Sports, January 30th

High School Basketball

Fairfield will host Keokuk tonight with the night starting at 6 pm.

Holy Trinity Catholic will tangle with Wapello tonight on the road with game one at 6 pm.

Danville will host New London tomorrow, January 31st, for their senior night with game time at 6 pm. 

Burlington Notre Dame will make a trip across town to compete against West Burlington with the doubleheader starting at 6 pm tomorrow.

Van Buren County will face off against Central Lee tomorrow with the night starting at 6 pm on the road. 

Mediapolis will venture to Holy Trinity Catholic tomorrow with the girls tipping-off at 6:30 pm. 

WACO will hit the road to take on Columbus tomorrow with the night starting at 6 pm. 

Winfield-Mt. Union will make a trip to Wapello tomorrow with the girls playing first at 6 pm. 

Mt. Pleasant will continue their road trip tomorrow against Washington with game one at 6 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 5:45 pm. 

High School Wrestling

The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team will face off against Burlington at home tonight.

The Mediapolis boys’ team will host a quad tonight with Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union making the trip. 

The New London and Van Buren County boys’ teams will participate in a quad at Burlington Notre Dame tonight. 

The WACO and Wapello boys’ teams will travel to Highland for a double dual tonight. 

The girls’ regional tournament will commence tomorrow, January 31st, at Williamsburg with Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union, Fairfield, Mediapolis, WACO, Wapello, Van Buren County, and Mt. Pleasant all making the trip. 

The Fairfield boys’ team will host their invite on Saturday, February 1st. 

The matchups for the boys’ regional dual has been set and scheduled for February 4th at 6 pm with the top eight teams moving on to the State Dual Tournament on Saturday, February 8th, in Coralville. 

In Class 2A at Davenport Assumption, #12 Burlington Notre Dame will face off against #11 Mount Vernon in the semifinals with the winner moving on to face #6 Assumption to see who will advance to state. 

Dan Gable Ms. and Mr. Wrestler of the Year

 IAwrestle and Iowa Corn in coordination with the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) has released the top 15 wrestlers for the Dan Gable Ms. and Mr. Wrestler of the Year Awards and southeast Iowa has three competitors in the running.

In Class 1A, WACO’s Louden Huisenga is a strong contender for the award at the 190-pound weight class. He has compiled a 25-0 record against fellow 190-pound contenders.

Over in Class 2A, Kaiden Dietzenbach of Burlington Notre Dame is back in the top 15 after being placed on the list last year. The Nike is continuing his reign of terror on the area in the 138-pound weight class with a perfect 27-0 record, so far through his senior campaign.

Fairfield’s Cael McCabe is also up for the award in Class 2A as the junior boasts a 22-2 record in the 113-pound weight class. McCabe has won the Bob Murphy and Bill Van Horn Invitationals this season.

Fans can vote once per list at Facebook.com/IAwrestle for their favorite wrestler in each category until February 9th, when the list will be narrowed down to the top 7. The next round of voting, from February 10th to February 23rd, will determine the top 3 finalists, with the winner announced at the banquet on February 27th at the Fareway Conference Center in Boone, Iowa, on February 27th at 11:30AM.

High School Bowling

Mt. Pleasant will host Burlington today.

Fairfield will celebrate their senior night tonight against Keokuk.

Southeast Iowa Playbook

Seniors Isaac Rich and Ella Huisenga of WACO joined us last night for our latest episode of the Southeast Iowa Playbook as the basketball season rapidly approaches postseason play. Rich talked about the most important lesson he has learned throughout his athletic career,

“I would say just being a leader I think is really important. You know when your team’s down, it’s really important to kind of get them pumped back up and try to get them back in the game, even when things aren’t going your way. And I think that’s a big skill in life to have as well.”

For Huisenga, it has been important for her and the team to keep morale high during a rough patch of the season,

“Yes, with the end of the season nearing, we want to finish it out on a high note of course. So having hit these past four games, it has been hard, but each game we’ve debriefed about them. And you know, our coaches encourage us to keep our heads up, to continue to watch film, to encourage each other on the courts and to push each other in. Because that’s the only way we can move forward, and we can’t dwell on the past because no way is that going to benefit us. And that is the plan we’re going to keep our heads up. And we are going to keep cheering each other on because we are our biggest enemies if we do not.”

If you missed last night’s episode of the Southeast Iowa Playbook, then follow this link: WACO Episode

Southeastern Community College

The men’s basketball team will take on Triton College on Saturday, February 1st, at 3 pm on the road. 

College Basketball

The #3 Iowa State men’s team will face off against Kansas State on Saturday, February 1st, at 1 pm at home. 

The Iowa men’s team will compete against Purdue on Tuesday, February 4th, at home at 6 pm. 

The Iowa women’s team will host USC on Sunday, February 2nd, at 12:30 pm as the Hawkeyes will retire Caitlin Clark’s Jersey. 

The Iowa State women’s team will travel to #11 Kansas State tonight at 7:30 pm. 

This Day in Sports History

1936 – New owners of baseball’s Boston Braves survey newspaper journalists to pick a new team nickname, known as the ‘Bees’ in 1940 but return to the ‘Braves’ in 1941.

1971 – UCLA men’s basketball starts their NCAA record 88 game winning streak.

1990 – LA Kings center Wayne Gretzky sets an NHL record by scoring his 100th point of the season for the 11th straight season; milestone comes with an assist in a 5-2 Kings’ win over the visiting New Jersey Devils.