MPCHS News
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Second Place Finish, Two Caption Awards at Iowa City
published 10/5/14
A voluntary move to Class 4A proved to be worthwhile Saturday as the Mt. Pleasant Panther Marching Band placed second among bigger schools at the 18th annual Little Hawk Marching Bank Invitational hosted by City High in Iowa City.
Facing the prospect of being the only school competing in 3A, the decision was made to move to 4A to experience some competition.
Besides the second place trophy for 4A, the 187 member band took home honors for Best Color Guard and Best Drumline among all competing schools.
Record 19 Bands Coming to Mt. Pleasant Band Invitational
published 9/17/14
Now in the 16th year, the Mt. Pleasant Marching Invitational will have a record 19 bands competing on September 20 at Mapleleaf Athletic Complex.
High School bands that have registered to attend are Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Bettendorf, Davenport Central, Muscatine, Ottumwa, Wapello, Mediapolis, Illini West, Central Lee, West Burlington, Marion, Keokuk, Maquoketa, Wilton, Benton, Mt. Vernon, Washington, West Delaware and Fort Madison.
The Mt. Pleasant Middle School band, with 110 members and the Mt. Pleasant High School Panther Marching Band, with 187 members will perform in exhibition.
The invitational begins at 5:30pm. Concessions, featuring ribeye steak sandwiches, smoked turkey wraps, brats, hot dogs and much more will be available throughout the evening.
More information on this event and other happenings in the K-12 music program in the MPCSD is available at www.mpmusic.org.
Ralls Named to All-District Soccer Team
published 6/2/14
Lauren Ralls has been named to the Iowa Girls Coaches Association's Class 2A East All-District Second Team. Ralls, a sophomore, started 18 of the Panthers 19 soccer games this past season, scoring 15 goals and getting 3 assists.
Phipps Wins Pentathlon
published 5/29/14
Kelsi Phipps from MPCHS won the Iowa Association of Track Coaches Pentathlon held at Washington on Tuesday. Phipps scored 2900 points to capture the gold. Hannah Becker finished fifth with 2445 points. The athletes competed in the 100 meter hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump and 800 meters. Their track coach is Dave Hutchcroft.
MP Girls Place Second at State
published 5/29/14
The Mt. Pleasant High School girls track team finished off a very successful year by placing second at the State Coed Track Champtionships in Des Moines last week. The Panthers garnered a school record 73 points, placing behind first place Davenport Assumption who scored a class 3A record 107 points.
Mt. Pleasant got state championships from Leslie Taylor in the long jump, the third straight year she has won that event and only the sixth in state history to three-peat. The shuttle hurdle relay of Sidney Taylor, Leslie Taylor, Hannah Becker and Kelsi Phipps set a class record in the prelims and captured their third straight shuttle title. Phipps won the 100 meter hurdles and L Taylor ran second in that event. Mary Wester finished second in both the shot put and discus. Phipps and Becker finished second and third respectively in the 400 meter hurdles. The 4x800 relay placed fifth with Ellie Conrad, Natalie Ita, Hattie Liechty and Chloe Haffarnan. The 4x100 relay finished fourth with L Taylor, Becker, Phipps and Danille Coffin.
The boys track team grabbed 13th place in the team race with 21 points. Scoring for the Panthers were Dustin Amos 2nd in the high jump, Ben Canby 3rd in the discus, Cole Phillips 8th in the 110 high hurdles and the shuttle hurdle relay finished 3rd with Phillips, Trey Magnani, Blake Knudsen and Spencer White.
Student Wins Industrial Tech Awards
published 5/12/14
Nick Sandeen, Russell Heerdt and Rebecca Lehman participated in the Southeast Polk Industrial Technology Expo Friday in Des Moines. This is considered the "state tournament" for Industrial Technology. Students work on projects throught the school year and bring those projects to the expo to be judged. First the judges evaluate the projects individually, awarding blue, red and white ribbons. Then from among all the blue ribbons they select three outstanding projects and award gold, silver and bronze medallions. For seniors, East Polk Rotary offers a scholarship contest awarding three $500 and one $1,000 scholarship. All three of the MPCHS students were awarded gold medallions. Rebecca Lehman also won the $1,000 scholarship competition. Congratluations!
Girls Win Conference Title; Boys Second
published 10/19/13
The Southeast Conference cross country meet was held at Keokuk yesterday. Mt. Pleasant won the girls' conference title and the Panther boys finished 2nd to Fort Madison.
