Lee Honored with Modern Woodmen Award

mel lee

Mel Lee was recently honored for his community service by Modern Woodmen of America.

As a volunteer, he is one of the first to step up when needed. Lee, the owner of Mel’s Auto, received a bouquet of candy and good wishes just in time to share with his regular buddies during the social time at the shop.

Lee graduated in 1971 from Gregory High School and joined the National Guard the same year. He completed officer candidate school in 1981. While in the guard, he served in operation Desert Storm as a liaison officer where he received the bronze star. He retired in 1991 as a captain.

He has continued his service to veterans as a volunteer driver for the DAV van and spearheads the annual fundraiser to keep the van going.

Also, Lee is a member of the VFW and the Legion and often serves as a member of the honor guard. He is a member of the retired officers association of the National Guard.

Most recently, Lee and his crew organized and served the annual Labor Day barbeque. In addition to his connection to the military organizations, he presents Winner’s bid for the Legion baseball tournament at the state meeting.

Lee is a member of the Methodist Church, the Izaak Walton League, Winner Area Chamber of Commerce, Pheasants Forever and Shriners. He said “volunteering comes easy; it’s fun to do good things.”

He received the candy bouquet and a $100 gift for his favorite charity from the fraternal department of Modern Woodmen chapter 4414 of Winner.

Petersek Placed 4th

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Linkyn Petersek won fourth place in the tie down calf roping average over the Labor Day weekend at the South Dakota timed event championship.

Petersek roped a 14.10 to finish sixth in the first go around. He had a 13.66 second run in the second go to land him in fourth in the average with a 27.76 on two runs.

This is Petersek’s first time to compete in the timed event championship as he is now 14 years old. He also competed in the team roping and breakaway roping events.

The South Dakota timed event championship is not just an average rodeo. Approximately 100 youth compete for the title during the State Fair in Huron. They must be between the ages of 14-19 years old to enter.

Thousands of dollars worth of prizes including a championship trophy, Featherlite trailer, scholarships, trophy saddles, jackets and jeans, just to name a few were awarded.

Contestants will choose 3 to 6 timed events to compete in. These events include: calf roping, breakaway roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing, team roping, and goat tying.

Boys and girls compete against each other to determine South Dakota’s timed event champion.

Champions are determined based on a point system

New Pastor Named at Baptist Church

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By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Justin Wheadon is the new pastor of First Baptist Church of Winner. He was installed as the pastor on Sunday, Sept. 17.

There was an opening at the church when Pastor Bruce Miller moved.

Wheadon said he heard of the opening from the Moody Bible Institute job site.

In July, Wheadon came to Winner as a candidate for an interview and also preached one Sunday.

Originally from Miles City, Mont., Wheadon was the visitation pastor at Grace Bible Church in Miles City before moving to South Dakota.

The pastor says his goals for Winner are to see God work through this church and expand and reach more of the community and surrounding area. He wants to build on the Awana program and youth program.

Guests from Denmark Visit Winner Rotary

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By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Svend Jensen had never seen the beauty of the Black Hills or the expanse of the South Dakota Badlands.

The retired banker from Denmark was one of 13 people on a Rotary Friendship Exchange that spent part of their time in Winner.
The Denmark guests arrived in Rapid City on Sept. 7 and on Sept. 22 will return home after a stop in Sioux Falls.

A Rotary Friendship Exchange program provides a means through which Rotarians in one part of the world can experience life in another country or culture. Its goal is to advance international understanding and goodwill all through person to person connections across national boundaries.

A group of Winner Rotarians met the Denmark group in Wall where they had a tour of Wall Drug and then a tour of the Badlands before arriving in Winner on Sunday, Sept. 10.

Colome Student Essays

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Colome students in grades 2nd through 12th took part in an essay contest titled “Why I love to be Colome student.”

Here are some excerpts from the students’ essays.

“School is a building with four walls with tomorrow inside”—Lon Watters. Being a CHS student is the best thing that has ever happened to me and its because I went to bigger schools and got bullied a lot there, so I would think it would be the best thing that could happen to anyone. Colome is a small town with very nice people and no one seems to get bullied and “everyone” is very excepting and you can get to know “everyone” in the school. The teachers are great and can understand you if you just talk to them.

Warriors Defeat Valentine 24-12

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Winner High School football team improved its record to 3-1 with a 24-12 victory over Valentine,Neb., Friday night in Winner.

Coach Dan Aaker was impressed with victory and said it was a nice win for the team.  “We were ready to match their intensity,” said the coach.

The Warriors scored first at the end of the first quarter on a 5 yard run by Riley Calhoon.

Valentine came back in the second quarter and scored on a 1 yard run by Jordan Kelber which tied the score at 6-6.

With 1:24 left before half, Ty Bolton scored on a 1 yard run to give Winner the lead at 12-6.

The Warriors had positive field position in the first half. They were able to make some traditional Winner Warrior drives of getting third and fourth downs.

The Warriors scored a touchdown each in the third and fourth quarters.

