Another weekend of exceptional youth in the Mount Vernon and Lisbon communities has come and gone.
As superintendent Greg Batenhorst has noted at several community meetings, the students in Mount Vernon excel on the field, in academics and in other extracurricular activities.
This past week, nine wrestlers from Mount Vernon and nine from Lisbon participated in the boys state wrestling tournament. A few weeks earlier, the girls program sent three wrestlers on to state for the first time, and Mount Vernon placed fourth at the state duals wrestling tournament. This year saw two more state champions added to Lisbon’s ranks, a runner-up at Mount Vernon and Mount Vernon placing third overall as a team at state.
The same weekend, Mount Vernon had nine groups attend All-State large group speech festival, five of them performing at the festival. Lisbon had another year of exceptional mime, with their group mime advancing to the festival as well.
And then there’s the basketball competitions, with the Mount Vernon girls’ advancing to the regional finals against Solon, where they bowed out. All of that happening in one weekend, snow storms trying to thwart that on Thursday. Mount Vernon boys continue postseason play today against Charles City.
It’s hard to keep track of all the successes of our area schools, and there have been a few that have happened that deserve equal praise. Both Lisbon and Mount Vernon’s jazz bands fared well at the state festival in Anamosa in late January, with Mount Vernon earning a Division I rating and one group from Lisbon earning a Division I rating, and a second group receiving comments for their performance. The Festival of Bands for Mount Vernon is coming up Tuesday, Feb. 28, with Lisbon’s band concert tonight (Thursday, Feb. 23) and their upcoming Roaring Jazz Night scheduled for Friday, Feb. 3.
Jazz choir season is also ongoing, with Mount Vernon’s Uptown Jazz and Lincoln Highway Jazz earning Division I ratings at competition Feb. 6.
And that’s just in winter competitions. Each week there’s several archers who best their own personal records that have their scores posted in agate either in the paper or online.
We say it again and again – these students and their coaches deserve accolades for representing our towns and communities well and making people wonder if there truly is something in the water here.