High School Track and Field
The boys’ will be competing in the Steve Roth Relays tomorrow, March 23rd, and the girls will be competing at Burlington Notre Dame on March 28th.
High School Soccer
The Mt. Pleasant girls’ soccer season will begin on March 28th against Mediapolis on the road.
WACO’s boy soccer team will start their season at home against Fairfield on March 30th.
The Central Lee boys’ soccer team will take on Keokuk on March 27th as the Hawks start their season on the road.
Youth Basketball
The next event will be the Easter Weekend 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament held at Iowa Wesleyan University for 3rd graders through adults. For a registration form, contact Coach Ronnie Ashton at 319-931-2896 or Iowa Wesleyan’s Men’s Head Coach Jordan Ashton at 319-461-9023. Registration due by April 4th. It starts at 9am on April 8th.
March Madness
The Sweet 16 will get back to action tomorrow and Thursday. The winner of the KILJ Bracket Challenge will get a free cabin rental from Henry County Conservation and a $100 gift certificate to Wiley’s Interior Furnishings and Design with 2nd place getting a meal a month from the Press Box.
For the women’s bracket, Iowa will take on Colorado in the Sweet 16 as Caitlin Clark continues her dominance.
Division III National Championship
Central College has collected their 8th indoor national title for the men’s track and field program and it comes from Mount Pleasant native, senior Sam Beatty. Competing at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship in the high jump, Beatty was tied with Samuel Hetrick of Penn State University as they both cleared 6 feet 9 inches. Both competitors attempted 6 feet 10.25 inches, but both missed all three of their attempts. Beatty won the tiebreaker as Hetrick had one more miss at lower bars than Beatty. It is the Dutch’s 37th individual national titles across all sports.
Iowa Wesleyan Athletics
The Tiger softball team fell in both games of their road doubleheader against Mount Mercy University to fall to 4-15 on the season. In game one, the Tigers were tasked with going against the NAIA First Team All-American from a year ago in Jayna Witzany and she showed why by registering a strike out for every out in 5 innings of work as the Mustangs took it 8-0. Game two was a different story. The Tigers got on the board first with a Kelsey Topliff bunt that scored Kara Krieger to give Iowa Wesleyan a 1-0 lead. The Mustangs responded with their own run to tie it up. Then the Tigers played small ball that resulted in 5 runs in the top of the second as Julia Hill doubled home a run, Jordan Lantz singled home two runs, Krieger added an RBI, and T. Burbridge notched her first hit and RBI of the season. The 6 to 1 lead was cut when the Mustangs put up 2 runs in the 5th inning and the top of the 6th inning started with a single by Lantz but a double play shifted all momentum to Mount Mercy. The result was 6 runs scored in the bottom of the 6th inning as Natalie Tecklenburg hit a three run home run to give us the final score of 9-6. Head Coach Mike Hampton says his team still has to learn how to finish games. The Tigers have to bounce back quickly as they face off against Hannibal-LaGrange University in a doubleheader today.
The Tiger baseball team will take on William Woods University on March 28th for a home doubleheader with game one at 3 pm.
The women’s golf team will have their home opener on March 27th at the Purple Cup.
The men’s golf team will be competing at the Jim Wetherbee Invitational in Galesburg, Illinois on March 25th and 26th for the season opener.
The outdoor track and field season will be getting underway at the Viking Relays on Saturday, March 25th at 10 am.
Henry Shannon was named an Honorable Mention for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) team. The freshman averaged 12.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. He is the first Tiger to receive NAIA honors since Nate Fuqua was named an NAIA All-American in the 2010-2011 season.
Isabell West and Kyla Moore were named NAIA All-American Honorable Mentions after leading the Tigers to a 23-7 record. West nearly averaged a double-double with 18.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Moore received her second Honorable Mention of her career after averaging 15.3 points per game along with 2.5 steals per game.
This Day in Sports History
1984 – Islander Bryan Trottier ties NHL record scores 5 seconds into game.
1989 – Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
1989 – Pete Rozelle announces retirement as NFL commissioner after 29 years.