Decade's top ten sports stories

By Kreig Ritter
Banner-Press Sports Editor

It turned out to be an eventful decade in area sports. State championships, school records, even a World Cup championship.Here's a look at the top 10 stories from the area over the last 10 years.

#1 - Wrestling Capital of Nebraska

David City and Aquinas were no strangers to wrestling success by the time the 2003-2004 season rolled around.

The Monarchs had won back-to-back state titles in 2001 and 2002, part of a run of three state titles, a runner-up finish and two third-place finishes in the previous decade.

David City had four straight runner-up finishes to start the '90s, then rebuilt. That resulted in a runner-up finish in 2003 that had the team confident it could win the school's first state title since 1984.

The two teams met twice during the regular season. The Monarchs defeated David City 37-31 as part of the Butler County Triangular.

David City edged Aquinas for second place at the Boone Central Invite just over two weeks later.

The Scouts then won the District C-3 title with 199 points, finishing 21.5 points ahead of the runner-up Monarchs.

David City had eight qualifiers while Aquinas had seven, enough quality depth for the two teams to establish themselves as the best in Class C.

Friday night's championship semifinals were an incredible display of local talent. The two schools had 10 wrestlers in the semifinals. All 10 of them won.

David City had a three-point lead over Aquinas heading into the final day, but no wrestlers in the consolation bracket.

The Monarchs, meanwhile, got come crucial points from sophomore Andrew Daro, who came back from a second-round loss to finish third.

That meant Aquinas had the lead when the 13 area wrestlers (East Butler had three finalists in Class D) walked in the Parade of Champions.

Rob Daro got Aquinas started in the finals with a 2-1 win over West Holt's Patrick Lamkin for the 125-pound title.

David City's Jared Pickett followed with a 7-2 win over Thayer Central's Joey Koch in the 130-pound finals to get David City back within 5.5 points.

The crucial swing match followed at 135 pounds. David City's Jason Pickett had lost twice all season, both times to Aquinas' Aaron Karpisek. But Pickett came in with a 6-2 win over Karpisek in the district finals.

Karpisek got a big reversal in the first period to take the lead and held off Pickett the rest of the way for a 5-2 victory.

Sophomore Jared Meister followed with Aquinas' third straight title victory, defeating Thayer Central's Craig Degenhardt 4-3 for the 140-pound title.

The three straight victories meant David City would have to win out in the rest of its matches to take the title.

The Scouts wound up with three more runner-up medals. Anthony Hruska lost to Lincoln Christian's Addison Negley in the 152-pound final. Matt Kastl, who'd go on to win the state title in 2005, lost by pin to Aquinas Josh Coufal at 215 pounds. Danny Colburn lost a decision to Bennington's Andy Christensen for the 275-pound title.

Coufal gave the Monarchs a school-record four state champions in one season, breaking the record of three set in 1994 and 1996.

Aquinas also got a runner-up finish from Adam Osborn at 160 pounds. The Monarchs' seven qualifiers lost just four matches at state.

The result - Aquinas' third state title in four years. They scored 141.5 points. David City was second with 122 points.

It was a historic finish that wasn't likely to be repeated any time soon.

East Butler, by the way, finished fourth in 2004, with Andy Valenti winning the 145-pound title in Class D. Brandon Jisa (135 pounds) and Josh Hlavac (275) placed second.

In the five years since the historic season, the best finishes for any area team has been third - Aquinas in Class D in 2006 and East Butler in Class D in 2008.

#2 - Last One To Leave Dwight, Please Turn Out the Lights

A unique set of circumstances combined to give Dwight two quality baseball teams in 2005.

The Dwight Seniors had most of their 2004 state-qualifying team back.

Most of the Dwight Juniors' 2004 state championship team was eligible to stay down at the junior level, but pitcher Matt Komenda had to move up.

Rather than break up the Junior team, the decision was made to move the Juniors team up and created a second senior team - Dwight-Rising City.

Both teams expected to have good seasons, but it wound up being even better for the area than anticipated.

Dwight, with the more experienced team rolled through the regular season with a 25-1 record.