The Mt. Pleasant girls had the low score of 27. Fort Madison followed with 45, Fairfield 63, Washington 106 and Keokuk 146. Beth Wells was 3rd individually in 16:28, Ellie Conrad 4th, Hannah Weber 6th, Chloe Haffarnan was 9th, Natalie Ita 11th and Megan Shumaker finished 23rd.
Fort Madison captured the boys' title with a 27 schore. Panthers with a 34 score, Fairfield 91, Washington 110 and Keokuk 114.
Freshman Logan Murray was the conference individual with 15:46, Jack Pieper 6th, Josh Beelman 8th, Adam Bodenham 9th, Ryan Hutchison 10th, Dalton Krum 12th and Alex Warren 22nd.
MP Girls Golf Team Takes First!
from KILJ, published 5/8/13
Mt. Pleasant won the girls Southeast Conference golf tournament Tuesday. MPHS shot a 396, Washington shot 424, Fairfield 460 and Keokuk 555. Medalist was Megan Buttendorp of Washington 91. For MPHS Courtney Mabeus shot 96, Brianne Holtkamp 98, Emily Cox and Elle Schliesman shot 101, Haley Booton had a 105 and Whitney Barton 144. Mabeus, Holtkamp, Cox and Schliesman were named all conference.
Bad News, Good News for Panthers
from The HawkEye Newspaper, published 4/27/12
http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Drake-Relays-sidebar-042712
By Matt Levins
Yet the Panthers had more than their share of ups and downs.
Mount Pleasant got some bad news early in the day when senior Brandon Moorman had to scratch out of his three events after suffering a pulled hamstring. Moorman, an Iowa State University recruit who is the defending state champion in the boys 110-meter hurdles, was one of the favorites in that event. The preliminaries of the 110 hurdles are scheduled for 8:16 a.m. today, with the final at 11:29 a.m.
Moorman also will be pulled from the Panthers' shuttle hurdle and 4x100 relays. Moorman was to anchor both of those events.
Moorman tweaked his hamstring Tuesday during the 100-meter dash at Davis County.
"We have decided to sit him out the whole weekend," Mount Pleasant boys coach Scot Lamm said. "We'll let him take Monday off at Fairfield and hopefully get him back for the conference meet on Thursday. We talked about what is really important and that is district and state."
Hours later, Mount Pleasant got some much-needed good news. Sophomore Leslie Taylor, who missed last year's Drake Relays with an injury, was added to the girls long jump field. That event is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today. Taylor originally missed making the 24-jumper field by 1 1/2 inches, but was added when another competitor scratched due to injury.
"She's so excited. I called her at school. She was really disappointed that she didn't make it. Now she is very excited to be in," Mount Pleasant girls coach Dave Hutchcroft said. "She's been jumping great. She's gone over 17 feet several times, but has just had trouble hitting the board. She dearly wanted a chance to get up here and compete at the Drake Relays."
Taylor now will compete in four events this weekend. She will be in the 100 hurdles prelims at 8 a.m. today and will run on both the shuttle hurdle and 4x100 relay teams for Mount Pleasant.
"From my standpoint it's huge for her to get up there and get some jumps in before the state meet," Hutchcroft said. "It's a win-win situation for everybody. We're all happy for her. She's really excited about it."
MOUNT PLEASANT IOWA PANTHERS WIN 3A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE!
from The HawkEye Newspaper, published 3/11/12
http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/MPHSvWDHS-031112-sidebar
Panthers silence the doubters by grabbing the trophy.
By CHAD DRURY
DES MOINES - There were doubters.
They were silenced.
The Mount Pleasant High School boys basketball team won its first state championship Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena, rallying past Western Dubuque 66-62 in double-overtime. It was the Panthers' first title in 94 years, several generations ago.
The championship was the culmination of hard work that goes back years. The Panthers qualified for the tournament the last two years, but each one ended in disappointment. In recent history, there were also three substate disappointments - a squandered lead that led to a one-point loss, a loss on a banked buzzer-beater against Fairfield, and Marion's Amry Shelby going off for 40 points in another substate final.
However, it was a fresh start this season. There were five new starters who essentially carried the torch left by the likes of Henry Krieger-Coble and Scott Hahn, catalysts for the two tournament runs.
"We all put in a lot of hard work and it paid off," forward Nick Lyon said.
