Although some of the holes were wet at area golf courses that didn't stop the season from getting underway for the smaller schools.
Apparently, they needed a canoe for the final three holes at River Oaks on Monday as the Lyle/Pacelli boys and girls played a dual meet at the course just north of Austin. Some of the holes on the course are right next to the Cedar River and they were unplayable after the deluge this past Saturday night.
"The holes by the river were wet and some of them were under water," L/P golf coach Mark Buntje said. "The first part of the back nine were okay, and the last three holes on front were pretty good. So we played holes 7-15 and got the season started."
Buntje has a young team on the boys side, but things are a bit different for the girls. For a few years it was a struggle to get enough players for a team score. Now they're winning conference dual meets and medalist Jennie Marx shot better than most of the boys in Monday's meet.
Rebels get rolling
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Another course that has water running through it and therefore was a bit wet on Monday afternoon is the Cedar River Country Club just outside of Adams. This is one of my favorite courses in the area and I used to play rounds there as a kid with my grandfather Louis Kolb.
It doesn't seem to matter how high the water is when I play the course in Adams, my golf balls always seem to go in the drink. They battled the elements in the girls golf opener on Monday at the CRCC.
"The conditions for our dual meet against Chatfield were wet and very windy," Southland coach Tim Brennan said of the season opener.
Despite the raw conditions, the background distractions didn't bother the game of Southland's Megan Harvey as she was the meet medalist.
L/P juggernaut
Over the last few years, the Lyle/Pacelli baseball team has challenged my scorekeeping abilities in some outrageously lopsided losses. After watching them play on Monday, it would appear fortunes have changed somewhat for the L/P Athletics.
Instead of trying to figure out how they gave up so many runs in a loss, I was pacing around the Riverland No. 2 field coloring in the bases by the names of the L/P players. The home team banged out 19 hits and scored 19 runs.
Things couldn't have worked out any better for Dan Zielke in his debut as the head baseball coach of the L/P Athletics. His team had such a big lead, there was ample opportunity to tinker with the pitching rotation and get a number of guys in the game as pinch-hitters.
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I'll have to consult past issues of the paper, but it seemed to me that the Athletics scored more runs in their season opener than they did all of last year. The high-scoring nature of the game reminded me of days at the old Lyle Field when well-hit balls would land on Highway 218 and get carried away by a passing truck.
AHS track teams
The season finally gets started today for the Austin High track and field teams. Both the Packers boys and girls teams are competing this afternoon at the Faribault Invitational.
Austin girls coach Nancy Jones has a number of talented seniors coming back this season to lead the team. There are a total of 10 seniors on the Austin girls roster.
The returning seniors for the Packers are: Alyssa Ofstedahl, AnnaMarie Hernandez, Ashley Arhart, Ashley Wilson, Averi Splinter, Emily Hagan, Jessica Edgar, Kaitlyn Carroll, Katelyn Harder, and Lauren Thompson.
After starting the season on the road, the Austin boys and girls will host a multi-team meet Saturday at the Gilbertson Track. This will be the first of three home meets this season for the AHS girls track and field team.