Dwight-Rising City, younger and with a tougher schedule, still posted a 15-8 mark.

The first to qualify for state was Dwight-Rising City, which defeated Yutan, Wymore and Bennington twice.

The back-to-back wins over Bennington, which had turned into a bit of a rivalry, was one of the season's highlights.

Dwight swept its district with wins over Campbell, Harvard, Hebron and Meridian, but was in a bigger district. Then heavy rains in Wilber rendered the field unplayable for two days, meaning Dwight didn't win its district title until two days before the state tournament started and five days after Dwight-Rising City won its title.

Dwight-Rising City started its tournament with a 7-0 win over Creighton.

Dwight dug itself a hole with a 7-6 loss in eight innings to Chappell.

That meant Dwight would have to win five games in four days to win the title.

Dwight-Rising City defeated Shelton-Gibbon, Chappell and West Point to advance tot the title game.

Dwight responded to its challenge, defeating Elkhorn Mt. Michael, Shelton-Gibbon and Chappell to force matchup for the title between Dwight's two teams.

Dwight-Rising City had the upper hand, only needing to win once while Dwight would have to win twice on that Tuesday night.

The real upper hand was pitching. The combination of the late district tournament and the first round loss, at the end, left Dwight without a lot of pitching left to try to win the title.

Dwight pitcher Matt Komenda inadvertently got beaned in the back of the head by catcher Mike Lanik on Zitek's steal of second in the second inning. That opened the door for a four-run inning that put Dwight up 4-1.

Joel Zitek had pitched a complete-game in the 3-1 district title victory over Meridian, then tossed a four-hit shutout against Elkhorn Mt. Michael on two days rest. He got the call against Dwight-Rising City, but was pitching on fumes with his third start in seven days.

Unable to get much zip on his fastball, he had Dwight-Rising City hitters waiting on the curveball.

Dwight-Rising City scored four runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good. The team went on to take an 11-5 victory.

It was a historic season, one where the two teams posted a combined record of 55-10 when not playing each other.

It turned out to be a one-year deal, as the number of players dropped in the program overall.

There would be no more seniors state titles in Dwight the rest of the decade. The left arm of Wymore's Jacob Diekmann almost single-handedly kept the 2006 team from making it to state. The 2007 and 2008 teams qualified, however. By 2009, the Seniors, due to a lack of numbers, had to co-op with Valparaiso. The co-op team made it to the Class B state tournament.

While there were some hard feelings with the split of the Dwight teams, in the end, the teams handled things well. The fans came together to support their teams and each other, knowing they were witnessing history not likely to be repeated any time soon.

#3- Pursuit of Gold

As noted in greater detail in the 2009 Year in Review, it's been quite a journey for Curt Tomasevicz.

He helped Shelby to team success in athletics. There were the back-to-back state semifinalists in football. There were the trips to state basketball, including a near-state title when the team lost in overtime in the semifinals to a Johnson-Brock team that won the state title game by 30 points.

Then came the University of Nebraska, where Tomasevicz earned an engineering degree as well as lettering in his senior season on the football team.

Shelby, Nebraska is a town that's had some athletic success but one look at the terrain doesn't reveal much in the way of opportunities for alpine competition.

You won't find a sky lift or a hill for bobsledding.

But Tomasevicz, through connections at UNL, was convinced to try out for the bobsled team, which has converted athletes from other sports.

As it turned out, Tomasevicz' athletic skill set (he still holds the SHS triple jump record) translated well into bobsledding.

He was part of the sixth-place four-man bobsled team at the 2006 Winter Olympics and the 2009 World Cup Championship team.

Now, he's part of a team that's one of the favorites to win Olympic Gold in Feburary.

#4 - Don't Call It An Upset

The Aquinas boys basketball team had clearly been building up to something special in 2006.

The Monarchs, with a young core of players, had a developing program. The team with a mostly older roster, qualified for state in 2003, then took its lumps at times with a young team in 2004.

Aquinas came back with a strong 2005 season, posting an 18-5 record, losing by eight points to eventual Class C-1 runner-up Wahoo Neumann in subdistrict play.

