High School Basketball

Mt. Pleasant will face off against Burlington at home on Friday, January 12th, with the girls playing at 6 pm. Head Coach Curt Watson believes his team’s confidence will elevate their play. 

The WACO girls’ team will compete against Iowa Valley tomorrow, January 11th, at 7:30 pm in a road matchup. The boys’ team will take on Wapello on Friday on the road at 7:30 pm. 

Winfield-Mt. Union will travel to Pekin on Friday with the girls’ leading off the night at 6 pm followed by the boys. 

Van Buren County will face off against New London tomorrow at 6 pm. 

Central Lee will travel to New London on Friday with the girls’ team leading off the night at 6 pm. 

Danville will take on Mediapolis on Friday in a road matchup with the girls’ game scheduled to start at 6 pm. 

Holy Trinity Catholic will face off against West Burlington on Friday at 6 pm at home. 

High School Wrestling

The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union boys’ team will be hosting WACO and New London in a triangular tomorrow, January 11th. 

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ and boys’ teams will travel to Washington to compete in a dual tomorrow. 

The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union girls’ team will participate in a tournament hosted by Louisa-Muscatine on January 20th.

The WACO girls’ team will compete in an invitational on Saturday, January 13th.

High School Bowling

Mt. Pleasant will host Fairfield on January 18th. 

Southeast Iowa Playbook

Tune in to KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, tonight for an episode of the Southeast Iowa Playbook. WACO will be the school of focus with the episode scheduled to air at 6 pm. 

College Basketball

The #4 Iowa women’s team will travel to take on Purdue tonight at 7 pm. Tune in to the game on KILJ 105.5 FM. 

The Iowa State women’s team will host #24 West Virginia tonight at 6:30 pm. Tune in to the game on KILJ AM 1130. 

The Iowa State men’s team pulled off the upset last night to hand #2 Houston their first loss of the season in a 57-53 final. Tamin Lipsey led the Cyclones in points with 14, but it was Milan Momcilovic’s late game heroics that sealed the deal with four of his 11 points coming in the last thirty seconds of the contest. Iowa State will host Oklahoma State on Saturday, January 13th, at 5 pm. 

The Iowa men’s team will play at home on Friday, January 12th, against Nebraska at 8:30 pm. 

This Day in Sports History

1982 – NFC Championship, Candlestick Park, SF: the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-27; “The Catch” an iconic moment in NFL history, Dwight Clark makes a fingertip catch for a touchdown from Joe Montana with 58 seconds remaining. San Francisco goes on to win Super Bowl. 

1985 – Lenny Wilkens becomes the first to coach in 1,000 NBA games when his Seattle SuperSonics defeat the Golden State Warriors, 89-86. 

1986 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers scores his 34,000th career point during a 124-102 win over the Indiana Pacers; the only NBA player to reach the milestone at that time as he held the career record until 2023. 

Prep Boys’ Wrestling- Hupke Wrestling Productions has released their team and individual high school wrestling rankings and here’s how some of our local teams and wrestlers fared.

In Class 1A, WACO had two wrestlers ranked in the top eight of their respective weight classes. Gage Samo, a junior, was ranked 8^th in the 113-pound weight class and Louden Huisenga, a junior, was ranked 4^th in the 190-pound weight class.

In Class 2A, Burlington Notre Dame was ranked third as a team and had six wrestlers ranked. Senior, Colt Boyles was ranked 3^rd in the 106-pound weight class. Carter West, a senior, grabbed the 6^th spot in the 113-pound weight class. CJ Davis was ranked 3^rd in the 126-pound weight class as a junior. Kaiden Dietzenbach, a junior, in the 132-pound weight class is the 2^nd best wrestler. Blake Wilson is ranked 7^th in the 144-pound weight class. Lastly, Dirk Boyles, a junior, was ranked 7^th in the 150-pound weight class.

Russel Coil was the lone wrestler ranked for Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union as the senior was slotted at the 3^rd position in the 285-pound weight class.

Cael McCabe, a sophomore from Fairfield, got placed in the 5^th spot for the 106-pound weight class.

Washington had two wrestlers ranked, with Aaron Boone, a junior, ranked 5^th in the 132-pound weight class and Chase Greiner, a senior, slotted 7^th in the 157-pound weight class.

In Class 3A, seniors Nolan Riddle and Issac Thacher were ranked for Fort Madison. Riddle snuck in at the #8 spot in the 157-pound weight class and Thacher was placed 5^th in the 215-pound weight class.

Lastly, Braxton Hutchinson, a junior from Burlington, was ranked 6^th in the 106-pound weight class.

Prep Football- Southeast Iowa will see a couple new coaches patrolling the sideline in 2024 after Jim Krekel retired from his head coaching position with Burlington at the conclusion of the 2023 season and Josh Roberts just recently announced that he will resign from the helm of the Keokuk football team after five years as head coach.

