The first stop in the new season for the Iowa Junior High School Rodeo Association will be the rodeo this weekend at the Ringgold county fairgrounds.

Action will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning and again at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning at the fairgrounds.

Some 50 participants from Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri are expected to participate in the rodeo, the first of the 2010-11 season.

Events from bull riding to roping and barrel racing will be part of the action.

There is no admission charge to come out and watch the young rodeo participants compete.

  A team consisting mostly of Iowa State University students and alumni won the world Ultimate club championships for the sport of Ultimate in Prague, Czech Republic recently and a Ringgold county native was part of the group.

In fact Jon Staron and Ringgold county native Rachel Derscheid, who were recently married, joined another couple in making the trip to the world championships their honeymoon.

The Iowa State University-based team, called “The Chad Larson Experience” for a friend of the team, won the mixed division of the competition by beating Onyx, a Canadian team, by a score of 17-10 in the finals.

Derscheid, who a veterinarian in the department of veterinary pathology at Iowa State University, emailed parents, Ted and Nan Derscheid of Ellston with news of the victory.

“In case you haven’t seen it on Facebook or heard it elsewhere, we are the world champions,” Derscheid wrote. “Oh, John and I both got injured, but we are still the champions.”
Ultimate is a limited-contact field game in which teams score by throwing a flying disc to other players to advance down the field and score. It was formerly known as Ultimate Frisbee.

The object of the games is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to the end zone in football or rugby.

Read more about the event in the online edition of the Mount Ayr Record-News

Third place Mount Ayr Community was well represented on the 2010 Pride of Iowa conference softball teams.  

Shortstop Becca Pennington is a repeat selection to the POI first team.  Bailey Myer and Erica Kemery were also selected to the first unit this season.  

Jordyn Grose was a unanimous selection to the second team and Raiderettes’ pitcher Erin Budach, catcher Jensen Stewart and outfielder Tiffany Wimer were also second team selections.  

  The Mount Ayr Community varsity softball team completed the 2010 season  compiling an 11-4 conference record and overall mark of 20-9.  

Junior shortstop Becca Pennington led the team in hits, runs scored,  RBIs, triples, stolen bases, and batting  average.  

Jensen Stewart led the team in doubles and hit the only Raiderette home run this season.   

Senior Erica Kemery led the team in walks and senior Tiffany Wimer led the team in sacrifice hits with eight.

Erin Budach led the team in wins for the second year in a row as she finished the season with a 19-7 win-loss mark and an ERA of 3.52.   

The defensive leader was Ashley Phelps who compiled a fielding average of .976 while handling 209 chances at first base.  Catcher Jensen Stewart was second in fielding average with a mark of .969. 

Complete statistics for all the girls seeing action on the varsity squad are included on page 10 in the online version of the Mount Ayr Record-News.

  The Mount Ayr Community varsity  baseball team completed the 2010 season  compiling a 7-8 conference  mark and an overall mark of 16-9.   

This is a four game improvement over their 2009 record.  

Matt Sobotka led the Raiders is several hitting categories.  He topped the team in hits, RBIs, doubles, and posted a outstanding .470 batting average.  

Junior Korey Beaman had another good year at the plate as he led the team in triples, homers and had a .425 batting average.  Senior Chad Starlin led the Raiders in runs scored and stolen bases.

Cody Doolittle’s 1.54 ERA led the Raiders in that category and he and Christian Overholtzer both had four wins on the mound.  

Overholtzer led the staff in strikeouts and he and Jake Still both earned a save this season.  The entire Raider pitching staff are underclassman and eight of the nine members of the every day lineup also will be able to wear the Raider uniform next season. 

Complete statistics are on page 10 in the online version of the Mount Ayr Record-News.

  Bob Johnson of Tingley and his dog Ruby won the 2010 United States Border Collie Handler’s Association’s national cattledog finals competition held in Scottsbluff, NE, recently.

