Author: Nathan Bloechl

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

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Prep Wrestling: Seven Nikes, Six Tigers Headline 27 District Qualifiers: 

Seven Notre Dame-West Burlington-Danville Nikes and six New London Tigers headline area qualifiers for this weekend’s district wrestling tournament, following Saturday’s sectional results.

NDWB-Danville was paced by second-ranked 120-pounder Blaine Frazier, who made quick of both of his opponents, earning a fall victory over Davenport Assumption’s Mike Kersten (1:00) in the semis and then pinning Nolan Riddle (Keokuk) in the finals in 0:58 seconds to get one step closer to punching his ticket back to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Joining him as a sectional champion was 170-pounder C.J. Walrath. Walrath won his opening round bout in 0:58 seconds via fall over Zach Glasscock (Keokuk) and then came back in the finals to blitz Assumption’s Logan Schimanski 10-1 to earn a major decision victory.

On New London’s side of the coin, both Marcel and Dominic Lopez put on box office performances at Sigourney.

Marcel, a two-time defending state champion, rampaged everything in his path on his way to two tech fall victories — one over Calvin Walton of Moravia (23-8) and the other in the finals over North Mahaska’s Paul DeJong (25-10). He was an absolute clinician on Saturday.

Dominic followed tightly in his elder brother’s shoes. He too earned himself a technical fall finals victory at 145, surging past Wayne’s Jakson Cobb 25-8 in dominating fashion.

Not to be outdone, six Wapello Indian matmen are advancing to districts this week. 145-pounder Christopher Ewart dazzled in particular. Ewart earned two relatively easy fall victories: 0:30 over Cody McDonald (Louisa-Muscatine) and 1:26 over Iowa City Regina’s Sam Aitchison.

Mediapolis’ Quinten Aney showed why he is one of the most feared 132-pounders statewide, putting on a clinic in his home gym.

Aney rolled to a fall win in the semis in 0:39 over Eligah Fegel (Regina) and came behind that with a tech fall win (19-2) over Wapello’s Elijah Belzer. Aney, a state medalist last year, seems poised to repeat that success once more.

WACO’s Landon Provino was the Warriors lone district qualifier, but he made sure he did it in style. The 285-pounder rolled to a fall win in 2:08 over Colton Weaver (Wilton) to punch his ticket to this Saturday’s dance.

Meanwhile, Columbus-Winfield-Mount Union’s Lane Scorpil and Chance Malone had as a easy route to the districts as you could have wanted. Scorpil didn’t actually wrestle a match after receiving multiple byes and then a forfeit. He’s ranked No. 2 at 106 (2A) in the latest Predicament rankings.

His teammate Malone spent barely one minute on the mat, earning a fall in 0:34 seconds over Aiden Kniffen (NDWB-Danville) in his semifinal bout, while dominating Keokuk’s Jordan Salyers for a fall victory in 0:45 seconds in the finals.

The ninth-ranked 285-pounder was incredibly impressive.

Mount Pleasant had just one qualifier for this weekend’s district tournament: Sam Carrasco.

Carrasco, wrestling at 220, was a sectional champion, squeaking by Chase Diaz (Assumption) via 11-9 decision.

Just missing out on joining him were teammates Bowen Davis, who lost his wrestle-back, and Carson Coleman who did not get a chance to wrestle-back.

Coleman was a state qualifier last year but put in another terrific junior season.

Here’s our full list of district qualifiers:

Class 1A-Sectional 10

120 — Marcel Lopez (New London)

145 — Dominic Lopez (New London)

152 — Josh Glendening (New London)

170 — Boden Pickle (New London)

195 — Currey Jacobs (New London)

220 — Carter Allen (New London)

Class 1A-Sectional 16

120 — Garret Dickey (Wapello)

132 — Quinten Aney (Mediapolis)

132 — Eiljah Belzer (Wapello)

138 — Chase Witte (Wapello)

145 — Christopher Ewart (Wapello)

152 — Evan Ross (Wapello)

170 — Levi Arnold (Mediapolis)

195 — Owen Housman (Wapello)

285 — Landon Provino (WACO)

Class 2A-Sectional 10

106 — Carter West (NDWB-Danville)

113 — Lane Scorpil (Columbus-WMU)

120 — Blaine Frazier (NDWB-Danville)

138 — Isaiah Fenton (NDWB-Danville)

145 — Sam West (NDWB-Danville)

152 — Grifen Molle (NDWB-Danville)

160 — River Belger (NDWB-Danville)

170 — CJ Walrath (NDWB-Danville)

182 — Ayden Frazier (Washington)

195 — Ethan Palmer (Columbus-WMU)

220 — Sam Carrasco (Mount Pleasant)

285 — Chance Malone (Columbus-WMU)

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

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.

Prep Basketball: Lopreato Sets Records, Schedule For Tonight:

Following Andrea Lopreato’s earth-shattering performance on Friday against Burlington, where she erupted for 37 points and 16 rebounds, the star sophomore also broke two long-standing records.

Lopreato broke the record for sophomore high points in a game, which was previously set by Taylor Shull, who, as a sophomore, scored 31 points.

Lopreato also broke the record for single game points scored ever — the record was previously held by Darlene Corey, who finished with 34 points. Lopreato made 13-of-19 field goals in the win for the Panthers on Friday, improving to 10-9 in the process.

The Panthers girls’, as currently scheduled, are off until Friday when they take on Fairfield.

Here’s tonight’s schedule:

• Mount Pleasant boys’ vs. Ottumwa (FM 105.5)
• Washington boys’ vs. Williamsburg
• Keokuk boys’ at Burlington
• West Burlington at Fairfield (doubleheader)
• Danville boys’ vs. Fort Madison
• WACO at Central Lee (doubleheader)
• Mediapolis boys’ vs. Louisa-Muscatine

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

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.

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

Anija Simmons had 22 points, but it was not enough as the Iowa Wesleyan women’s basketball team 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.