The WEM/JWP girls cross country team showed Thursday, Sept. 26 they have a great chance to improve on their finish in the Gopher Conference after defeating four conference teams in the Grizzly Pie Invitational held at Prairie Ridge Golf Course in Janesville.
The Grizzlies not only defeated the conference teams but they also defeated Blue Earth Area to win the nine-team event.
Solid pitching and some small ball helped the Waterville Indians defeat Morris, 8-1, Saturday, Aug. 17 at Green Isle in the first round of the Class C State Baseball Tournament.
Dallas McBroom pitched six innings, allowing one unearned run. Evan Furst, a draftee from St. Clair, pitched three scoreless innings in relief of McBroom.
Dalton Grose hit a solo home run and the Indians bunched together four straight bunts to score four runs and turn a close game into an easy victory.
The Waterville Indians amateur baseball team won a pair of games in the 13-60 League Playoffs which propelled them into their sixth straight Region Tournament.
The Indians defeated Waseca, 9-4 Saturday, July 20 and Minnesota Lake 10-3 Sunday, July 21 to advance to the 13-60 League Championship game Saturday, July 27 at 2 p.m. in Waterville. Their opponent will be Blue Earth, who defeated Wells, 11-10, and Eagle Lake, 12-7.
These two teams met for the 13-60 League Championship in 2023 and the Pirates edged the Indians, 7-6.
The 2024 WEM Clay Target season just wrapped up and it was a huge success! There were 66 members on this year's team of which 50 of them elected to shoot competitively with Clay Target USA which requires additional fees.
For WEM, the clay target season consists of both trap and skeet shooting events. There are other events such as five stand and sporting clays but currently there are no facilities nearby that can support them.
After struggling with their offense through six innings, the Waterville Indians amateur baseball team exploded for seven runs in the seventh inning and five in the eighth in their 12-4 win over Minnesota Lake Sunday, June 2 in Waterville.
The Indians only had two hits through six innings before collecting six hits in the seventh inning and three more in the eighth inning of this 13-60 League game.
WEM freshman Gavin Atherton placed in two events, winning one, at the Class A Section 2 Track and Field Championship held Saturday, June 1 at Mankato West.
Atherton ran in two races and was within four hundreths of a second of advancing to State in both events.
He ended up winning the 400-meter dash in a time of 50.71, which is a personal best. He edged Madelia-Truman senior Ryan Koberoski by one hundreths of a second for the title. GFW junior Justin Messner finished with a time of 50.98 and he along with the other two runners, will also advance to State.
New Prague’s Orioles and the Waterville Indians will offer their efforts representing area town baseball when TV station Fox 9 brings its town ball tour to Memorial Park tomorrow, Wednesday, June 5.
The behind-the-scenes planning has been in the works for several weeks. Orioles manager Nick Schoenecker received a call from the TV station earlier this spring asking if his team would be interested in the opening round of the station’s seventh annual Town Ball Tour.
WEM junior Gavin Brown and sophomore Talen Taylor have been honored by Gopher Conference Boys Basketball Coaches for the second consecutive year. Seniors Luke Michael and Redzel Priebe were honored for the first time.
After being named to the Honorable Mention All-Gopher Conference Team last year, Brown and Taylor were both named to the 3rd Team All-Conference squad.
Priebe was named to the Honorable Mention Team.
Michael received the Gopher Conference Sportsmanship Award.
They are among 15 senior and 12 underclassmen named to the All-Conference Teams.
It was an incredible weekend for three WEM youth wrestlers at the NYWA Girls State Championships.
Mariella Masso, Jacee Knish, and Anaelyse Skidmore combined to win nine straight matches and win three State Championships.
Masso, age 6, won the Pre-K & K 55-pound title. She wrestled only 48 seconds in three matches. She pinned Elise Jaeger of Albert Lea in 20 seconds, pinned Lilyanna Bugbee of Stewartville in 14 seconds, and in the championship she pinned Adrianna Jordan of Shakopee in 14 seconds.
The Gopher Conference West Division Champion JWP boys basketball team handed the Buccaneers an 84-52 loss Friday, Feb. 16 during Parent’s Night in Janesville.
The Bulldogs are currently 19-5 overall and 12-1 in the conference. WEM is 10-11 overall and 8-5 in the conference. Tuesday they played Maple River, the team they are tied for second place in the conference with. WEM will host Cleveland Thursday, Feb. 22.
The Bucs also played a nonconference game Tuesday, Feb. 13 and were defeated by Norwood-Young America (NYA), 62-56.
The WEM/JWP Grizzlies participated in a 20-team youth kindergarten thru 3rd grade team tournament in Waseca on Sunday, February 18. The team went 3-3 on the day with a 1st place finish in Pool D. The team was composed of weights from 40 pounds thru heavyweight (130 pound maximum). On the team was Mateo Masso, Sutton Wenker, Maddox Knish, Derek Budahn, Rhett Melchert, Ryatt Melchert, Mariella Masso, Reed Blasing, Gabriel Skidmore, Crue Knish, Chance Luiken, Weston James, Jacee Knish, Cadence Potter, Charlie Bauer, Hudson Splett, and Kason Flohaug.
The WEM girls basketball team played two of the top teams in Section 2AA last week and finished with a split.
The Bucs defeated Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial (LCWM), a 16-win team, 62-44 Tuesday, Feb. 13. Three days later a 20-win JWP team came to Waterville and edged WEM, 54- 48, avenging and earlier season loss to the Bucs.
WEM is now 10-6 in the Gopher Conference and 14- 11 overall heading into the post-season playoffs, which will begin next week. Seeding will take place Friday, Feb. 23.
The WEM girls basketball team gave the Class A No. 6 rated Hayfield squad all they could handle Thursday, Jan. 25 in Waterville.
The Bucs used an eightpoint scoring run to eliminate a nine point deficit midway through the second half against the Vikings.
Alayna Atherton scored a pair of baskets and Addison Condon and Ashlyn Pelant added baskets during the eight-point run.
The WEM girls basketball team split a pair of Gopher Conference games last week.
They began their week with a 68-61 loss to league-leading NRHEG Tuesday, Jan. 9 in Waterville. They ended the week with a 70-38 rout of Randolph.
With the split, WEM remains tied for second place in the West Division of the c o n f e r e n c e with a 5-1 record, one half game behind NRHEG and tied with Maple River, a team they have already defeated.
Eight top six finishes and one championship helped the WEM/JWP wrestling team to a third place finish in the St. Croix Lutheran Crusader Invitational Saturday, Jan. 13.
Avery Fall claimed the 215 pound championship in dominating fashion and the Grizzlies scored 140 points in placing third.
Ogilvie won the 15 team event with 192.5 points. Second place went to Chisago Lakes with 153 points. Fourth through seventh went to Hopkins (127.5), North Branch (116.5), Roseville Area (116), and St. Paul Humboldt-Open World Learning (87.5).
The Tri-City United (TCU) boys basketball team outscored WEM 34-16 over the final nine minutes of their game Thursday, Dec. 28 to pull out a 72-68 nonconference win in Waterville.
After leading 27-25 at halftime, the Bucs increased their lead to 52-38 on a rebound basket by senior Caleb Caron with 9:13 remaining.
The TCU defense held the Bucs to five field goals over the next nine minutes while their offense did much of their damage at the free throw line, scoring 14 from the charity stripe, including the final four of the game.