High School Track

Mt. Pleasant will host the Panther relays tonight with Danville, Mediapolis, and the girls’ teams of New London, Central Lee, WACO, Wapello, Winfield-Mt. Union, and West Burlington/Notre Dame making the trip.

The WACO boys’ team will host the Warrior Relays tonight with Central Lee, New London, Wapello, Van Buren County, West Burlington/Notre Dame, and Winfield-Mt. Union participating.

Fairfield will compete in the Don Newell Classic in Ottumwa tonight. 

The 115th Drake Relays will get underway for our local high school athletes on Thursday, April 24th. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be giving updates throughout the multi-day event. For a full list of all of our local athletes competing, follow this link: Drake Relays Roster

High School Tennis

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team captured a 5-4 win over Burlington Notre Dame last night in a road matchup. Bethany Drury defeated Micah Svoboda in the #1 singles match, while Lila Cook and Hannah Villaplaza defeated their opponents in their singles showdown. The team of Hali Crane and Zoey Carlsen won their doubles match 8-3 and the team of Cook and Villaplaza combined to win the meet in an 8-6 final. 

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team will play Maharishi at home tonight, while the boys’ team will travel to Fairfield.

The Fairfield girls’ team shut out Fort Madison last night 9-0. The Trojans will face off against Maharishi on Thursday, April 24th, at home.

High School Golf

The boys’ teams of the SEC traveled to Washington yesterday for a conference showdown and the home squad finished in 1st place with a team score of 156 followed by Fort Madison with a 168 and Mt. Pleasant carding a 169 for 3rd place. The Panthers were led by Brody Engle, who carded the fourth best score of the course in a 39, and Merrick Lamm’s 41. Fairfield finished in 4th place with a team score of 189 as Brice Boatright shot a 43. Washington’s Carson Brown had the best round with a 35 (-1). 

The Fairfield boys’ team will host an invite on Friday, February 25th, with Mt. Pleasant and Van Buren County making the trip.  

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team will travel to compete in the Oskaloosa Invite on Thursday, April 24th. 

The Fairfield girls’ team will hit the road to participate in the Golden Hawk Invitational on Thursday. 

Mediapolis took on Wapello and WACO yesterday for their triangular and the Wapello girls’ team outpaced the field, shooting a 197, while the Mediapolis boys’ team handled business, carding a 167. Emmalin Marshall led the Arrows with a 9-hole score of 46, while Payton Gerling shot a 57 for the Bulldogs. 

On the boys’ side, the Bulldogs had all six golfers finish in the top six with Max Griffin nabbing a 40 for the 9-hole course. Barrett Garrison took home a 47 for Wapello.

Wapello will host an invite tomorrow, April 23rd, with Danville, Columbus, and Winfield-Mt. Union competing. 

WACO will face off against Columbus on Thursday at home. 

The Columbus boys’ team will participate in the Wildcat Invitational today. 

The Holy Trinity Catholic girls’ team will participate in the Lee County Classic tomorrow at Sheaffer Memorial Golf Park along with Central Lee.

Mediapolis will host Holy Trinity Catholic on Thursday.

New London will face off against Winfield-Mt. Union on Friday on the road. 

High School Soccer

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team dropped their first game of the season against Burlington last night, losing 4-0. The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team survived being down a man for the entire second half to defeat the Grayhounds 2-1. Akbar Wilson notched both goals for the Panthers. Mt. Pleasant will square off against Fort Madison on Thursday, April 24th, with the boys at home and the girls on the road. 

The Mediapolis boys’ team squashed Highland last night 5-0. The Bulldogs will travel to WACO on April 28th at 5 pm. The Mediapolis girls’ team will take on Keokuk tonight at 5:30 pm at home.

The Fairfield girls’ team fell to Keokuk last night 4-2 as Jalyiah Gardner netted two for the Chiefs. The Fairfield girls’ team will host Knoxville tonight at 5 pm, while the boys’ team will make the trip to Burlington on Thursday at 5 pm.

The WACO boys’ team got back into the win column last night, defeating Columbus 3-2. The Warriors will take on Highland on the road on Thursday at 5 pm.

