Elks post man Tyler Schindler puts up jump shot against the Bulldogs of DeSmet on Thursday in Elkton, S.D. The Elks tamed the Bulldogs by a score of 53-40.

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The Elkton-Lake Benton Elks outscored the Lincoln HI Rebels 71-66 in hard fought game at Ivanhoe.

The Rebels started the game with their sharp shooters hitting many shots including five three-point field goals giving them a 39-31 lead at half time before the Elks came rumbling back for the vic­tory.

Braden Carmody kept the Elks in the game with four three-pointers of his own, scoring 14 of his 16 points in the first half.

“It just seemed like we were a bit sluggish and a half step slow on the de­fensive end in the first half,” said Coach Steve Er­ickson. “We weren’t con­testing shots and let them move the ball without much pressure and they knocked down some shots in the first half to build that lead.”

Leading the Elk offense was Tyler Schindler with 26 points, 20 of them com­ing in the second half fol­lowed by Carmody with 16 and Brandt Tingle with 14.

Taylor Rolf added seven, Ethan Pearson four and Nick Delaney and heath Schindler contributed two each.

Ty Schindler also led the Elks in rebounding with 17 followed by Pearson with eight and Rolf and Delaney with five and four boards respectively.

Tingle had six assists and Ty Schindler caused six turnovers.

The free throw shoot­ing of both teams also was a major factor in the con­test with the Elks Tingle and Schindler combing for 13 of 14, compared to the Rebels taking advantage of only nine of 21 from the charity stripe.

“Lincoln HI came ready to play and really shot the ball well in the first half to build their lead,” said Erickson. “We talked at halftime about just getting back to our style and fight­ing to get back in it and credit our kids, they did that.”

Jordan Beck led the scor­ing for the Rebels with 18 points, followed by Dion Nelson with 17 and Josh Bednerak with 12, all in the first half on three point field goals, Andrew Swan­son chipped in 10.

“I thought we did a great job in the second half on the boards, we fin­ished with 23 offensive rebounds for the game and gave ourselves some easy put backs when some shots weren’t falling for us,” said Coach Erickson. “It was a hard fought game and a good atmosphere for the kids to play in.”

Elks: T. Schindler 26, Carmody 16, Tingle 14, Rolf 7, Pearson 4, Delaney 2, H. Schindler 2, Krog 0.

Rebels: Beck 18, Nelson 17, Bednerak 12, Swan­son 10, Blegan 6, Pavek 3, Dwire 0.

The Elkton-Lake Benton Elks Junior Varsity defeat­ed the Lincoln HI JV 44-36. Cody Wiskur led the Elks with 15 while Trevan Farnham and Nathan Krog followed with nine and eight respectively.

She died Saturday, Jan. 28 at Sunrise Manor Nurs­ing Home inTyler.

Arrangements were provided by Hartquist Funeral Home–Utoft/Jo­hansen Chapel in Lake Benton. To sign an online registry, please visit www. hartquistfuneral.com.

Marjorie Jeanette Meyer was born Aug. 15, 1924 to Niels and Maren (Tam­bo) Nielsen in Drammen Township,LincolnCounty. She was baptized and con­firmed at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church and grew up on the family farm. She attended country school in Drammen Township and graduated from Lake Ben­ton High  School in 1942. On June 18, 1946 Marge married Ivan Meyer at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church. Their union was blessed with four sons and 49 years of life together. They made their home on the Nielsen family farm inDrammenTownship, where they farmed until 1966. In addition to caring for the home and family, Marge worked as a nurse’s aide at Vadheim Memo­rial Hospital inTyler. They continued to live on the farm until 1980, when they moved to their home on Lake Benton at DonJa-Lei Beach. Ivan passed away on April 7, 1995. Af­ter sustaining a knee in­jury from a fall, Marge be­came a resident of Sunrise Manor Nursing Home inTylerlate in 2004, where on Saturday, Jan. 28 she passed away at the age of 87 years, five months and 13 days.

Marge was a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Lake Benton. In earlier years she was active in the ladies circle and other church activities. She en­joyed gardening and flow­ers and sewing. Her family was her priority and was especially important to her.

Marge is lovingly re­membered by her sons Gary (and Dagna) Meyer of Bloomington, Dan (and Brenda) Meyer of Wood­stock and Mark Meyer of Lake Benton; six grand­children: Lisa (and Da­vid) Brown of Austin, Chris (and Kayo) Meyer of Burnsville, Michael Meyer of Pipestone, Erin (and Chris) Bauman of Brook­ings, S.D., Joseph Meyer of Sioux Falls, S.D., and Sarah Meyer of Russell; six great-grandchildren: Maren, Jaidyn, Ryan, Jarret, Mad­elyn and Mallory; a sis­ter, Berniece Helgeson of Taunton, and many other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband Ivan and son Edwin.

