Prep Wrestling: Recapping Sectionals
Ten Nikes, five New London Tigers — among several other area qualifiers — will wrestle in this Saturday’s district tournament, with a trip to the State Tournament on the line.
Notre Dame will send Carter West, Kaiden Dietzenbach — a Mount Pleasant native —, C.J. Davis, Blaine Frazier — another Mount Pleasant native —, Tate O’Shea, Blake Wilson, Isaiah Fenton, Samuel West, River Belger and C.J. Walrath.
Only Wilson and Belger were not sectional champions.
The Nikes won the team team title by 32 points and will face 19th-ranked Albia Tuesday night in regional duals.
Should the win, they’ll get a bout with No. 9 Davenport Assumption with the champion advancing to State Duals on February 16th.
Mount Pleasant pushed one qualifier to districts.
138-pounder Bowen Davis was the runner-up at Solon.
New London will also compete in regional duals.
The Tigers will travel to Lisbon to battle Dyersville Beckman, with the winner getting second-ranked Lisbon.
New London is sending Gage Burden, Marcel Lopez, Dominic Lopez, Josh Glendening and Trent Wilkerson to this weekend’s district tournament.
Mediapolis advanced just one wrestler to districts. 4th ranked Quinten Aney won the 138-pound class at Sigourney.
Van Buren County will bring Dirk Boyles and Brant Tedrow to districts. Boyles won the 145-pound weight class.
WACO had three qualify for districts, competing at the English Valleys sectional.
Gage Samo (106), Louiden Huisenga (145) and Jonah Clark (220) were all sectional champions. All three have a great shot at qualifying for state.
Louisa-Muscatine had three district qualifiers.
The Falcons will be brining Skyler Beck, Kendal Pugh and Spencer Kessel.
Wapello qualified Zach Harbison and Garrett Dickey, while Columbus Community/Winfield Mount Union advanced No. 2 Lane Scorpil, Kai Malone and Russell Coil.
Districts will begin Saturday at noon.
Coverage on KILJ and kilj.com will begin shortly thereafter.
Boys’ Prep Basketball: Full Shootout Scoreboard
New London 54, Winfield-Mount Union 40
A 20-6 first quarter run by New London lifted the Tigers to a 54-40 win over Winfield-Mount Union last night, cementing them as defacto Super Conference champions.
New London started hot, hitting 56% of their first quarter shots, including two threes to take the wire-to-wire victory.
Despite having the size to matchup with the Tigers frontcourt, Winfield-Mount Union had no answers for Devin Swanson and Kade Benjamin.
Swanson finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Benjamin added 13 points and five boards.
Kooper Schulte chipped in with 12 points and four rebounds, continuing his hot stretch of play.
Blaise Porter, who started the game hot with seven in the first quarter, did not score again until late in the fourth as Winfield-Mount Union head coach Klay Edwards opted to check him with star swingman Cam Buffington.
Buffington led Winfield-Mount Union with a game-high 19 points and 10 boards.
Only four Wolves scored.
Abram Edwards finished with 11, Konnor Wade had eight and Carter Loyd added a single, two-point tally.
The win moved New London to 16-1, as they get set to embark on their final week of the regular season.
The Tigers will play Alburnett, Holy Trinity and Albia all this week before hosting either BGM or English Valleys in their first round tournament trail matchup — which you can listen to on FM 98.5 or AM 1130.
Winfield-Mount Union slipped to 18-2.
The Wolves will tune-up against Hillcrest Academy before their first round scrap with Highland on February 14th..
Other Shootout Results:
- Danville 50, Mediapolis 37
- WACO 60, Hillcrest Academy 22
- Notre Dame 55, Columbus 27
- West Burlington 63, Wapello 57
- Central Lee 44, Louisa-Muscatine 42
- Holy Trinity 43, Lone Tree 29
College Baseball: Wesleyan Goes 0-4 in Opening Weekend
The Iowa Wesleyan baseball team went 0-4 in their weekend series against Louisiana Christian University.
It was their opening series of the season.
The Tigers were dispatched 10-2, 7-1, 9-3, and 11-2 all games being seven innings.
Wesleyan is coached by former Mount Pleasant standout Blake Beaber.
They’ll look to right the ship this weekend in Millington, Tennessee when they play four against Saint Xavier University.
Their first home tilt is not until a March 23rd tango with Culver-Stockton.
College Wrestling: Tiger Women Roll Again
The No. 16 Iowa Wesleyan women’s wrestling team fared well at this weekend’s Grand View Open, placing three in the top five at their weight class.
101-pounder Alaina Sunlin placed fourth, falling in her consolation championship by decision 8-5. Sunline picked up two falls and a tech fall in her leadup.
Mia Palumbo placed third, winning her consolation championship by 7-2 decision. Palumbo earned two tech falls and a fall for the Tigers before dropping her semifinal.
136-pounder Adaugo Nwachukwu claimed a championship. Nwachukwu, a freshman from San Jose, California, earned a two falls and three tech falls to claim the title.
The Tiger women will next be in action on Tuesday, February 15th in a dual against Missouri Valley.
The bout will start at 5:00 p.m.