No. 5 Raiders sidestep Wamac foes

The Williamsburg Raiders are wading in unfamiliar territory, and Coach Aaron Feddersen is just fine with it."I was fearful that we'd have what amounted to a Wamac (Conference) tournament," Feddersen said. "We've kind of cannibalized each other all season."Ranked No. 5 in Class 3A, Williamsburg has been doing much of the feasting. The Raiders compiled a 19-2 mark and earned a share of the Wamac championship. The Raiders open 3A Region 7 play at home against Davis County (13-7) at 7 p.m. Saturday."I don't know much about them; we're worried more about ourselves," Feddersen said. "I think our schedule prepared us as well as anybody we'll face in our region."The Wamac was an extremely unpredictable league, with upsets a regular occurrence. Eight of the 15 Wamac teams compete in 3A, and several have the capability to advance deep.No. 12 Center Point-Urbana (15-6) certainly qualifies as a contender, if not the favorite, in Region 5. And Mount Vernon (13-8) could be dangerous in Region 4.Mustangs Coach Dennis Roloff echoes Feddersen's thoughts about the pairings."It's nice that the best teams in the Wamac were split up," he said. "Quite a few of us could make a run."Mount Vernon has been slowed by injuries. Hannah Whitley was lost early with a torn ACL, and Miranda Chapman has been affected by a sprained ankle. But Allison Platte has returned from an ACL tear, and the Mustangs are 9-4 since her return."Add her back in there with our veterans and our freshmen, and that makes us a pretty tough team," Roloff said.Mount Vernon opens against Anamosa (6-15) while Center Point-Urbana hosts Vinton-Shellsburg (6-15).Regionals also begin in 2A Saturday. Most of the area top teams, including No. 2 Cascade, No. 5 North Linn and No. 11 Maquoketa Valley, earned first-round byes and won't play until Tuesday.There are a couple good first-round matchups involving Upper Iowa Conference teams. Clayton Ridge (16-5) hosts Edgewood-Colesburg (14-7) at Guttenberg, and South Winneshiek (13-6) travels to MFL MarMac (13-7).