Elder Fall Sports has come to an end. Football, soccer, cross country and golf all have ended their seasons, and now the basketball, bowling, swimming, hockey, and wrestling teams are preparing for their seasons. But we cannot forget about the fall sports boys’ incredible seasons, here’s a quick recap of each sport:

The Sweet Swingers

The golfers had a much improved season from last year. Junior Victor Caliguri was first team All-GCL, and Seniors Luke Lammers and Henry Mazza were second team. It wasn’t just individual efforts, though. The golfers won three tournaments together, and they came awfully close in many others. They finished second in GCL, behind, (yep you guessed it) the St. Xavier Bombers. I played golf with Lammers the day before districts, and he was focused on his team’s goals, “I want our team to get after it at Districts, so we can get the opportunity at state.” They finished a pretty good 7th in Districts, ending the teams season. However, Luke qualified for the State Tournament, with a an amazing 75.  At State, he shot a 80 the first day and a 77 the second day, finishing tied for 25th out of 72 in the tournament. All in all, incredible year for the golfers.

The Pack

Senior Matthew Smith spoke about his special chemistry with his team, but he especially loved the chicken alfredo.

Now I don’t know what was in that chicken alfredo, but those cross country boys must’ve had a lot of it. They had a darn good season, with PR times all around. Three runners broke 17:00: sophomore Ben Johnson ran a 16:37, senior Kevin Schenkel ran a 16:50, and senior Brandon Vetter ran a 16:57. It was a very impressive feat by these three runners. When it comes to the GCL they finished 2nd to St. Xavier. Ben Johnson was first for Elder and 8th in the race. In sum, the Elder Cross Country team worked incredibly hard to have a successful season.

The American Footballers

I asked Jack Tucker what the key to their team’s success was, and he told me about the team’s incredible toughness. “We were down big against Fairfield late in the fourth,” Tucker said, “but we didn’t give up, and we kept pushing hard. We obviously won that game in the last minutes, and it goes to shows our mental toughness.”

The Elder football team shocked a lot of people this year, having arguably one of the best offenses in the state. Their 5-4 record did not tell the whole story, having one of the toughest schedules in the state. In only nine games, junior Ben Hambleton threw for 1915 yards and 19 touchdowns, solidifying Coach Ramsey’s confidence in his quarterback. It also helped that he had some solid skill players on offense: Seniors Marco Sabato, Lance Neville, Scottie Niemann, Cooper Johnson, as well as juniors Andrew Harp and Drew Ramsey. Drew and Scottie had incredible seasons at wide receiver. Cooper and Ramsey were beasts running the ball as well. The defense played well too, Nick Paff being a stand out with 55 total tackles, putting him 6th in the GCL. The highlight for the defense to me was Jack Willenborg’s incredible pick six in the final game against St. Xavier. Clearly, the football team put together an entertaining and good season.

The Euro Panthers 

Senior Kyle Dressman believes that the key to his teams success was the teammate chemistry. He’s very right. This team was as close a team as any.

The 4-9-3 Panthers started off the year pretty poorly, losing eight games and tying three. They picked it up in the last 5 games they played, winning four in a row and coming incredibly close in the last playoff game. They finished 2nd in GCL, kicking LaSalle off of number two and sending them to last place. The seniors were incredible leaders of this team. Andrew Mueller was the prime goal scorer on this team with eight goals, along with three goals from Jake Russell, three from Jacob Stiens (as well as leading the team in assists with three), two from Stephen Beinkemper, and one each for Aaron Wagner and Lucas Stedam. A big story was the performance of Wagner, who was a first year on varsity and immediately made a difference for the Panthers. Kyle Dressman was an incredible goalie, using his pure athleticism to make incredible saves. The highlight of the season, however, was Andrew Mueller’s hat trick against Lakota East, allowing for a very impressive win.

To end this article, I would like to say thank you to all the Seniors in these fall sports. We appreciate all the hard work that you put into your four years at Elder, and it will not be forgotten.

Gallery • 4 Photos

The Euro Panthers: Kyle Dressman with a massive kick