< Previous176 C.C. claims state title For the third time in as many years, the boys' cross country team captured the state champi-onship. The state meet was the culmina-tion of an undefeated season that saw the Braves rack up six confer-ence victories and seven inv ita -tiona l meet titles. "We lost five of our seven varsity runners from last year but we had a strong junior varsity," head coach Dave Griffith said. "Going into the season I thought we could win the state meet." Burnsville did not claim the Lake Conference championship for the first time in three years because of two meets that were forfeited as a result of the teachers' strike. -Burnsville ran away with ' the region title. Lakeville finished a distant second, 36 points behind the Braves. Tim Connelly, Todd Boonstra and Dan Schoepke swept the second, third and fourth positions respectively. Connelly and Schoepke led the Braves in the state meet as they had for most of the season. Con-nelly placed third in the team competition while Schoepke came in .right behind to take fourth. Boonstra ended up with eighth place honors. . Rounding out the field for Burns-ville were: Mike Elshaw -15th, Dave Overd ier -22nd, Mark Theroux -44th, Scott Sektnan -46th. Upper left: Mark Theroux helped the Braves to a first place finish in the Rum Rive r Run . Lower left: Connelly, Schoepke, and Boonstra headed toward a thr ee-way sweep of a Lake Conference mee t: Upper center: Schoepke and Boonstra push on in the regional meet. Lower center: Braves prepare to begin a three mile race. Upper right: Connelly passes on his way to a fou rth place finish at Rum River. Lower right: Rick Taplin and Dave Overdier head up hill at Neill Park. 177 178 Girl harriers take third in state meet 1978 was the year of girls' cross country. With one of the strongest turnouts ever, the team had depth which carried them through the season. Working out side by side with the boys' team, the girls showed that they were also joining the Burnsville tradition of winning in the sport of cross country. After going 6-0 with two forfeits in con-ference action and winning two invitationals, the Braves were run-ners-up to Rochester John Mar-shall in the regionals. Lori Bock-lund's fifth place finish led Burns-ville to third place in the state meet. Tracy Daly came in tenth while Carol Glazer took 17th place. Nancy Pope and Lisa Green ended up 33rd and 37th respec-tively. Un Ii ke most other sports, th e strike did not hamper the cros s ; country squad. "The strike had t the opposite effect on our tea m's ~ performance," commented Daly "It brought the team much closen together.'' Upper left: Burnsville harriers begin th 1 regional race . Lower left: Carol Glaze· strides toward the finish line . Uppe r , right: Lori Bocklund shows the strain o· long distance running . Lower righ t Braves relax after meet. hompson I eads tennis to : subregion al title Alt hough the girls' tennis team missed three weeks of their com-petitive season, Burnsville was able to send several strong play-ers to capture the subregional tit le. Representing Bur'nsville in the team competition were sopho-mores Sue Thompson and Jill Kelly and senior Jane Abicht in singles play. Sophomores Martha Anderson and Kris Koeger partici-pated in doubles play along witli junior Jenny Anderson and senior Sue Miller. Competing for the ind i-v id ual tit les were Thompson at singles and a doubles team con-sisting of junior Jill Hart and sen-ior Peggy Sullivan . Varsity Coach Judy Johnson commented that "In spite of the interrupted sea-son, the girls played well at the end, and winni11g the subregion was a nice prize." · 1 Upper left: Carol Fitzgerald prepares for return of serve. Upper right: Sue Thomp-son shows the concentration that helped her to the number one singles spot . Lower left: Jill Hart and Peggy Sullivan show their doubles form . 