Four Golden Hawks receive All-CVC honors

Four members of Mid-Prairie?s state tournament team were recently honored when the All-Cedar Valley Conference girls? basketball teams were released.

Seniors Mariah Swartzentruber and Mallory McArtor were selected to the all-conference first team after leading the Golden Hawks to a third-place finish in the CVC with an 11-3 record. Iowa City Regina and West Branch were co-conference champions with 12-2 marks.

Swartzentruber, a 5-foot-8 forward, was a unanimous first-team selection after finishing among the league leaders in several categories. She ranked seventh in scoring (10.6 points per game), fourth in blocked shots (15), tied for sixth in steals (38) and 10

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in rebounding (5.8 per game) during conference games.

?Mariah had some really big games for us on both ends of the floor,? Mid-Prairie head coach Marc Pennington said. ?She is a very good shooter, but also an underrated defensive player. Her versatility was a nice luxury to have the last four years.?

McArtor, a 5-foot-5 guard, ranked 12

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in the league in scoring with 9.6 points per game, and her 50 steals tied her for the fourth-most in the conference.

?She really had the unique ability to control a game without scoring due to her tremendous ability defensively,? Pennington said of McArtor, who was selected to the first team for the second time in her career. ?She created a lot of offense for us with her defensive pressure.?

Point guard Meghan Redlinger was a unanimous second team all-conference selection after leading the league in assists (53) and ranking second in steals (53). The 5-foot-5 senior also chipped in 4.2 points per game.

?Meghan?s assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.3-to-1 is the best ratio we?ve had since I have been here,? Pennington said.

Senior Jessie Butters received all-conference honorable mention for the Golden Hawks. The 5-foot-9 post player averaged a career-high 6.4 points per game during league play, and her six rebounds per game ranked seventh in the conference.

?Jessie is an honorable mention performer, and she is very well deserving,? Pennington said. ?Her improvement from her junior year to her senior year had a big impact on our success this year. There is no harder worker than Jessie on the glass, and she was a major contributor all year.?

The Golden Hawks finished their season with an overall record of 18-8 after losing in the quarterfinals of the Class 3A state basketball tournament in Des Moines.