High School Track
Central College hosted a boys indoor meet yesterday and Danville, New London, West Burlington/Notre Dame, and Mt. Pleasant all made the trip to Pella; here’s some of the highlights.
The 60-meter dash was crowded with local talent as West Burlington/Notre Dame’s Landry Haberichter led the charge with a 2nd place finish with a 7.04 second time. New London had three runners compete with London Franklin grabbing 4th place, Brigham Porter taking 11th place, and Cale Westerbeck finishing in 15th place. Griffen Jones of Mt. Pleasant narrowly missed the finals with a time of 7.46 seconds, yielding 17th place.
Porter parlayed that run with a top-10 finish in the 200-meter dash, claiming an 8th place time of 24.04 seconds, while Gavin Strawhacker and Westerbeck for New London stayed within the top 20. Danville’s Kessler Whaley found success in the 400-meter dash with a 13th place time of 55.95 seconds, while Mt. Pleasant’s Asa Rose grabbed 31st place.
New London’s Riley Raines turned in successful performances in the distance events with a 30th place time of 2 minutes and 22 seconds in the 800-meter run and a sub-5 minute time in the 1600-meter run, which was good enough for 5th place. Staying in the 1600, Silas Hulett of Mt. Pleasant paced himself to a 17th place time of 5 minutes and 12 seconds.
For the relays, Mt. Pleasant’s 4×200 meter team of Kaden Schadt, Gavin Kerr, Ryan Helling, and Jones finished in 12th place, while Danville’s 4×800 meter squad of Noah Horn, Ty Frazier, Ryan Wilhelm, and Hudson Gibb also took 12th place.
In the field events, Kaden Schadt of Mt. Pleasant leapt 5 feet and 10 inches for 7th place. New London’s Franklin took home the bronze in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet and 5 inches. Lastly, in the shot put, Jaymisen Rich led the way for the Panthers, heaving the shot 40 feet and 11 inches for 13th place as Nolan Frueh grabbed 21st place with a toss of 39 feet and 5 inches.
The girls’ teams will be competing at Central College today. Mt. Pleasant girls’ head coach Scot Lamm knows this a prime opportunity for his young sprinters to find a place in the relays,
“We’ve got a lot of sprinters and, you know, we’ve got three really good ones returning from last year that were state place winners, Alex Scott, Kynlee White and Kiyah Sanders kind of lead the way for our sprinters and have a lot of experience and so we’ve been moving quite a few different freshmen around to figure out who can fit into those Sprint relays with those girls and then add some depth for us. But, you know, in the early going, Izzy Sloat has done well, they finished second in the 4×100 at the state indoor meet, she led that off. Ellie Freeman, we finished fifth at that state indoor in our Sprint medley, she let off that relay and then Abby Shelangoski, we had a good showing in the 4×200 at UNI, she led that off. We head to Central College and Taylor Williamson, another freshman, is going to step into our 4×200, her and Ellie Freeman, so we will have two freshmen in that 4×200 relay that is in the fast heat and will run against the best at Central College and figure out what another freshman can do in a sprint relay.”
The Columbus Co-ed Invitational is scheduled for Monday, March 24th, with Central Lee, New London, Van Buren County, and Winfield-Mt. Union making the trip to start the outdoor season.
High School Basketball
The 2025 Pizza Ranch All-Star Game is scheduled for March 29th at Dallas Center-Grimes High School with three of our local players and a coach making the trip to compete.
On the girls’ Southeast team, WACO’s Ella Huisenga, who ranked 2nd on the team in points and 1st in rebounds, earned a spot and accompanying her will be her coach Lisa Graber. The Southeast squad will face off against the Northwest team for the first round at 10:45 am.
On the boys’ Southeast team, a pair from the Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division will join forces in West Burlington’s Mason Watkins and Luke Hellige of Holy Trinity Catholic. Watkins and Hellige both finished within the top 10 in the state in points per game and as their respective program’s all-time leading scorer. The Southeast and Northwest will square off for their first round matchup at noon.
Southeastern Community College
The softball team will be back in action for a doubleheader tomorrow, March 22nd, against Southwestern Community College with game one at 1 pm.
The baseball team will host a three-game series against North Iowa Area Community College tomorrow with their first game of a doubleheader at 1 pm.
College Basketball
The round of 64 officially tipped off yesterday for the Men’s Basketball Championship and #11 Drake fended off #6 Missouri 67-57 to advance to the second round of the tournament. Bennett Stirtz downed 21 points in the win. The Bulldogs will square off against #3 Texas Tech tomorrow, March 22nd.
The Iowa State men’s team grabbed the #3-seed for the South Region but they will be without the services of Keshon Gilbert for the rest of the season due to injury. The Cyclones will dance with the #14-seed Lipscomb today at 12:30 pm.
In the woman’s NCAA national championship tournament, Iowa grabbed the 6th seed and will take on the #11-seed Murray State in Oklahoma tomorrow, March 22nd, at 11 am. This is the seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament for the Hawkeyes.
The #11-seeded Iowa State women’s team will square off against #6 Michigan today at 10:30 am.
March Madness
The KILJ bracket challenge, sponsored by The Press Box and Wiley’s Interior Furnishings and Design, is officially underway with nearly 50 brackets submitted with the top three set to receive prizes.
Standings will be updated at the conclusion of the first two rounds, the Elite 8, Final Four, and the championship game.
This Day in Sports History
1953 – A playoff quadruple overtime finish, an NBA record 106 personal fouls, 12 players fouled out, two were ejected, players fought players, players fought the police. The winning team shot 41% from the floor but sank 37 straight free throws as the Boston Celtics defeated the Syracuse Nationals 111-105.
1955 – Brooklyn Bulletin asks Dodger fans not to call their team “Bums.”
2019 – Ichiro Suzuki finishes his career with a record 4,367 base hits (NPB & MLB) as the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland A’s, 5-4 in Tokyo, Japan.
The Henry County Farm Bureau’s Supermarket Sweepstakes at Hy-Vee was a thrilling event, with 8 teams battling it out for the ultimate grocery shopping title. In an exciting turn of events, Farm Credit Services emerged victorious as the repeat champion, adding another win to their growing legacy.
Carl Lee Wickham, 80, of Mt.Pleasant, died Monday, March 10, 2025 at his residence.