179 180 Boys'soccer overcome set-backs , finish strong Battling injuries and the teacher strike, the boys' soccer squad tallied a 3 -6 - 1 conference record. During the three week lay-off, the team missed the tough competition that a good squad needs for improvement. In this period the Braves forfeited five games which gave them an offi-cial conference record of 3-11 -1. When school resumed, the team started off poorly as they lost their first four games. At regions, the Braves, led by cap-tains John Stark and Scott Chase, got off to a good start by beating Breck 6-1 and advanced to the quarterfinals where they defeated Washburn 2-1 in double overtime. The Braves faltered in the semi-finals where they met last year's region champs, the Lincoln Bears. The 4-1 score did not reflect the closeness of the con-test. According to coach Ted Seidel, "We played well, but we cQuldn't finish -we couldn't put the ball in the net." Upper left: Senior Barry Karn dis -cusses the game with head coach Ted Sei~el. Upper center: Senior Craig Puch goes for the goal. Upper right: The Braves huddle for half-time strat-egy. Lower left: Dave Torgeson makes the save. Lower center : Captain Scott Chase rushes the ball up the f ield. Lower right: Jim Albright is upended by the opposing team's goaltender. 181 · ... i 182 Girls' soccer . starts quick, fades late The girls' soccer team coached by Don Gerlach, begari their second year of play with several impres-sive games. The team continued with strong conference Wins until the season was interrupted by the girls soccer . .. Everything looked ~trike. When competitive play good and team spirit was hi gh. resumed, the effects of unsuper-After the strike, the skills were vised practices were felt. Much of . still there, but the attit ude the team's previous momentum towards the game was lack ing was lost and the season closed enthusiasm. But overall, the girls with a record of 4-6-2 and a fifth did do a good job and everyoine place finish in the Lake Confer-played well.." ence, Amy Doyle and Teresa Mad-sen were named to the all-confer-Upper left: Captain Cindy Brettschneide r ence team. "It was a good season takes a rest . Upper right: Amy Doyl e and· it started off well'', said Ger-e!udes the defend~r. Lower left: Burns lach about his first year coaching . v!lle player moves _,n for the shot. Lower ·· right: Maureen Finnegan crushes t he opposing goalie. Girl,spikers sputter to 1-11 mark The football team could find another field, the tennis team could find other courts, but the girls' volleyball squad could not find a place to practice during the strike. The skill needed in volley-ball had faded from the players during the three week lay-off. After returning, they ended up playing eleven contests in three weeks along with forfeiting three games. Coach Sue Kunelius com-mented that the girls were back to their normal capacity of skill by the end of the year and had the season lasted longer, they would have made a better showing. Sen-iors Renee Pennington and Dawn Peterson with juniors Kathy Hom, Laura Miller and Diane Mitzel anchored the Bra·ves ' starting rotation. Although having to suf -fer through a long season before losing in sub -regional acJion to Rosemount, Kunelius was pleased with the attitude of the team. "Considering the results of the strike, the girls kept t~eir ~ttitude up and it kept 1hem going. Left: Junior Diane Mitzel sets Dawn Peterson ; up for a spike. Upper right: Peterson executes a bump while Renee Pennington and Kathy Hom look on. Lower right: Pen·nington returns a Min-netonka serve. 184 Braves' foot-ball s,ruggles to 3-6 record Three weeks of practice that were missed as a result of the teachers ' strike took its toll on the Braves' football squad as they compiled a disappointing 3-6 record. "Spotting any team in the Lake South three weeks of practice made it difficult for us," said head coach Dick Hanson. "We did not have enough preparation." Suffering its first opening game loss in ten years, Burnsville drop-ped a .16-13 decision to Lincoln on a last minute touchdown run. After a convincing 31-0 victory over Minnetonka, state champion-ship finalist Edina -West invaded Pates Stadium and came away with a closely fought victory. Following forfeits to Kennedy and St . Louis Park, the Braves returned to action as they were defeated by Edina-East. Richfield romped to a 27-7 victory in the Braves' homecoming game. The squad rounded out the season with victories over Armstrong and Jefferson. Junior defensive lineman John Nelson was named to the All-Lake · South Conference team . Receiv-ing honorable mention were Tim Feeser, Tom Wensmann and Dave Johnson. Upper left: Brent Halliday and Tom Wen-smann attempt to block a Richfield punt. Lower left: Dave Wicker fakes the han-doff as Dave Johnson bootlegs right . Center: Wicker takes a breather while he observes the action. Upper right: May-nard Tourtillott, Tom Branson and Tim Feeser converge on the ball carrier. Lower right: Richfield lineman lunges at Craig Southorn as Ken Murphey and Dave Graves look on . 185 Next >