SIERRA ERTMAN owns South’s school record for most 3-pointers in a game with eight. – Photo by Andrew Colley

The way things were going Feb. 11, South’s Sierra Ertman did not expect to set a school record.

“I didn’t make a single three during warm-ups, so I thought it was going to be a bad game,” the junior said. “And then I don’t know, it just kind of clicked I guess.”

To the tune of eight 3-pointers to erase the previous record of six set by Crystal Crowns set in the 2004-05 season.

“It was really cool and just felt unreal,” Ertman said.

The second-year point guard was 8 of 13 from three-point range and also sank three free throws for 27 points, her most on varsity.

Coach Garrett Renzelmann remembers Ertman did not come out with a fast start against Green Bay Preble, but when it went to a 2-3 zone defense late in the first half, she made four in a row.

“I think she might have been a little amped up having closed the half that way, so in a (second-half) timeout, I just told her to take a breath, remember your fundamentals, and then she hit three more,” he said. “She’s a great competitor, she’s fiery, she hates to fail and she hates to lose. So she’s always working hard and she’s definitely the best shooter on our team. 

“It was good to see it all come together for her on one night and see a spectacular performance.”

Former high school standouts also establish new records 

Katie Banie had a feeling.

The UW-La Crosse track and field athlete recently set a school record with a time of 1 minute 34.82 seconds in the 600-meter run at a meet at Minnesota State-Mankato.

“It definitely was my mental game,” the South graduate said. “When I walked up to the track, in my head, I was like, I’m not leaving without this record. My mental game was on point and I was just ready to go.”

The previous record had stood since 1997 and was 1:34.43.

“It’s been kind of on my radar since my freshman year of college,” Banie said. “But the 600 isn’t like a normal event in the meets that we go to, and because of COVID, we didn’t get to run it last year or the year before.”

BURGER ALSO SETS ONE

Guard Michael Berger, who graduated from Lutheran, finished with 22 assists Feb. 9 at UW-Green Bay Manitowoc to break the Sheboygan Wombats single-game record of 16 set by Mike Crowe in the 1993-94 season. Also in that game, Malcome Young tied Bob Flood’s single game record for rebounds with 25 that was first set in 1975-76.

JURSS HELPS OUT, TOO

Junior guard Jared Jurss, another former Crusader, helped his Concordia Wisconsin basketball team set a school record with 34 assists in a win over Dominican. 

He had a team-high six of them and is already the all-time leader in program history.