P A GE 4 B | FE BR U A RY 17 , 2 0 1 6 | P I ER C E C O U N TY H E R ALD

SV BOYS BASKETBALL

the

wildSIDE

Wild grapes climb for sunlight

Snowshoeing around our woods recently,
I was struck by how many wild grape vines
are clambering up into the tree tops. Last summers abundant rain must have let them put on
a lot of growth. Riverbank grape, Vitis riparia,
is a native wild perennial vine that grows in
much of the northern U.S. and
southern Canadian provinces
from Manitoba east.
Where I grew up in northeastern Ohio, wild grape vines
grow profusely up into the
canopy of the large hardwood
trees. I remember climbing
thick networks of grape vines
high up into the trees and taking naps in grape hammocks. ----- Daniel
Wild grape is so abundant
there that the state of Ohio has
declared it a noxious weed.
Around here, riverbank grape vines climb
trees and shrubs attached by their strong tendrils. Wild grapes weigh their hosts down with
a thick cover of leaves, often cutting o light
and killing young trees. In winter, the tangle
of grapevines can catch lots of snow and ice,
weighing down branches and dragging down
whole trees. Wild grape vines can drag down
enough trees to create openings in the forest,
creating their own light-lled space to grow.
There are a few places like that in our woods.
I have seen some large wild grape arenas in
the lower Kinnickinnic River valley, along the
Mississippi River and in other Pierce County
forests.
Riverbank grapes bear clusters of purple
fruit in the fall with a characteristic whitish
bloom. Birds, squirrels, raccoons, opossums,
turkeys, grouse and pheasants eat most of the
fruit before winter. The purple fruit can be harvested for making juice, jelly and wine. It takes
a lot of wild grapes to make these products
because each grape has two to six egg-shaped
seeds that are attened on one side. Some people say wild grapes have a wild foxy avor. I
nd them delicious but seedy.
People foraging for wild grapes should
beware of the similar-looking Canada moonseed, Menispermum canadense. The fruits
of moonseed are poisonous. This native vine
has unlobed or slightly lobed leaves with
entire edges. Wild grape leaves are variable in
shape, sharply lobed with jagged leaf edges.
Moonseed has bluish fruits but with only a
single crescent-shaped seed in each fruit.
Wild grapes are winter hardy. Some of
the wild grape plants in our woods have
stems several inches thick, indicating that they

have survived here many years. The European

grapes (Vitis vinifera) that we prize for eating
and for making wine arent winter hardy and
are vulnerable to North American diseases and
soil pests.
One of the pioneers who renewed interest
in grape growing in the upper
Midwest was the late Elmer
Swenson of Osceola. He
crossed hybrids of European
grapes with selections of
local wild grapes to create
grape varieties with high
quality fruit that can grow in
this climate. We have some
of Swensons grape varietWilcox ----- ies; Kay Gray, St. Croix, and
Swenson Red, growing in our
garden. Through his work
with the University of Minnesota and ongoing
work by horticulturalists, many newer varieties
of grapes can be grown around here, contributing to the growing popularity of winemaking
in this region.
UW-River Falls professor Dr. Brian Smith
is working on breeding California grapes with
the wild riverbank grapes to make table grapes
that can survive Wisconsins harsh winters. I
look forward to growing some of Dr. Smiths
new varieties of hardy grapes.
In addition to providing Tarzan vines for
kids to swing on, those gangly wild grapevines
modify their forest habitat, feed wildlife, and
lend their hardiness to grape varieties that we
enjoy for food and wine.
Please send any comments and suggestions
for this column to me at rfjwild@rivertowns.
net.

Spring Valley continues

winning in conference
By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

The Spring Valley boys

basketball team jumped up
to third place in the Dunn-St.
Croix Conference standings last
week after two wins against
Boyceville and Glenwood City.
Thursdays win against
Glenwood City was the fourth
in the past ve games for the
Cardinals, and head coach Rob
Bosshart said the only thing that
has kept their overall record
near .500 this season has been
a tough non-conference record.
He said the combined record of
non-conference opponents they
have already faced this season
was calculated at 86-37 as of
Friday.
Weve been playing much
better since Christmas break,
Bosshart said. Our record
hasnt been indicative of how
well we are playing, and a lot
of that is due to our non-conference record.
On Thursday, the Cardinals
cruised to a 31-11 lead at halftime against Glenwood City on
the road. That was more than

enough as they added 27 points

in the second half.
Patrick Cipriano led Spring
Valley with 15 points scored.
Sean Borgerding also scored
13 points, and Dylan Bosshart
nished with 10 points.
The Cardinals also defeated Boyceville 67-39 at home
last Tuesday after grabbing
another large lead at halftime,
29-17. Borgerding led with 15
points and 11 rebounds for the
Cardinals. Zach Boisen scored
14 points for Spring Valley and
Cipriano nished with 11.
Spring Valley improved to
a Dunn-St. Croix Conference
record of 7-4 with the two wins
last week. Bosshart said the
Cardinals have shown considerable improvements in shooting
with more consistency, limiting turnovers and playing better
defense in recent games.
However, a number of good
opponents remain on the schedule over the nal few weeks.
These teams include the conferences rst place team in
Durand and second place team
in Elk Mound, along with a
Cameron team that is 16-0 this

year.
Considering this, Bosshart
said his main goal over the nal
two weeks of the regular season
is for the team to keep working
on improvements.
We just want to continue to
try and get better, and play up
to our capability regardless of
who we are playing, Bosshart
said. If we are good enough to
win the game, that is great. That
is one of our goals, obviously.
We cant control how good our
opponents are or anything, so
were just going to worry about
the things I talked about.

