< Previous186 Gymnasts improve; send three to State . With twice as many members on the team as last year, the boy's gymnastics squad had the depth they didn't have previously. Despite missing three weeks of practice as a result of the strike, the gymnasts enjoyed a better • season than the year before. The final confe .rence standings showed them fifth in the Lake South Conference with a 2-4 record. Led by senior co-captains Greg Grohoski and Eric Koegel, the Braves finished fifth in the sectional meet with a score of 109. Coach Russ Fystrom said, "I am satisfied with our score in sectionals this year, but I wish we had placed higher." As a result of the sectional meet, three Braves qualified for state. At the state meet, John McCain placed 20th on the parallel bars, Eric Koegel placed 15th on the pommel horse, and Greg Grohoski placed 5th in longhorse vault ing and 10th in floor exercise . Upper Left: Greg Grohoski performs a layout. Upper Right: Eric Koegel swing s through his routine on the pommel -horse. Lower Left: Steve Brown com -pletes a manuever on the rings . Lower Right: Pat Flavin performs on the paral -lel bars. Girls' swim team improves; Roell goes to State meet Despite finishing with a. 2-6 record, the girl's swim team 6 . i 1 , • showed constant improvement throughout the season. "Although we didn't perform as well as we could have, a great deal of progress was made this year, " said Coach Dennis Dale. The only qualifier from the Burnsville squad to t he state meet was junior Cathy Roell. Roell placed 6th in the 100 yard breaststroke and 11th in the 200 yard individual medley. At the annual awards banquet, . Roell was named most valuable swim -mer, and Soo Haglof received the Tracy Caulkins Award for being the most consistent swimmer. Also honored were Carolyn Lutz for showing the most improve -ment and Tracy Krumm for best first-year swimmer. Upper Left: The medley relay swims . to one of many victor ies . Upper Right: Diver Sue Foye in layout position . Lower Left: Captain Shari Ernst swims the but -te r fly . Lower Right : Amy Nelson and Joan Brezizinski show good backstroke form . 18 7 -~ ,::: -188 l · 1 f I er~ -11,, ' I • I , .. , • Hockey's improvement leads to suc-cessful season Developing its potential to score throughout the season, the varsity hockey team steadily improved under the guidance of head coach Tom Osiecki. 11They always had potential to score, and it just took them a while to do so," explained Osiecki. The key. to their many victories was a strong defense which included Dave Vena-bles, Tom Branson, Dave Johnson, Skip Peterson, Brian Barrington, Dave Ottum, and Jay Putnam. An aggres-sive offense led by top scorer Andy Widmar was also a major factor. The team's performance was not affected by injuries as it had been in the past years, It was a close and high spirited team and their style of play showed just that. Highlights in the season were winning the Owatonna tournament and be.ating Edina West, who was rated in the top five teams in the state, by a score of 3-2. The Braves closed their regular season play with . numerous conference victories. Top right: In position to score is Dave Vena-bles. Center: Tim O'Brien ready to receive the pass. Bottom right: Congratulations shown after Burnsville scores. Opposite page, top left: Tough defensive play by Brian Barrington with Tom Branson watching on. Center left: Andy Widmar wins fight for draw. Center right: Goalie John Hollingsworth comes up with a save. Bottom left: Putting pressure on the opponent's net, Jay Putnam and Widmar. Bot-tom right: Duke Boeser puts everything into a shot. 189 I I 'I I Girls' basketball overcomes youth Coach Judy Johnson's main task for the girls' basketball team was develop-ing the new talent of this year's club. The young team started out slow as they lost four of its first five games. As each member gained more experi-ence, the team improved. The improvement was evident as the Braves won six of their next ~ight con-tests. Sparking Burnsville throughout the year was junior forward Kelly Hayes. Hayes consistently added firepower to the Braves' attack and led the team in scoring. Burnsville's backcourt play was ham-pered by the injury of senior guard Karen Peterson. The 5'3" guard suf -fered a knee injury in the second game of the season at St. Louis Park and missed the remainder of the season. Captain Kris Haugen, Lisa Abicht, and Jane Abicht saw extensive action in the backcourt while ~ophomores Sue Thompson, Jill Dougherty and junior Corrine Niklaus led the Braves at the forward position. "With our relative inexperience, we had a very successful season as we fin-ished in the top half of the Lake South.'' At press time, Burnsville held a 7-7 record and were ready to venture into regional competition. Upper right: Lisa Abicht concentrates on a free throw attempt. Center: Karen Peterson looks for an open shot against St. Louis Park. Lower right: Braves execute the zone defense. Upper left: Ann Engelmann looks to pass. Lower left: Kelly Hayes dribbles around an opponent. 190 I 19 1 192 \ ' Boys' cagers battle inexperience I rnexperience was the key obstacle the Braves' basketball squad needed to hurdle in the 1978-79 season. With only Tom Wensmann returning from last y~ar's Lake Blue Co-Champion-ship team, Burnsville was prone to make mistakes that are common to a young team. "Inexperience was a factor in the first part of the season," coach Bob Swan-horst said. "As the team got more playing time under their belts, we kept improving more and more. We had a lot of tough defeats where we lost in the last few minutes. We lost more than our share of games but all players kept their spirits up and playe~ their best." After winning just ohe of its first six games, the Braves came back to win five of its next 12 contests and fin-ished with a 6-12 slate. Five of those 12 defeats were decided in the final two minutes of the contests. Wensmann led the team in both scor-ing and rebounding while also being named to the Lake South All-Confer-ence squad. Junior Bill O'Brien and sophomore Rob Swanhorst paced Burnsville's offensive attack from their guard positions. Junior forwards Bill Caster, Joe Grengs, Mark White and Dan Jensen supplied the Braves' height under the basket. Also seeing action for the club were seniors Jer-emy Anderson, Jim Knoch, Al Lommen and Chuck Mitzel. At press time, the Braves w~re about to begin sub-regional competition against Rosemount. Upper left: Tom Wensmann shoots over Li_n-coln's 6'11" Garrett Byrne. Center: Wen- · smann and Al Lommen watch shot head for , rim. Upper right: Jim Knoch attempts jump shot. Lower left: Bob Swanhorst gives instruc-tions during timeout . Lower center: Bill Oaster goes in for a lay -up. Lower right: Jeremy Anderson puts hex on ball. · 193 Swimmers start strong; -rank fifth in state The boys' . swim team displayed win-ning form in the newly developed Lake South Conference . At press time, the squad led by tri-captains Paul Mulla-ney, Rick Hoover, and Jerry Kettinger tallied an 8-1 dual meet record and earned a fifth place ranking in state. Highlights of the season included a close victory over the Lincoln Bears. In the meet, the Braves needed to place first and third in the final event. The team captured first by a second and third by six tenths of a second. The Braves also defeated the defend ing state champions, the Minnetonka Skip-pers, in the Burnsville Invitational. Even though the squad won the invita-tional, Minnetonka gained revenge as they handed the Braves its only loss in dual meet competition. "Before the season started, I knew we were good, but not ·this good," said Coach Dennis Dale. "The team is the hardest working squad 1 've ever had and they've successfully found out that hard work can be fun." Upper left: The relay squad swims to one of many victories . Upper right: Rick Hoover dem-onstrates the butterfly . Lower left: Paul Mulla -ney swims in th.e freestyle event. Lower center: Arlan Johnson shows perfect form . Lower right: Les Polakiewicz swims the breaststroke . 194 ,. I 195 Next >