Bryan Ward wins final week of Halfback Harry; Kip Troendle wins Game of the Week grand prize

The 2023 season for The Standard’s Halfback Harry contest has now drawn to a close, and the final week saw a battle between several entries that required some tie-breaking to figure out. A total of four entries emerged at the top of this week’s collection of contestants with five incorrect guesses each.

Jeremy Hogan, Verland Lenth and Bryan Ward of Waukon and Jan Pfiffner of Harpers Ferry were all locked atop this week’s entry pile with those five missed guesses, forcing the total winning points tie-breaker to be utilized to determine this week’s contest winner. With this week’s 15 winning teams compiling a total of 458 points, it was Ward’s guess of 421 team points that came closest to that total and gave him the final Halfback Harry victory of this season, edging out Hogan’s selection of 416 team points. Lenth’s choice of 505 points was just a bit further off, with Pfiffner guessing 622 points.

The Game of the Week portion of the contest was not that involved this week, as just three of this week’s entries chose Minnesota to defeat Iowa, which they did, 12-10. Jeremy Hogan and Verland Lenth were also in the running for this portion of the contest, being joined by Ellen Lenth of Waukon in predicting Minnesota’s victory.

Using the winning score tie-breaker, it was Hogan who came closest to the Golden Gophers’ winning total of 12 points with his selection of 16 points, giving him the final entry in the Game of the Week grand prize drawing. The Lenth husband and wife pair was a bit further off that total with their selections, Ellen with a choice of 20 points and Verland selecting 23 points.

With this being the final week of this season’s Halfback Harry contest, the Game of the Week contest also has come to a close and officially wrapped up with the random drawing of this year’s Game of the Week Grand Prize winner of $50 in Standard Bucks. Nine entries, one from each of the contest’s nine weeks of Game of the Week competition, were entered into that grand prize drawing.

Those nine entries included Kip Troendle of Lansing, Derek Wicks of Waukon, Melissa Wicks of Center Point, Darrel Wicks of Waukon, Kris Garthoff of Center Point, Jan Kreitzer of Cresco, Jeremy Wicks of Cedar Falls, David Watt of Monona and Jeremy Hogan of Waukon. With all those entries tossed into a hat for a random drawing, it was Troendle’s name that was pulled out as the grand prize winner.

The Standard appreciates the support of this year’s Halfback Harry Contest sponsors, including Bruening Rock Products, Inc., Waukon Dental, New Albin Savings Bank, Dollar Fresh Market, Sportsmen’s Unlimited, Bodensteiner Body Werks, Hardee’s, Waukon State Bank, Cunningham Hardware & Rental, West Side Waukon Lumber, Fareway, AJ Steakhouse, Dee Implement, Veterans Memorial Hospital & Clinics, and FreedomBank. The Standard asks that everyone show their own support of these sponsors who help make this contest possible.