Sports

Despite the delay of the racing season by the late spring, and the cancellation of Sunday's "Frostbuster" event in Vinton due to rain, local dirt race track veteran Scott Hogan already has made two trips to Victory Lane. Hogan won Friday at the Lee County Speedway, then led from the green flag to the checkered flag in the 23-car Modified feature at Speedway 34 in Burlington on Saturday evening.

Mara Jessen led all golfers, shooting a 47 at the Wildcat on Thursday, April 10, in the Vinton-Shellsburg girls golf team home opener.  Benton Community edged the Vikettes, 203-207, but two of the top three scorers were Vikettes. Lauren Tandy and Bobcat Sidney Volz were tied at 48.  "It was good to get our first meet in after two were postponed due to weather and course conditions," said Coach Janet Woodhouse.

The Viking Boys Golf team started the year with a good round of golf Monday. The Vikings placed second at the meet shooting 161. Mount Vernon won the meet by 7 strokes with 154. Western Dubuque was third with 171. Mount Vernon had both the medalist and runner-up on their team. Tommy Hook and Andy DeKamp both shot 37 for the Mustangs. Senior Dylan Rippel who started his year with a round of 38 led the Vikings.

Payton Leonard led the Vinton-Shellsburg Vikettes to fourth place in the Jesup Invitational Track meet on Tuesday evening. Leonard finished second in the 200 and 400, and was anchor of the second-place 800 sprint medley team and the third-place 4 x 200 team; she led the team by scoring 20 of its 69 points. Other Vikettes who placed included: Bristi Gerber, 800M, second place; La Dorshae Mull, 100 M, third place; Lily Horst, 1500M, fourth place; Sydney Robertson, long jump, fourth place; the 4 x 100 team (LaDorshae Mull, Dawne Schminke, Sydney Robertson and Payton Leonard), second place; 4 x 200 team (LaDorshae Mull, Dawne Schminke, Devin Womochil and Payton Leonard), third place; 4 x 400 team (Bristi Gerber, Annika Schmidt, Devin Womochil and Jamie Thompson) fifth place;  the 4 x 800 team  (Bristi Gerber, Lily Horst, Annika Schmidt, Karley Kenney) fourth place; and the 800 sprint medley (Devin Womochil, Alyssa Root, Sydney Robertson and Payton Leonard) second place.

Regular season openers at four IMCA sanctioned tracks have been rescheduled due to postponed Frostbuster specials. First local point races of the season at Southern Iowa Speedway will be Wednesday, April 16. Marshalltown Speedway opens on Friday, April 18, Boone Speedway on Saturday, April 19 and Benton County Speedway in Vinton on Sunday, April 20.

Area soccer, track, golf and trap shooting fans can see the complete Vinton-Shellsburg athletic schedule, which includes high school and middle school teams, HERE.

Every year, says VS girls soccer coach Dave Cornell, the team will have a new look. That’s because every year, more underclassmen will have had one more year of pre-high school soccer experience. When VSHS began the girls soccer program five years ago, most of the players had played little or no soccer before.  Now, many elementary and middle school players compete in a variety of soccer clubs or leagues, and they come to high school with more knowledge of the game.

The Vinton-Shellsburg High School "Red Cedar Shooters" trap shooting team kicked off their 2014 competition season by taking 5th place overall in 2 separate trap invitationals hosted by Cedar Rapids Xavier and Cedar Rapids Jefferson High Schools held Saturday at the Otter Creek Sportsman's Club in Cedar Rapids.  Nearly 300 competitors were in attendance for the day long events, representing 13 eastern Iowa high Schools.

The continued cold has caused delays in some of the first Vinton-Shellsburg athletic contests of the season.  Boys and girls golf openers vs. Center Point-Urbana, originally scheduled for this afternoon, have been postponed. The VS boys Early Bird event scheduled for Friday has been delayed until April 14; the girls track meet at Union scheduled for today has been reset for April 11.

Last year, Leah Wroten became the first woman to win a feature race since 1971 at the Independence Motor Speedway, and came close to becoming the second woman to ever win a feature against male competitors at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Wroten, of Independence, was a rookie last season, racing the car her husband, Nick, gave her for a wedding present.