Prep Softball- The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) released the second rankings of the 2025 season and the first of the regular season and after nearly two weeks of action two of our local teams find themselves in the top 15 for Class 3A.
Class 5A
#2 Waukee Northwest’s 7-4 loss on the tail end of a doubleheader showdown against #7 Waukee caused the Wolves to lose the top spot in the rankings. Taking over that top spot is undefeated Pleasant Valley. The Spartans are not just winning games, they are pulverizing opponents.
Through their first seven contests they have outscored their foes 101 to 11 with three double-digit shutouts laced within the schedule. One of their doubleheader sweeps included Class 4A’s North Scott that comes into this week ranked 3rd.
Cedar Rapids Kennedy has the (dis?)pleasure of being ranked 8th this week despite starting the year 0-4, though their opponents were some stiff competition that we’ll see later on in the article.
Indianola was kicked out of the top 15 and replaced with Urbandale at #12.
Class 4A
One of those teams that kept Kennedy winless through the first four games was #1 Xavier. The Saints currently tout an ERA of 1.64 for the young season behind senior Braylen Conlon who has tabbed a 5-0 record with 49 strikeouts for an ERA of 0.30.
North Polk was ousted from the #1 slot after falling to Ames 1-0 on the penultimate day of May. The Comets have since rattled off four straight victories. Some undefeated teams in the top 15 include: #4 Norwalk, #5 Dallas Center-Grimes, #8 Clear Creek-Amana, and #14 Grinnell.
#11 Bondurant-Farrar and #14 Grinnell are the new kids on the block after #13 Pella and #14 Burlington were knocked out the rankings.
The Grayhounds have been a contender for the past 10 seasons with their height of their success coming in 2018 with 31 wins. However, last year’s Regional Championship lost might be the closest they come to state for at least another year.
After over a decade of dominant pitching, including an ERA under 2.00 last season, in most part due to senior Saydee Plummer, the Grayhounds currently tout an ERA over 4.00 for the first time since 2014 at 4.95. It could also be their first year of posting an ERA in the 5s since 2014.
Class 3A
Williamsburg kept their seat atop the standings but #2 Wahlert Catholic, who also beat Kennedy, is nipping at their heels at #2 followed by Assumption. Missouri Valley had quite the climb in the rankings, going from unranked to #7 with an 8-1 record.
#9 Washington gained a spot in the rankings after a solid 7-1 start to the season with their lone loss coming against Clear Creek Amana 5-4 to begin the season. The Demons, who have swatted down by Burlington the last couple years for the conference crown, swept the Grayhounds on Monday night, 9-6 in game one and 13-1 in game two.
Leighton Salazar and Alyvia Anderson are leading the charge offensively for Washington with 0.481 batting averages with Anderson sporting a 0.852 slugging percentage with a team-leading four doubles, two home runs, and nine RBIs.
This was a tough week to be ranked in Class 3A with four teams getting knocked out of the top 15: #6 Benton, #12 West Lyon, #13 Center Point-Urbana, and #14 West Marshall.
Replacing the three other teams will be #11 Sumner-Fredericksburg, #14 West Delaware, and #15 West Burlington/Notre Dame.
The Falcons are 6-1 heading into a big game against 7-1 Central Lee tonight with early claims for the Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division on the line as they are both 3-0 against fellow south opponents.
West Burlington/Notre Dame’s only loss was a 3-1 affair against Class 2A’s #3 Louisa-Muscatine. Offense has been the flight pattern for the team for the past couple of years with eight players hitting at least 0.300, including Whitney Snowden clouting 0.526 at the plate.
Orayana Gonzalez’s 1.42 ERA is also good enough to keep the Falcons in any game that the offense has an off day.
Class 2A
Van Meter is ranked #1 after a 7-1 start to the season. Now, for the calamity that ensued in the other 14 spots. Durant shot up eight spots in the preseason rankings to be ranked #2 with a big highlight win against #3 Louisa-Muscatine, 2-1.
The reason West Lyon was kicked out of Class 3A’s top 15 is because the 8-0 squad is at #5 in their new class. Exira-EHK/Audubon and Lisbon are joined at the hip as they both fell four spots to enter this week at #6 and #7, respectively.
Osage jumped up four spots to get into the top 10, while #6 West Monona, #11 Hudson, #14 Treynor, and #15 Pleasantville were all ejected from the top 15.
#11 Wilton, #14 Cascade, and #15 Hinton filled up the empty slots.
Class 1A
Wayne and Clarksville are both undefeated and sit at #1 and #2, respectively. Martensdale-St. Marys tumbled all the way down the rankings from #2 to #9 after going an unassuming 3-2 to start the year.
Wapsie Valley’s 7-0 start to the year resulted could not go unnoticed as they jumped into the rankings after #14 Central City was kicked out. Additionally, #14 Sigourney is still undefeated and looking to defend their state championship.
More
For a full look at the rankings for all five classes, follow this link: Week 1 IGHSAU Rankings