PREP NOTEBOOK: Midgets hosting golf meet today

The Dickinson High girls golf team is looking for the right meet.

The Midgets have taken third in all four of their meets this season and are hoping to move up when they host the Dickinson High Invite at 10 a.m. today at Heart River Golf Course.

"Whenever you get a chance to play at home, it's always a good thing," Dickinson coach Olivia Wellenstein said. "You always hope you do well."

Dickinson is coming off a season-best team score of 358 Monday at the Minot Country Club. Minot has dominated most of its meets, though it came in second to Bismarck Century by one stroke on the second day of the East-West Classic. Dickinson has an average of 375.8.

The better battle has been for second place between Dickinson and Century, which has won every time. In two of the meets, just seven strokes separated the two teams.

"We're closing in on second place," Wellenstein said. "Minot is probably uncatchable. (Second is) between us and Century. I think we could do it."

To do that, Wellenstein said the Midgets need to get better around the green.

"We'd like to see a little more improvement on our short game with all of the girls," Wellenstein said.

DHS meets Patriots in home opener

After opening West Region play with back-to-back 9-0 wins over Minot Ryan and Minot High, the Midgets were humbled 7-2 by Williston a week ago.

"We had a lot of errors in that match," Dickinson co-coach Larry Dockter said. "We've been working on being a little more consistent with our game."

Dickinson meets Bismarck Century in its home opener at 3:30 p.m. today.

"They finally get to play on their home court," Dockter said. "Century is a team that we match up well with. It should be a good match."

The structure of the teams is almost completely opposite. Dickinson, loaded with upperclassmen, relies on four seniors, a junior and a sophomore to get things done while Century doesn't have a senior on the team.

Dockter said the key to beating Century is using that experience at the top.

"Our top two guys have to get wins for us," Dockter said. "If they get wins, we have a good shot at winning."

Dickinson also has a conference battle on Tuesday, hosting Bismarck High at 3:30 p.m.

First big test upcoming for Beach

There isn't much that Beach didn't get accomplished in its first game at the 9-man level.

The Buccaneers crushed Trenton-Trinity Christian 50-6 last Friday, getting a trio of TDs from sophomore Lucas Buchholz.

"That surprised me," Beach coach Mike Zier said.

Buchholz scored on runs of 41, 24 and 14 and he did it with just four carries, finishing with 90 yards. Though Zier credited his team, he made note of the Tigers' youth and inexperience.

"We were up against kind of an undermanned team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores," Zier said. "We have a lot of seniors and set the tone and executed pretty well."

It won't be that easy this week.

The Bucs visit defending Region 6 champion Central McLean on Friday in a game that could have playoff implications for both teams. Central McLean, in the third year of a co-op between Turtle Lake-Mercer and Underwood, is coming off its second regular season loss in the program's short history. The Cougars fell to top-ranked Napoleon-Gackle-Streeter 18-0.

"They had seven or nine turnovers or something," Zier said. "I'm sure that will be an emphasis in practice this week. A good portion of them things they can clean up."

At the top of Zier's agenda is stopping all-state running back Grant Singer, who has torn many region teams to shreds. He was held under 100 yards by Napoleon-G-S, but Zier said he still looked pretty good.

"I don't think anyone can stop him; you've just got to contain him," Zier said. "He was good even in the Napoleon game. They just had some untimely turnovers."

Zier said he has a good idea of what it will take to beat the Cougars.

"We're going to have to control the clock and play field-position football," Zier said. "Don't turn the ball over and try and take advantage of miscues."

First football polls released

Dickinson High received votes in the first Class AAA poll, which was released on Monday.

Bismarck got all nine first place votes while Fargo South was second. Minot, Grand Forks Central were third and fourth, respectively. Mandan and Bismarck Century tied for fifth while West Fargo, the Midgets and Grand Forks Red River all received votes.

In the AA poll, Dickinson Trinity was ranked third with 22 points. Wahpeton received eight of nine first-place votes at the top with Devils Lake receiving the other and taking the second spot. Bismarck St. Mary's (fourth) and Lisbon (fifth) rounded out the poll while Fargo Shanley, Fargo Oak Grove and Grafton received votes.

Defending Class AA champion Watford City was the top-ranked team in the Class A poll this week, which saw the Wolves beat Stanley-Powers Lake 40-0 in their first game after dropping down.

Watford City received six first-place votes at the top spot while Harvey received one at the second spot.

Hazen, which got two first-place votes, was third in the poll while Velva, also receiving one first-place vote, was fourth. North Prairie rounded out the poll with Williams County, Linton-HMB and Cavalier receiving votes.

The 9-man poll saw a familiar team at the top. Napoleon-Gackle-Streeter received seven of nine first-place votes in tallying 45 points. Mott-Regent, another powerhouse program, received two first-place votes after throttling Kenmare-Bowbells-Burke Central 52-8 last Saturday.

Wyndmere-Lidgerwood also received a first-place vote and was third in the poll. Thompson and Kidder County were fourth and fifth, respectively, with Wells County, Central McLean, Beach, Towner-Granville-Upham and Dakota Prairie receiving votes.

Bowman County downs Wildfire in wild first match

In the first district volleyball contest in southwestern North Dakota, Bowman County rallied from a two-game deficit to beat Mott-Regent 3-2 in District 13 play.

Mott-Regent won the first two games 25-13 and 25-20 before Bowman County kicked it into high gear, winning the next two 25-19 and 25-23. The Bulldogs squeezed out a 15-13 win in Game 5 to take the match.

In other volleyball action, Hazen went 5-1 to win the championship at its Coal Country Tournament last weekend.

Dickinson Trinity claimed the championship in the consolation Silver Division.