High School Golf

Most of the boys’ teams for the Southeast Conference traveled to Fairfield for the Class 3A sectional and two of the teams moved on to Districts as Washington’s score of 332 finished as the runner-up and Fairfield took the bronze with a collection of 336. 

Rajan Roth claimed the silver medal with a round of 77 for the Demons with Drew Conrad just finishing outside the podium in 4th place. The Trojans were aided by Andrew Myers’ 79 and Luke Thornton’s 82, which was good enough for 5th and 7th place, respectively. 

Mt. Pleasant claimed 5th place as a team with a score of 356, but Brody Engle’s 6th place round of 81 was the highest among non-qualifying teams, advancing the Panther to the next round. 

Fairfield, Washington, and Engle will travel to Pella for their District meet on Monday, May 18th.

The Winfield-Mt. Union boys’ team got to host a Sectional Meet for Class 1A and the Wolves punched their ticket to the next round, posting the best score by 45 strokes of a 321. Konner Kinneberg led the entire course with a round of 75 followed by two of his teammates in Cody Milks and Justin Knipfer.

Also advancing as a team was WACO, who shot a 366 as a team for 2nd place, and Danville, who finished with a team score of 368 for the bronze medal. Ian Maize finished in 5th place with a card of 86 to anchor the Warriors, while Alex Holtkamp snatched 7th place for the Bears with an 87.

Holy Trinity Catholic’s Max Kruse will move on as an individual after the Crusader claimed 4th place with a score of 86, the highest amongst non-qualifying teams, along with Wapello’s Cully Fry, who shot an 88 for 9th place.

The teams and individuals will head to Oskaloosa Golf on Monday for their Class 1A District showdown hosted by Sigourney.

The Mediapolis, Central Lee, and Columbus boys’ teams traveled to Tipton for their sectional meet in Class 2A and the Bulldogs and Hawks each advanced to districts as a team, posting congruent scores of 318. 

Max Griffin managed a bronze medal finish for the Bulldogs, collecting a score of 75 for the day, while Gannon Gunn snatched 5th place with a round of 77. The Hawks had three golfers finish in the top 10, as Carter Jones shot a 77 for 4th place–Carson Morrison and Hayden Welch also finished in the top 10. 

Kason Dopler paced Columbus with a 23rd place score of 88.

Mediapolis will host the District Meet on Monday at Heritage Oaks.

The girls’ Southeast Conference teams congregated in Washington for their conference meet last night and the Demons ran away with the banner, winning by 35 strokes over Fairfield’s 2nd place score of 406.

The Demons had four All-Conference members in Adalyn Long, who nabbed the gold medal with a card of 85, Elizabeth Hora, who took 3rd place with a 91, Ashlynn Long, and Lucy Sands. Fairfield was paced by Ellanor Bentler’s silver medal score of 91.

Mt. Pleasant had two golfers post up in the top 10, as Ashlynn Beauchamp’s 100 put her in 8th place and Sophia Walderbach scored a 102 to round out the top 10. 

The Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield girls’ teams will be heading to Edmundson Golf Course on Wednesday, May 20th, for the Class 3A Region 3 meet. 

The Washington girls’ team will travel to Stone Creek Golf Club for the Class 3A Region 4 meet on Wednesday.

The Columbus, Danville, Holy Trinity Catholic, Van Buren County, WACO, Wapello, and Winfield-Mt. Union girls’ teams will head to New London for the Class 1A Region 5C meet tomorrow, May 15th.

The Mediapolis girls’ team will host the Class 2A Region 5B meet tomorrow with Central Lee making the trip.

High School Track and Field

Danville, New London, WACO, Wapello, Van Buren County, and Winfield-Mt. Union will travel to Sigourney for the Class 1A Region 10 State Qualifying meet tonight.

West Burlington/Notre Dame, Mediapolis, Columbus, and Central Lee will contend at Tipton for the Class 2A Region 7 State Qualifying meet tonight.

Mt. Pleasant will host the Class 3A Region 5 State Qualifying meet tonight with Fairfield and Washington making the trip. 

High School Soccer

Mediapolis will face off against Keokuk tonight with the girls playing at home and the boys hitting the road with both games starting at 5 pm.

Mt. Pleasant will travel to Burlington Notre Dame tonight with the girls’ teams leading off the night at 5 pm.

The WACO boys’ team will take on Sigourney-Keota tonight at 5 pm at home.

The Wapello boys’ team will compete against Monticello tonight at 5 pm, while the girls’ team will travel to Davenport West tomorrow, May 15th, at 5 pm.

Central Lee will take on Williamsburg tonight with the boys’ team playing first at 5 pm.

The Washington girls’ team will hit the road to play Mid-Prairie at 5 pm tonight with the boys’ team making the trip to Clear Creek Amana tomorrow at 5 pm.

Fairfield will contend with Centerville tonight with the girls’ team playing first at 5 pm at home.

The Columbus girls’ team will host Ottumwa tomorrow at 5 pm.

High School Boys’ Tennis

Fairfield will host the Class 1A District 4 Singles and Doubles competition on Saturday, May 16th, with Mt. Pleasant making the trip.

Conference Realignment

The Southeast Conference (SEC) could be adding another team in 2028, as Central Lee Athletic Director Tyler Bryant presented the move to the Central Lee Board of Directors on Tuesday. As the largest school in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference, Bryant said that the move would present more opportunities for his school in athletics and fine arts programming. 

