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Wagner High School senior Michelle Soukup is the South Dakota winner of the VFW Voice of Democracy essay contest and is now representing South Dakota at the national level, where the top award is a $30,000 scholarship.
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Wagner High School senior Faithleigh Podzimek has been awarded a Gold Key for the South Dakota Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which is the highest regional honor. Podzimek is one of 27 students to earn a Gold Key Regional Award out of several hundred entries.
Read moreOn a cold and frigid night last Tuesday the Lady Raiders hosted the Beresford Watchdogs. The temperature wasn’t the only thing that was cold. The Raiders shooting would start out the same way only mustarding 4 points in the first quarter and trail 4-8. The second quarter would be a different story as the Raiders would heat up in a hurry out scoring Beresford 26-9 in the second quarter and taking a 30-17 lead into the half. Wagner would extend the lead to as many as 18 points and the Watchdogs would then cut that lead to 6 late in the 4th. Wagner would seal the win knocking down 6 free throws to come away with a 55-43 win. Abby Brunsing led all scorers with 23 points while grabbing 4 boards. Macy Koupal would add 13 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. Shalayne Nagel would be the third Raider in double figures with 11 points, 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals. Ashlyn Koupal would be the last Raider to score as she would net 8 points off the bench and dish out 2 assists. Eve Zephier would grab 3 boards and dish out a team high 6 assists, and come away with 2 steals. Caydynce Olson would also dish out 3 assists and grab 2 boards. The Raiders would go 19-37 from the field for 51%. The Watchdogs would be 13-53 for 25%. Wagner would go 8-10 from the line while Beresford would be 11-13. Wagner would out rebound Beresford 25-21. Wagner would commit 21 turnovers compared to Beresford’s 10. “Another great win for us when it comes to seeding points to help us stay at the 4 seed. We started off at a slow pace, not getting post touches and attacking the basket. Once we did that it made their defense sink in and then out shooters were able to take open 3’s compared to contested ones early. We started the game missing our first five threepoint attempts and then ended the game making 9 out of our next 13 shots from beyond the arc. We have great shooters, and the post players do a great job of finding them, but we need to continue to put pressure on defenses by scoring inside. That is what happened in the second quarter tonight. The first quarter was the total opposite. Defensively we did a decent job on their shooters. We didn’t rebound as well as we could have. We would have gotten more transition but a lot of balls were being pushed out of bounds as dead balls. Overall a great win for our team as we wind down the season with 2 more games and then post-season.
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Believe it or not, the 2020-2021 basketball regular season came to an end last Friday night in Platte for the Lady Red Raiders. Three months ago, not sure if anyone would have said that all 20 regular season games would get played, but they all were. The Panthers would run into a buzz saw as the Raiders would come out smoking hot from the field and rack up a 22-5 lead after the first. The second quarter would be a see-saw affair as Wagner would take a 34-16 lead into halftime. Wagner would finish out the game on a 24-6 run and win the game 58-23. Wagner go 21-48 from the field for 44% while holding the Panthers to 17% shooting, 7-41 from the field. Wagner would out rebound Platte-Geddes 34-23. Wagner would commit 10 turnovers compared to 21 from Platte. Macy Koupal would lead all scorers with 18 points and 7 boards. Abby Brunsing follow that up with 15 points, and 5 boards. Shalayne Nagel would net 11 points, grab a team high 8 boards, dish out 3 assists, and come away with 3 steals. Eve Zephier would chip in 6 points, grab 5 boards, dish out a team high 5 assists and come away with a game high 8 steals. Ashlyn Koupal would also add 6 points off the bench. Sydney Cournoyer would round out the scoring with 2 points, and 3 boards. Caydynce Olson would grab 4 boards, dish out 3 assists, and grab 2 steals. “A big difference when we got some fresh legs. We came out ready from the start, got things done inside and out and put the throttle down on both ends of the floor. We got out in transition on offense and made it hard for them to keep the pace. We got after them in the half court. We allowed only 23 points but could have easily taken 9 off their score with some break downs on the defensive end. We are starting to understand these hidden areas where they did hurt us in the Vermillion game. This was a great team win where all contributed with positives. Now we are off to tournament play and will host Madison in the opening round.”
