Winfield-Mt. Union- The Girls’ Basketball team had quite the season for the Wolves as they earned a trip to the State Tournament for the first time since 1998, collected 19 straight wins, and finished the season 22-2. A big reason for their success was Bradie Buffington, who decided to sign with Cornell College to continue her basketball career.

Buffington said she dreamed of playing basketball at the college level and Cornell College gave her the best opportunity,

“Coach Brase, he’s just the type of coach I wanted to play for and the school’s super nice. I got to see the team practice and just how they run things and I really liked it and think I’ll fit in best there.”

Buffington led the Wolves with 337 points on the season and second on the team in rebounds with 197, which averaged out to 14 points per game and 8.2 rebounds per game. A true force in the lane defensively as she denied 54 shots on the season, which ranked her 38^th in Class 1A. Buffington reminisced on the season,

“Oh, my goodness, it was awesome. It was an experience that I always knew that we could make it to and have; but, it took a lot of hard work and looking back and seeing my whole team at the signing today was just really heartwarming. All the memories coming back of the great season we had and its just a lot of fun.”

Buffington finished with 959 points in her high school career. She will be looking to study special education or behavior disorders at Cornell.

The Rams finished the season with a 10-14 overall record and a 9-7 conference record last season.

Mt. Pleasant, IA- The Mt. Pleasant Panthers will have a new head coach patrolling the sideline this upcoming fall season, pending board approval, in former Iowa Valley Head Coach John Bowlin.

Bowlin is a former student of Mt. Pleasant that continued playing football at the college level as an offensive tackle at Coe College. Bowlin has been teaching and coaching at Iowa Valley Community High School for the past 15 years. The best season for the Tigers was the 2018-2019 season where they finished 10-1 before falling in the second round of the playoffs. Last year, Iowa Valley finished the season with a 6-4 record as they competed in the same district as WACO, New London, and Winfield-Mt. Union.

Bowlin will have to make the leap from coaching 8-Man football to 11-man football as the Panthers also moved down a classification to 3A. They will be in the same district as Keokuk, Fort Madison, and Washington for this upcoming season.

KILJ Bracket Challenge- In a year that the perfect bracket would confirm the existence of either time traveling or psychics, we still have prizes up for grabs on who did the best at guessing the unpredictable. KILJ’s bracket challenge is sponsored by the Press Box and Wiley’s Interior Furnishing and Designs.

Hanging on to first place right now is “broekerb 1” with 690 points with a chance at 850 points. “Colt Ensm 1” sits in second with 610 points, but like most others has no chance to add any more points to the total.

However, there are two wildcards still in the running as “BGO5 1” sits in third place, and “flip25 1” in 8^th place and they both picked UConn to win the tournament. So, if UConn wins their 5^th National Tournament they would take 1^st and 2^nd place, respectively.

Prize Reminders:

First prize:

-1 cabin rental from Henry County Conservation.

-$100 Gift Certificate to Wiley’s Interior Furnishings and Design.

-2 Midwest Old Threshers gate passes.

Second prize:

-A Meal a month from the Press Box.

-2 Midwest Old Threshers gate passes.

-2 Festival of Lights tickets.

The Final Four will take place on April 1^st with UConn facing off against The University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University looking to continue their Cinderella run when they play San Diego State.

Iowa City, IA- The Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team punched their ticket to the Final Four last night after taking down Louisville 97-83. This will be the program’s second trip to the Final Four with their first dating back to 1993. The key to the Hawkeyes’ success? A junior from West Des Moines named Caitlin Clark.

Donning number 22 for the black and gold, Clark has limitless range from the court and will pull up from just beyond the half-court line and sink the shot. Her 27.3 points per game is 3^rd in the country and her 8.6 assists per game leads the country. Her play led the Hawkeyes to a #2 seed in the tournament and she has played out of her mind from there.

In the first round, Clark had a double-double with 26 points and 12 assists against Southeast Louisiana. Georgia was looking for the upset and did the best defensively against the junior, but #22 still managed 22 points and 12 assists for another double-double. Clark flipped a switch in the Sweet 16, scoring 31 points and dishing out 8 assists on their way to an 87-77 victory. Then in the Elite 8, history was made.

Louisville entered the game as the #5 seed and Iowa’s toughest competition up to that point. A high scoring game ensued that saw Clark do something that no one—man or woman—had done in NCAA tournament history. Her 41 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists performance made her the first player to ever have a 40-point, triple-double game in NCAA tournament history. She already had the first 30-point triple-double in March Madness history.

In case you were curious of Clark’s three-point total through the tournament, her 8 three-pointers against Louisville gave her 19 three-pointers in the tournament. Additionally, Clark is looking to join the 1,000-point club as she’s totaled 984 points this season. She would join fellow Hawkeye Megan Gustafson, Maddy Siegrist, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Stiles, and Odyssey Sims as others who have scored 1,000 points in a single season.

Iowa will face off against the winner between South Carolina and Maryland on March 31^st with the winner going to the championship.