Columbus will host Central Lee at the Muscatine Soccer Complex on Thursday with the girls’ teams playing at 5 pm and the boys’ teams to follow at 7 pm.

Central Lee will host Wapello tonight with the girls’ teams playing first at 5 pm.

The #4 Burlington Notre Dame boys’ team will take on Danville tonight at home at 5 pm, while the girls’ team will face off against Quincy Notre Dame at 7 pm.

Southeastern Community College                                                     

The softball team handled business yesterday against St. Louis Community College, sweeping the visitors 5-2 in game one and 3-1 in game two. Jeliane Stewart clobbered her fifth home run in three games, tabbing three RBIs in the first showdown, while Anna Woods was dominant in the circle in game two, striking out nine in a complete game performance. The Blackhawks will close out the regular season tomorrow, April 23rd, in a road doubleheader against Indian Hills Community College.

The baseball team fell to Black Hawk College yesterday 7-0. The Blackhawks are back at home tomorrow in a doubleheader against Des Moines Area Community College with game one at 3 pm.

This Day in Sports History

1876 – Philadelphia native Tim McGinley of the Boston Red Caps scores baseball’s National League’s 1st run, in Philadelphia, as his team wins 6-5. 

1954 – NBA adopts a 24-second shot clock and the 6 team-foul rule. 

1969 – Robin Knox-Johnston ends his 312 days of non-stop sailing to become the first person to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.

Prep Soccer- The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) released their first boys’ soccer rankings for the 2025 season and one of our local teams cracked the top 10. Here’s a rundown of some of the top teams.

Class 4A

Valley sits atop the class as they have rattled off eight consecutive wins after dropping their first game of the season to #3 Ames 1-0. The Tigers get the nod over #2 Dowling Catholic with a 2-0 win over the Maroons back in early April.

Last year’s champion, Johnston, is ranked 5^th as they currently tout a 5-1-1, as the Dragons also lost 1-0 to Ames then tied Southeast Polk 1-1 for their only blemishes. The Tigers and Dragons are slated to meet on May 9^th at Johnston High School.

Class 3A

Des Moines Hoover is one of two teams in Class 3A to have not lost a game, accordingly, the Huskies hold the top spot. Their lone tie comes against #3 Urbandale, who holds a 3-2-1 record. Dallas Center-Grimes sits at #2 with a 6-2-1 record.

The other team to not have lost yet this season, North Polk, is currently placed at #10 with ties to Perry and Boone hurting their ranking strength.

Class 2A

There are some tough teams in Class 2A, but the consensus #1 has to go to undefeated Bishop Heelan, who is routinely winning games by nearly seven goals on average. Xavier and Gilbert enter at #2 and #3 without a loss on their record.

Sliding in at #4 is Burlington Notre Dame after an impressive 4-1 start to the season for the Nikes. An unsightly 3-0 loss to Assumption for their season opener is their one negative, otherwise Notre Dame has handled business, including consecutive 4-1 and 6-1 wins against bigger teams in Solon and Fort Madison, respectively.

The Nikes last went to state in 2023, falling 5-0 to Assumption. That capped off a three-year run of state tournament appearances that included a state championship run in 2021 that saw the Nikes finish the year 23-1.

Sergeant Bluff-Luton rounds out the list with a 3-0-3 record.

Class 1A

Despite losing their last contest, North Fayette Valley is the king of Class 1A with a 7-1 record, despite #2 West Liberty, #3 Regina Catholic, #4 Hudson, #5 St. Albert, and #9 West Central Valley grasping zeros in the loss column with at least five games played.

#10 Beckman Catholic is the reason that statement exists with the Trailblazers, contrary to their name, moving slow through the season having only played four games. Beckman Catholic is 2-0-2 with one of those ties occurring against #3 Regina Catholic.

More

For the complete soccer rankings list for April 21^st, follow this link: 2025 1st Soccer Rankings

Des Moines, IA- Some of the best athletes from around the world will be migrating to Drake University to compete in the 115^th Drake Relays, starting on Wednesday, April 23^rd, and running through Saturday, April 26^th. The high school running events will start on Thursday, April 24^th, and here’s some of our local athletes participating.