Things clicked for the Monarchs in 2006. The team's only losses in the regular season were to Wahoo Neumann, arguably the best team in Class C-1 over the course of the season.

Aquinas put together an 18-2 regular season, then beat Weeping Water by 44 points, East Butler by 36 and Nebraska City Lourdes by 22 in district play. Defeating three winning teams by that kind of margin was impressive, but the Monarchs weren't done.

The Monarchs rolled through their first two games at State.

They had a 43-5 advantage in points off turnovers in a 68-26 win over Sutherland, with three players scoring in double figures. Brian Birkel had 15 points. Jared Bemis scored 13 while Craig Nickolite chipped in 11.

Four players scored in double figures, led by Birkel's 22, in a 73-45 thumping of Plainview in the semifinals.

Despite that kind of postseason success and Aquinas' overall record, the Monarchs were a bit overlooked heading into the finals.

That's because they were playing Ravenna. The Bluejays were the defending Class C-2 champions with loads of experience and talent. Their only loss during over two seasons had been by four points to Bellevue West, which settled for second in Class A with an overtime loss to Omaha Central.

Ravenna kept cranking up three-point shots, not attacking much inside to try to get Aquinas 6'9" senior Matt Plasek into foul trouble.

The strategy worked when the Bluejays were hitting. They were 11-of-26 from three-point range in building a 44-32 lead with 3:28 left in the third quarter.

Ravenna would go just 2-of-17 from beyond the arc the rest of the game, opening the door for Aquinas to rally.

A Nickolite three-pointer from the corner to end the third quarter and a Bemis basket to start the fourth had the Monarchs within 47-44.

Nickolite got a steal and eventually scored with 3:45 left to give the team the lead for good.

Bemis added another basket 91 seconds later to increase the lead to three.

Then Birkel, who hadn't hit a three-pointer all day, drilled one to put Aquinas up 58-52 with 1:17 left.

The Monarchs would hold on from there for a 60-55 victory.

It was a game decided by starters. Ravenna played one sub for eight minutes. Aquinas played one sub for 25 seconds.

All season long, Aquinas had a balanced attack and the title game was no different - 16 points for Bemis, 14 for Kyle Eller and 10 each for Nickolite, Birkel and Plasek, with Plasek also grabbing 15 rebounds.

Ravenna was deservedly the favorite, but Aquinas' state title (its first since winning Class C-1 in 1997) should have come as no shock. Losing just twice against a quality schedule was no fluke.

The Monarchs were the real deal in 2006, a fact the rest of the state became fully aware of with one of the state championships' all-time greatest comebacks.

#5 - The Monkey's Off the Back

As outlined in greater detail in the 2009 Year in Review, the Aquinas volleyball team made history.

The Monarchs had been to the state tournament the previous two years, but lost both times. In fact, they'd never won a set in their previous trips to the tournament.

On Nov. 1, Aquinas was sitting with a 6-7 record, albeit against a tough early schedule.

The Monarchs clicked down the stretch, winning 20 of their final 21 matches on the way to the state championship.

Aquinas survived a couple of five-set battles to defeat Fremont Bergan in the district final and Bridgeport in the first round at state.

Once the Monarchs got that first state victory out of the way, they rolled. They dominated North Platte St. Pat's in straight sets in the semifinals and dispatched Sandy Creek in similar fashion in the finals.

Aquinas was led by its senior co-captains - Jenna Beringer, Katie Holoubek and Mary Klosterman - as well as some strong contributors in its junior class in starters Kristine Fiala, Emily Kobza and Shania Steager.

The Monarchs' state championship was a nice exclamation point on what's been the best run in volleyball in school history.

The 2008 team set the school record for wins, a mark that lasted until this year's team tied it with the win over Bridgeport and broke it with the wins over St. Pat's and Sandy Creek.




 

#6 - As Easy as 1-2-3

There have been many quality individual track-and-field performances in the area over the past 30 years - multiple state titles, state records and all-class golds.

One of the best came from David City senior Cherette Mastny in 2000.

Mastny put together two days that haven't been duplicated since, winning the Class C championships in the 100, 200 and 400 meter runs.

Two other athletes won two individual events the same year. East Butler's Tyson Buresh won both Class C hurdle races in 2007. Lynsey Kreikemeier won the 400 and 800 for Aquinas that same year, also running on the winning 1,600 relay.

But no other area athlete was accomplished winning three individual titles at state this decade.

Mastny got off to a slow start in the 100 meters, but still won her heat in a time of 12.87 seconds. That was the third fastest time in preliminaries.

The senior got off to a cleaner start on Saturday, enough to win with a time of 12.51 seconds. She finished .21 seconds ahead of runner-up Rochelle Schmidt of Republican Valley, who won the long jump and triple jump.

The next final for Mastny was the 400, which was one of the premier events in that class and a rematch of the district meet the week before. Lincoln Lutheran's Ashley Selig, a future standout at Nebraska, had won the district meet over Mastny in the 400. Aquinas' Kate Semin, the school's record holder in the event at the time, wasn't far behind Selig and Mastny.

In all, five runners ran times under 60 seconds in the preliminaries.

Running from the second lane, Mastny overtook Selig to win with a school record time of 57.15 seconds. Selig was second in 57.98 seconds while Semin placed third in 58.98 seconds.

That left the 200, which had been the senior's best event throughout the season. She had the fastest time in Class C at 25.6 seconds.

She didn't top that mark, but still won easily, by almost a full second, with a time of 25.72 seconds.

Mastny would go on to compete at Chadron State. To date, she is still the last state track champion David City High has had.

#7 - Back-and-Forth, Back-and-Forth

The Aquinas boys track team won the Class C title in 2005, only the fourth area boys track title in area history.

The next year, the Monarchs were striving to become the third area track team to win back-to-back state titles. The David City St. Mary's boys did it in 1960 and 1961. The Aquinas girls did it in 1981 and 1982.

East Butler had finished third just two seasons before.

The two teams put together quality regular seasons, finishing strong. The Tigers dominated the Central Seven Conference meet, scoring more points than the next three teams did combined.

In a much tougher conference - the Centennial - Aquinas placed third.

In between, the two teams were both at the Bergan Invite where the Tigers were second and the Monarchs were third behind Wahoo Neumann.

The next week, Aquinas won the district title with 118 points, three more than East Butler.

Both teams had hopes of doing well at state. They certainly did. What couldn't be known ahead of time were the twists and turns to get there.

The Tigers, thanks to medal-winning efforts from Jordan Makovicka in the long jump and Tyler Pelan as well as a runner-up finish from their 400-relay team of Pelan, Tyson Buresh, Adam Pekarek and Deron Jakub, appeared to be in good shape going into the 1,600 meters.

Anthony Aerts had already won the 3,200 for East Butler. He was one of the favorites in the 1,600. He was in second with one lap left, but the energy he'd put into winning the 3,200, along with the cumulative effects of the heat in Burke Stadium, left Aerts without his usual finishing kick. He didn't place.

That opened the door for Aquinas, which had two of the top 300 hurdle runners in the state in Kyle Eller and T.J. Glock. Eller already had won the 110 hurdles while Glock had the fastest prelim time in the 300.

East Butler, meanwhile, had the school's all-time best hurdle runner in Buresh, who'd placed third in the 110s, in the field.

Glock had the lead going down the straightaway with Buresh and Eller in pursuit.

Hurdles are a race where timing is paramount and Glock came up on the last hurdle too fast. He was forced to slow down in order to clear the last hurdle.

Buresh and Eller sprinted past, with North Platte St. Pat's Dane Carlini passing Glock for fourth at the finish.

The race put East Butler in the lead in the team standings and eliminated Aquinas.

All the Tigers could do at that point was wait, as they had no competitors left.

It all came down to the 1,600 relay. Tri-County needed to win the event to overtake the Tigers. The Monarchs, meanwhile, were trailing the Trojans by just two points and hoping to overtake them for second.

Tri-County, running in the first heat, easily won in a time of 3:28.07.

The second heat turned into a two-team battle between Aquinas' unit of Eller, Ryan Sabata, Brian Birkel and Glock and Laurel-Concord.

Laurel-Concord won, but East Butler had to wait for the official times to be posted to know whether it was state champion or runner-up.

Finally, the times appeared on the scoreboard with Laurel-Concord having won in a time of 3:28.79.

It was one of a number of close timings that went in East Butler's favor. Pelan was five-hundredths of a second from not medaling. The 400 relay team was seven-hundredths of a second away from finishing third instead of second.

Aquinas settled for third in the relay and at state, a tough finish for one of the best three-year runs in area track and field history.

For East Butler, it was the school's first track title. In fact, it's the only track title won by an area school outside of David City limits.

#8 - The Fall of the Central Eight Empire

Back in the 1980s, a group of schools in Eastern Nebraska joined together to form a new conference.

Stromsburg, Osceola, Fullerton and Genoa left the Goldenrod Conference. Shelby left the Crossroads. East Butler left the East Central Nebraska Conference. David City left the Capitol Conference. Nebraska Lutheran, a relatively new school that had been an independent.

The new Central Eight resulted in a conference chock full of competitive athletes and a lot of interesting battles over the years.

Conference schools won 10 state championships in athletics, as follows --

Track - Osceola boys, 2003

Wrestling - East Butler, 1997 and 1999, Stromsburg-Osceola, 1998.

Girls Basketball - Genoa, 1992

Football - Stromsburg, 1999 and East Butler, 1989

Cross Country - East Butler girls, 1996, 2004 and 2005.

In addition, these teams were state runner-up

Wrestling - David City, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, East Butler 1998

Boys Basketball - Shelby, 1992 and 2004

Girls Basketball - East Butler, 1988

Volleyball - David City, 1985

Football - David City, 1986 and Osceola, 1989

That doesn't count the various Top 10 teams produced by the quality athletes in the conference.

Membership remained steady until the early part of the decade.

In 2001, Nebraska Lutheran left to join the Frontier Conference, made up of smaller schools at a more competitive level. Friend replaced Lutheran to keep the conference at eight members.

Things were changing, though.

David City, which had joined the conference originally because of fears its enrollment wouldn't have the team competitive in the Capitol, was easily the largest school in the Central Eight.

The team tried to join the Southern Nebraska Conference earlier, but were rebuffed at that time.

Things changed when Superior expressed an interest in the SNC. Conference officials approached David City officials to see if they were still interested. They were, joining the 12-team conference as a full-time member in 2004.

East Butler was next to go. Knowing a big enrollment drop was coming, the school opted to go back to the ECNC in 2006.

That left the conference as the Central Six. Osceola, Fullerton and Shelby remained as original member schools. Stromsburg had merged with Benedict to form Cross County. Genoa, Monroe and Silver Creek had merged to form Twin River. Friend had been in for less than a decade.

Efforts were made to expand the conference. Overtures were made to Exeter-Milligan and High Plains from the Crossroads and Palmer and Nebraska Christian from the Goldenrod. All were turned down.

The conference soldiered on as the Central Six for a couple of years, but then Wymore Southern announced it was leaving the SNC for the Pioneer Conference, due to declining enrollment.

That left an opening that Cross County, which built a new school south of Stromsburg, opted to fill.

That was the death knell for the conference. Shelby and Osceola left to join the Crossroads Conference, which was looking to boost its membership with some of its members facing closure or merger in coming years. Fullerton joined the Cornhusker Conference. Twin River and Friend, for now, are in no full-time conference although Friend is on its way to the Pioneer.

The conference lasted 20 years as the Central Eight, then five more years as the Central Seven and Central Six before calling it quits.

For now, area conference memberships are stable, but more change could be on the horizon.

With dropping enrollments, there will be more mergers and closures that will lead to realignment and, potentially, new conferences in the future.

#9 - Back-to-Back, Back-to-Back

Rising City briefly had cross country earlier this decade.

David City, despite being the largest school in the area for over 20 years, didn't add the sport until 2009.

Shelby's never offered it.

That's pretty much left the sport to Aquinas and East Butler.

The two schools combined to win a state title four years in a row. The Aquinas boys won in 2002 and 2003. The East Butler girls won in 2004 and 2005.

The Monarchs had spent 10 years out of the Top 10 at state, but went from eighth in 1999 to seventh in 2000 to third in 2001.

The difference in 2002 was the addition of freshman Anthony Aerts and Ryan Dinkelman to the squad, which had three of its top four runners back.

They finished fourth at conference with sophomore Matt Brandt winning and Aerts placing fourth.

The next week, Brandt was unavailable for the district meet, but the Monarchs won the title with Aerts, Dinkelman and Matt Kratochvil all medaling.

Brandt was back for the state meet and he edged Aerts for fourth place by just over a half-second. Dinkelman and Kratochvil both finished in the Top 40.

That was enough for the Monarchs to win by eight points over Kearney Catholic.

With the top three runners back, Aquinas was poised for more success in 2003.

The Monarchs moved up to second in conference, with Aerts placing third, Brandt fourth and Dinkelman eighth.

Brandt and Aerts finished 1-2 in the district, with Dinkelman in sixth, to help Aquinas repeat as district champions.

The Monarchs needed their depth at state. Aerts placed sixth. Brandt, feeling off physically, struggled to a 17th place finish.

With the junior not placing as highly as hoped, the Monarchs needed help down the line. Dinkelman placed 21st and Kratochvil placed 31st, both improvements from the previous season.

That was enough for Aquinas to win the title with 56 points, four less than Bertrand.

The Monarchs' dreams of a three-peat were dealt a blow when Aerts transferred to East Butler. He'd finish second at state in 2004 and win it in 2005.

Aquinas finished second, one point behind Malcolm, in 2004, with Brandt and Dinkelman both medaling.

East Butler's girls climbed in similar fashion. They placed fourth in 2002 and third in 2003 (one point out of second).

The anchor of the 2004 team was senior Anne Pesek. She'd finished fifth the previous two seasons.

The Tigers had three of their top runners back, then got a boost from the additions of freshman Korissah Spatz and sophomore transfer Andrea Aerts.

East Butler ended Oakland-Craig's run of five straight district titles, scoring just 18 points.

The Tigers' top five runners medaled that day - Pesek, Spatz and Mari Pesek finished second through fourth. Aerts placed ninth while Lisa Rech placed tenth.

That depth came through again the next week at state.

Anne Pesek's third straight fifth-place finish as the anchor. Spatz also medaled, placing ninth. Throw in Mari Pesek's 20th-place finish and Aerts' 23rd place finish and you have the recipe for a fairly easy title run.

The Tigers scored 41 points, finishing 26 ahead of Morrill.

With everybody but Anne Pesek back, East Butler was a favorite in 2005.

The Monarchs won the district title with 17 points, 52 ahead of a solid Aquinas team.

Spatz won the district title, followed by Aerts in third and Katie McGrath in fifth. Mari Pesek added a ninth-place finish.

The state meet was a battle. Spatz bettered her previous state time by 23 seconds, but placed 16th and had to be treated for dehydration after the race.

In fact, East Butler didn't have any medalists at state. Spatz was the first to cross, one spot ahead of Aerts. McGrath placed 22nd while Mari Pesek placed 25th.

It was a nervous wait of almost 20 minutes after the race finished. Winside had three medalists. Bayard had two medalists, including the individual champion.

But East Butler's depth held up, as the four runners finishing relatively high made the difference. The Tigers scored 53 points, finishing five ahead of Winside and 10 ahead of Bayard.

Crofton's emergence ended East Butler's title run the following season, as the Tigers, who lost three key seniors and had Spatz hurt, finished sixth behind Aerts' 11th-place finish and freshman Marissa Bongers' 15th-place effort.

#10 - Doing It For Tad

The David City Legion Seniors were already motivated to get to the state tournament in 2007.

