High School Track
WACO hosted the Ekstrand Relays last night and the Fairfield boys’ team and Washington girls’ team ran away with the Class A team titles, while the Class B winners were the Sigourney boys’ team and the Lone Tree girls’ team with 108 points.
Starting on the boys’ side for Class A, Fairfield won eight events on their way to the team win. Ousman Saine took the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.76 seconds. Gabe Tejada outsprinted the field in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.57 seconds and the 800-meter run by just two-tenths of a second. Ryan Giberson captured the 110-meter hurdles gold with a time of 15.81 seconds, while Dylan Adam snatched the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 57.43 seconds. Those wins paved the way for the Trojans to take the shuttle hurdle relay. In the field events, Eli Zillman leaped 21 feet and 3 inches to win the long jump, while Giberson outleapt his state champion teammate to capture the high jump with a height of 6 feet and 6 inches.
Mediapolis proved to be stronger in packs as the Bulldogs won the 4×200 meter relay with a time of 1 minute and 31 seconds, the 4×400 meter relay with a mark of 3 minutes and 33 seconds, and the distance medley relay. Simon Wendel outpaced the field in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10 minutes and 6 seconds.
Central Lee’s best finisher was Kegan Damico in the 400-meter hurdles with a silver medal time of 59.32 seconds. Danville’s Noah Horn took 2nd place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.7 seconds.
On the boys’ Class B side, WACO finished in 2nd place as a team. The Warriors pieced together wins in the sprint medley relay with a time of 1 minute and 38 seconds and the distance medley relay with a mark of 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
Winfield-Mt. Union’s Kohlby Newsom won the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.43 seconds and the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute and 59 seconds. Cruz Hagmeier hopped his way to the win in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.89 seconds. Lastly, Cooper Buffington lobbed the shot 39 feet and 2.75 inches to win the event.
New London’s 4×100 meter relay team continued their success, grabbing 1st place with a time of 43.47 seconds. The 4×200 meter relay team followed the formula, winning their event by three seconds.
On the girls’ side for Class A, Danville’s Alaina Gourley sprinted to the gold in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.34 seconds. She grabbed her second gold of the night in the 800-meter run with a mark of 2 minutes and 21 seconds. The Bears won the 4×400 and sprint medley relays.
Fairfield’s Lilly Bergren took the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.21 seconds. Avery Crear grabbed Mediapolis’ lone win in the high jump with a leap of 4 feet and 10 inches as the Bulldogs finished in 2nd place in six events.
For Class B, Kynlee Buffington of Winfield-Mt. Union took home the win in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.32 seconds. Josie Nelson sprinted to the win in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.38 seconds. WACO snatched the win in the distance medley relay and the shuttle hurdle relay. Bren Graber took the gold in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1 minute and 10 seconds.
The Wapello girls’ team celebrated their senior night at the Arrow Relays last night and finished in 5th place with 63 points, while Central Lee nabbed 87 points for 4th place.
For Wapello’s Kate Lanz, she grabbed a trio of golds, winning the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.59 seconds, the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.52 seconds, and the 400-meter dash with a time of 1 minute and 4 seconds. Central Lee’s Aubrey Weber swept the throwing events with a throw of 32 feet and 8.5 inches in the shot put and a toss of 99 feet and 5 inches for the discus.
Mt. Pleasant and Van Buren County will make the trip to Cardinal to compete in the Bob Gerard Relays tonight.
Columbus will host the Wildcat relays at Louisa-Muscatine, due to their field renovation, on Monday, May 5th, with Wapello in attendance.
The Van Buren County Co-Ed meet is scheduled for Monday with New London and Central Lee making the trip.
WACO and Danville will make the trip to Highland for an Invitational on Monday.
High School Tennis
Mt. Pleasant was swept by Fairfield last night with the girls’ team falling 9-0 and the boys’ team losing 6-3. Lou Schimmelpfennig picked up the lone singles win for the boys’ team, while the teams of Dane Cook and Max Heater and Elijah Rynders and Sawyer Fulton won their doubles matches.
Mt. Pleasant will square off against Burlington on Monday, May 5th, with the girls’ team on the road and the boys’ team at home.
The Fairfield boys’ team will compete at the Ottumwa Invitational tomorrow, May 3rd, while the girls’ team will participate in the Grayhound Invite.