Mt. Pleasant

Alex Scott reset her meet record at the Denny White Relays last week, which also placed her directly on the Blue Oval Standard for 2025 at 12.43 seconds in the girls’ 100-meter dash. The junior will sprint in the first heat around 9 am on Friday.

Avin Truong broke 23 feet earlier this year in the long jump, clearing the Blue Oval Standard. The senior will be looking to add to his accolades on Thursday evening at 4 pm in the second flight.

Winfield-Mt. Union

Kohlby Newsom is looking to continue his running success in his senior campaign, competing in the boys’ 800-meter run. His best time of 1 minute and 54 seconds for the season is one second better than the Blue Oval Standard. He will be apart of the first heat on Saturday around 1:50 pm.

Danville

The Bears’ girls’ team will send Alaina Gourley to run in the first heat of the 400-meter dash slated to start at 5:28 pm on Friday night. Her personal record (58 seconds) is just a second off the Blue Oval Standard.

Columbus

The boys’ team will be sending two to run the 110-meter hurdles in Lamar Ceant and Alex Rees, as they both were placed in the third heat. Ceant’s personal record for the season (14.9 seconds) is just two-tenths of a second away from the Blue Oval Standard.

The duo will run on Friday around 10:30 am.

Fort Madison

Julian Dear will be exhibiting the speed in the boys’ 100-meter dash when he runs in the second heat on Friday morning following the girls’ 100-meter dash.

Kenden Bowie will compete in the boys’ high jump on Thursday evening at 4:30 pm.

Brylie Lorence will toss the shot put on Friday morning in the second flight.

Burlington

Kylee Hill showed out as a freshman in last year’s Class 4A throwing events, winning the shot put and finishing in 4^th in the discus. She will look to express the same kind of dominance in both events as she will throw the discus at 2:30 pm in the second flight on Thursday and shot put on Friday morning at 9 am.

Washington

Greyson Hartman is following in the footsteps of other great Washington throwers as he will heave the shot put around 3 pm on Thursday and then toss the discus on Friday morning at 8:30 am.

Fairfield

Last year’s Class 3A state champion Eli Zillman will show off his skills at the high jump along with fellow Trojan Ryan Giberson on Thursday evening.

Girls’ 4×100 Meter Relay

The Southeast Conference (SEC) will be well represented on Saturday morning with five of the six squads sending a team. Burlington will run in the second heat around 9:40 am with the quartet of Kierah Wiseman, Meilah Ertz, Sophie Brown, and Mylee Stiefel.

Over in heat three, Keokuk will have the team of Layonna Stewart, Kelly Takorbisong, Alaya Carr, and Ada Wood, while Washington will participate in the seventh heat with the squad of Layla Green, Leighton Messinger, Leighton Salazar, and Jaedyn Moore.

Lastly, Mt. Pleasant’s team of Ellie Freeman, Kiyah Sanders, Taylor Williamson, and Kynlee White will run in the 12^th heat.

Boys’ 4×100 Meter Relay

It’s another busy race for our local schools with a litany of SEC and Southeast Iowa Super Conference (SEISC) talent showing off their speed and cohesion. Here’s to look out for.

Columbus’ Ceant and Rees will be joined by Juan Chairez and Riley Kaalberg to run in the second heat of the 4×100 meter relay. Following in the third heat will be Fairfield’s team of Dylan Adam, Spencer McCready, Ethan Bisgard, and Dayson Workman along with Keokuk’s squad of Tramell Smith, Kurt Joy, Ryan Bair, and Drew Campbell.

Over in the seventh heat will be the team of Nathan Schmidgall, Kyler Crow, and Will and Henry Luttenegger. The ninth heat will feature Cale Westerbeck, Gavin Strawhacker, Brigham Porter, and London Franklin of New London and Washington’s Keider Gomez Valdez, Kael Williams, Jayfred Espinosa, and Nate Edmonds.

Lastly, Burlington will compete in heat ten with the quartet of Amare Stepps, Kamryn Reynolds, Darius and Laderrias Shealey.

Next Up

Stay tuned to KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, throughout the multi-day event for updates.