Sports

       The Vinton-Shellsburg Vikings ended their two-game losing streak with a 59-23 win at Waterloo Columbus Tuesday evening.      Brody Beatty led the Vikings with 19 points. Logan Williams added 14 and Jake Dyson, 10.      The Vikings travel to Van Horne on Friday to play Benton Community.

     With few high schools having swim teams, the Vinton-Shellsburg Vikings find themselves competing against the same swimmers several times throughout the season. Tuesday night, the Vikings hosted a home meet at the Iowa Braille School gym, where they again swam against the Decorah Vikings.        Coach Rob Levis submitted the following summary of the contest:        Despite a full house of supporters and their best performance of the year, the Vikings swimmers were unable to overcome a tough Decorah team last night at the IBSSS pool.

By Teresa Kuhn Give me G-R-A-N-N-I-E-S! Grannies??? These grannies aren't your ordinary grannies. These grannies come with hoops....and a basketball! While most teams have different colored jerseys with numbers, these gals have figured out that a simple thing like the color of socks that you wear also works, "that is how we tell the different teams.

       The Vikings Wrestling Club K-8th grade, Coached by Joel Neve, and assistant coaches Martin Halstead, Spencer Weeks, Steve Johnson and Pat Hyland, won second place at the Alburnett tournament Friday, Jan. 21.  They had a group of 19 wrestlers who competed and brought home a 2nd place trophy.      Pictured here are: Front row, from left: Cooper Sanders, Hunter Worthen, Brock Radeke, Jacob Worthen, Brady Ortner, Carter Weeks, Gabe Sanders, Keegen Scheeler, Michael Hoyle.

     The Vinton-Shellsburg boys and girls basketball team faced tough opponents Friday, and the girls on Saturday.     The girls hosted DeWitt Central Friday evening, while the boys traveled there. Vikettes lost 44-19, while the Vikings lost, 64-53.The Vikettes are now 7-7 in WaMaC  West Conference play, behind Williamsburg and Benton Community.

The Viking swimmers completed a demanding four-day stretch with a dual meet split Thursday night at Waterloo against East High and Decorah.  This was the Vikings third meet in four nights having travelled to Grinnell Monday and hosting East on Tuesday. Battling through tired legs and juggled line-up, Vinton-Shellsburg defeated a fired-up Waterloo East team 90 to 78 while falling to Decorah 106-64.

     The Seventh Annual Mercy Sports Care Rivalry Saturday will be held this weekend at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.  The first game will feature our very own Vinton-Shellsburg Vikettes vs. the Benton Community Bobcats at 11:15 a.m.  Admission is $6.00 (good for all six games) with $1.00 from every ticket being donated to breast cancer research.

  Tuesday night yielded an impressively dominant victory the Viking Swimmers as they sprinted to a 58-35 home victory over Waterloo East that was even more one-sided than the score suggests.  The Vikes turned in first-place finishes in every one of the eleven events, although an errant swim cap officially cost them the victory in the final event in what would have been a 68-27 win.

    Returning to the court for the first time since their dramatic victory over Marion, the Vinton-Shellsburg Vikings hosted Center Point Urbana Tuesday. The Vikings led early 12-4, and 25-20 at halftime. But the Stormin' Pointers kept coming back, keeping the game close and taking the lead three times. The Vikings led 37-365 after the third period, and throughout most of the fourth.

  On Sunday, January 16, the Annual Lions Club/VPRD wrestling tournament took place at the Vinton/Shellsburg High School in Vinton. 170 wrestlers participated in this Sunday afternoon event. All wrestlers received either a trophy or medal for their efforts.                 The Parks & Recreation Department and Vinton Lions Club are very thankful to all the volunteers that helped make this event run smoothly.