"All of us played AAU ball in the summer," forward Blake Vandenberg said. "We knew what we had to work with and we did good work together."
It helped that there were a few breaks early in this tournament. Top-ranked MOC-Floyd Valley and No. 2 Waverly-Shell Rock both lost in the quarterfinals. The bracket opened up for No. 3 Mount Pleasant, and the Panthers didn't let it get to their heads.
"You have to have luck up here. I'm not saying we would have beaten Waverly-Shell Rock. ..." Mount Pleasant coach Paul Rundquist said. "But we were confident in what we did. We really didn't change anything today. If Western Dubuque was going to beat us, they were going to beat us playing the way we play. If they did that, then hat's off to them.
"That said, I have a lot of compassion for that team," Rundquist said. "They were deserving for this as well."
Rundquist never got to experience the thrill of a championship when he played at Maquoketa Valley. This is new to him, just as it is to his players.
"It's humbling, but also so exciting," he said. "We were so dejected last year because we were so close. I was anxious to see how our kids would handle adversity, and they did. It's gratifying to see what they accomplished tonight."
Mount Pleasant will lose three starters - Lyon, Vandenberg and guard Jordan Ashton. All three scored in double figures in their final high school game. They proved the doubters wrong, in one of the most improbable finishes in state tournament history.
"Everyone always said how we'd be down," Ashton said. "The three seniors got together and we had to have it right now. We showed up every night with a target on our back after those teams lost."
"We went to a lot of camps over the summer," Vandenberg said. "That made us tougher."It also made them champions.
Notes: Mount Pleasant won the 3A sportsmanship award for the third year in a row. ... KILJ radio color analyst Kent Bennett was named the Fan of the Game by the IHSAA. ... Jordan Ashton was named the captain of the Class 3A all-tournament team, while teammate Nick Lyon also was named to the team.
Shooters Win State Championship: First year trap shooting team makes strides during season.
from The HawkEye Newspaper, published 6/9/11
http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Trap-shooting-champs-060911
By CHAD DRURY
MOUNT PLEASANT - The glory really doesn't matter to John Klopfenstein.
It just happened to be there at the end.
Klopfenstein, who coaches Mount Pleasant High School's trap shooting team, was more impressed by seeing a group of boys come together over a two-month span, which ended last weekend with a state championship in the Scholastic Clay Target Program trap shooting tournament in Cedar Falls.
Mount Pleasant won the junior varsity division with an 873 out of 1,000 total points. It beat friendly foe Fort Madison by 14 for the title.
"We started a trap team this year. It's something that's growing in southeast Iowa, but is already big in northern Iowa," said Klopfenstein, who runs a local gun shop in Mount Pleasant. "I really just enjoy seeing kids succeed in something they are capable of doing. Trap shooting isn't restricted to anyone. There is no handicap."
The Squad 2 team of JD Klopfenstein, Daniel Yaley, Jerratt Norton, Philip Yaley and Trevor Staats won the title, but there were 20 individuals in the program. With a year under their belt, the team will be in the Senior Varsity division next season. Mount Pleasant's Squad 1 team of Nick Ballou, Robbie Rich, Sam Kuckes, Jordan Walter and Jayson Phillips was fourth in its division with a 719.
"It's amazing what they did in three month's time," John Klopfenstein said. "Some of the boys had never picked up a gun before, but they were bound and determined to go to state. Being in this fills a niche, and it's one of the safest sports out there."
Trap shooting has been around for centuries, but the modern form uses clay pigeons as targets and typically a 12-gauge shotgun.
The Scholastic Clay Target Program balances safety with academics. Klopfenstein made sure the team carried a "C" average in order to compete. Safety was enforced right away.
"It's something I drilled in every day. There is absolutely zero tolerance," he said. "When there are zero problems, that says a lot. It takes a lot of discipline and teamwork. It's a very etiquette-based sport."
Trap shooting is not a sanctioned high school sport in Iowa, and the state tournaments are run through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Several schools across the state have formed their own team, but they are only at the club level. There were 561 competitors in the state tournament.
"Since this is the first year of our program, there has been a lot of parent participation," Klopfenstein said. "We get donations from Pheasants Forever and Whitetails (Unlimited), but the school spends nothing on the program. We're pretty self-sufficient."
The team will compete in the SCTP trap shooting event for the Iowa Games June 18 in Montrose.
"It is a big, up-and-coming thing," Klopfenstein said. "I think it's something we're going to see a lot more of."