Author: Nathan Bloechl

KILJ — Danville-New London’s Ty Carr went 16:43 good for first place as the Bears earned a team trip back to the Class 2A State Cross Country Meet in Fort Dodge.

The Bears finished second in the team standings behind only Tipton, who finished with 33 team points. Danville-New London had 44.

Monticello placed third.

Alexander Julian placed fifth for the Bears, Julian ran 17:09, Rylan Martin placed seventh finishing 17:13.

Seth Bailey placed 13th for Danville-New London, running 17:52.

Mediapolis’ Owen Schmidgall and Solomon Zaugg just missed out on state appearances, finishing 16th and 17th respectively.

The top-15 qualifiers head to state.

Charlie Sieck of Starmont placed second while Tipton’s Clay Bohlmann rounded out the top-three.

The 1A and 2A State Cross Country Meet will be held on Saturday, October 30th in Fort Dodge.

Iowa City — The Columbus cross country team is heading to state after a second place finish at yesterday’s state qualifying cross country meet in Iowa City.

Regina won the event, with Columbus finishing 25 points better than that of the Wildcats.

Winfield’s boys’ placed fourth.

They were led by Game Hemsworth, who advanced as an individual to the 1A state meet.

Hemsworth ran 18:29.14.

Kohlby Newsom was the Wolves team runner-up, he missed the state meet by two spots finishing in 17th place in 19:15.30.

WACO was led by Wyatt Dennis’ 21st place marker.

On the girls’ side WACO was led by Hannah Dennis who placed 36th.

Winfield-Mount Union had two runners finish; Maggie Hutton and Olivia Martinez.

Wayland — The undefeated No. 5 WACO football team will look to get their postseason started in a big way tonight when they welcome in 5-3 Edgewood-Colesburg in a first round tilt.

WACO finished their regular season 8-0 and enjoyed an idle week last week in preparation for their home playoff scrap.

Simeon Reichenbach has been the offensive catalyst for the Warriors this year, rushing for over 1,000 yards and 19 total touchdowns.

Quarterback Isaac Oswald has only thrown the ball 69 times, but has tossed eight scores and ran for four more.

Jonah Clark has been his top target — with Clark hauling in three touchdowns. He’s also ran for two of his own.

The lynchpin of WACO’s success this year has been their defense, however.

The Warriors are yielding just 12.3 points per game, a total that’s one of the best in 8-Player.

Cael Funk has been Edgewood’s best player this year, throwing for 734 yards, rushing for 407 and totaling 19 touchdowns.

He’ll need to be on his best for the Vikings to pull an upset.

Tonight’s game will kick at 7:00 p.m. and you can listen on KILJ-FM with the pre-game show at 6:30 p.m.

Other area matchups tonight in the first round of the playoffs:

• North Tama at Wapello
• Highland at Lynnville-Sully
• New London at No. 1 Montezuma
• Cardinal at West Branch
• Mediapolis at Pella Christian

Other area regular season finales:

• Keokuk at Solon
• No. 1 North Scott at Mount Pleasant
• Fairfield at Grinnell
• Fort Madison at Burlington
• Washington at West Burlington Notre Dame

Mount Pleasant — The Iowa Wesleyan women’s basketball team have announced their 2021-22 schedule.

The Tigers will open up next week Wednesday at home against Waldorf University.

It will mark the first game back for head coach Steve Williamson who resumes his role at Iowa Wesleyan after a highly successful stint at William Penn.

Iowa Wesleyan will host ten home games this years and compete in 18 games on the road in their first year competing in the Continental Athletic Conference.

The Tigers will also host this year’s conference tournament, which is slated to be played February 24th-27th at Ruble Arena.

Des Moines — For the first time on record, Drake has been picked as the preseason favorite in the Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball race by a voting panel consisting of coaches, sports information directors and media.

The Bulldogs are coming off three of the most successful seasons in program history and the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 years, taking second in the league race last year (26-5, 15-3).

The Bulldogs received 29 first-place votes.

Loyola finished in second, with UNI in third.

Missouri State and Southern Illinois rounded out the top-five.

Solon — Mount Pleasant sophomore Ben Carthey missed out on the state cross country meet by just four seconds leading the Panthers to a 6th place finish in the team standings.

Carthey ran 17:24.

Nathan McWilliams finished 31st for the Panthers in a time of 18:02 while Christian Bracht-Wagner finished 36th.

Marion won the team standings with Solon and Mount Vernon rounding out the top three.

Shane Erb of Marion was the meet medalist, running 15:56.5.

Solon — Mount Pleasant finished 7th at yesterday’s state qualifying meet in Solon.

Three runners had lifetime bests for the Panthers.

Mount Pleasant was led by freshman Alexis Wagner who finished 18th in a time of 20:46, a near :45 second improvement.

Abby Blint ended 28th with a time of 21:10.

Bella Meador, Jenna Gilmore and Jayden Housh all were the next cluster of finishers for the Panthers.

Solon was the team champion, with Mount Vernon and Marion rounding out the top three.

Kayla Young of Solon was the meet champion in a time of 19:24.8.

No. 5 Holy Trinity 3, Seymour 0 

Sophomore phenom Mary Kate Bendlage drilled 11 kills to lead fifth-ranked Holy Trinity to a sweep of Seymour yesterday in Fort Madison.

The win was Melissa Freesmeier’s 1,000th career victory.

Natalie Randolph chipped in with eight kills as the Crusaders rolled.

Seymour ends their year 19-12.

Holy Trinity improved to 30-10.

No. 13 New London 3, WACO 0 

New London advanced to semifinal action where they will battle Holy Trinity, with a sweep of WACO yesterday.

Natalie Burden had a match-high 17 kills while adding two blocks.

Emma Nye paced the Tigers back row with 23 digs while Elly Manning and Aliyah Christensen each had 15 assists.

New London improved to 26-13.

Holy Trinity has won five straight in the series, including a 3-0 sweep this year.

That game will be played Monday night at Shottenkirk Gymnasium.

You can listen on FM 105.5 and kilj.com.

Winfield-Mount Union 3, Wapello 2 

In a thriller in Wapello, it Winfield-Mount Union pulling out a gutsy, five-set win over the Arrows 3-2.

The slugfest was decided with a 15-10 Winfield-Mount Union win in the fifth set.

Melina Oepping paced the Lady Wolves with 15 kills, Bradie Buffington chipped in with 10.

Keetyn Townsley was a brick wall in the back row providing 59 digs.

Lindsay Massner led Wapello with 15 kills.

Winfield improved to 22-10.

No. 1 Notre Dame 3, Lone Tree 0 

Notre Dame stormed out of the gates and never looked back as they cruised to a sweep over Lone Tree last night.

The win hooks the Nikes and Winfield-Mount Union up with each other next Monday at Father Minnett Gymnasium.

Gabby Deery had 11 kills in the win while Josie Bentz added eight.

Notre Dame improved to 33-8 with the win.

Lone Tree ended their season 7-21.

Other area finals: 

• Mediapolis 3, Van Buren County 0
• Danville 3, Pekin 0
  • They’ll meet next week in a regional semifinal.
• No. 10 West Burlington 3, Davis County 0
  • They’ll take on No. 4 West Liberty in the regional championship Tuesday.