Jaguars Track and Field Squads Compete at CMC Indoor Meet to open the 2008 Season

The boys and girls track teams performed at St.Cloud State University's Fieldhouse tonight. It was a great way to start the season, even as conditions outside are still rated "horrible" in terms of getting spring sports practices & competitions on their regular playing locations.

The track & field squads number 34 student-athletes in the junior and senior high ranks. I don't recall any B-B-E track team having that many on the roster. They are bolstered by a huge amount of 7th graders. Typically, the 7th grade yields only 2 or 3 class members for track in the past few seasons.

Heidi Lensing won the championship of the Long Jump (16'5") and the 200m Dash (27 seconds).

The track and field teams' next competition is next Thursday, April 3rd, at NL-S. The following night they are scheduled to perform at the A-C-GC Invite at the Falcons' high school in Grove City.

The Jaguars baseball team is scheduled to host Upsala-Swanville Area next Thursday. I don't know if the Regal diamond is ready for competition, but perhaps by then it will be.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Speech Team - 2008 Central Minnesota Conference Champions

Last night at the B-B-E High School, the Jaguars speech team won the CMC Championship for the 2nd time in the past three seasons. They now prepare for a tough sub-section tournament. More details will be posted on Thursday night.

Great job, Jaguars! The B-B-E community is proud of your efforts.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

B-B-E Jaguars Speech Team Hosts Central Minnesota Conference Meet Today

The Jaguars speech team, defending sub-section champions, and 2007 CMC Runners-up, host the CMC Speech meet today at the B-B-E High School. They were conference champions in 2006. I will hopefully get results tonight and post them tomorrow. Many student-athletes are on the speech team. Good luck to all coaches & students involved.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Three Area Teams at State Boys Basketball Tournament This week- Post-Season Girls Basketball Awards announced

In the West Central Tribune All-Area girls basketball team awards, junior guard Emily Roelike of B-B-E was named to the third team. She averaged 14.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals per games this season for the 18-10 Jaguars, who also finished in third place (9-5) in the tough Central Minnesota Conference. It is their best record ever in the CMC since joining in 1999. Roelike ended her junior year with 972 career points, accumulated since she was a freshmen. I would guess she'll make it to 1,000 points in the second game of next season.

Junior guard Hannah Linz of Eden Valley-Watkins was named to the A.P. All-State Team this week as well. She led the Eagles to their fourth straight Central Minnesota Conference Championship, including going undefeated in the league for the third time in the past four seasons.

In post-season action, the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Lakers girls basketball team advanced to their school's first-ever state tournament. They advanced from the District 20 playoffs with an incredible 53-45 win over Eden Valley-Watkins, and then defeated Holy Family Catholic 68-61 to bring them to "State", which took place last week. They were routed in the quarterfinals, however, by top-ranked Crookston. The Lakers, who finished in second place (11-3) behind EV-W in the CMC, ended the season 25-6, the best-ever finish for a girls basketball team at Howard Lake.

In boys basketball, New London-Spicer out of Section 6AA, in which our Jaguars reside, will play in the state tournament for the second time in the past three years. Joining them from the area is Montevideo and Willmar, as well.

Four-time Central Minnesota Conference champion Rockford also advanced to the state tournament, after defeating CMC rival Maple Lake in a close 64-58 game for the Section 5AA championship last Tuesday night at Halenbeck Hall at SCSU. The Rockets take a 28-2 record into "state" to face #1-ranked undefeated (30-0) Crosby-Ironton, hoping to improve on their 4th-place finish from 2005 when they last made the Big Dance. The Rockets finished 28-5 that season, and they will set a new school record for wins if they win one game at state next week.

Maple Lake finishes 24-6, the best record ever for the Irish in boys basketball.

Next week I'll get a winter sports season summary published in the local papers. Then spring is here! The only spring sport I've heard anything about is with the track and field squads, who both open the season on Monday, March 31, at the annual Central Minnesota Conference indoor meet. It will be held at St.Cloud State University.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Boys Basketball Stung by Last-Minute Trey by the Bulldogs in a Gut-Wrenching 71-69 Loss in Home Playoff opener

The Jaguars fell to the Bulldogs in one of the most wildly entertaining games in recent memory between two very evenly-matched teams. It will take a bit of work for me to put it into words. With somewhere around 20 lead changes, it was a terribly exciting game, even though the "good guys" lost.

It will take quite some time to get over this loss, as the Jaguars lost a five-point lead late in the game, giving up two unanswered buckets to Paynesville after leading 69-66 in the final two minutes of the game.

