”. Twenty-eight students helped out with the show this year, and we want to thank all of them for their efforts. Thanks also to our longtime faculty producer David Burrow and to KLGA and all the businesses who sponsor the show.

Megan: A special thanks also to all of you who tune in to hear our show each week. We hope to be back in the fall with more news from Bishop Garrigan. Until then …

EVERYONE: HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!