THE BEAR FACTS

January 4, 2025

Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!

I’m Trayton Cink!

And I’m Brooke Ludwig! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”. Happy New Year from all of us at Bishop Garrigan High School.

While basketball is the biggest winter sport, it’s not the only one. Next Monday, Bishop Garrigan will be hosting its first-ever home swim meet. The meet will be at the Algona YMCA, starting at 5:30pm, and fans are welcome to watch. If you can’t make it to the meet, you can also follow the action on the Algona Radio YouTube livestream.

Eight Garrigan students are part of the first-ever boys’ swim team. Sophomore Matt Besch has been leading the Bears all season. He won the 100-yard butterfly in a meet at Ft. Dodge before Christmas. The team also features sophomores Aidan Deitering, Sawyer Herrick, Dalton Klenz, Aiden Lichter, Leo Snyder, and Eli Casey, and freshmen Alec Deitering. Several Algona High students also compete for the Golden Bears. Good luck in your home meet, swimmers!

In addition to having Algona students swim for Garrigan, several Garrigan students have been wrestling for the Algona Bulldogs. In a meet right before Christmas versus Iowa Falls—Alden and Clarion Goldfield Dows, three Bears got varsity wins in wrestling. Junior Carter McGregor and freshman C.J. McGregor both pinned their opponents, while freshman Teague Alesch won by decision. Congratulations, varsity wrestlers, and good luck today at Forest City!

Right before Christmas the Golden Bears traveled across town to take on the Algona Bulldogs in basketball. This year Garrigan won both the girls and boys crosstown matchups. The Garrigan girls trailed at halftime but had a big second half to come out with a 49 – 40 victory. Graclyn Eastman had fifteen points in the win, Sacha Alesch scored 13, and Emmi Bartolo chipped in 11 points.

On the boys side the Bears beat the Bulldogs 59 – 38. Amaury Thomas had a double double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Carter Schwab contributed 10 points, and Mike Joyce and Tate Foertsch each scored 9. Both the boys and girls have a busy week in basketball coming up, as they host Forest City and Eagle Grove and then play at West Hancock. Good luck, Bears!

At the Algona/Garrigan basketball game the Algona Rotary presented a check for four thousand seven hundred seven dollars and ninety-two cents that was split between the booster clubs at Algona and Bishop Garrigan. That money primarily came from sales at the Rotary Do-Mobile at football games, and the money will help to support teams at both schools. Thanks to the Rotary for their generous contribution.

The Algona Hy-Vee store also recently made a generous donation through its Sacks for Sacks promotion. For each sack area football teams got, Hy-Vee donated a sack of groceries to the Algona Food Pantry. During the football season Garrigan’s defense racked up 29 sacks, which was more than any other team in the area. Senior Keaton Helleseth alone got 14 of those sacks. Congratulations to the football players for their effort, and thanks to Hy-Vee for their donation.

We’ll have semester tests next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at Garrigan. There’s a special schedule, and we’ll have open campus whenever we don’t have tests. Periods 1, 4, 7 have tests on Wednesday. We’ll have the period 2, 5, and 8 tests Thursday, and on Friday there’s the tests for periods 3, 6, and 9.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Griffin Geving Here to tell you about him is Hanna Merron.

Griffin Geving is an Algona native whose biggest activity is probably music. He had the central role in the musical last fall, and he’s been in choir and band all through high school. He also enjoys playing guitar and spending time with friends and pets. Away from Garrigan you might see him at Scooter’s Coffee or Premier Pizza. We wish Griffin all the best in the future.

Thanks, Hanna! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, this morning there’s a varsity wrestling meet at Osage. Then Monday is the Feast of the Epiphany.

Monday night the boys swim team hosts their first-ever home meet at the Algona YMCA. Also on Monday there’s JV wrestling at Mason City High. Then on Tuesday the swim team travels to Mason City.

Tuesday night the basketball teams will host a quad with Forest City. Then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday there’s semester tests. Thursday afternoon there’s a school board meeting at Garrigan.

Thursday night there’s a basketball quad, with the Bears hosting Eagle Grove. There’s JJV basketball, with the boys hosting Garner Hayfield Ventura. Also on Thursday there’s wrestling at Webster City.

The first semester ends on Friday. That night the Bears travel to Britt for a basketball quad with West Hancock. Finally next Saturday there’s swimming at Des Moines Hoover and wrestling in Forest City.

That’s our first “Bear Facts” for 2025. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.