GAME RESULTS
SPRING VALLEY - 31 27 - 58
GLENWOOD CITY - 11 23 - 34
SPRING VALLEY - Patrick Cipriano
- 15 points; Sean Borgerding - 13
points; Dylan Bosshart - 10 points;
Devin Larson - 8 points; Zach
Boisen - 8 points; Nick Kalmes - 3
points
SPRING VALLEY - 29 38 - 67
BOYCEVILLE - 17 22 - 39
SPRING VALLEY - Sean Borgerding
- 15 points; Zach Boisen - 14 point;
Patrick Cipriano - 11 points; Devin
Larson - 8 points; Tyson Kado - 6
points; Dylan Bosshart - 5 points;
Cody Anderson - 4 points; Nick
Kalmes - 4 points

WIAA REGIONALS

Regionals set for girls basketball teams

By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

All four of the Pierce County

high school girls basketball
teams are scheduled to play in
the rst round of the regional
playos on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
Prescott and Ellsworth will
start the Division 3 regional tournament by playing
each other in the rst round.
Wild riverbank grapes are climbing a stand of
young trees in our woods. (Wild Side photo by
Dan Wilcox)

SV-E...

Ellsworth, seeded 11th, will

face sixth-seeded Prescott at
PHS next Tuesday. The winner
will play at Baldwin-Woodville
on Friday, Feb. 26.
Division 4 team Spring
Valley will also play a home
game in the rst round of
the WIAA regional playos.
Seventh-seeded Spring Valley
will play 10th seeded Cadott at
SVHS on Tuesday. The win-

ner will play at Fall Creek on

Friday, Feb. 26.
Elmwood-Plum City was
seeded 12th in its Division 4
bracket, meaning it will start
regionals on the road. E-PC
will play at fth-seeded Colfax
on Tuesday, with the winner
advancing to play Durand on
Friday, Feb. 26.

Co ntinued f ro m page 1B

E-PC GIRLS BASKETBALL

E-PC falls to Colfax

By Blaze Fugina
bfugina@rivertowns.net

The Elmwood-Plum City

girls basketball team lost
its only game of the week
to Colfax 70-19 on the road
Friday.
Colfax grabbed a big lead
early, taking a 42-8 advantage
into the locker room at halftime. Ally Heidorn led Colfax
with 21 points scored, and
Dempsey Fogarty also nished

with 14 points.
Lexi Diesing led E-PC with
ve points scored.
One nal tough game
remains for the ElmwoodPlum City girls basketball team
as it will play the Dunn-St.
Croix Conferences rst place
team in Elk Mound at home
Thursday.
The Wolves now hold a
6-15 record on the season, with
a 1-12 record in the Dunn-St.
Croix Conference.

GAME RESULTS
E-PC - 8 11 - 19
COLFAX - 42 28 - 70
E-PC - Lexi Diesing - 5 points;
Josalin Helmueller - 4 points;
Cheyanne Catura - 3 points; Mikayla
Afdahl - 2 points; Kylee Sabelko - 2
points; addie Morrell - 2 points;
Alexis Peterson - 1 point
COLFAX - Ally Heidorn - 21 points;
Dempsey Fogarty - 14 points;
Savannah Henricks - 7 points;
Emma Hurlburt - 7 points; Bryanna
Buchanan - 6 points; Alyssa Dachel
- 6 points; Megan Schleusner - 4
points; Haley Durand-Christianson 3 points; Hannal Sykora - 2 points

include Logan Newton at 132

pounds, Quinton Elliott at 182,
Asher at 195 and Elsenpeter
at 285.
With a total of 11 individuals headed to the sectional
tournament, Turner said this
is likely the largest group ever
advancing from regionals.
Its rare to get that many
through, historically thats
been a really tough regional, Turner said. And it was
again this year, I thought we
just wrestled awful well to get
that many through. We had a
couple upsets in order to make
that happen.
After Saturdays regional,
the Cardinals had two sec-

tionals to prepare for this

week. The team sectional
was Tuesday in Boyceville,
and the individual sectional
is Saturday at Osseo-Fairchild
High School. Turner said the
Cardinals are wrestling like a
nely-tuned team heading into
the sectional season.
Very much so, Turner
said. They looked really
experienced, you know we
have a good senior group.
They looked very experienced
and poised, and tough in situations where they had to be
tough. And thats what you
need in wrestling, is just get
the job done when it has to be
done.

REGIONAL RESULTS
TEAM - 1. Spring Valley-Elmwood,
274; 2. Boyceville, 239; 3. Clear
Lake, 163; 4. Glenwood City, 123.5;
5. Cadott, 109; 6. Cornell/Gilman/
Lake Holcombe, 76; 7. Regis, 17
SV-E INDIVIDUALS - 106 - Luke
Deppa, 5th place; 113 - Dylan Bune,
1st place; 120 - Seth Schlegel, 1st
place; 126 - Ryan Berg, 1st place;
132 - Logan Newton, 2nd place; 138
- Cooper Stevens, 5th place; 145 Carter Merth, 3rd place; 152 - Cruze
Hurlburt, 1st place; 160 - Devon
Johnson, 1st place; 170 - Jed
Schlegel, 1st place; 182 - Quinton
Elliott, 2nd place; 195 - Ryan Asher,
2nd place; 220 - Ethan Hofacker,
1st place; 285 - Dakota Elsenpeter,
2nd place