High School Girls’ Tennis
Fairfield continued their domineering ways with a 9-0 shutout of Keokuk last night. The Trojans and Burlington Notre Dame will compete in the Ottumwa Invitational tomorrow, August 29th.
Mt. Pleasant will compete against Burlington on Monday, August 31st, at 4:30 pm.
High School Volleyball
Fairfield held their “Steve Hisel” triangular last night and finished undefeated, sweeping WACO (25-14, 25-18) and taking down Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont in three sets (18-25, 25-22, 15-11). Leah Helmick tabbed 14 kills and two aces, as the Trojans collected 15 aces between the two contests.
Mt. Pleasant was able to handle their first bout of adversity last night over Davis County, winning in five sets. The Panthers took the first set 25-13 before finding themselves down two sets to one (16-25, 22-25); yet, Mt. Pleasant was able to battle back and win the final two sets 25-19 and 15-11.
Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant, and Washington will compete in the Grinnell Invite tomorrow, August 29th.
Central Lee fell to Fort Madison in straight sets (22-25, 21-25, 25-27) last night. Brylee Cook led the Hawks with 15 assists, four kills, and three aces. The Hawks will host an invitational tomorrow with Burlington Notre Dame, West Burlington, and Van Buren County making the trip.
Burlington hosted a quad last night, but it was West Burlington that handled business, beating the hosts (18-25, 25-15, 15-12) and Wapello (25-18, 15-25, 15-9) in three sets and sweeping Danville (25-22, 25-23). The Arrows also fell to the Grayhounds in three sets (18-25, 26-24, 14-16), while the Bears lost in straight sets (12-25, 22-25).
Wapello will get back to action on Tuesday, September 1st, against English Valleys at 4:30 pm at home.
Winfield-Mt. Union will participate in the Albia Invitational tomorrow.
High School Football
Danville kicks off the season tonight at home against West Burlington/Notre Dame at 7 pm.
Mediapolis awaits Mt. Pleasant tonight with gametime at 7:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 7:15 pm. For Panther head coach John Bowlin, the time for talk is over,
“I preached and we got to prove it, prove if we think we’re good, we got to go out and prove, you know, that we can, that we can compete and we can go out and win games. Because nothing’s proven until, until the first week. So it’s, it’s a one week at a time thing. And hopefully at the end of the season, you know, we can be, we can be really proud of our effort and know that we’ve done everything the right way to hopefully have a chance at the end.”
Fairfield will host Benton tonight at 7:30 pm.
Washington will take on Mid-Prairie at home at 7:30 pm tonight.
Central Lee will travel to Van Buren County tonight with gametime at 7 pm.
Wapello will start their season with a home matchup tonight against Louisa-Muscatine at 7 pm.
Columbus will head to BGM tonight at 7 pm.
Winfield-Mt. Union will welcome Easton Valley to town tonight at 7 pm. Wolves head coach Scott McCarty is hoping his defense can set the tone for the season,
“…Can you stay mentally focused enough and read your key and then do what you’ve been coached to do after you read that key? You know, those are the big things there on defense. I think we struggled with that once in a while last year. And then I think every coach could tell you that you need to improve your physicality. And I think that’s going to be big for us on Friday. Can we just step up and be physical to these guys? You know, to the opposing team and not just hit our guys all the time. And can we hit somebody else and we’ll go from there. You know, everybody’s excited when they open the book, right? And we’ll see what chapter one has for us in store this week. ”
WACO begins the year at home with a matchup against Central City at 7 pm tonight.
High School Cross Country
Danville competed at the Iowa City West Early Bird Meet and the girls’ team turned in a third-place team score of 78. The Bears were led by KoraRae Stott, who finished in 10th place with a time of 21 minutes and 33 seconds, followed by Delaney Newberry and Myla Clover, who grabbed 15th and 16th place, respectively. The boys’ team had Elijah Chancellor cross the finish line in 20 minutes and 48 seconds for 37th place.
Van Buren County participated at the Albia Invitational last night and the girls’ team continued their winning way from last year, lurching past the hosts by one point to secure the gold. Kayley Snowgren led the Warriors with a 7th place time of 21 minutes and 11 seconds.
On the boys’ side, Landry Loeffler led the pack with a time of 17 minutes and 20 seconds, which was good enough for 4th place. Nevertheless, as a team, the Warriors took 7th place with 155 points.
Van Buren County, Fairfield, and New London will run at the Wildwood Meet on Thursday, September 3rd, at 5:20 pm.
Mt. Pleasant, Danville, and Mediapolis will take part in the Williamsburg Invitational on Tuesday, September 1st, at 4:30 pm.
Southeastern Community College
The volleyball team will welcome Allen County Community College to town today at 2 pm to start the Jimmy John’s Classic.
The men’s and women’s soccer teams will host Lincoln Trail College tomorrow, August 29th, with the men playing first at 2 pm followed by the women’s team at 4 pm.
This Day in Sports History
1990 – Cubs Ryne Sandberg is the first 2nd baseman to hit 30 home runs in a season, consecutively.
1990 – #1 seed Stefan Edberg loses in the first round to Alex Volkov in one of the biggest upsets in U.S. Open history.
2022 – A 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card sells for $12.6 million at auction, becoming the world’s most expensive piece of sporting memorabilia.