WMU will celebrate CHD Awareness on Wednesday, February 10th by Wearing RED.

By Theresa Rose · Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 at 2:01 pm CDT

courtesy of Patricia Jones-

The Winfield Mt. Union school district will wear red on Wednesday, February 10th to raise awareness for Congenital Heart Disease. Freshman, Alisha Woodsmall has been battling CHD since she was born.

Her first open heart surgery happened at 6-days old. Another followed at 3 months old. Alisha’s last surgery at 6 years old went very well. She was taken off all medications 6 months following that surgery. Alisha sees a heart specialist once a year for a check up.  She is doing well.

Alisha shared that “Every year from February 5-14 is when we celebrate it (CHD Awareness). We do it as a family everyday. If we could get the school to celebrate it at least one of those days, it would mean a lot to me and I know it would mean everything to my mom to see the support.” Alisha’s close friends and teachers will help raise awareness by wearing red all week. Her mom is posting pictures all month on social media.

 

Boys’ Basketball: Panthers Stumble Late, Fall to Ottumwa:

By Nathan Bloechl · Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 at 1:58 pm CDT

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Mount Pleasant — Two big technical foul calls turned close games into multi-possession leads for Ottumwa, as the Mount Pleasant boys’ basketball team fell to the Bulldogs last night 58-47 in a nonconference matchup at Mount Pleasant High School.

Late in the fourth quarter with Ottumwa leading 46-44, the Panthers were whistled for a technical that strung the game to 48-44 on the free throws and 50-44 on the ensuing offensive possession.

That hole was too big to dig out of for Eric Rawson’s group.

The Panthers rallied back from a 15-point halftime deficit, cutting the lead to three at the end of the third quarter largely behind the strong play of Chase Williamson, Dewon Trent and Owen Van Sickel.

Williamson led Mount Pleasant with 16 points, hitting 3-of-4 shots from three.

Trent, who was held to two points in the first half, finished with 13 to go along with eight rebounds. Van Sickel finished with 11, canning 3-of-7 three point shots.

Ottumwa’s Trae Swartz led all scorers, pouring in 21 points along with five rebounds while drilling two triples.

Joe Hammer added 16 for the Bulldogs, icing the game at the foul line by hitting 9-of-10 from the charity stripe.

The loss moved Mount Pleasant to 11-8, Ottumwa improved to 11-5.

Originally scheduled to makeup their postponed game with Burlington tonight, the Panthers will now be off due to a shortage of officials.

No date has been picked for that game to be made up a third time.

Sports, Tuesday, Februray 9th

By Nathan Bloechl · Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 at 12:44 pm CDT

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Prep Wrestling: Regional Duals Tonight, New London, NDWB-Danville in Action:

New London and Notre Dame-West Burlington-Danville will both be in action tonight as they clamor for a spot at the 2021 State Dual Tournament.

New London, ranked No. 13 in Class 1A will square off in their opening round match against No. 20 Alburnett.

The winner of that matchup will then square off with the second-ranked Lions of Lisbon for a spot in the 1A Team Duals bracket at Wells Fargo Arena next Wednesday.

In Class 2A, No. 14 Notre Dame-West Burlington-Danville will meet up up with No. 22 Albia in their first round tilt.

Like New London, the Nikes finished second at their sectional (Davenport Assumption) on Saturday.

If the Nikes should win over Albia, they will meet up with the fourth-ranked Knights in the finals.

Assumption was the sectional winner Saturday.

Wrestling tonight will begin statewide at 6:00 p.m.

Boys’ Basketball: Mount Pleasant Stumbles Late, Falls to Ottumwa:

Two big technical foul calls turned close games into multi-possession leads for Ottumwa, as the Mount Pleasant boys’ basketball team fell to the Bulldogs last night 58-47 in a nonconference matchup at Mount Pleasant High School last night.

Late in the fourth quarter with Ottumwa leading 46-44, the Panthers were whistled for a technical that strung the game to 48-44 on the free throws and 50-44 on the ensuing offensive possession.

That hole was too big to dig out of for Eric Rawson’s group.

The Panthers rallied back from a 15-point halftime deficit, cutting the lead to three at the end of the third quarter largely behind the strong play of Chase Williamson, Dewon Trent and Owen Van Sickel.

