THE BEAR FACTS
October 27, 2018

Good morning! I’m Reese Rosenmeyer!

I’m Abbi Heying!

And I’m Meredith Tigges! Thanks for tuning in to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where each week we bring you all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

The state cross-country meet is being held today in Ft. Dodge, and we’re proud to say that Garrigan senior John Meis will be among the runners at state. John finished fifth at the district meet a week ago, with a time of 17 minutes, 49.64 seconds for the five kilometer course. He’ll be running at 2:30 this afternoon in the Class 1-A boys race. Good luck, John!

State cross-country is at Kennedy Park north of Ft. Dodge. A big change this year is that there is no spectator parking on site at state cross-country, except for handicapped people. Instead there will be shuttle buses running from sites like Harlan Rogers Park and Ft. Dodge Senior High. It costs $10 to park and take the shuttle, and they suggest arriving at least an hour before race time. We still encourage everyone to head down to Ft. Dodge and cheer John on at state!

Last week the Golden Bear football team wrapped up their fourth consecutive undefeated regular season, and last night they hosted the first round of playoffs. We had to record this week’s show before the Bears played Wapsie Valley. We know the guys gave it everything they had, though, and we’re hoping that they advance in playoffs.

Last Saturday 4,878 students across Iowa auditioned for the All-State Music Festival. Only 600 of those students were selected to be part of the All-State Choir. We’re pleased to announce that three of this year’s all-staters are from Bishop Garrigan. Megan Bronk will be performing at all-state as an alto, and tenors Bryce Capesius and Joe Trainer were also selected for all-state.

The All-State Music Festival will be held at Iowa State Center in Ames November 15 – 17. Participants will spend two days practicing with Dr. Timothy Peter, a guest director from Florida. They will then perform in the all-state concert at Hilton Coliseum. The concert will be broadcast on Iowa Public Television over Thanksgiving weekend. Congratulations to all of our all-state music honorees.

The musicians aren’t the only all-staters we learned about this past week. Last Sunday Laurel Degen, Halle Menke, Emma Thul, and Julia Berte tried out for all-state cheer. They were among 206 cheerleaders statewide who tried out, and only 32 made the cut. Congratulations to Laurel Degen and Halle Menke for being named all-state cheerleaders. They will perform at the boys state basketball tournament this winter.

There was more success for the Golden Bear quiz bowl team last weekend. They went down to Ankeny to compete in the Centennial High School Scholastic Bowl. The team of Logan Heying, Grant Bormann, Abbi Heying, Aric Laubenthal, and Amanda Thilges beat Ames High, Wilton, North Union, and Waukee, while losing to Central Academy of Des Moines in preliminaries. They narrowly lost in the semi-finals to the championship team from Ankeny to finish fourth overall in the tournament. Congratulations, quiz bowl!

Last Tuesday art teacher Christina Newton took eleven Garrigan students on a special field trip to Des Moines. They visited the Des Moines Art Center and also toured the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Young artists making the trip include Andrea Pacheco, Ashley Franklin, Bella Capesius, Andrew Arndorfer, Emma Hamilton, Tabi Kollasch, Angelyna Gant, Sami Darling, Cacy Steinman, Jaden Becker, and Bryce Capesius.

Last Sunday and Monday three student business organizations held the United Fall Leadership Conference at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines. John Meis, Gabe Trainer, Jack Snyder, Joseph Meis, and Colin Casey attended from Garrigan. There were various workshops on business, and John Meis, the state DECA vice president, spoke before more than 1,000 people who attended. The conference also featured a dance and a hypnotist and opportunities to get to know other students from around the state with an interest in business.

This past Wednesday we had our weekly school mass at St. Joseph Church in Wesley. As part of the mass, five more students were installed as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Laurel Degen, Ashlyn Harrington, Caroline Bradley, Drew Merron, and Sam Vaske all took this special step to serve their church. Congratulations to them.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on John Meis. Here to tell you about him is Jordan Hansen.

John Meis is currently the only five-sport athlete at Garrigan. Last night he was in football playoffs, and today he’s running at state cross-country. John has also gone to state in track, he’s one of the top pitchers on the baseball team, and he also plays basketball. John is a Eucharistic minister, he’s part of the speech team, and he’s also state vice president for marketing of DECA, a business organization. You’ve probably also heard him announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. In his free time, he likes to run and sell shoes. John will be off to college next year, and we wish him all the best in the future.

Thanks, On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s state cross-country today in Ft. Dodge. The 1-A boys race will be at 2:30 this afternoon.

Also today Garrigan is one of the sites for the Autumn Fest Craft Show. Tomorrow the spirit squad will participate in the Triton Challenge cheer competition in Ft. Dodge, and tomorrow night Christian Leadership will hold their annual Halloween food drive.

There’s no school at Garrigan or Seton on Monday. Tuesday the second quarter begins, and Wednesday is Halloween.

We’ll have mass for All Saints Day on Thursday, and Friday we hope to be hosting the second round of football playoffs here at Garrigan.

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