Author: Nathan Bloechl

Prep Volleyball: Super Conference Opens Conference Tournament Pool Play:

The Southeast Iowa Super Conference volleyball tournament gets underway tonight with pool play opening up at several regional sites.

Hosting schools include Louisa-Muscatine, New London, WACO and Wapello.

Van Buren County, West Burlington and Winfield-Mount Union will be in Letts at the Louisa-Muscatine pool.

New London will host Central Lee, Columbus and Highland.

WACO will welcome in Mediapolis, Cardinal, No. 1 Notre Dame and Pekin.

Other Super Conference schools will be dispersed accordingly.

Pool play will begin at the various regional sites tonight at 5:00 p.m.

There is no action in the Southeast Conference tonight, with all conference programs enjoying the night off.

Prep Cross Country: Burlington Hosts Area Programs in Home Meet:

Burlington will host several top schools in their home invite tonight, being ran at the Burlington RecPlex.

The Greyhounds will welcome in Class 2A’s No. 1 boys’ program in Danville-New London also hosting Notre Dame, Van Buren County, Mediapolis and Wapello.

Racing will get started at 5:00 p.m.

Other schools in Burlington tonight include Clark County, Davenport Central, Illini West, West Central and West Hancock.

Men’s College Golf: Wesleyan 3rd in William Penn Match Play:

The Iowa Wesleyan men’s golf team took third place, finishing up Tuesday at the William Penn match play tournament.

Trace White, a Mount Pleasant graduate, paced the Tigers on Monday with their lone victory in match play.

On Tuesday, Wesleyan flipped the script going 4-1 in their own regard.

Brevin Wilson and Bailey Shellady, two other Panther alums, and Nathan Cronkhite all earned wins to help the team secure 3rd.

Kenny Tucker and White tied with their opponent.

Iowa Wesleyan will be back on the links today when they take part in the Simpson Invitational.

College Football: Petras, No. 5 Iowa ready for Colorado State:

Iowa will face a more familiar defense when the fifth-ranked Hawkeyes host Colorado State on Saturday.

The Rams use a four man front under head coach Steve Addazio.

It will be the first time this season the Hawks have seen it.

“It makes prep a little bit easier, you don’t have to train your eyes to see a foreign thing. We will learn any scheme that we have to, the challenge is how well can we execute.” 

That’s Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras who says Colorado State is physical up front.

To help combat that, however, the Hawkeyes got a big boost along their offensive line when Kyler Schott returned this past weekend following a lengthy absence from a summer farming accident.

This will be the first meeting between the two schools. Kickoff from Kinnick Stadium is set for 2:30 p.m., Saturday afternoon.

Prep Cross Country: Panther Girls’ 4th, Boys’ 5th at Home Invite: 

The Mount Pleasant girls’ cross country team got a first place finish from Abby Blint, who ran 20:51.96 as the Panthers’ finished 4th in the large school division at the 4th Annual Panther Invite last night.

Blint finished six seconds off her seasonal best.

Alexis Wagner was 7th for Mount Pleasant, running 21:39 — cementing her chances for a top five finish in the Southeast Conference meet.

Belle Meador, Jenna Gilmore, Jayden Housh and Ella McNamee all had season best times, as well.

Washington won the large school division, followed up by Oskaloosa and Fairfield.

Mediapolis won the small school division, Columbus Community placed second, while Wilton finished out third.

On the boys’ side of things, Mount Pleasant’s Ben Carthey went 18:09.88 good for 6th, as the Panther boys finished 5th in the large school division.

Nate McWilliams finished up 8th overall, running 18:31.

Washington’s Lance Sobaski was the meet champion, he helped guide the Demons to a first place team finish. Oskaloosa and Fairfield finished second and third respectively.

In the small school division, Mediapolis sophomore Solomon Zaugg continued to display why many think he’s one of the area’s top runners, cruising to a meet medalist finish in 17:29.62.

The Bulldogs finished second overall in the small school team standings.

Columbus Community won the event, while Central Lee finished third.

Prep Volleyball: Panthers Win in Four:

The Mount Pleasant volleyball team stayed hot last night, earning a homecoming four-set win over Keokuk.

The Panthers took sets one, three and four, 25-23, 25-23 and 25-20 respectively.

Keokuk nabbed set two 25-19.

The win moved Mount Pleasant to 13-10 overall.

Keokuk slipped to 5-8.

Other area finals last night:

• Burlington 3, Fairfield 0
• Fort Madison 3, Washington 1

College Football: Drake’s Cagnetto Named PFL Defensive Player of the Week: 

Drake safety Nick Cagnetto has been named the Pioneer Football League Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced yesterday.

In his first career start, Cagnetto forced a pair of turnovers in Saturday’s road loss at No. 11 North Dakota.

The Denton, Texas native forced one fumble, intercepted a pass and added four tackles.

Cagnetto, former Mount Pleasant Alum Kieran Kohorst and the rest of the Drake football team will host Valparaiso this weekend at Drake Stadium in the Bulldog’s conference opener.

Kick is set for 12:00 p.m.

Prep Football: Iowa City’s Ben Kueter Commits to Iowa Football, Wrestling:

The Iowa football and wrestling teams picked up a massive commit yesterday, when Iowa City High standout Ben Kueter committed to his hometown institution.

Kueter, a three-star linebacker by most recruiting outlets, announced he will be playing football and wrestling for the Hawkeyes.

A true unicorn athlete, Kueter is the No. 8 ranked player in the class in Iowa and is the No. 41 ranked linebacker in the country.

On the wrestling mat he is already a two-time state champion.

City High is off to a teriffic start to their season, the Little Hawks are 4-0 on the season after knocking off Dowling Catholic last week.