THE BEAR FACTS
October 23, 2021
 

Good morning! I’m Mya Kemna!

I’m Ella Muller!

And I’m Veronica Capesius! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

This morning six Garrigan students are over at LeMars High School. They’ll be spending the day auditioning for the All-State Music Festival. Senior Marguerite Fakler, junior Savannah Waechter, sophomores Benjy Trainer and Lauren Swift, and freshman Isabella Waechter are all trying out for the all-state choir, while freshman Molly Peterson is auditioning for the all-state band.

Prospective all-state choir members try out by performing portions of the songs that will be presented at the all-state festival next month. Marguerite Fakler told us her favorite to sing is a German song with a name that translates as “If You Love Beauty”. She likes it because it has a great alto part. She says everyone’s favorite to listen to is a piece called “Music of Stillness”, and the hardest piece is the “Kyrie Eleison” from Hayden’s Lord Nelson Mass.


In addition to those songs, the all-state music includes a South African number called “Thixo Ono Thando”, songs called “Rejoice” and “Song of Triumph”, and special arrangements of the patriotic “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “America the Beautiful” to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the all-state festival.

Auditioning for the all-state band works differently than trying out for the choir. Molly Peterson will play scales on her oboe. She will also play several etudes, and she will perform a solo called “Ariette”. The top instrumentalists and the top singers in each voice range will be selected for all-state. We’ll let you know how Garrigan’s entries did on next week’s show.

Garrigan senior Quinn Swift will be returning to the state cross-country meet next weekend. The Bears ran in the state qualifying meet over at Mason City Newman on Thursday, and Quinn finished in third place overall in the district. The top ten individual runners qualify for state, so Quinn easily gained a spot in the meet. The Bears were third overall as a team, which just missed qualifying for state as a team. Gavin Swift was 23rd at district, Hollis Bode was 30th, Ethan Kuper 45th, and Saban Meraz 48th.

The district meet was the first time all season where the Garrigan girls had enough runners to post a team score. The Bears finished in seventh place as a team out of 18 schools who were assigned to the Newman site. Abbie Capesius finished 20th in the district, Veronica Capesius was 24th, Lauren Swift was 46th, Lillee Deike was 66th, and Katelyn Cink finished 76th in her very first cross-country race.

The state qualifying meet came after the Top of Iowa Conference meet, which was one of the Bears best showings this year. Ten Garrigan runners had personal record or season best times, some improving their times by nearly a minute. Congratulations on a great season to the cross-country team, and good luck to Quinn Swift as he runs at state!

 The Golden Bear volleyball team has been doing great in playoffs. They cruised past West Bend Mallard in three straight sets last Monday to win the regional opener. Then on Wednesday they got a slow start but then came on strong to beat North Iowa, again in three straight sets. The Bears will have a re-match against Newell Fonda in the regional semi-final next Monday.

Last Saturday the Golden Bear quiz bowl team hosted their home tournament, and it ended up being a really good day for the Bears. Four different Golden Bear teams were among the top sixteen that advanced to playoffs. Seniors Meredith Tigges, Marguerite Fakler, and Ava Eisenbarth, and junior Garrett Heying upset a team from Ankeny and advanced through playoffs to finish in fourth place overall. Congratulations, quiz bowl!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Marguerite Fakler. Here to tell you about her is Isabel Casey.

Marguerite Fakler grew up in the Emmetsburg and West Bend areas. She’s probably best known at Garrigan for her accomplishments in music, and she’s one of the students auditioning for the all-state choir today. Marguerite is also on the cheer squads for both football and basketball, and she’s been very successful in speech, drama, and quiz bowl. She’s taken advanced classes all through high school, and we know those will help her when she goes off to college next year. Good luck, Marguerite!
 

Thanks, Isabel. On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s all-state music auditions today in LeMars. Also today Garrigan will be one of the host sites for Algona’s Autumnfest craft show.

Tomorrow the cheerleaders will be part of the Triton Cheer Camp at Iowa Central in Ft. Dodge. Monday the second quarter begins, and that night the volleyball team will play in the regional semi-finals at Newell.

We’ll have a student mass Tuesday morning. There’s a swim meet in Perry that night, and Wednesday is the regional volleyball finals. Then Thursday the quiz bowl team will compete in the fall Knowledge Master competition.

Next Saturday is the state cross-country meet. Quinn Swift will be running in the boys 1-A race at 3:15pm. Also on Saturday the quiz bowl team has a tournament at Ankeny.
 

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show again next week to hear all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.