Full obituary will be published next week.

The annual cheer clinic was held at halftime of the Lady Elks varsity game this past Friday, Jan. 27. First through fourth grade girls performed cheers that they had rehearsed earlier in the day.

The Elkton-Lake Benton Girls Basketball Team honored their parents with balloons and flowers before varsity action began this past Friday, Parents’ Night.

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The Lake Benton School Board elected officers and heard a pre­sentation on a proposed four-day school week by Elkton School Superintendent Brian Jandahl at its regular meeting on Wednes­day, Jan. 25.

Superintendent Ryan Nielsen opened the meeting at 7 p.m. and asked for nominations for chairman of the board. Board members voted to retain Tony Schwing as chair.

Schwing proceeded to contin­ue with the election of officers. The board voted in Darrel Bus­selman as vice-chair, Mike Smith as treasurer and Roger Rude­busch as clerk.

Appointments to various com­mittees will be selected at a fu­ture date.

Elkton School Superinten­dent Brian Jandahl presented a proposed plan for a four-day school week for Elkton-Lake Benton Schools, assisted by Elk­ton School Board Member Tom Landsman and Ag Ed Teacher/FFA Advisor Dan Robbins.

Lake Benton School Board members were presented with an outline document and viewed a Power Point presentation in the computer lab as Jandahl spoke.

The goals for the four-day week are to improve teaching through professional develop­ment opportunities on Fridays, improve student attitude and attendance, reduce failure rates through Friday educational tu­toring and help opportunities, reduce stress for students and teachers and to focus on Com­mon Core Standards which will be implemented in 47 out of 50 states and the territories of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the near future.

The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators and ex­ perts to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare children for col­lege and the workforce.

At present Elkton teach­ers have two non-student contact days to prepare at the beginning of the school year and one at the end to wrap things up.

Teachers will remain on a 175 day contract though the plan is for 154-160 student contact days.

The plan calls for up to 16 days with reduced sup­port staff in a combination of Fridays and Mondays depending on the calen­dar.

“The misconception is that there would be 36 days off,” said Jandahl. “In all, there would be up to 16 inservice days. We wouldn’t have every Fri­day off.”

There is a potential cost savings of $20,000 to $25,000 per year due to the reduced support staff days and transporta­tion through bus routes, though saving money is not the object.

Extra curricular activi­ties will still be scheduled with other schools on Fri­day and Saturday nights.

TheLakeBentonactivity bus will still run on Friday or Monday to transport students for practice and/or games.

The activity bus is fund­ed byLakeBentonbut has been scheduled and orga­nized by Elkton.

One of the goals of the four-day week is to reduce or eliminate as many dis­tractions from the Monday through Thursday sched­ule as possible.

Doctor and dentist ap­pointments, voluntary field trips and extracurric­ular events that normally require early dismissal on Fridays could be sched­uled on outside days, re­ducing absenteeism.

It would also give stu­dents and teachers a chance to catch their breath as many high end students are active in ad­vanced classes, extracur­ricular clubs and activities and push themselves to excel, many times leaving them exhausted by the end of the week.

The outside days would provide enrichment time for students to get addi­tional help on those days.

There are 39 school districts inSouth Dakotausing the four-day week though many are in their first few years.

“The Elkton School Board has been taking their time, a whole year, to research this,” said Jandahl. “If they decide to go with it, we’ll make it work.”

“We are not the first to do this and we are not leading a trend.”

Jandahl has met with manySouth Dakotaand southwest Minnesota schools to observe the pros and cons of the four-day week schedule.

There would still be some full weeks of school.

In June 2011 the Elk­ton School Board directed Jandahl to form a commit­tee to present proposals for the board to consider for the 2012-2013 school year.

The committee consists of Steve Kuehl, a parent with kids in Elkton, Robin Sik, a parent with kids in both districts, Dan Rob­bins, a high school teacher, Steve Erickson, an elemen­tary teacher, Tom Lands­man, a board member with six kids in the Elkton district, Kelly Neill, Elkton principal, Ryan Nielsen, Lake Benton Superinten­dent/Principal and Brian Jandahl, Elkton Superin­tendent.

The four-day week com­mittee met on Nov. 4, Dec. 7 and 14, 2011 and Jan. 4, 2012.

The committee present­ed its findings to the Elk­ton School Board on Jan. 9 and to the Lake Benton School Board at this meet­ing on Jan. 25.

The Elkton School Board will be meeting on Mon­day, Feb. 13 and encour­ages parents from both cit­ies to attend, listen to the objectives and voice their concerns.

The Elkton School Board may follow discussion with possible action and plan to make a decision by March 12.

An alternative proposal was also presented on the Flexible Learning Year to include early release days.

Lake Benton School Board members had an opportunity to ask ques­tions following the presen­tation.

