High School Boys’ Postseason Basketball
Class 4A tipped-off the state tournament with a thriller as #4 Waukee Northwest was able to navigate a 30-point fourth quarter surge by #5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy to pull out the win 71-64. Colin Rice led the scoring with 26 points. Meeting the Wolves in the semifinals will be #1 Cedar Falls as they clobbered #8 Dubuque Senior 71-49 behind Anthony Galvin’s seven three-pointers.
On the bottom half of the bracket, #2 Linn-Mar outdueled #7 Waukee 69-60. Davis Kern and Tyler Hilton combined for 40 points in the winning effort. The defending champs, #3 Valley narrowly avoided the upset against #6 Ames, winning 53-50. Trevin Jirak collected a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The two semifinal matchups will be played tomorrow, March 12th, at 5:30 pm and 7:15 pm, respectively.
For the top half of the bracket in Class 3A, #1 Clear Lake dispatched #8 Central DeWitt 57-34. Thomas Meyer finished the night with 14 points. #5 ADM had four players finish in double figures as the Tigers downed #4 Storm Lake 59-53. Cade Fisher grabbed 19 rebounds to accompany his 12 points in the winning effort. Clear Lake and ADM will face off on Thursday, March 13th, at 10:30 am.
In today’s Class 3A’s slate of games, #2 Knoxville will compete against #7 Xavier and #3 Ballard will square off against #6 MOC-Floyd Valley.
In Class 2A, #1 Western Christian will look to avoid the upset against #8 Jesup, while #4 Grand View Christian will take on #5 Treynor. On the bottom half of the bracket, #2 West Lyon will tangle with #7 Union Community, while #3 Unity Christian will verse #6 Grundy Center.
Class 1A will have to wait until tomorrow for their first matchup with #4 Gladbrook-Reinbeck looking to knock off the defending champion #5 North Linn. The winner will take on either #1 Marquette Catholic or #8 Remsen St. Mary’s. #2 Madrid will face off against #7 Boyden-Hull, while #6 Woodbine will look to pull off the upset against #3 St. Edmond.
High School Track
The boys’ track season officially got underway yesterday at the UNI-Dome for the Dickinson Relays as Columbus, Mt. Pleasant, Wapello, and Winfield-Mt. Union made the trip to compete. Here are some of the highlights.
Mt. Pleasant’s Avin Truong started his season off strong with a first-place leap of 23 feet and 8 inches in the long jump. Riley Kaalberg of Columbus grabbed 37th place with a jump of 19 feet and 4.25 inches.
Sticking with Columbus and Truong, the Panther sprinted to a 23rd place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.81 seconds, while Alexander Rees punched his ticket to the finals to grab a 14th place time of 8.72 seconds.
Moving into the longer sprints, Winfield-Mt. Union’s Kohlby Newsom picked up right where he left off, taking 4th in the 400-meter dash (51.56 seconds) and 3rd in the 800-meter with a time of 2 minutes and 2 seconds. Cade Storm of Columbus crossed in 54th place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes and 14 seconds.
In the long distance events, Ty Muniz of Columbus paced himself to a 9th place finish in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10 minutes and 2 seconds.
For the relays, Winfield-Mt. Union’s team of Lane Genkinger, Jaxton Jones, Cruz Hagmeier, and Newsom grabbed 41st place, while Mt. Pleasant’s squad of Jordan Lane, Kaden Schadt, Ryan Helling, and Griffen Jones took home 43rd place in the 4×200. The team of Truong, Payton Walker, Payton Wilson, and Lane also finished in 43rd place for the 4×400 with a time of 4 minutes and 2 seconds.
Moving back to the field events, Mt. Pleasant’s Schadt and Alexander Rees of Columbus both leapt 5 feet and 2 inches to take 58th place in the high jump. In the shot put, Wapello’s Kolton Small led the local pool with a 9th place toss of 49 feet and 6 inches, followed by Jaymisen Rich of Mt. Pleasant with a heave of 41 feet and 3.75 inches for 68th place and Winfield-Mt. Union’s Cooper Buffington finished in 84th place with a throw of 40 feet and 2 inches.
The girls’ meet for the Relays will take place today.
High School Girls’ Basketball
The Iowa Girls Coaches Association released their All-State teams yesterday and two members of the Southeast Conference found their way onto the Class 4A teams. Keokuk’s Kendra Boatman earned All-State 2nd team as she ranked 4th in the class in points per game with 20.5, 3rd in assists per game with 5.7, and 1st with 5.3 steals per game.
Mylee Stiefel of Burlington, the Southeast Conference Player of the Year, was placed on the All-State 3rd Team as she ranked in the top 12 of Class 4A in points and assists per game. Her 40.3% three-point percentage ranked 16th in the class as her 2.6 steals per game put her in 33rd in 4A.
Southeastern Community College
The softball team will be hosting a spring break camp from March 17th through the 20th for grades 2-5 from 8 am to 10 am and grades 6-12 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm at Fun City Turf at 614 S. Broadway Street. It is $120 per student or $100 for a sibling discount as the participants should bring their bats, gloves, and sliding gear.
There are limited spaces available and a registration form to fill out attached to this article. Instructions on where to mail the form are located on the registration.
Link: Softball Registration
College Basketball
The #12 Iowa State men’s team earned the #5 seed in the Big 12 tournament and will face off against either Oklahoma State or Cincinnati tomorrow, March 12th, at 11:30 am.
The Iowa men’s team will compete against Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament tomorrow at 5 pm.
The Iowa State and Iowa women’s teams will have to wait until Sunday, March 16th, to see if they will get a spot in the National Championship bracket.
March Madness
The KILJ Bracket Challenge is back for the 2025 March Madness men’s bracket with the same rules as last year. A printable bracket will be posted to KILJ’s Facebook page after Selection Saturday on March 16th. The bracket must be filled out and turned in to sports@kilj.com or our station by the end of the day on March 19th.
For a full list of rules and prizes, follow this link: KILJ Bracket Challenge
This Day in Sports History
1912 – First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep.
1986 – New York Islanders Mike Bossy is the first NHL player to score 50 goals in nine straight seasons.
1991 – Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf’s streak of 186 weeks ranked as the #1 women’s tennis player.