The L’Anse boys golf team is lining up for a shot at the West PAC title this spring and so far, so good. And coach George Cram’s girls golf team featured an unexpected medalist at its first meet, the L’Anse Invitational Monday at L’Anse Golf Club.
   The Hornets will send the girls team to the West Iron County-hosted 18-hole meet at George Young near Iron River on Wednesday, May 7. The boys will converge at George Young on Thursday, May 8. Next Monday, May 12, the L’Anse golfers will hit the road for Crystal Falls.

   Baraga’s Viking golfers opened their season strongly in their conference meet hosted at L’Anse Golf Club on Monday, May 5, 2008. The Viking boys tied Ontonagon for first place in the Copper Country Golf Conference meet, behind senior Paul Tahtinen’s medalist round of 79.
   Although the Vikettes didn’t have the minimum of four golfers to field a team, there was a big BHS highlight on the girls side. Junior Kalyn Isaacson fired a 48 for nine holes to earn low medalist honors for the first time in her golf career. She medaled by four shots.

FIRST LEG--L’Anse’s Nicole Delene (l) opened the 3,200 relay at last week’s varsity track meet in Republic. The girls finished in second place overall. Above, assistant coach John Jacobson and a couple of teammates give some moral support.

   Both L’Anse varsity track teams did well in recent meets. The teams headed to Ishpeming April 29. The girls finished second and the boys third in a field of four teams. May 2, a road trip to Republic was on tap where the girls captured second place in the seven teams participating while the boys came in sixth.
   The thinclads have a busy week awaiting them. As the paper went to press Tuesday afternoon, L’Anse was at Calumet for the Copper Country Invitational. Thursday May 9 the teams head to Iron River for West Iron County’s invitational.

   With the inclement weather most of last week, Baraga’s varsity track teams were able to sneak in the April 29 Houghton Invitational.
   A May 2 meet at Hancock was cancelled due to the weather. The team had only one scheduled meet this week traveling to Calumet for the Copper Country Invitational as the paper went to press Tuesday afternoon. May 13, the teams will host L’Anse’s triangular.

   L’Anse junior high coach Matt Dennis said there were many bright spots on the day of the team’s first meet Thursday, May 1.
   “The girls showed consistency through out the meet and the boys showed team spirit even though they failed to pile up a great deal of points,” Dennis said. “The program gave Coach Valima and myself many reasons to have high hopes as the season progresses. “This may be the best team we’ve had here in L’Anse. After every event the kids would be at the finish line congratulating each other. And every time results were announced over the public address system that included L’Anse, there was a spontaneous roar of noise from the infield, what a team!”

   This season’s Baraga junior high track program is 27 strong and began its season May 1 in Houghton and will have its second meet of the season May 8 in Hancock.
   This year’s coaches are Amy Lake and Tammy Crittenden. Going through the numbers, girls outnumber boys by a better than 2-1 margin–19 girls and eight boys.
   The girls team includes: Savannah Dakota, Michelle LaBeau, Gabriel Mackey, Corey Pietila, Rachel Sutherland, Brooke Chaudier, Tara LaFernier, Brittany Nieskes, Paige Chosa, Shannon Fish, Rebecca Larson, Hailey Pelon, Paige Webb, Miranda Coppler, Olivia Ingram, Taylor Lindemann, Alex Mayo, Gabrielle Picciano and Katie Schjoth.
   The boys team includes: Richard Alexander, Briar Nieskes, Kevin Ellenich, Hunter Maki, Luis Pinet, Dustin Teikari, Kevin Maskill and William Ross-Geroux.