The Board took the presentation under advisement and requested a workshop to discuss the idea further. This move would be on the heels of Oskaloosa joining the SEC in 2028.

Local Summer Athletic Camps

Mt. Pleasant girls’ basketball is offering up a camp for any girls’ basketball players entering 3rd through 12th grades from June 23rd through the 25th located at the Mt. Pleasant High School Gym. The camp will focus on the fundamentals and introduce team concepts employed by the high school’s system.

If you would like to sign-up, then copy this link: https://kilj.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/mp-girls-bball-camp.pdf 

Winfield-Mt. Union is encouraging students entering 3rd through 8th grades to stay active this summer with their Wolfpack Performance Training program that will feature 12 dates throughout June and the beginning of July from 9 am to 9:45 am to build speed and agility. 

If you would like to sign-up, then head over to KILJ’s Facebook page and use their QR Code. 

College Baseball

Iowa will finish the regular season with a three-game series against Purdue starting tonight at 6:35 pm from Principal Park in Des Moines.

This Day in Sports History

1906 – The flagpole at the White Sox ballpark breaks during the pennant-raising.

1995 – At 43 years, 162 days Manchester City goalkeeper John Burridge becomes the oldest player to appear in any English Premier League match, a 3-2 home defeat to Queens Park Rangers.

2016 – Gabriel Medina becomes the first surfer ever to land the move “Backflip” in competition.

Prep Girls’ Soccer- It appeared that the only way teams from southeast Iowa would move on the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s girls’ soccer rankings would be either down a spot or off the list entirely. Nevertheless, both Southeast Conference (SEC) squads were bumped up a spot in the Class 2A rankings after a week of play.

The reason for the upward trajectory was #13 Bondurant-Farrar falling out of the top 15 altogether. The Blue Jays have had a rough end of April and start of May, dropping four games in a row to the likes of Class 2A’s #5 Gilbert, #3 Dallas-Center Grimes, and #8 ADM. The one that hurt the most was falling to Class 3A’s Southeast Polk, who is just 4-10 on the season.

Nevertheless, their misfortune has led to Burlington and Fort Madison climbing one spot apiece to #13 and #14, respectively, this week. The Grayhounds suffered their first loss of the season since April 11^th last Friday against Class 1A’s #2 Davenport Assumption in a 4-0 thumping. Yet, they quickly bounced back to beat Mt. Pleasant and Keokuk by a combined score of 19 to 0 to wrap up the SEC title.

Burlington has been flat out impressive on defense, allowing only 56 shots on goal in their 15 games this season. Teamwork seems to be the focal point of this team, as their top five goal scorers each tout at least 11 goals with Daphne Brown’s 16 leading the team.

Looking at Burlington’s schedule would indicate a cakewalk for the Grayhounds to end out the regular season as Muscatine and Davenport North are a combined 4-18-1 on the season. However, the Muskies just tied Assumption last week and both belong to a brutal Mississippi Athletic conference.

Ever since losing to Burlington on April 16^th, Fort Madison has gone 7-0-1 and outscored their opponents 51 to 4 in those eight contests. That one tie was a 2-2 draw against Burlington in their rematch. It is another situation where the Bloodhounds tout an amazing defense, allowing only 60 shots on goal, including 49 saves from Ellie Hellman.

Although Fort Madison also possesses one of the best players in Class 2A in Hadley Wolfe. The senior leads the class in goals with 34 and points with 82. Moreover, she has dished out 12 assists, which ranks second on the team. Kara Lake helps the cause with 11 goals of her own, while Halle Menke leads the team with 14 assists.

The Bloodhounds should have an easy path towards postseason play with the one downside being that three of their last four games will be on the road.

Fairfield, IA- The Mt. Pleasant Middle School 7^th and 8^th grade girls’ track and field teams competed for the conference crown this past Monday night in Fairfield and the 8^th grade squad managed to secure the banner with 165.5 points, over 40 points more than runner-up Fairfield’s 121 points.

For such an individual sport, the 8^th grade squad found most of their success in the relays. The Panthers grabbed gold in the 4×100 with the quad of Peyton Duplessis, Kya Heaton, Mara Hobbs, and Aria Lane, the 4×200 with the team of Duplessis, Izzy Parker, Taylin Curtis, and Lane, and the 4×400 meter relays with the team of Dani Wagner, Sofia Holl, Hailey Schadt, and Heaton.

Schadt added another pair of gold medals to her collection by winning the long jump and the 100-meter dash. In a litany of runner-up finishes, Wagner took 2^nd place in the 400-meter dash, Millie Wellington snatched 2^nd place in the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump, and Bianca Russo collected the silver medal in the shot put.

The 7^th grade team, consisting of just 14 athletes, collected 5^th place in an event that saw the teams separated by a mere 26 points. Addison Streigel swept the throwing events as the lone champion.

Walking away with silver medals was the 4×800 meter relay team of Livvie Syfert, Lauren Schwartz, Sara Ruiz De Chavez, and Kreea Lee and the distance medley squad of Lucy Baxter, Catherine Clifton, Brinlee Lane, and McKinley Mason.

Coaches Samantha Freeman and Julie Gilmore noted how proud they were of the teams for their hard work and dedication during the spring!