“We have kept the lines of communication open,” said Jandahl. “I speak with Mr. Nielsen all the time. We want all kids to feel welcome. The goal is to educate all kids.”

In other business, Sixth Grade Teacher Kelli Lar­sen presented to the board and thanked them for the opportunity to attend the Young Writers Conference at Southwest Minnesota State University in Mar­shall.

“The entire sixth grade class, two fifth graders, two fourth graders and one third grader were able to attend the confer­ence,” said Larsen. “We had a great day and really learned a lot.”

The conference was held on Jan. 5 and celebrated writing, featured a key­note presentation by au­thor Rebecca Fjelland Da­vis and hands-on sessions that introduce students to authors, illustrators and other types of communi­cators.

Through interaction with presenters, students discovered their cre­ative abilities and how to express their thoughts during sessions such as journaling, poetry, script writing, news writing, comics, sports writing, writers block and much more.

Over 900 students and 200 teachers and chaper­ones from area school dis­tricts attended the event.

The Lake Benton Volun­teers for Education (LBVE) sponsored the trip for the students and Mrs. Larsen said they plan to make it an annual event.

The board declared two sets of old lockers from the girls locker room surplus. They will be advertised for sale in the Lake Benton Valley Journal.

The board reviewed and approved the revised bud­get for 2011-2012 though a few items need to be al­tered slightly.

The school board ap­proved transfer of $1,499.61 from the capi­tol projects fund 06 to the debt service fund 07.

Lake Benton School came in under budget on the construction project.

The school purchased tires for one of the buses. Though tires can cost $1,200 each, the school was able to get a slightly used set at $275 per tire.

Nielsen updated board members on the recent school board convention saying it was a positive ex­perience and invited them to participate in future conventions as there were many informative break-out sessions.

It is the only free school board convention in the country.

Nielsen said the school spelling bee was a success and that Tanner Gregoire, a fifth grader, won the contest and will represent Lake Benton School at the regional competition in Redwood Falls.

Students will be at­tending the history fair inBrookings,S.D.in the near future.

Elementary basketball has started and will be go­ing on for the next month or so.

Tony Schwing attended the negotiations session earlier in the day and will meet with the committee again in the near future.

The board acknowl­edged Paraprofessional Week from Jan. 16-20 as declared by Governor Mark Dayton and thanked Lake Benton School para­professionals for their ser­vice.

The next meeting of the Lake Benton School Board will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15 in the school media center.

With the ice thickening again, ice fishing houses begin to commune on Lake Benton Lake just out from the pier.

Lady Elk senior Cassidy Gebhart drives around a Lady Redmen defender as teammate Stephanie Johnson looks on in the Dakota Valley Conference championship game on Saturday, Jan. 21 in Elkton, S.D. The Lady Elks fell 38-42 in the contest. Gebhart set the all-time Lady Elk scoring record with 1,297 points in the first game of the DVC tournament.

By Dan Kuss

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The Lady Elks won their first two games in the Dakota Valley Confer­ence tournament by first defeating Dell Rapids St. Mary 63-39, then edging Oldham-Ramona/Rutland in the semi-finals before falling to the Lady Redmen of Estelline in the champi­onship game by a score of 38-42.

“We played hard, but not very, against St. Mary’s,” said Coach Steve Krause. “We allowed 21 offensive boards and Molly had a very solid game off the bench.

“The big news is Cassidy Gebhart became the all-time leading scorer for the Lady Elks with 1,297 points.”

Gebhart led the charge in game one with 21 points followed by Megan Krog­man with 10, Stephanie Johnson with eight, Molly Koch with six, Becca Jur­gens, Mindee VanDyke and Gabby Kampmann with four and Alissa Landsman, Kelsey Kinner and Brooke Jaacks with two each.

The Lady Elks snared 43 rebounds led by Krog­man with 12 followed by Koch with five and a host of Lady Elks with four.

The Lady Elks created 22 turnovers led by Kin­ner with five, Krogman and Gebhart with four and Landsman with three.

Gebhart had four assists followed by Koch with three and Johnson and Landsman with a pair for a team total of 12.

Gebhart and Kinner each had four steals out of the team 15 while Krogman, VanDyke and Johnson each blocked a shot.

Gebhart also led the scoring in the champion­ship game against Estell­ine with 21 followed by Jurgens with 13 and Krog­man with four as the only Lady Elk scorers.

Estelline had a balanced attack as the Lady Elks got off to a slow start barely missing several first quar­ter shots.

“We put ourselves in a position to win the con­ference tourney and just didn’t play well enough against a very good team,” said Krause. “We played with much greater effort in the fourth quarter but it was too late against them. Being outrebounded 43-15 was also not good.”

“We shall have another shot at them in two weeks, probably for the confer­ence title.”

Krogman led in rebound­ing with nine followed by Jurgens with three.

Gebhart had four steals two assists and created two turnovers followed by Johnson with two assists a steal and a blocked shot.