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The Lady Raiders traveled to Vermillion last Tuesday in girls basketball action. The Raiders would start out sluggish and miss some opportunities early and find themselves trailing 9-13 after the first period. Wagner would get out scored 31-21 in the next two periods. They would trail by as many as 22 and put a late surge to get the lead cut to 10 late and eventually lose the game 45-58. Shalayne Nagel would lead all scorers with 16 points, grab 8 boards, and dish out 3 assists. Abby Brunsing would add 14 points and grab 7 boards. Eve Zephier would add 5 points, grab 3 boards and have 3 steals. Ashlyn Koupal would also add 5 points and grab 2 boards. Macy Koupal would chip in 3 points, grab 7 boards, dish out 2 assists and have 2 steals. Caydynce Olson would round out the scoring with 2 points, grab 4 boards, and dish out 2 assists. Wagner was 18-52 from the floor for 35%. The Tanengers were 20-57 for 35% from the floor. Wagner out rebounded Vermillion 32-28 and committed 10 turnovers compared to 14 by Vermillion. “This was not a night for us. We just flat out got pushed around. Fatigue showed tonight as it was our 3rd game in 4 days. Our shots were short and like I said we weren’t physical enough with them when we were on offense. They got up in our grill and we shied away from them. On defense we didn’t locate shooters well enough and they hit 10 triples which was the outcome of the game compared to our 3.”
Read moreWagner traveled to Vermillion Tuesday night to take on the number 1 rated Tanagers. Wagner played a good first quarter and trailed 12-7. The Tanagers showed why they are undefeated and rated number 1 in class A outscoring Wagner 31-5 in the second period, they took a commanding 43-12 lead into half time. The Red Raiders scored 18 points in the third quarter and 5 in the fourth to make the final score 73-35. Dustin Honomichl scored 12 points and had 6 rebounds for Wagner. Toby Zephier added 7 points, Simon Freier 6, Jaden Peters and Nolan Carda each scored 3 each Chris Nelson and Jayden Aungie each scored 2.
Read moreThe Red Raiders faced their toughest test to date on Friday night in Wagner and almost came away with a victory. Wagner hosted the Chamberlain Cubs who came into the game with a 15-1 record. Wagner led 11-7 after the first period and extended that lead to 10 in the second quarter before Chamberlain went on a run before half time to make the score 24-20 in favor of Wagner. The Cubs took the lead in the third period outscoring Wagner 16-7, which made the score 36-31 heading into the final period. Chamberlain took a 9 point lead with around 4 minutes left, Wagner responded by knocking down a few three’s and took a 1 point lead with less than 1 minute left. Chamberlain went down and made a basket as the shot clock expired to take a 46-45 lead. Wagner call3ed timeout with 12 seconds left but turned the ball over and lost the game by 1. Toby Zephier and Alex Cournoyer both led the team in points with 14 each. Toby had 3 steals and Alex grabbed 8 rebounds. Simon Freier scored 8 points including the go ahead three pointer with under a minute to go. Nolan Carda added 5 points and 9 rebounds , Dustin Honomichl and Chris Nelson each added 2 points.
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The Red Raiders fell to Burke on Thursday night last week. The first quarter was a back and forth battle and ended in a 12-12 tie. The Bulldogs pulled ahead in the second period, outscoring Wagner by four, and leading 31-27 at the half. Both teams shot the ball well in the third quarter but Wagner fell behind by two more points, ending the third quarter at 47-53. Burke pulled away down the stretch and won by a final score of 71-58. Wagner was led by Nolan Carda who had 25 points and 16 rebounds. Dustin Honomichl scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Alex Cournoyer added 8 points and 7 rebounds, Jaden Peters scored 4 points, Marcus Zephier 2 and Toby Zephier 1 point.
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