Records Keep Falling

By Ellen Lupkes
The starter’s gun has gone off and the Roadrunner’s season has started with a bang. Setting multiple meet records, school records, and personal records Interstate 35 girls track and field has set the bar high.

The sprint medley relay, consisting of Jenna Sandquist, Staci Morris, Natalie Johnson, and Maddie Beeler is ranked number one in class 2A and will be competing at the Drake Relays. Other relays off to a good start are shuttle hurdle, 4x200, distance medley, and 4x400. All are ranked in the top two in district assignments. Individuals in the top two qualifying spots include Ellen Lupkes (100 meter hurdles, 400 meter hurdle), Jenna Sanquist (100 meter hurdles), Maddie Beeler (200 meter and 400 meter), and Natalie Johnson (long jump).

Girls Golf

This year the girls’ golf team will be the only golf team fielded at Interstate 35. Not enough boys went out this year to make a full team. The girls so far have had six golf meets. Progress is being made and the girls are improving. Mr. Condon has an assistant coach in former Roadrunner golfer, Logan Tibbits. Logan graduated from I-35 last year and was on a very successful team in their last campaign. Logan has received several varsity letters in golf and hopes to help Mr. Condon improve the team. The girls that are out for golf include Alicia Lamas, Toriann Erickson, Tess Taylor, and Ashley Roth.
“We are shaving off points with each golf meet and getting closer to the other teams,” explained Ashley Roth. At the last golf meet Alicia Lamas scored 79, Toriann Erickson scored 60, Tess Taylor scored 86, and Ashley Roth scored 80.
“Logan Tibbits, the assistant coach, and having Mr. Condon as coaches really helps out in our improvements each meet,” described Roth. “It is not fun to golf in the cold weather.”
Keep up the progress and good Luck at your next meet girls.

Four Speakers Make All-State

In arguably the most difficult state contest in recent memory, the Interstate 35 speech team qualified four speakers to All-State held annually at the University of Northern Iowa. Judging for the competition was tougher than in the recent past. This was apparent by the lack of numbers making All-State this year. While there are usually a few different speakers in many categories, the numbers from the contest have been cut in half making it extra difficult to make the cut this year.
Speakers performing on Monday March 26 are Justin Pontier, Mariah Lewis, Andrew Morris, and Alex Bertrand.
Alex Bertrand put on possibly the best speech performance of his life to make the festival in reviewing. Andrew Morris, who is only in his second year of speech, made All-State in public address speaking. Justin Pontier had a tough day, but still got the nod for his senior campaign making it his fourth straight year. This year Justin will go in storytelling. Mariah will be performing for her third year at All-State with her after dinner speaking.

The Speech Team Strikes Again

By Alyssa Bissell

Last weekend the speech team traveled west the hometown of Coach Mehrhoff, Anita, for the annual Walnut Hill speech tournament. Although this tournament is known to be tough, the Interstate 35 squad came out at 2nd place with a whopping eighty six points, just under Ankeny. Last year, the team placed fourth, so this year’s outcome was truly an achievement, especially while competing against bigger schools.

The people who placed this year include:
Acting: first place Mariah Lewis, second place Justin Pontier
After Dinner: 2nd place Kaley Chicoine, 3rd Place Mariah Lewis
Freshman Poetry: 2nd place Brittany Mease
Original Oratory: 2nd place Kaley Chicoine
Public Address: 2nd place Andrew Morris, 3rd place Megan Ellis
Reviewing: 2nd place Alex Bertrand
Solo Musical Theatre: 3rd place Andrew Morris
Storytelling: 1st place Justin Pontier

With such outstanding results, the speech team has had a strong practice and idea of what is to come at State this weekend.

Speech Team takes Whole Team to State

By Alyssa Bissell

Watch out, State Speech! Interstate 35 has every member of their team preparing for total domination at the state contest, March 17 in Ames. This past weekend, the district speech tournament went extremely well for the speech members of Interstate 35. Out of twenty six speeches, twenty four of them were state speech material, and everyone on the team will get the privilege of going to state this year.



For the seniors Justin Pontier, Mariah Lewis, Alex Bertrand, Andrew Morris, Marie Bosworth, and Kaley Chicoine, this was their last time to be able to experience the state contest.

Justin Pontier is returning for his fourth year. He has also made it to the All-State Festival at UNI every year of his high school career. Fellow teammate Mariah Lewis is returning for her third year. These speakers have already enjoyed success going to the large group All-State festival along Kaley Chicoine and Megan Ellis.

It’s easy to see that we have some pretty talented veterans on the speech team, however, the underclassmen are also making a difference on the team. Juniors Travis Thornburgh, Kendall Hildebrand, Shelby Spoerl, Megan Ellis, Katie Jacobsen, and sophomores Brittany Mease, Sarah Yawn, and Claire Bertrand all made it through this year with a hopeful comeback for next year.

Impressively, the freshman members Bailee Huddleson, Riley Wearmouth, and Josh Hughes are going as well. Most speech teams are lucky to have a few members make it to state, let alone the entire team!

The speech team will test their speaking skills yet again this weekend at the Walnut Hill Speech contest. This is an invitational tournament pitting some of the best speakers in the state. This contest takes place in Coach Mehrhoff’s home school located in Anita, Iowa. The speakers are looking to improve on last years performances where they placed fourth out of 16 teams while only taking eight speakers. They are looking to take the whole team this year and taking on much larger schools like Ankeny and Council Bluffs Lewis Central.

Rich Gray Results and Conference Dual Championships

By Kyle Rupp

I-35 grapplers wrestled at the Rich Gray Classic on January 21. The team ended up fourth out of 16 teams. Head Coach Randy Calvert stated the Classic was “the biggest tournament in years” and was filled with stiff competition. “For a young team, we wrestled well.” said Coach Mehrhoff. He continued that the wrestlers’ performance was the “best individual wrestling at this meet so far.”
Junior Tommy Bregar brought home a title at 182, with a second place finish by Brad Yakle at 106.
Ethan Jones turned in a 3rd place at 170. Fourth place finishes were Lonnie Harper at heavy weight and Tyler Lester at 220. Todd Graham at 195 and Zach Hutton at 126 placed fifth.

The wrestlers also finished the dual season going undefeated against POI Conference foes.

Interstate takes the Coaches for Cancer Game

By Kyle Rupp

Interstate 35 boys’ basketball regular season is almost over. They have a current record of 9-8.

The team recently played Central Decatur on Saturday and Pleasantville last Tuesday.

During the "Coaches For Cancer" game against the Cardinals, the Roadrunners took control of the game from the start and never looked back blasting the home town team by thirty points.

Then on Tuesday the Interstate 35 boys’ basketball team had a heart breaking loss to Pleasantville with a 40 point loss. There are only three games left in the regular season. If they want to play more games they are going to have to step up their game. Good luck this post season boys and keep up working hard.