Quarter 2 Review
After getting out to a strong start, the second quarter is about keeping the momentum up to head into the break with a considerable lead and Southeastern Iowa did just that. Iowa Wesleyan started April off with officially naming Jake Kadel, a New London native who wrestled at the University of Iowa, the head coach of the wrestling program after a strong performance by the women’s team anchored by freshmen Mia Palumbo and Adaugo Nwachukwu, who was named Iowa Wesleyan’s Female Athlete of the Year. Additionally, he coached six Scholar All-Americans in Adaugo, Palumbo, Alaina Sunlin, Zoi Smith, Joanna Vanderwood, and Destiny Campbell. In terms of high school wrestlers, Notre Dame’s Blaine Frazier committed to Indiana after his 53-0 senior season that ended in an individual and team State Championship. Quniten Aney of Mediapolis also committed to Luther College after his 163-25 career record. Iowa Wesleyan kept the theme of competing well in athletics as their golf program fielded three CAC Golfers of the week in Aubrey Duncan, Trace White, and Brevin Wilson, who received the honor twice. Additionally, the Iowa Wesleyan baseball team qualified for the CAC tournament as they played one of the most difficult schedules in the NAIA. At the track prep level, we saw Mt. Pleasant win the Timm Lamb Relays thanks to the 4×400 relay team of Andi Scott, Kenna Lamm, Tristian Shull, and Bailey Jalas who took the top spot, and Jadan Brumbaugh taking first at shot put and third at discus. And Danville taking WACO’s Ekstand Relays as Ty Carr zoomed to three first place finishes in the 800, 1600, and the sprint medley. Tennis saw the Mt. Pleasant boys team win three straight matches to start April with Owen Vansickel and Lou Schimmelpfennig leading the Panthers. And Savana Walls and Malena Yocum led the girl’s team to their first win of the season in late April. Lastly, we saw a coaching hire and retirement as Central Lee hired Taylor Hickey to lead the girls’ basketball team after helping Jay Baldwin to a 26-18 record over the last two years and after 30 years at the helm, Mitch Wachs stepped down as head coach of the Winfield-Mt. Union girls basketball team. He helped the team to two state championships and amassed 412 wins, which is 74th all-time in Iowa girls’ basketball.
For the month of May, we saw some excellent high school tennis play and student athletes representing Southeastern Iowa go to state for Track and golf. But before state, there’s conference championships and we look to the Burlington Greyhounds winning the boys golf SEC championship with Tomas Rascon having led the way shooting a 74. The New London girls golf team took the SEISC title winning by almost 80 strokes. Taylor Phillips had a fantastic day shooting an 82 for the Tigers. Sophie Malott, Saige Barron, and Emma Nye all placed within the top-11 for the Tigers in the blowout win. New London also had success in boys track winning the SEISC South title as they won 9 events on the day. Mediapolis took the North title one-upping the Tigers 9 events by taking 10 events including four relays. Washington ran away with the SEC title in boys track with Mt. Pleasant finishing in second place. Will Davidson captured two wins for the Panthers in the 200-meter dash and 110m hurdles. On the girl’s side of the SEISC, Pekin took the North Title, while Burlington Notre Dame won the South after winning seven events. Danville was the runner-up with Kenna Furnald winning the long jump and Alexis Dietsch winning the 400-meter hurdles. The Mt. Pleasant girls track team was unstoppable for most of the season and that remained true in the Conference Championship with the Panthers taking the title after seven individual event winners. Jadan Brumbaugh, the Iowa State commit, continued throwing heavy things far winning the shot put and discus. Abby Blint showed off her endurance by winning three events and Kenna Lamm paced the 100-meter sprinters. We’ll hear from some of these names in a bit for State competition, but first we take a quick look at prep tennis as Tyce Bertlshofer won the SEC crown for the Burlington boys’ team. Tim Cam for the Panthers finished in 4th. Savana Walls and Melanie Olivas were quite the duo for Mt. Pleasant as they were named All-Conference for doubles as they managed to finish in 3rd place at the Class 1A Regional tournament, making them alternatives for state. On the topic of state, Jadan Brumbaugh dominated at state winning both the shot put and discus with a Class 3A state meet record throw of 47 feet and 5.5 inches and the 15th farthest throw in state history with the discus of 151 feet, 10 inches. Kade Benjamin won the high jump for New London, and Carter Allen collected a 2nd place finish in the discus with a throw of 155 feet and 6 inches for the Tigers as New London collected a State Championship for the boys in Class 1A, spoiler it is not the last State Championship for the Tigers. For girl’s golf, Sami Wibben was the lone Panther to make it to State, while New London and Washington represented Southeast Iowa as a team.
Iowa Wesleyan added their own recognition as well with Sage Bonner and Cristian Cordero for the Tiger baseball team both being named Conference All-Tournament after racking up five hits during the CAC tournament. Additionally, Blake Beaber was named Continental Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the Tigers baseball team after his 21-win season, which was the most since 2012 for Iowa Wesleyan. Luis Ayesa, Cristian Cordero, and Derek Marrufo were also All-Conference players. Bri Hunter was named the North Star Athlectic Association Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Meet as she won the shot-put catapulting her to Nationals. The Tigers had two big announcements as the former Winfield-Mt. Union Wolve Lane Scorpil signed with the Tigers to wrestle and Brittany West was hired after her senior season, which saw her set two records, to be an assistant coach for Coach Williamson.
Baseball and softball were in full swing for the month of June when we saw the New London Tigers baseball team turn in a perfect 23-0 record to end the month. Their perfect season does not end here but it will start Quarter 3 followed by the start of the fall season as the Year in Review is sponsored by Two Rivers Bank.