Well that was fast and slow all at the same time. It feels like the first week of December wasn't that long ago, but also it feels like forever ago. If that even makes sense. The winter sports season yielded a lot of success for several conference teams and we had the opportunity to take in some great competition all season long.
Some housekeeping to take care of first.
We started out the winter by delivering magazines. As many of you know, we have partnered with CAMAS Publishing for a preseason magazine. We distributed another high volume of magazines. This has been fun to get out to folks and see how much excitement is around these. The spring one will be out very soon too.
We are constantly looking at ways to improve the publication, so be watching for some of our creativity and changes to the magazine going forward.
Also to start the winter season, we did some preseason spotlight videos. We did one during the season too, providing an inside look at programs. Check those out on our YouTube Channel and subscribe! We have been wanting to dive more into storytelling. We are so glad that sponsors took a chance on it and teams were willing to work with us. We are excited to grow this element of the RPAC Rundown.
We will keep looking at ways to expand coverage and connect the conference.
Which speaking of sponsors and advertisers, we can't thank you all enough. We can't do what we do without advertisers. Did you know what makes our web publication so special? It's free. It doesn't have a paywall. We have nothing against a paywall, some incredible website publications have content that you must pay for and is worth paying for.
But, we would like to keep our content free. So we have to have advertisers. So, if you'd like to promote your business please reach out to us at rpacrundown@gmail.com. We have a ton of great options and your advertisement helps keep the content free for people to consume. We believe if you make us part of your marketing team, you can grow your business and get great exposure.
Now for the winter sports season. A ton of good stuff.
In wrestling, Cambridge came away as the RPAC Champs. It was a tournament that came down to the wire and it was up in the air who would take home the team title between Cambridge and Arapahoe. It was an exhilarating event and an excellent competition.
We went to state wrestling for the first time too. With us being part-time up until recently, it was hard to get the state events. But man, what an event. So much energy in the CHI Event Center. 26 wrestlers in the RPAC made it to state this year. By the end of it, there were five medalists down at state. The RPAC was well represented in Omaha. Needless to say, we are excited to go back to state wrestling next year.
A couple of Medicine Valley kids swim with the McCook Swim Team and they have had a big year. Coming from their coach, Jon Graff, "We ended up taking all three boys relays to state, I believe this is the first time in school history. We took two girls relays to state, as well as three individual events on the boys side and two individual events on the girls side. We broke 4 school records at the state meet."
Kevin Bantam, a Raider, did well, to say the least.
Now for hoops season. The RPAC titles went to Southern Valley on the girls' side and Maywood-Hayes Center for the boys. Not necessarily shocking but the conference tournament was fun once again this season. There was plenty of parody to be had in the tournament, but at the beginning of the season, if you had told us those were going to be the conference champions, we would have thought those were nice choices.
There were four teams that qualified for state in 2024. For girls, Southern Valley and Paxton. Southern Valley made it all the way to the championship game, the first time they had ever done that. Unfortunately, they lost but what a run.
On the boys side, Dundy County Stratton qualified for their third straight appearance. And for Maywood-Hayes Center, they made their first title since co-oping. They lost in their title game, but an excellent season.
Winter was so much fun. Our first full season since going full-time with the RPAC Rundown. And we put on a lot of miles and spent a ton of time in the gym. It's so much fun for us.
Well, bring on the spring sports!