In the third quarter, Calhoon scored on a 1 yard run. In the fourth quarter, Bolton completed a 35 yard pass to Calhoon for a touchdown.

The final score of he game was by Valentine as Kelber completed an 82 yard pass to Dylan Lurz.

The Warriors had 306 yards of total offense. Both teams were fairly even in first downs with the edge going to Winner 17-15.
Calhoon and Phillip Jorgensen both had 77 yards rushing with Matt Smither adding 69 yards.

The Winner defense played well in the game. Going into this contest the focus was to limit the big plays.

Aaker said he was worried about screens so in practice this week the team worked a lot on screens which proved beneficial in the game.

The Warrior defense was led by Matt Smither with 8 tackles followed by Shea Connot, Brandon Volmer and Levi McClanahan with 5 each. Bolton had 4 tackles.

Calhoon and Volmer each had an interception for Winner.

Aaker said the last two weeks the team has battled and played physical and played with a lot of heart.  “This week we took another step forward. We had the best week of practice all year. If we can bring that to the table each week we will continue to get better,” he said.

Aaker added that even in the 95 degree heat at practice the team came with a lot of energy.

The Warriors will take on a new team on Friday when they travel to Mt. Vernon to play Mt. Vernon/Plankinton.  The MVP team is coached by Brent Olson, brother of Winner coaches Trent and Sam Olson.

This will also be an SESD conference game.

Aaker says MVP runs a lot of options and the Warriors will have to stop Jesse Hastings who rushed for 112 yards when MVP defeated Flandreau 48-20.

Cowboys Remain Undefeated

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Colome Cowboys rushed to a 60-6 victory over Gayville-Volin Friday night to remain undefeated for the season.

The No. 2 ranked Cowboys are 4-0.  The game Friday in Gayville ended at the half due to the mercy rule. The Cowboys scored 46 points in the first quarter.

Scoring for Colome were Jackson Kinzer on a 17 yard run, Chase Dufek on a 35 yard run, Kinzer on a 75 yard kickoff return, Layton Thiemanon a 10 yard pass to Calvin Ringing Shield, Dufek on a 70 yard run, Thieman on a 47 yard run, Kinzer on a 36 yard run, Thieman on an 8 yard run.

Two point conversions were scored by Wyatt Cahoy, Kinzer, Dufek

The Cowboys had 372 yards on offense. Dufek picked up 105 yards and Thieman had 73 yards.

The defense was led by Cahoy with 8 tackles, Beau Bertram, 7 and Nash Atteberry, 6.

“We came out ready to play,” said coach Ben Connot. “We got better this week and we need to keep that going,” he said.
The Cowboys will play Alcester/Hudson in Alcester on Friday.

Lady Warriors Second at Big Dakota Meet

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Winner High School volleyball team took second place at the Big Dakota Conference tournament Saturday in Ft. Pierre.

Named to the all tournament team were Alexis Richey, Morgan Hammerbeck and Abby Marts.

In the first match, Winner defeated McLaughlin in two sets 25-6, 25-5.  In the next match, Winner defeated Mobridge-Pollock in two sets 25-21, 25-14.

Winner was in the championship pool with Stanley County and Miller.  Winner defeated Stanley County 25-5 and 25-15.  In the championship match, Miller defeated Winner in 3 sets 23-25, 25-21 and 20-25.

Richey got her 1,000 dig during the Miller match.

The next action for Winner will be Sept. 23 at Tri Valley and Sept. 26 at Todd County.

Volleyball Team Downs Lyman

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Winner volleyball team defeated Lyman in three sets on Sept. 12. The scores were 25-7, 25-13 and 25-12.

Gracie Littau and Abby Marts were 100 percent in serving.

Alexis Richey had 3 ace serves and Littau, 2.

Abby Marts had 17 kills and Morgan Hammerbeck, 12 kills.

Littau had 30 set assists.

Hammerbeck was 100 percent in serve receive and Richey was 90 percent.

Richey had 12 digs and Marts had 11 digs.

Sam Marts had 1 solo block and 1 block assist.

As a team, Winner was 93 percent in serving with 6 ace serves, 38 kills and 34 assists. They were 82 percent in serve receive with 53 digs and 2 blocks.

“We came out ready to play from the start,” said coach Jaime Keiser.

“We did a great job of serving and attacking the ball which kept Lyman out of system. We lost focus in set 2 and 3 and gave Lyman too many unearned points. I was proud to see us battle back and play together as a team and not keep playing at their level. We did a better job of serve receive which has been our weakness,” said Keiser.

High School Softball Team Falls in Two Games

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Winner High School girls softball team lost two games in Pierre on Sunday.

In the first game, Winner lost 15-2 to Dell Rapids.

Kenndal Turnquist was the losing pitcher.  Leading hitters were Emmy Kaiser, Turnquist and Delanie Nelson.

In the second game, Winner lost 10-4 to Aberdeen.

Elisabeth Duffy was the losing pitcher.  Leading hitters were Kaiser, Duffy, Alex Bohnet and Nelson.

Winner will play in Pierre on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 12:30 p.m. as they will play Pierre in a double header.