Williamson led Mount Pleasant with 16 points, hitting 3-of-4 shots from three.

Trent, who was held to two points in the first half, finished with 13 to go along with eight rebounds. Van Sickel finished with 11, canning 3-of-7 three point shots.

Ottumwa’s Trae Swartz led all scorers, pouring in 21 points along with five rebounds while drilling two triples.

Joe Hammer added 16 for the Bulldogs, icing the game at the foul line by hitting 9-of-10 from the charity stripe.

The loss moved Mount Pleasant to 11-8, Ottumwa improved to 11-5.

Originally scheduled to makeup their postponed game with Burlington tonight, the Panthers will now be off due to a shortage of officials.

No date has been picked for that game to be made up a third time.

Other boys’ finals last night:

Danville 68, Cardinal 49

Caiden Gourley had 22 points as Danville earned a pivotal Super Conference win over Cardinal last night, 68-49.

Ty Carr chipped in with 12 for the Bears, who improved to 11-7 overall and 9-6 in the Super Conference.

WACO 68, Central Lee 62

WACO outscored Central Lee by 10 in the second half on their way to a 68-62 road win over the Hawks last night.

Simeon Reichenbach had 19 points to lead WACO, while Hunter Hughes had 16.

Central Lee was paced by Dylan Stuecker, he had a game-high 24 points.

The win moved WACO to 3-16 and 1-12 in Super Conference tilts.

Central Lee dropped to 6-13.

Other finals:

  • Fairfield 65, West Burlington 62
  • Burlington 58, Keokuk 54 — F/OT

And in girls’ basketball:

  • No. 6 (3A) West Burlington 53, Fairfield 51
  • Keokuk 49, Burlington 44

Prep Bowling: Panthers Compete at Conference: 

The Mount Pleasant girls’ bowling team finished fourth — as did the boys’ — at yesterday’s Southeast Conference Bowling Meet.

The girls’ just missed out on third place — finishing fourth by a mere seven pins.

Eden Svoboda rolled a series 357 to lead Mount Pleasant — pacing the Panthers with a series high 192 in game one.

Keokuk’s Jasmine Saunders was crowned the individual champion — rolling up a series 440 to earn the conference crown.

The boys’ finished 4th out of five teams — they were paced by Cole Wohlleber, who rolled a series 362.

Levi Svoboda finished with a series 347 for the Panthers, as well.

Washington’s Ethan Zieglowsky was the conference champion, he bowled a series 451.

Prep Basketball: Busy Night in the Super Conference, Southeast Conference:

As the regular season winds down, games become more and more meaningful, tonight is no different as several teams will be in action.

Here’s a look at the region tonight:

  • Holy Trinity at New London
  • Winfield-Mount Union at Hillcrest Academy
  • Notre Dame at WACO
  • Mediapolis at Columbus
  • Wapello at Louisa-Muscatine
  • Knoxville at Fairfield girls’
  • Danville girls’ at Fort Madison
  • Keokuk boys’ at West Burlington

Betty Lou Ball

By Theresa Rose · Monday, February 8th, 2021 at 9:25 pm CDT

Betty Lou Ball, 81, of rural Donnellson, Iowa, passed away at 9:33 p.m. Friday, February 5, 2021, at Fort Madison Community Hospital in Fort Madison, Iowa.

 

She was born on August 8, 1939, in Houghton, Iowa, the eighth of eleven children born to William and Matilda (Hellweg) Holtkamp. She married Leland Ball on July 6, 1968 in Fort Madison, Iowa. He preceded her in death on January 12, 2005.

 

Betty is survived by three generations of nieces and nephews totaling nearly two hundred.

 

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband: Leland; five brothers: Denis, Kenneth, Ralph and David, Raymond Holtkamp; five sisters: Lucine (George) Wallingford, Elaine (Don) St. Clair, Colette (Robert) Schlak, Doris Ann and Irma (Duane) Gabel; sister-in-law: Margaret Holtkamp; brother-in-law: Wayne Ball and several nieces and nephews.

