BLOOMFIELD  — The Hartington Wildcats found their offense Friday.

The Cats put three athletes into double figures to defeat Bloomfield 54-40.

Hartington improves to 3-7 on the year with the win.

Riley Noecker, Neil Kramer and Nathan McPhillips all hit for double figures for Hartington. Noecker and Kramer were seeing their first action of the season after transferring from Cedar Catholic last Fall.

Hartington earned a 10-9 first-quarter advantage over the Bees in the first frame.

HARTINGTON — Top-rated Cedar Catholic was put to the test — big time.

The Trojans dispatched state-rated Creighton 67-58 on Tuesday, then went down to the wire before defeating Class C1’s state-rated Wayne in a 58-56 thriller here Friday, before winding up the week with a contest against always tough West Point CC.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Cedar next week as the Trojans hit the road Monday to take on previously rated Laurel-Concord on Monday and battle state-rated Ponca Tuesday.

Cedar took control of the game early against Wayne, racing out to a 6-0 lead before the Blue Devils could get their offense going.

Wayne relied on the long ball as the Devils’ Jacob Zeiss connected on back-to-back three-pointers to knot the score at 6-6 with 4:15 left in the opening frame.

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MADISON — Cedar Catholic’s Chad Koch earned his second straight gold medal during action here Friday.

Madison earned the team title and five individual championships to outscore runner-up Stanton by more than 115 points.

Koch defeated Stanton’s Bryant Borgmann in a 5-2 decision to earn the gold medal.

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PIERCE — The Cedar Catholic Lady Trojans put together a complete game effort here Friday to breeze to a 49-35 MidStates Conference win over Pierce.

Cedar Catholic Coach Terry Kathol was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We really put a complete game together,” Kathol said. “Offensively we executed fairly well against a 1-3-1 which we do not see often. This is a game that should give the girls a lot of confidence.”

PIERCE — The streak is finally over.

The Cedar Catholic Trojans have not beaten Pierce in a very long time. That streak ended when Cedar handed the Blue Jays a 62-41 setback here to improve to 8-0 on the year.

It looked as though Pierce still had Cedar’s number early in Friday’s MidState Conference match-up, racing out to a  10-4 early lead. Cedar rallied back in the frame, thanks to the hot hand of Kevin Wintz, who put in Cedar’s next seven points to single-handedly cut the deficit to 13-11 with 2:25 left in the first frame.

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This week’s storms, arctic cold and high winds have turned a pristine winter wonderland into a real disaster area.

Snow and high winds caused drifting snow and poor visibility, canceling three days of school and several school and community activities last week.

The high winds packed the snow down, giving it a hard crust and making it difficult to move the large drifts. Several state and county snow plows got stuck while trying to clear the roads.

HARTINGON — Officials at the four schools involved in the Classic basketball tournament agreed to cancel this year’s event, rather than try to reschedule it.

The tournament was originally scheduled to tip off on Thursday, but this week’s storm forced the event to be rescheduled to Friday and Saturday.

Since school was again cancelled on Friday, school officials decided to skip this year’s tournament.

HARTINGTON  — Christmas Day plans went awry for several Cedar County residents.

Megan and Holly Kneifl spent close to two hours on Christmas Day sitting in a vehicle on Hwy. 81 waiting for help to arrive.

Megan and Holly were with their father, Kelly Kneifl when their vehicle hit the back of a white cargo van that was setting on Hwy 81 about 4 miles north of the 81/84 Hwy jct.

“We were coming back from Yankton. There was a truck, an SUV and a huge van that had all crashed – we ran into the back of the van,” said Megan. “We had a full tank of gas so we knew we could stay warm – but we were worried about the exhaust getting plugged with snow.”

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HARTINGTON — The Christmas of 2009 was definitely one for the books.

Even though the National Weather Service predicted the storm three days in advance of it hitting Cedar County,  people still tried to travel during the holidays which resulted in numerous accidents and stranded people.

Hartington ambulance, Hartington Fire, the Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska State Dept of Roads and the Cedar County Emergency Management team worked together to help cover accidents and rescue stranded motorists due to accidents on Highway 81, according to Emergency Management Director Kevin Garvin.

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HARTINGTON — America’s first black president took office and the country collectively held its breath as the economy teetered on the edge of economic collapse in 2009.

Despite all the national challenges, Hartington area residents pulled together to get through  2009,  although it was definitely a year to remember.

Locally, the biggest story of the year mirrored the national news with the economy taking top billing.

Layoffs hit the area in late 2008 and continued here through 2009, hitting local residents when Hydraulics Components laid off 27 workers in February, making the economy the top local story of 2009.

Several Yankton, Norfolk and Sioux City industries also had layoffs, which impacted local residents and businesses.

The construction of a new addition to the 117 year-old Cedar County Courthouse was the year’s second-biggest Cedar County News story of 2009.

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HARTINGTON — Precautions should be taken before heading out in a snow storm – although the best option may be to stay put.

A quick check on weather forecasts before traveling during the winter months is a  good idea according to Cedar County Emergency Management Director Kevin Garvin.

“If weather reports indicate travel is not advised that roads are impassable with large snow drifts – it would be an excellent idea not to travel unless it was an absolute emergency,” Garvin said.

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