Jurgens added two steals and a blocked shot.

The Lady Elks resume the regular season at home on Jan 27 versus DeSmet.

Elkton-Lake Benton forward Tyler Schindler shoots a free throw from a technical foul late in the championship game as the Elks defeated Deubrook 69-54 to win the Dakota Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 21 in Elkton, S.D.

By Dan Kuss

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@gmail.com

The Elkton-Lake Benton Elks defeated Estelline and ORR in order to face Deu­brook in the Dakota Valley Conference tournament championship game on Saturday night in Elkton,S.D.

The Mighty Elks downed the Dolphins 69-54 to se­cure the title.

“It was a great win for our ball club,” said Coach Steve Erickson. “We felt when we played them a week ago, we didn’t play our best basketball and we talked about getting the chance to play them again.

“The kids really re­sponded and came out strong and just played our type of basketball.”

Leading the Elk offense was Braden Carmody with 19 followed by Brant Tingle with 15 and Tyler Schindler with 12 points.

Heath Schindler contrib­uted eight points, Taylor Rolf seven; Ethan Pear­son added four while Nick Delaney and Nathan Krog each added two. Carmody pulled down four boards followed by the Schindler brothers, Rolf and Quinn Fargen’s three each toward a team total of 22.

Tingle had six assists to make up the majority of the team’s 15 total.

The Elkton-Lake Benton Elks won the Dakota Valley Conference Championship in a victory over the Deubrook Dolphins by a score of 69-54 on Saturday, Jan. 21. The Elks defeated Estelline, ORR and, finally, the Dolphins to win the title.

Carmody had four steals followed by a host of Elks with two and one for a team total of 14.

Heath Schindler created five turnovers followed by Tingle with four and Dela­ney, Rolf and Ty Schindler with two each for a team total of 18.

“It was a fun game, as we were able to dictate the tempo and mix up our defenses to keep them off balance,” said Erickson. “Offensively, I thought we had a bunch of kids step up at different times and they have been doing that all year, they are a true team in every sense of the word and this win is just a credit to their hard work and togetherness.”

“This was one of our goals this year, to win the DVC, but along with that, we know we must contin­ue to work and improve to accomplish the rest of our goals this season.”

The Elks were presented with the DVC champion­ship trophy immediately following the game.

He died Monday, Jan. 16 at the Avera Select Special­ty Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Hartquist Funeral Home, Utoft-Johansen Chapel in Lake Benton provided the arrangements. Send on-line condolences at www.hartquistfuneral.com.

Elroy “Bud” Knutson was born June 9, 1934 to Fred and Christine (Krog) Knutson in Verdi Town­ship, Lincoln County. He grew up in Diamond Lake Township, was baptized July 1, 1934 and con­firmed March 28, 1948 at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church, rural Lake Ben­ton. He attended school in Lake Benton and gradu­ated from Lake Benton High School in 1952. Bud married Joyce Patrick on Oct. 29, 1954 at the Lake Benton United Methodist Church. Their union was blessed with six children and 56 years of life togeth­er. The couple raised their family and made their home in Lake Benton. Bud worked various jobs in construction and trucking until he was employed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, work­ing in maintenance for 28 years and five months. He retired Jan. 21, 1998. Joyce died Dec. 15, 2010. Bud be­came ill in November 2011 and entered Avera Select Specialty Hospital in Sioux Falls,S.D., where he died on Jan. 16 at the age of 77 years, seven months and seven days.

Bud was a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Lake Benton and had served on the church council. He served many years on the Lake Benton Fire Department, as trea­surer of the Lake Benton Sportsman’s Club, on the Diamond Lake Cemetery Board and the Danebod Village Board. He enjoyed bowling, deer hunting, fishing and travel. He es­pecially treasured time spent at their lake home onLakeBentonand time spent with his family and friends.

Bud is lovingly remem­bered by his four sons: Scott (and Jeanne) Knut­son of Brandon, S.D., Mark (and Jolene) Knutson of Maple Grove, Brian (and Tamara) Knutson of Au­gusta, Ga., and Kevin (and Laura) Knutson of Bran­don, S.D.; five grandchil­dren: Joselyn (Michael) Schmitz, Jace Knutson, Jen (Jon) De Jong, Tony Knut­son and Kirsten Knutson; two great-grandchildren, Chloe and Courtney De Jong; siblings Anita (Herb) Dahlman-Himrich of Mesa, Ariz., Ila (Elmer) Possail of Tyler and Keith (Diane) Knutson of Mesa, Ariz., and many other relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his wife Joyce, twin infant sons, grand­daughter Kayla Knutson, his parents and brother Leon Knutson.

In lieu of flowers, me­morials may be directed to Grace Lutheran Church, Lake Benton Sportsman’s Club or Diamond Lake Cemetery.