 

Betty was a 1957 graduate of Donnellson High School. She retired from the paper mill in Fort Madison after twenty-eight years as an executive secretary. She enjoyed singing at grade school programs in Charleston, weddings and on the KOKX radio station with Sagebrush Sandy in the early 1950s (while she was a member of the Sweet Adelines in Fort Madison). Betty also enjoyed family gatherings, cooking, flowers, yard work, hummingbirds, the St. Louis Cardinals, NASCAR, auctions, shopping, girls nights out and bus trips.

 

Friends may call from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Friday, February 12, 2021, at Schmitz Funeral Home in Donnellson. Attendees will be required to wear masks and social distance.

 

A private family funeral service will be held at Saturday, February 13, 2021, at Schmitz Funeral Home in Donnellson with Father Dennis Hoffman officiating. The funeral service will be posted on her obituary page under her “Tribute Wall” at  www.schmitzfuneralhomes.com.

 

Burial will be at Evangelical Cemetery, Donnellson, Iowa.

 

A memorial has been established in her memory for Central Lee Music Boosters or PAW Animal Shelter.

 

Online condolences may be made to the family at www.schmitzfuneralhomes.com. Schmitz Funeral Home of Donnellson is assisting the family with arrangements.

 

Windstream Outage Update

By Theresa Rose · Monday, February 8th, 2021 at 4:19 pm CDT

Following a wide-spread outage this past week, Windstream announces that customers were restored to service over the weekend after crews dried out wet cables in a manhole. However, they found some damaged cables in the manhole system, and crews have been working around the clock to repair those cables and restore service to the customers who were still impacted. As a result, customers are now coming back into service one at a time as individual cables are repaired, and that will continue until all repairs are complete. Barring unforeseen issues, the last customers should be back in service by the end of business on Wednesday. As always, Windstream appreciates its’ customers’ patience as they work through these repairs.

Women’s College Basketball: Wesleyan Women Fall to 0-3

By Nathan Bloechl · Monday, February 8th, 2021 at 1:16 pm CDT

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

KILJ — Anija Simmons had 22 points, but it was not enough as the Iowa Wesleyan women’s basketball team (0-3) dropped to Cornell 67-50 yesterday at Ruble Arena.

The loss was the Tigers third straight to begin the year.

Morgan McCrea also finished in double figures, scoring 10 points and adding six rebounds for the Tigers.

Cornell was led by Madison Osborn, who finished with 14 points.

The Wesleyan women will too rematch Cornell, their tilt on Thursday in Mount Vernon.

Tip is set for 7:00 p.m.

You can view the full release here.

Men’s College Basketball: Wesleyan Falls in Season Opener to Cornell

By Nathan Bloechl · Monday, February 8th, 2021 at 1:14 pm CDT

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Mount Pleasant — Kaleb Cresswell had 14 points but it was not enough as the Iowa Wesleyan men’s basketball team (0-1) fell to Cornell 75-51 in their season opener Saturday at Ruble Arena.

Former Mount Pleasant standout Jordan Magnani had 10 points for Cornell, while the Rams were led by Cooper Kabela who finished with a game-high 23 points to go along with nine rebounds and three steals.

Cornell limited Iowa Wesleyan to just 31.5% from the field, while the Tigers made just 6-of-19 three point attempts.

The Tigers will be off until Wednesday when then they will rematch the Rams, this time in Mount Vernon.

Tip is set for 7:00 p.m.

View the full release here.

Prep Wrestling: Regional Dual Sites Announced, New London to Lisbon, NDWB-Danville to Assumption

By Nathan Bloechl · Monday, February 8th, 2021 at 1:01 pm CDT

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

KILJ — The 2021 Regional Dual pairings have been released and two area programs will compete for a spot in next Wednesday’s team state duals, tomorrow.

New London, who finished second as a team at Sigourney, will travel to Lisbon where they will meet up with No. 20 Alburnett.

The Tigers are ranked 13th in Class 1A.

The winner of their matchup will then square off with the second-ranked Lions of Lisbon.

In Class 2A, No. 14 Notre Dame-West Burlington-Danville will meet up up with No. 22 Albia in their opening round bout.

Like Notre Dame, the Nikes finished second at their sectional (Davenport Assumption) on Saturday.

If the Nikes should win over Albia, they will meet up with the fourth-ranked Knights in the finals.

Assumption was the sectional winner Saturday.

Wrestling tomorrow will begin at 6:00 p.m.