On Monday, Sept. 26 the Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies travelled to Canton to compete in the Region 2A meet to qualify for state that is being held at Moccasin Creek, Aberdeen, SD Oct.

On Sept. 30, the Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies celebrated Military Appreciation night under the Friday night lights.

By Beth Sherard-Hutcheson times1reporter@gmail.com The Elk Point-Jefferson Husky volleyball team took on the Sioux Falls Christian Chargers Sept. 29 and fell in 3 hard-fought sets – 16-25; 26-- 28; 14-25.

On a pleasant but incredibly windy day, the Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies Cross Country traveled to Lennox for the Cross Country Invitational. This highly competitive meet includes powerhouse teams from South Dakota, and provides a ‘next level’ competition for Elk Point. Even with the added competition, Joe Cross continued his strong season with his 6th victory of the year, pacing the boys’ varsity 5K race to a 16:08 winning time. Sioux Falls Christian won the boys team competition. For the varsity girls in the 5K race, Ashley Stark led the way running 21:46 to finish 36th. Ellie Maddox from Sioux Falls Christian took the win, and SFC took the team title placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th.

The annua l Union County Quad cross-country meet was on Thursday, Sept. 22. Featuring top ranked runners from the four teams of Alcester-Hudson, Dakota Valley, Beresford, and Elk Point-Jefferson, the race promised some fast times.

The EPJ Huskies Cross Country team competed in the Alcester-Hudson Invitational meet on Monday, Sept. 19. Teams participating included Canton, Dakota Valley, Vermillion, Garretson, Elk Point-Jefferson, Alcester-Hudson, West Sioux, Parker, Akron-Westfield and Irene-Wakonda. In the heart of the season, EPJ, along with other schools, chose to rest some of their athletes. In spite of this, the Huskies saw success at this meet in each of the four races.

Much like on a game show where everyone wins a prize, it seemed like every Husky was going to get a touchdown during their Homecoming game Sept. 23 against the Flandreau Flyers. The Huskies had 6 different players break the plane and add to the Huskies victory, with successful passes and handoffs from Noah McDermott and Keaton Gale. Carson Timmins was 7/8 on PATs for the night. “[The] best part of the game for me was the fact that we had 6 different guys score touchdowns, and 2 different QB’s throw TD passes,” head coach Jake Terry said. “It’s great when we can get that many guys those opportunities.”

It was a battle of the dogs on the Huskies home court Sept. 20. The Huskies prevailed winning their homecoming game against the Beresford Watchdogs – 25-22; 25-23; 25-12. Alyssa Chytka led the Huskies on defense with 18 digs. Bentlee Kollbaum and Danica Torrez each recorded 9 digs. Torrez added 6 kills and was closely followed by teammates Kollbaum (5), Ashley Brewer, Josie Curry and Natalie Heuertz (all with 4).

Elk Point-Jefferson School Board members were honored by the Associated School Boards of South Dakota for their collective efforts to enhance their knowledge of school board work throughout the 2021-22 school year. The Elk Point-Jefferson School Board earned a Silver level award in ASBSD’s statewide board recognition program: ALL, which stands for Act, Learn, Lead and awards points for a board’s collective participation in activities and trainings related to school board work and for demonstrating leadership in public education at the local, state and national level, throughout the previous school year. To earn the Silver level award, the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board accumulated 445 points. “School boards take on different tasks and face new challenges every year and the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board members put in a lot of work to further their knowledge of and learn new things about school board work that will be a great benefit to their district,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany said. “They’ve put in time and effort to better themselves and deserve this recognition.” In 2021-22 a record 91 public school boards – more than 60 percent of the public boards in South Dakota – earned an ALL award. This is the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board’s fourth ALL award. “South Dakota public school boards do amazing work and put in a great deal of effort for their students, staff and community members and for more than 90 of them to earn this honor is a testament to that effort,” Pogany said. “That the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board has earned this award multiple times shows that year-in and year-out this group strives to excel in their work as school board members.”

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