Sports, Local Schools

After back-to-back away meets against swimming powers Hibbing and Grand Rapids, the Broncos were just happy to be home Thursday against an equal opponent in Eveleth-Gilbert.
“It was just nice to go against competition that was actually our competition,” senior Dorothy Blaine-Johnson said.
The young International Falls squad lost 101-81 in the home opener, but trailed only 65-57 with four races to swim. The Broncos held a 54-53 lead with five races left before the Golden Bears’ depth took over.

The Broncos evened their record at 2-2 overall Thursday with a 3-0 victory over Cherry on the road (25-20, 27-25, 25-17).
Interim head coach Jamie Bodette also improved her mark to 2-1 after taking over for Erin Shikowsky, who hopes to return the week of Sept. 15 after giving birth to her second child.
Sydney Gordon led the way with 10 kills, while Taylor Raboin had 13 digs.
Danika Stelton dished out 16 set assists and Stella Fredrickson posted two blocks.

In its second five-game match in three days, the Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings defeated Northland on the road 3-2 (21-25, 25-12, 27-25, 14-25, 15-8).
L-BF was coming off a 3-2 (26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 15-8) victory Tuesday over Bigfork.
Whitney Junker piled up 19 kills and Haylee Gates collected 13 kills, but setter Kristi Bloom set the tone with 37 set assists.
Kelly Millerbernd added 35 digs.
Northland’s serving kept them in the contest, and proved to be decisive in the convincing victory in Game 4.

L-BF recovers from 2-0 deficit and wins 3-2

LITTLEFORK — After a fuzzy start filled with small errors and frustrating moments, the Littlefork-Big Falls volleyball team clawed its way back from two games down to defeat the Bigfork Huskies in a five set thriller Tuesday night at Littlefork Gymnasium. The final score read 26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 15-8.

Falls’ young squad impresses coaches

The International Falls girls swim team didn’t expect to win at Grand Rapids on Tuesday, but they didn’t expect to come away with such a strong showing, either.
Coach Jill Herzig said that she and assistant coach Kayla Gilbert were “very happy with the results” against a very powerful Grand Rapids team.
The Falls lost 99-68 and Herzig said it could have been worse. With three seniors and one junior, she is working to build depth and strength with the younger swimmers.
“Our girls swam very well,” she added.

Sign up and practice for swimming for girls in grades four through six is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday in the Falls High School pool. The cost is $35. Practices are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each week.

On paper, the nine-man football match-up between Littlefork-Big Falls and Mountain Iron-Buhl on Friday looked to be a close game between familiar rivals, and a good indicator of who will do what in the coming season.
If that’s the case, MIB can start looking for answers and L-BF can start making plans to play deep into November after a 40-7 Littlefork-Big Falls victory that was dominated by the Vikings on almost every front.
Fullback Bryce Ziemba rambled for 119 yards on 21 carries and five touchdowns to lead the Vikings.

The Littlefork- Big Falls girls volleyball team used strong finishes in games one and three to capture a three games to one victory over the Falls Broncos in a match played Thursday at the Falls High gym.
A 12-3 run to end game one and a 15-5 run in game three enabled the Vikings to win 25-16, 15-25, 25-12 and 25-21.

Sometimes, it’s tough to beat the numbers.
The International Falls Bronco girl’s swimming and diving team opened their 2008 season Thursday with a hard-fought, but mathematically tough duel meet loss in Hibbing, 98-64.
In swimming, duel meet scoring gives a distinct advantage to larger teams, and the Falls comes in this season with a slightly smaller group.
“The team total,” first-year coach Jill Herzig said, “is not as important as the personal records right now. We knew we’d be more on a building year and I’m very excited about the talent we have this year.”

International Falls Junior High boys and girls placed well Friday at the Gene Ritsche Memorial Cross Country Meet held in Babbitt. The Falls took first in sophomore boys and fourth in varsity girls.
“It was good to finally get out on a course,” said coach Paul Hjelle. “The teams did pretty good considering we were missing quite a few runners.
“We have a large number of sophomore boys and they did a nice job today and will be fighting for a spot on the varsity team,” he added.