More info and photos will be posted, including results from other Section 6AA games.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Boys Basketball Falls to Eden Valley-Watkins 68-65

The Jaguars will enter the post-season (see below) with a 13-13 overall record, including a 4-10 Central Minnesota Conference mark.

The Jaguars host Paynesville on Tuesday at the high school with an 8:01pm tip-off.

More information can be found in this week's Observer and Bonanza Valley Voice newspapers.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

First-Round Home Playoff Game for Jaguars Boys Basketball

The Jaguars boys basketball team will host Paynesville Area next Tuesday, March 11, for the Sub-Section 6AA-East quarterfinals. The game will begin at 8:01pm at the B-B-E High School. **Note the time of the game, that is a day for Township elections (among other things I believe), so the game cannot be played while voting
is taking place. Polling closes at 8:00, so that's why the game's at 8.

After a red-hot 4-0 start to their season, the Bulldogs have been in a tailspin. They are 10-13, with one game left against ACGC.

Basically, this matchup between our Jaguars and the neighboring Bulldogs will be "war" between two neighboring rivals on our homecourt. The Bulldogs squeezed out a one-point win in January on their home floor.

1- New London-Spicer
2- Melrose Area
3- Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
4- B-B-E
5- Paynesville Area
6- Sauk Centre
7- Albany
8- Holdingford

This is exciting stuff, we haven't had a home boys basketball game since March of 1998. That year the Jaguars were in District 20, Section 5AA, and finished as Section Runners-up to Sibley East.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Boys Basketball Falls in CMC Action to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted on the Road on Monday night

The Jaguars boys basketball team, in search of its 14th win of the season, battled the Lakers of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted on Monday night in the first of two road games this week. They trailed by single digits throughout the second half, and were never able to overtake the Lakers in an 81-72 loss. HL-W-W holds onto second place in the league. The Lakers won the first meeting by a 66-60 score at B-B-E.

The Jaguars play at Eden Valley-Watkins (7-6 CMC, 14-9) this Friday night.

I incorrectly stated that the HL-W-W game was on Tuesday night. Totally my bad! This was the first CMC game of the season that fell on a Monday night. And yes, all schedules I've looked at tonight all say that the game was on Monday.

Best of luck to Coach Thompson of the boys basketball team, as he gives his input at Wednesday's 6AA-East seeding meeting. I predict a #3 seed, and a first-round game against Sauk Centre at the B-B-E High School next Tuesday, March 11. That will be fun!

Scores from a few Monday's area boys basketball games:
Maple Lake 60, Holdingford 40
Melrose 62, Minnewaska Area 55 OT
Pierz 71, Kimball Area 41
Rockford 70, Eden Valley-Watkins 56
Sauk Centre 60, Morris Area 55

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

One stunning upset, and another would've been stunning-upset that didn't materialize in girls basketball playoffs...

In Section 5AA, where the Jaguars played for the past two seasons, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted knocked off number-one seeded Eden Valley-Watkins 53-45 in the Sub-Section 5AA-20 championship game at Dassel-Cokato High School.

Eden Valley-Watkins finishes their season 24-4, including a perfect 14-0 run through the rugged Central Minnesota Conference. It is the third time in the past four seasons they have gone undefeated in the CMC. They went 13-1 last year. The HL-W-W Lakers (24-5) move on to the Section 5AA championship, where they will face Holy Family Catholic (26-3) next Friday at about 8:15pm at Halenbeck Hall at SCSU in St.Cloud. We wish the Lakers luck as they hope to advance to their first-ever girls basketball state tournament.

In Section 6AA, New London-Spicer almost knocked off Albany in the Sub-Section 6AA-19 championship game, losing 42-37. Ironically, the score was identical to their win over Sauk Centre two nights ago. They must have somehow slowed the pace of the game, in an attempt to stay within striking distance of the high-powered Huskies.

Albany is now 26-2 and will face West Central Area, who won 53-28 over Minnewaska Area in the Sub-Section 6AA-17 championship game. WCA is 21-6, and they jumped all over the Lakers tonight with a 17-6 game-opening lead in the first half.

The West Central Area Knights play a let-it-all-loose fullcourt pressure style defense that has had a tendency to overwhelm their opponents early in their games. It will be very interesting to see how Albany handles that and gets their three 1,000-point scorers going in the section championship.

In Jaguars sports news, the Jaguars boys basketball team (13-11) will play at Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted on Tuesday night, for the first of two road games this week. Both are the final games on the Central Minnesota Conference schedule as well. They play at Eden Valley-Watkins on Friday. Seeding for Sub-Section 6AA-East takes place on Wednesday night.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by: