BY JUSTIN RUSTsports@yankton.net

EDITOR’S NOTE: This articleoriginally appeared in the Aug. 22edition of the Press & Dakotan.

After finishing fifth at the 2008state tournament and puttingtogether the second-best season inschool history, Yankton headcoach Tim Mulhair has high expec-tations heading into the 2009 sea-son.

The Gazelles had a 20-5 recordlast year, which ranks only behindthe 23-3 season Yankton had in2003, and has four starters return-ing from last year.

“It was a good year last yearand we are going to try and keepbuilding on that but I have highexpectations,” Mulhair, who isentering his 25th year as headcoach, said. “We may be as goodor better in the top four spots aswe were last year.”

That’s a bold statement consid-ering Yankton loses two playersfrom its top four, including itsnumber one from last year GabbieKachena. Kachena finished 10th innumber one singles in state andwill continue her playing career atAugustana College.

Jaclyn Mathison was theGazelle’s number four last and theother senior the team lost.

Even though Yankton lost twotalented players, Mulhair said thereturning players can step up andfill those two spots.

Sophomore Vanessa Rocknewill move into the number onespot and was the Gazelle’s numbertwo last year. Rockne went 29-3 asthe number two and Mulhair said

Rockne is ready for the move tothe top spot.

Rockne has been on Yankton’svarsity roster since a 7th graderand Mulhair said she is the onlyplayer during his tenure who has-n’t played at least one year on thejunior varsity squad.

Mulhair hasn’t officially decid-ed on who will play the numbertwo through four spots, but saidhe knows the three players whowill be competing for each spot.

The three spots will go to thethree returning players LexieKlmisch (So.), Heidi Olson (Sr.)and Jesse Van Maanen (Sr.).

Klimisch has been on theGazelles varsity roster since an 8thgrader and was the number threelast year.

Olson and Van Maanen on theonly two seniors on this year’s ros-ter and Mulhair said he might leanon those two because of their sen-ior status.

“Heidi (Olson) and Jesse (VanMaanen) might not be playin at theone or two, but they are both goodplayers and they are go ing to tryand help out the coaches,” Mulhairsaid. “We will look at all the play-ers for leadership, but sometimes Ilean on my seniors and those twomight be called upon this year.”

Seven players will compete forthe final two spots. Other potentialplayers include freshman LeslieHenderson, who went 12-4 as onthe junior varsity team, juniorBritta True, freshman SarahSantos, sophomore Danielle Gill,sophomore Gabby Horton, 8thgrader Gabby Horton and 7th grad-er Sarah Rockne.

There may be only two spots tofill, but Mulhair said he will rotateeither seven or eight players onvarsity this year.

“I like to play at least sevenpeople on varsity and may go witheight this year because the group

BY JEREMY HOECKjeremy.hoeck@yankton.net

EDITOR’S NOTE: This articleoriginally appeared in the Aug. 18edition of the Press & Dakotan.

Without the catalysts of athree-year run which included astate title and consecutive runner-up finishes, the Yankton Bucks golfteam enters a new era.

Gone to graduation are MarcGubbels and Jordan Mueller, whohelped guide YHS to a state ClassAA championship in 2006, fourstraight Eastern South DakotaConference (ESD) titles and a sec-ond-place finish at state last fall.

“It hurts to lose those guys, butat a certain point, you realize grad-uation comes quickly,” said headcoach Brett Sime, whose teamopened its season Aug. 18.

“When it happens,” Simeadded, “you just hope that theother kids can step up.”

So begins a new season withnew leaders.

The Bucks return four seniorletterwinners from last season,with Tyler Frick, Chris Hoffman,

Dillon May and Gabe Messler. BothMay and Messler were members ofthe 2006 YHS state title team, whileFrick finished in a tie for 16th atlast year’s Class AA state meet inRapid City.

“We’re looking to have anothercompetitive team,” Sime said.“We’ve got a lot of experience withkids that played a lot last year.Hopefully they can continue toimprove.”

Aside from the four returningseniors, the Bucks will also have ahandful of other golfers looking tocrack the varsity squad. Theseinclude Zach Johnson (Sr.), JoeyNickles (Sr.), Ryan Shindler (Jr.),Ben Jensen (8th) and JaceGuthmiller (7th).

BY JEREMY HOECKjeremy.hoeck@yankton.net

The Yankton Bucks club soccerteam plans to put the phrase ‘addi-tion by subtraction’ to the ultimatetest this season.

Sure, Yankton graduated threeAll-State selections, but the varsitysquad also returns its startinggoalkeeper, nearly its entire first-team defense and what looks to beone of the state’s top crop of mid-fielders.

And here’s the scary part:They’re almost all seniors.

“We lost some really talentedkids, but what we bring back is asgood as anybody else in the state,”second-year head coach NickMoser said. “The mood is veryoptimistic right now; we have pret-ty high expectations.”

The Bucks are coming off a 7-4-4 season in which they claimed theconsolation championship at lastyear’s S.D. Toyota Cup StateTournament. Gone from that teamare Dylan Slate (first team All-State), Nick Weinandt (secondteam All-State) and Ross Kuchta,an honorable mention All-Stateselection.

In his first year with the team inlast fall, Moser guided Yankton to afive-win improvement — the Buckswon two games in 2007.

Now, it’ll be up to the returningseniors to continue the program’supward climb.

The Bucks bring back goalkeep-er Scott Sutherland (Sr.), whomissed half of last season with aninjury. At the time of Sutherland’sseason-ending injury, Yankton wasundefeated.

Yankton also returns the major-ity of its defense, including AaronMcNeely (Sr.), Mike Winters (Sr.)and Calvin LaBrie (Sr.).

“We’re looking for those guys tostep up and take over the leader-ship of the team,” Moser said.

At midfield, Yankton returnsseniors Tyler Hummel (an honor-able mention All-State selectionlast year) and Cyrus Sorenson,who Moser said has the potential

to be one of the top strikers in thestate. “They both should get a lotof scoring chances,” Moser said.

Also at the midfield positions,the Bucks return Jeremy Cap (Jr.),Scott Stoll and Jacob Frick.Yankton also boasts a large crew ofjuniors who will see their first var-sity experience, including MikeJanish, Ryan Ford and TaylorTielke.

Moser said the team will alsohave competition at a handful ofpositions. Newcomer Nate Lien(Sr.) will look to join the mix, aswill Justin Lillie (So.), who hadsome varsity experience last year.Also figuring to contribute isDalton Crissman (Sr.).

“The key for us to see whetherwe can get organized, come togeth-er as a solid team, and continue toprogress,” Moser said. “By thetime we get to the state tourna-ment, we want to be able to makea run at a title.”

In order to do that, the Buckswill again face a strong Class AAfield that includes two-time defend-ing champion Sioux Falls Lincoln— which hasn’t lost a game in twoyears. Finishing ahead of Yanktonat the state tournament last yearwere Rapid City Stevens (2nd),Sioux Falls Roosevelt (3rd) andAberdeen Central (4th).

Yet, as Moser pointed out, thetop teams in Class AA lost somesignificant talent from last season.Lincoln, for instance, graduatedthree first team All-State selec-tions. Stevens, S.F. Roosevelt andAberdeen Central each graduatedone such honoree.

“That’s why I like our chances,everyone else lost some great play-ers,” Moser said. “Right now, it’sreally hard to judge where every-one is, but we’ll see what hap-pens.”

Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan n Fall Sports 2009www.yankton.net PAGE 3

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Veteran Lineup Has Bucks LookingTo Build On Seven-Win Season

BUCKS: Cyrus Sorenson

YANKTONBOYS’ SOCCER

YANKTONGOLF

nn BUCKS SOC, Page 4

Gazelles Look To Improve On Third Place FinishBY KEITH A. BROCKBERG

P&D Correspondent

EDITOR’S NOTE: This articleoriginally appeared in the Aug. 22edition of the Press & Dakotan.

After finishing 17-7 last seasonand a respectable third in the statetournament each of the last twoseasons, the Yankton Gazelles soft-ball team look to complete theclimb.

“We have a strong core back,and we’ll go as far as our pitchingand our defense goes,” saidYankton coach Bernie Goeden. “Wefinished third two years in a row,so its time to move up.”

The Gazelles have a seniorheavy team, but no juniors, so theprecious early season will bespent putting the pieces together.

“With seven seniors, that’s themost we’ve ever had,” saidGoeden. “We’re looking for a lot ofleadership from them, especiallywith no juniors and a drop to thesophomores.”

The five seniors who returnwith letter honors are ChristineBroders (SS), Kayla Salonen(P/1B/OF), Rebecca Wirth (C/OF),Haley Haukaas (2B) and AmandaSparks (OF). Kelsey Grosshuesch(1B/C) and McKenzie Fitzgerald(3B) also return for the Gazelles.

Sophomores Katie Koletzky,Stephanie Campbell, TiffanyTownsend, Janessa Ekeren willlook to contribute during the sea-son.

Freshmen players includeJessica Wirth, Hannah Horn,McKayla Thieman, Kristian Bilbrey,Tara Blaha, Molly Wermers,Samantha Hanson and KourtneyErickson round out the Gazelles’team which is co-coached byGoeden and Bob Cabalka, who areboth in their 11th seasons ofcoaching Gazelles softball since itsinception in 2000.

“The first part of the season,we’re going to see where every-body fits in,” said Goeden. “We’renot too concerned about wins orlosses in the early part of the sea-son.

“Once we figure that out, ourdefense will be pretty strong, espe-cially on the infield,” said Goeden.

With pitching and defense asthe focus, Salonen hopes to pitchto the girls playing behind her.

“We’re not very deep in pitch-ing, but Kayla’s pretty solid,” saidGoeden. “Kayla’s probably thestrongest with her control, andwhen she’s on, she makes it prettyeasy on the defense.”

Katie Koletzky will also seetime on the mound and pitch dur-ing doubleheaders.

“If both (Kayla and Katie) areable to hit their spots, we’ll be inevery game this season,” saidGoeden.

Offensively, Broders, Haukaas,Rebecca Wirth and Salonen eachfinished strong last season and are

expected to lead again.“They were all hitting the ball

really well at the end of last year,and I hope they continue that,”said Goeden. “They have beenworking on quality at-bats andrealizing that it only takes onepitch to have a quality at-bat.”

In addition, the Gazelles willalso have a JV team coached byRay Campbell and Dale Mudder aswell as two middle school teams in2009.

For the Gazelles to move up,

they will have to compete with thelikes of Rapid City Stevens, SiouxFalls Washington and Sioux FallsRoosevelt.

“Stevens won it last year anddidn’t lose too much,” saidGoeden. “There’s Sioux FallsWashington and Roosevelt alwaysseems to come up with a decentteam.”

The 20-plus game-season, how-ever, lasts just eight weeks andculminates Oct. 3 & 4 at the statetournament.

VERMILLION — Following an 8-6 regular season record, theVermillion Tanagers club softballteam went 2-2 in the state tourna-ment, including a tight 1-0 loss toTri-Valley in the losers bracket.

But this season, Vermillionreturns two of the best pitchersand one of the top hitters in thestate, and the Tanagers are eying areturn to state.

“We have a good nucleus ofstarters back and a couple of thebest pitchers in the state,” saidthird-year head coach Lori Jerred.“We have a good group of JV girlsthat will work hard to help us outin those positions.”

Leading the way for Vermillionthis season will be the pitchingduo of Jenny Bye (Sr., 91 K in 58IP) and Elizabeth Bye (So., 56 K in44 IP). Senior Kayla Munger, an All-Tournament selection a year ago,batted .549 with an on-base per-

centage of .607.Also returning for the Tanagers

this year will be Molly LeCates (Sr.,CF, .227), Ashley Ouellette (Sr., IF,.333), Megan Chickerling (Sr., OF),Laura Sappingfield (Sr., C, .333)and Sami Girard (So., C).

“We’ll have to be strong offen-sively to have a successful year,”Jerred said. “We know the pitchingwill be there, but we just need togenerate enough offense to pullout some close games.”

Vermillion also brings backLindsay Robinet (Jr., IF), CarleeSorensen (Jr., Utility), Ellen Brown(Jr., OF), Jana Bye (Jr., Utility),Beth Szymonski (So., IF) and ClaireJones (So., IF).

Vermillion Eyes Return To State Tourney

YANKTONSOFTBALL

YANKTONTENNIS

VERMILLIONSOFTBALL

Golf: Bucks Return Four AfterThird Straight Top-Two Finish

Gazelles Look To Build On Top-5 Finish

nn YHS GOLF, Page 4

nn YHS TENNIS, Page 4