Madrid football streak snapped, volleyball gets a break
A week after homecoming festivities, the Tigers are regrouping, looking for the next time to pounce. (Note: Events covered Sept. 21-27.)
Football (3-2)
Building momentum over the last four games wasn’t enough to overcome the power Lynnville-Sully (5-0) brought into Tiger Stadium, defeating Madrid 36-14 to rain on the Tigers’ homecoming dreams.
After a couple of games running loose, quarterback Preston Wicker was mostly held in check with just 87 yards passing on seven completions. His legs paved the way to one score and 46 yards, giving him a team-high nine touchdowns and 446 yards on the season.
With the Hawks keeping Wicker in check, Nash Ramirez scurried for 87 yards and a score on 12 carries, marking one of his more effective performances to-date. But the Hawks were able to combat that with their own star running back boasting 199 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries, helping Lynnville run into halftime with an unreachable 29-6 lead that soured hopes of an upset bid.
Madrid’s next game has all the makings of a similar story being told from the opposite view, with the Tigers traveling to Wayne (0-5) on Friday for the Falcons’ homecoming game. So far this year, Wayne has been outscored by mutual opponents of Madrid by a score of 148-34. In those three shared games, Madrid holds a winning margin of 79-75.
Volleyball (8-13)
The Tigers would fall in consecutive sets against Pleasantville (9-10) on Sept. 20 in a light week of live action for Madrid with just one match in the week.
After that loss, the Tigers fell to 3-3 in West Central Activities Conference play, sitting right in the middle of the league standings alongside West Central Valley, Earlham and Woodward-Granger.
Cross Country
As the cross country season progresses, the total landscape throughout the state has become even more competitive.
The Tiger girls found a gem in Katelyn Brandhorst who was flirting with top 10 status for some time, but after some more competitors have emerged, she now sits at No. 23. Running a time of 19 minutes 41 seconds at Ogden on Tuesday for third place still puts her well within range of a state bib. But with two top 10 ranked girls finishing ahead of her with over 35 seconds of separation, the gap to climb the leaderboard has widened, if not provided a new goal to help propel the rest of the season.
Similarly, the Tiger boys have only one ranked runner now with No. 2 Ethan Loutzenheiser who claimed first place at 16:24 in Ogden. His buddy Clay Warson was the next man through at 16:43 for second place. But that nearly 20 second gap has him placed outside the solo rankings, falling outside the top 30. Just 19 seconds between them in their last race goes to show how competitive the elite of the elite has been among 1A runners.
Still, as a team, the boys placed second only behind Ogden which had three top-10 finishers. The Madrid girls also placed second thanks to Emily White cruising to a fifth place finish at 20:51.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Madrid football streak snapped, volleyball gets a break