Nine of the team's players were on the 2004 Juniors team that qualified for state, the first David City team to make it since the '80s.

However, the team wound up with tragic and unwanted motivation during that 2007 season.

Player Tad DeWispelare and his girlfriend, Renee Palensky, were killed in a car accident on June 18.

It was stunning blow to all who knew the two students, but for DeWispelare's baseball tournament, the team quickly had to play again while working through its grief.

Less than 48 hours after learning of his death, they opened a tournament in York with a 5-0 win over Waverly.

They attended his funeral on a Saturday, then captured an emotional 10-9 win over Seward that night.

The run ended with a hard-fought 6-4 loss to Aurora in the title game.

David City played the rest of the season with DeWispelare, one of those 2004 Juniors players, clearly in their hearts. His No. 10 jersey hung in the dugout for every game. His name and jersey number were written onto caps and gloves. Matt Croghan, one of his closest friends, always drew the No. 10 on the dirt in foul territory after pre-game introductions.

The Seniors answered a 16-3 loss to Valparaiso by immediately beating that team 9-3 in the next game for the Great Plains League Tournament title.

David City defeated Utica-Beaver Crossing 7-3, Valparaiso 8-1, Seward 2-1 and Wahoo 5-1 to win the District B-4 title.

Pitchers Jake Romshek, Travis Polacek and Jake Miriovsky combined to allow three earned runs on 16 hits and six walks in 28 innings in the tournament.

The game against Seward had one of those moments that made one wonder if there was some sort of divine intervention.

David City was holding on to that 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Seward had the tying run on first and the winning run at the plate with two outs. The hitter fouled a pitch off. The ball looked for all the world like it was going foul, but the ball curved back in and first baseman Andy Fuxa made the catch against the fence for the last out.

Things were tougher at the state tournament. St. Paul scored five unearned runs, all with two outs in an inning, in a 5-4 win over David City in the opener.

The next day, Polacek and Miriovsky each drilled two-run homers to lift David City to a 7-5 win over Mead.

David City's tourney run came to an end on the third day. Beatrice jumped on the Seniors early, scoring 11 runs in the third three innings on the way to a 13-5 victory.

While David City didn't get the state championship, it accomplished a lot in 2007, not the least of which was showing determination and unity that honored the memory of No. 10.

Honorable Mention Stories

East Butler's Marissa Bongers and Aquinas' Luke Lavicky set Class C state records in track. Bongers in the 800 in 2009 and Lavicky in the 110 hurdles in 2005.

Shelby boys qualify for state basketball in 2001, capping run of four straight trips to state

Three area boys basketball teams - Shelby, East Butler and Aquinas - make it to state in 2000

Dwight Legion Juniors win 2004 state tournament

East Butler girls basketball team reaches 2001 state semifinals

Shelby boys basketball team reaches 2004 title game

East Butler football team reaches semifinals in 2004

Aquinas boys win state track in 2005

Aquinas football team reaches the semifinals in 2004, 2005 and 2009

East Butler's Dave Struebing and Gary McGrath, successful long-time coaches in football and wrestling, respectively, retire from coaching.

David City Legion Baseball sends Juniors to state in 2004

Aquinas girls finish second at state track in 2007

Aquinas Lynsey Kreikemeier breaking the school's 800 meter record the last five times she ran it, finishing with the Class C state title

East Butler boys set school records in winning Class C 400 and 1,600 relays in 2004

East Butler girls basketball team earns back-to-back state basketball trips in 2007 and 2008

Dwight Seniors make it to state in 2008, then Dwight-Val Seniors go in 2009

Dwight Juniors, with three wins in regular season, make it to state in 2009

Aquinas boys win outright Centennial conference titles in track, the school's first, in 2004 and 2005

Andrew Daro wins Class D state title match at 160 pounds on torn ACL in 2006

East Butler football team in 2005 upset in playoffs by Blue Hill in game that included an ultralight plane, flown by an impaired pilot, crashing near the stands. Everyone survived the crash. The then-unbeaten Tigers didn't survive the Bobcats, losing 12-6