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EAGLE LAKE – Long hours under grueling conditions by city crews helped minimize a public-safety emergency during last week’s torrential downpour, which also spawned a tornado.

COLUMBUS

WEIMAR – The Weimar VFW Auxiliary Post 5875 honored nurses with 100 dozen cookies on Jan. 25.

LAGRANGE – The Red Door Fund for Mental Health is encouraging the community to paint their homes, businesses, classrooms or the fronts of their driveway red to show support for mental health this February.

LIONS CLUB WELCOMES NEW MEMBER

The McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. has announced the Honor Roll for the 2022 fall semester. The honor roll lists undergraduate students earning at least a 3.0 or B average while carrying 12 or more semester hours. A local student on the list is Macee Krpec of Nada.

WEIMAR – The Schulenburg/Weimar area of Parents as Teachers is hosting its annual fundraiser to give a “hats off” to the community for supporting the organization for more than 20 years.

The Cards’ swim team will continue their season at the Feb. 9 UIL State Meet prelims in San Antonio after strong outings at the Regional meet. The relay team of Rayce Johnson, Cade Neumann, Justin Strauss and Colby Williams qualified for state in the 200-yard (fifth place) and 400-yard freestyle relay (eighth place), and also in the 200-yard medley (sixth place). Rayce also qualified in the 50-yard freestyle with a seventh-place finish. Pictured from left to right is Justin Strauss, Colby Williams, Rayce Johnson, Cade Neumann and Coach Paula Swindle.

The Columbus soccer team is riding high after last week’s 5-0 win over Hallettsville on Monday and Saturday afternoon’s 2-1 win at home against Palacios. Javier Mendoza had a goal and two assists against the Brahmas. One assist went to Rafael Gonzalez, and the other went to standout freshman Jesus Mendoza who scored two goals. Tomas Elias assisted Javier on the goal and scored one of his own as well.

The Cards have not been able to avoid close games in recent weeks as last week they completed their third game in a row with a one possession margin of victory, and their second game in a row that reached an overtime period. Columbus has found a way to pick up wins in each of those games including against Yoakum at home Tuesday night. The close games continued to end the week as the Cards faced last year’s district winners in a game that came down to the wire and tightened the district title race.

Both the girls’ and boys’ golf teams for Columbus had to deal with some chilly conditions in their respective tournaments last week. The Cards took on the Rattler Invitational Tournament on Monday, Jan. 23 and the Lady Cards followed with a Wednesday trip to Navasota. Despite the cold temperatures, both teams came away with strong results as they combined for several sub-100 scores. Their performances were reflected in the overall team standings as well. The Lady Cards finished in second place as a team while the Cards finished in the top half of the overall standings.

Sophomore Carson Wray opened the golf season with a strong performance during the fall.

BIG GAMES HIGHLIGHT LADY CARDS WEEK

The Lady Cards had a strong opening to their week of competition last week. They came out on fire with an onslaught of goals in a win to begin the week. However, their fortunes changed in their second game of the week when they played a tight game at home over the weekend and eventually finished regulation with a tie on the scoreboard. After a tight penalty shootout, the Lady Cards suffered the defeat as they could not slot home the shot to keep the shootout going.

The Rice Raiders’ basketball team gave themselves opportunities to win in each of their games last week against district opponents. The Raiders were able to keep up with the scoring efforts of each team as they lost both games by less than six points. However, their defense halted any chance they had of climbing over the hump to secure victory in either game.

The Rice Lady Raiders’ varsity basketball team has been searching for ways to improve all season. While their improvements have not been consistent enough to translate into wins recently, they do show glimpses of effective play through stretches. Last week, they showed some of their inconsistency as they were undermined by a defense that allowed at least 59 points in both games. They also struggled offensively with just one double-digit scoring quarter in the week as they took back-to-back district defeats.

On Monday, Jan. 30, the soccer teams for Columbus and Rice competed on Rice’s home field for a district matchup between the rival schools. Conditions were difficult as the cold and misty winds made sub-40 degree weather feel even colder. However, it was Columbus that claimed the advantage as both the girls and the boys claimed 3-0 victories over their county counterparts.

The Weimar boys’ hoops team has had some struggles on the defensive end in their most recent games. Last week, their opponents scored a combined 138 points in two games as Weimar failed to slow down those respective offenses. Weimar had difficulties with their own offensive attack as well, and they struggled through a pair of blowout losses against district opponents.

The most recent edition of this year’s Rice-hosted Swamp Strength series featured appearances by every school in the district. Each school had some solid performances as well as Columbus, Rice and Weimar all had lifters finish in the top three of their respective weight classes.

The Weimar Ladycats’ basketball team continued their up-anddown season with another split of two games last week against district opponents. They scored the same number of points in each game but had varying levels of success in preventing their opponents from scoring as they started their week with a loss against Flatonia and followed with a Friday win against Schulenburg. There was some extra history made on Friday night as well as this season’s leading scorer, Paige Pavlu, scored her 1000th career point as a member of the Weimar Ladycats.

Colorado County has been home to many extraordinary citizens who have done and achieved many unprecedented feats. The accomplishments from current-day residents or from those who called these towns home in their youth have left an impressive history amongst the small towns of Texas. In terms of athletic feats, there may be few in the county’s history that can boast the caliber of accomplishment that one Columbus woman secured at the turn of the new year. Katy Bell is a long-time marathon runner who had already done incredible things in the sport before signing herself up for the SnowDrop Ultra, a beast unlike anything she had done prior. The registered nurse, who celebrates her 50th birthday in the coming months, took on the 100-mile race that allows contestants up to 55 hours to complete. Through muddy terrain and a pain that developed early on, Kathy Bell battled on and accomplished what many would fail by finishing the race with plenty of time to spare.