The competition started in 2009 with the top 60 qualified dogs allowed to compete. Johnson had four dogs that were qualified, but he just took his best dog -- a three-year old female named Ruby.

The nationals begins with three days of tough qualifying rounds, which eliminate all but the top 10 dogs that are selected to make the final run for the championship.

“It was a big win for me,” Johnson said. The wins have allowed him to sell some of his dogs for above average prices, he noted.

Johnson plans to compete with Ruby again next year at the national compeition.

A picture of the pair is the puzzle picture of the week (pull down under community heading).

 Season for the Mount Ayr Community Raideretets came to an earlier than hoped for end in the Class 1A girls softball tournament in Mount Ayr.

The girls were able to get past East Union 14-2 Wednesday, July 2, but then fell to Lamoni 2-1 in a close battle  in the second round of the tournament.

The girls finished up their season with a 20-9 season mark. They had finished the conference season earlier with an 11-4 record for  fourth place.

Cade Lambson of Blockton, a Mount Ayr Community high school athlete, has qualified for the national AAU track and field meet to be held in Norfolk, VA, August 1-4.

Lambson worked his way through the AAU region 12 track and field national qualifying meet in Minneapolis, MN during the Fourth of July weekend. He broke two meet records with gold medal throws in the shot put and discus. Though not personal records, his 51’6” throw in the shot put and 165’ 11” throw in the discus were good for meet golds.

He is in the process of doing some fund-raising for his trip to Virginia because he is unattached (not a member of a team) and must bear the burden of expense for the trip on his own. He is a two-time state gold medalist in the discus and will be a senior this coming school year. He has represented the Mount Ayr Community school district well and hopes to bring home some hardware from Virginia.

Mount Ayr Community’s Raiders ended the regular season with a bang, then fizzled out in the first round of the Class 2A boys baseball tournament to close the season this past week.

The Raiders handled Orient-Macksburg 15-4 in Orient Wednesday, July 7, then finished up the Pride of Iowa conference season with a 17-2 win for a 7-8 conference mark and a seventh place finish.

The Raiders then went on to host the opening round of the boys tournament and lost a heartbreaker 9-8 when Central Decatur rallied for four runs in the seventh inning to win the game and end the Raider season mark at 16-9.  

 The Class 2A boys baseball tournament trail begins for the Mount Ayr Community Raiders Saturday night when they host Central Decatur in a tournament game at 7 p.m.

The semifinals will be held Tuesday, July 13, at 7 p.m. in Mount Ayr against the Wayne and Clarke winner.

The finals will be held Saturday, July 17, at 7 p.m. in Mount Ayr against the survivor of games in Clarinda.

  A week with two wins and three losses saw the Mount Ayr Community Raider Pride of Iowa conference mark slip below .500 this past week.

The Raiders dropped games to Interstate 35, split with Lenox, defeated Lamoni and lost to Nodaway Valley in their most recent action.

The team is now 6-7 in the Pride of Iowa conference and 14-7 for the season.

 Mount Ayr Community’s Raiderettes opened play in the Class 1A regional softball game Wednesday night when they hosted East Union in play in Mount Ayr.

A win would put the girls in the quarterfinals against the Lamoni- Bedford winner Friday, July 9, at 7 p.m. in Mount Ayr. The semifinal game is set for Monday, July 23, at 7:30 p.m. with the team advancing from games in Moravia.

The regional final will be held Wednesday, July 14, at 7 p.m. at Osceola against the survivor of games played in Corning and Martensdale.

Including action in the Mount Ayr Softball Classic, the Mount Ayr Community Raiderettes played seven games in the past week in a rush of action at the end of the season.

The Raiderettes were able to gain wins in five of the seven, but two of the losses were Pride of Iowa conference games.

The girls defeated Lenox, Clarinda, Nodaway Valley, Essex/South Page and Murray while falling to Nodaway Valley and Martensdale-St. Mary’s.

The girls are now 19-8 for the season and have an 11-4 Pride of Iowa conference mark heading into their Pride of Iowa conference finale.