High School Golf
On a contentious afternoon at Heritage Oaks Golf and Country Club, Mediapolis turned in a pair of victories against Van Buren County by a combined five strokes with the boys’ team winning 172-176 and the girls’ team taking their meet 216-217. Kohen Stotlar and Max Griffin each carded a 41 for the Bulldogs, while the girls’ team was led by Cardin Miller and Katelyn Wischmeier’s score of 52.
The Mediapolis and Danville girls’ teams will compete in the Washington Invitational on Monday, May 5th.
Burlington Notre Dame will make the trip to Van Buren County today.
The Wapello boys’ team defeated WACO yesterday 179-209 as Wyatt Marlette took home a 43 in the winning effort.
The Winfield-Mt. Union boys’ team cruised to victory over Lone Tree yesterday 164-216, while the girls’ team won via forfeit. Justin Knipfer led the boys’ team with a 39, while Ashlyn Bender carded a 47 for the girls’ team.
The Southeast Iowa Super Conference boys’ tournament is scheduled for Wednesday, May 7th.
The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team will host a tournament today with Columbus making the trip.
The Central Lee, New London, and Holy Trinity Catholic girls’ teams will compete in the Keokuk Invite on Monday.
The Mt. Pleasant, Danville, Mediapolis, New London, and Fairfield boys’ teams will compete in the Washington Invitational on Monday at Blue Top Ridge Golf Course.
High School Soccer
The Mt. Pleasant and Washington girls’ teams put on a defensive clinic for 64 minutes until a Demon foul gave Charice Auwerda a direct free kick that she put top shelf to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Mt. Pleasant avoided disaster when Eli Heaton, who made some phenomenal saves throughout the game, saved a goal outside the box, prompting a red card and for an injured Bizzie Richtman to enter the net as the backup goalie for the final four minutes of the contest; a spot she knew she had to step up in,
“I mean, I was really struggling with my hip, but I just knew that like my teammates were kind of counting on me and it’s really a team sport. It’s not like a personal sport. And I know that if I wasn’t going to go in, then I don’t know who else would and I just knew that I had to step up.”
Richtman made three key saves in the final four minutes to give the Panthers the 1-0 win. After a gauntlet of a week featuring multiple injuries, this victory proved to be a confidence booster,
“I think it comes back to just like all of our team just working together this past couple like days, we’ve been really working really, really hard in practice and we’ve all kind of realized that we’ve had to individually step up to step up as a team and I mean props to our coaches too. They’ve been really pushing us in practices and changing up some drills to make things harder to make us better.”
The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team followed suit after putting up 21 shots on goal against Washington leading to goals from Jonah Zimmer and Jack Newman, claiming a 2-0 win for the Panthers.
Mt. Pleasant will face off against Keokuk on Monday, May 5th, with the boys at home and the girls on the road.
Fairfield was swept by Fort Madison last night with the boys’ team losing 4-0 and the girls’ team falling 5-0. The Trojans girls’ team will compete against Columbus tonight at 5 pm.
The Burlington Notre Dame boys’ team shutout Highland, 3-0 last night. The Nike boys’ team will face off against Wahlert Catholic tomorrow, May 3rd, at Assumption High School.
Mediapolis will take on Central Lee tonight at home with the girls playing first at 5 pm and the boys game to follow at 7 pm.
Wapello will celebrate their senior night tonight with the girls’ team competing against Cedar Valley Christian at 5 pm and the boys’ team taking on Danville at 7 pm.
The WACO boys’ team is back in action on Tuesday, May 6th, against Sigourney Keota at 5 pm on the road.
Southeast Iowa Playbook
Same channel, same time, different day, make sure you tune in to KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, tonight at 6 pm for a new episode of the Southeast Iowa Playbook. Winfield-Mt. Union is our school of focus with senior Jake Edwards being our special guest.
Southeastern Community College
The baseball team will square off against Indian Hills Community College for a three-game series on the road today to conclude the regular season.
This Day in Sports History
1970 – Diane Crump is the first woman jockey at the Kentucky Derby.
2012 – Barcelona football player Lionel Messi breaks the European goal-scoring record with 68 goals.
2015 – Floyd Mayweather Jr. beats Manny Pacquiao on points in 12 rounds in a world welterweight unification fight, shattering all financial records for a boxing match.