Krekel was honored after Burlington’s game against Xavier, which marked the end to his 38 years of coaching and his four years at the helm of the Grayhounds. Krekel was gifted a football with the numbers 347 written on it as he finished with a 17-17 record in his four years as head coach. His 7-3 record in 2021 was the first winning season for Burlington since 2009.

Roberts’ departure from the position is perhaps a bit more subtle though just as expected after his move to Carthage to take over the family farm proved to be too much to balance. Roberts worked on the staff for a total of seven years and worked as head coach for five years. In that span, he finished with an 18-22 overall record and led the Chiefs to the playoffs in 2020 for the first time since 2012.

Keokuk will have Brenton Hoard returning for his senior season at quarterback after improving their record from 2-7 to 4-5, while Burlington will have to find replacements for their leading tackler and longtime starter at quarterback, Gabe Robinson.

IGHSAU- The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released their Super Regional wrestling assignments for the tournament scheduled to start on January 26^th. Spectators will be allowed into the building at 9 am and the wrestling will begin at 10 am.

For our local teams, they will be wrestling at the Alliant Energy Power House in Cedar Rapids. In Region 5, Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union, and Fort Madison will be battling it out against 23 other teams. Burlington, Keokuk, Mediapolis, Mt. Pleasant, WACO, and Wapello will be wrestling in Region 6.

The top four wrestlers in each of the 8 regions will qualify for the State Tournament scheduled for Thursday, February 1^st, and Friday, February 2^nd, at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

KILJ will bring you updates throughout the tournament.

High School Basketball

The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team survived a flurry of late three-pointers last night to extend their win streak to 7 games after taking down Wilton 64-60. The Panthers held onto a slim 34 to 29 lead entering the second half and that’s when Nate Stroud took over as he started the third quarter off with a dunk that gave Mt. Pleasant all the momentum. The Beavers were held to just four points in the third quarter as Stroud finished the game with 19 points. Head coach Eric Rawson talked about the big man’s play after the game. Payton Hagans had a game high 21 points as Christian Stacy also finished in double figures with 11 points. 

Mt. Pleasant will face off against Burlington at home on Friday, January 12th, with the girls playing at 6 pm. Coach Rawson knows the matchup could be a statement game.  

The WACO girls’ team will compete against Iowa Valley on Thursday, January 11th, at 7:30 pm in a road matchup. The boys’ team will take on Wapello on Friday on the road at 7:30 pm. 

Winfield-Mt. Union will host Louisa-Muscatine with the girls scheduled to play at 6 pm and the boys to follow. 

The Van Buren County/New London matchup scheduled for tonight has been moved to Thursday with the girls leading off the night at 6 pm. 

Central Lee will travel to New London on Friday with the girls’ team leading off the night at 6 pm. 

The Danville versus Holy Trinity Catholic boys’ game scheduled for tonight has been postponed. A make up date will be announced at a later time. 

The Holy Trinity Catholic girls’ team will face off against West Burlington on Friday at 6 pm at home. 

High School Wrestling

The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union boys’ team will be hosting WACO and New London in a triangular on Thursday, January 11th. 

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ and boys’ teams will travel to Washington to compete in a dual on Thursday. 

The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union girls’ team will participate in a tournament hosted by Louisa-Muscatine on January 20th.

The WACO girls’ team will compete in an invitational on Saturday, January 13th.

High School Bowling

Mt. Pleasant will host Fairfield on January 18th. 

College Basketball

The #4 Iowa women’s team will travel to take on Purdue tomorrow, January 10th, at 7 pm. 

Caitlin Clark broke the conference record after garnering her 24th career Big Ten Player of the Week honor. Clark drilled the game winner and finished with 40 points against Michigan State, then followed that up with her 50th career double-double against Rutgers. 

The Iowa State women’s team will host West Virginia tomorrow at 6:30 pm. 

Earning Big 12 women’s basketball Freshman of the Week was Addy Brown for her first ever honor as a Cyclone. She scored 38 points over her two games this past week as she also collected her seventh career double-double. 

The Iowa State men’s team will face off against #2 Houston tonight at 6 pm. 

The Iowa men’s team will play at home on Friday against Nebraska at 8:30 pm. 

Owen Freeman collected his fifth Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor after averaging 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game last week. 

This Day in Sports History

1958 – Oscar Robertson, in his varsity debut, scored 56 points against Seton Hall inside Madison Square Garden in a 118-54 win.

1972 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads the Milwaukee Bucks past the Los Angeles Lakers, 120-104, ending LA’s consecutive win streak at 33, the longest winning streak in major league sports history. 

1991 – Dean Smith of North Carolina is the 6th coach to win 700 career basketball games.