Sports, May 2nd

High School Track and Field

Mt. Pleasant will travel to Fort Madison today for their conference meet.

The girls’ and boys’ teams of Winfield-Mt. Union, New London, Central Lee, Van Buren County, Mediapolis, and West Burlington will travel to WACO for the Southeast Iowa Super Conference meet today.

High School Soccer

Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union will travel to Wapello next Monday, May 6th, with the girls playing first at 5 pm.

The WACO boys’ team will host Danville tomorrow, May 3rd, at 5 pm.

The Central Lee girls’ team had their game against Mid-Prairie canceled tonight due to weather. The boys’ team will host Keokuk tomorrow at 7 pm.

The Mediapolis girls’ team will take on Canton on May 6th. The boys’ team will wait for the Southeast Iowa Super Conference tournament on Tuesday, May 7th. 

Mt. Pleasant will compete against Burlington tonight with the boys’ team on the road and the girls’ team celebrating senior night at home. 

High School Tennis

The Southeast Conference held the girls and boys conference meets last night and the Panthers finished with a conference champion.

On the girls’ side, Jana Isanta lost only two sets in her two matchups to take first place in the tournament for Mt. Pleasant. Ellie Situmeang fell in her first round matchup in a 10-point tiebreaker but rattled off 8-3 and 8-1 wins, respectively, to finish in 5th place. In doubles competition, Bethany Drury and Audrey Richmond teamed up to finish in 5th place after dropping their first round match in the 10-point tiebreak, 7 to 10. 

The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team brought home some hardware as the team of Lou Schimmelpfennig and Phoenix Watson won their first match 6-2 and 6-1 and followed it up with a double 6-4 win against Fort Madison before Fairfield swept them in the championship match to take home the silver. The team of Sawyer Fulton and Dane Cook grabbed sixth place. 

In singles competition, Gavin Ross and Zach Johnson met up in the fifth-place match, which Ross won 8-2. Taking the crown was Fairfield’s Ruimin Luo as he defeated Burlington’s Carson Ziegler 6-3 and 6-2. 

The Panthers will compete on Monday, May 6th, in Fairfield with the girls’ team participating in the regionals and the boys’ playing in their district matches.

High School Golf

The boys’ teams of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference (SEISC) competed yesterday and Mediapolis shot a team score of 324 with Central Lee finishing with a 344 and Winfield-Mt. Union shooting a 348. For the Bulldogs, Jacob Grier led the charge with an 18-hole score of 80. Caleb Larson for Central Lee carded an 81, while the Wolves had Carter Loyd and Cody Milks shoot an 86. 

New London will host Danville, Holy Trinity Catholic, Winfield-Mt. Union, and WACO for their district meet. Central Lee, Van Buren County, and Mediapolis will take a trip to Mid-Prairie for districts on Tuesday, May 7th. 

The SEISC girls’ teams will participate in their conference meet on Monday, May 6th. 

The boys’ Southeast Conference (SEC) golf meet is in the books and the 2024 boys’ conference champion was Washington with a team score of 288. Fairfield finished with a 334 to take second place followed by Mt. Pleasant with a team score of 350.

The Demons were unstoppable as five of their six golfers finished in the top five. Roman Roth finished with an impressive score of 5-under par (67) for the 18-hole course. 

Archer Kreuter of Fairfield had the sixth best score with an 82 followed by Landon Nodruft, who finished with the same score. 

Mt. Pleasant’s three best golfers finished under 90 for the course with Nate Dismang and Merrick Lamm each shooting an 86, while Reece Coffman carded an 88.

The SEC will meet back up on May 8th at Mt. Pleasant for sectionals with Albia, West Burlington/Notre Dame, and Mt. Vernon entering the fray.

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team will compete in their SEC meet next Wednesday, May 8th. 

The Central Lee girls’ team will participate in a triangular today at Sheaffer Memorial Golf Park.

The Central Lee boys’ team will host a meet on Saturday, May 4th, with Van Buren County, Holy Trinity Catholic, and Burlington Notre Dame also making the trip. 

WACO will host Hillcrest Academy tomorrow, May 3rd. 

College Signing

Payton Hagans signed yesterday to join the basketball team at William Woods University in the fall. Hagans is currently undecided when it comes to his major but is leaning towards business.

His senior season was arguably his best season as he averaged a conference best 22.8 points per game—24th in the state of Iowa—and 2.3 steals per game, which culminated in him taking home SEC Player of the Year. Hagans was also a two-time All-Conference First Team member and two-time All-State selection to go along with an All-Conference Second Team honor for his sophomore season.

Hagans will join a couple familiar faces in Fulton with head coach Jordan Ashton leading the squad and former backcourt partner Aaiden Ashton along with some former Iowa Wesleyan Tigers. All factors which helped him make the decision,

“Obviously, the head coach and then I know people from down there, they brought a lot of Wesleyan kids down there, so I already got relationships with them. Relationship with Aaiden as you said and then the coach. So, it’s just good relationships and it was a good environment when I went down there on the visit. So, that went into the decision a lot.”

The Owls will attempt to improve upon their 12-16 overall record last season where they experienced a ton of conference success, winning over 70% of those contests.

Southeast Iowa Playbook

WACO seniors Colton Leichty and Zoey Dennler joined the Southeast Iowa Playbook last night to talk about their spring seasons. Leichty gave some advice for the upcoming seniors. Dennler says the team chemistry has resulted in a fun season. You can listen to last night’s episode by following this link: Southeast Iowa Playbook

Southeastern Community College

SCC baseball got back in the win column with two dominating wins against Ellsworth Community College 11-4 and 10-3. The Blackhawks will travel to Indian Hills Community College tomorrow, May 3rd, in a doubleheader.

SCC softball hosted Indian Hills yesterday in the semifinals of the ICCAC tournament. The Blackhawks and Warriors battled offensively in game one with SCC taking the game 15-12 after scoring seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. The bats went silent for game two with the Warriors claiming the matchup, 10-2, to force a game three. The winner will advance to the championship game to face off against #1 Iowa Western. 

This Day in Sports History

1970 – Diane Crump is the first woman jockey at the Kentucky Derby.

2012 – Barcelona football player Lionel Messi breaks the European goal-scoring record with 68 goals.

2015 – Floyd Mayweather Jr. beats Manny Pacquiao on points in 12 rounds in a world welterweight unification fight, shatters all financial records for a boxing match.