High School Football
Mt. Pleasant will stay on the road to compete against Mt. Vernon tonight at 7:15 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 7 pm.
Columbus will attempt to right the ship at home tonight against Highland with kickoff set for 7 pm.
Mediapolis will square off against West Burlington/Notre Dame at home tonight at 7:30 pm.
Fairfield starts their district play against Benton tonight at 7 pm at home.
Danville will host Wapello tonight at 7 pm.
WACO will travel to Easton Valley tonight at 7 pm. Starting quarterback Clayton Miller knows the defense will have to be on top of their game,
“They’re young and they’re explosive, they have a lot of fast people. And we’re just going to defend the pass. They like to spread it out and pass through the air and backside routes. And so, it’s going to be a tough one, but we’re going to get it done.”
Winfield-Mt. Union will hit the road to take on English Valleys at 7 pm tonight.
New London will look to pick up their first win of the season tonight at home against HLV with kickoff at 7 pm.
Central Lee will look to stay undefeated for the season against Albia tonight at 7:30 pm at home.
High School Volleyball
The Southeast Iowa Super Conference (SEISC) held their conference tournament pool play last night with #4 Holy Trinity Catholic, Lone Tree, Mediapolis, and Pekin hosting the four sites with eight teams advancing to the tournament finals. Here’s how everything shook out.
In pool 1, the Crusaders entered the tournament having won their classic earlier this week without dropping a set and they replicated the feat last night to win their pool. In their six sets only two of their opponents managed double-digit points as the Crusaders downed Louisa-Muscatine (21-4, 21-7), Hillcrest Academy (21-12, 21-4), and Van Buren County (21-9, 21-17). Anna Bendlage made her money from the service line, finishing with a team leading 7 aces, while Presley Myers claimed 15 kills and four blocks.
Hillcrest Academy would earn a ticket to the conference finals after going 2-1 last night to finish as the pool’s runner-up.
At Lone Tree, Class 2A’s #10 West Burlington handled business, defeating Lone Tree (21-3, 21-12), Central Lee (21-12, 21-9), and Winfield-Mt. Union (21-10, 21-8) without dropping a set, exiting as the winner of pool 2.
In a battle for runner-up, Central Lee came out on top, picking up a sweep of Lone Tree (21-18, 21-18) and sneaking out with a three-set thriller against Winfield-Mt. Union (21-19, 23-25, 15-10). Kenna Sandoval tabbed 47 assists and 10 blocks for the Hawks, while Taylor Jones led the squad with 19 kills.
In the only five-team pool, Mediapolis did not let an extra game stand in their way of sweeping all four of their competitors in WACO (21-2, 21-8), New London (21-13, 21-10), Columbus (21-18, 21-7), and Highland (21-18, 21-15). Bryn Wright tabbed 50 assists and six aces, Josie Hutcheson led the team with 18 kills, and Maycie Thornburg grabbed 10 aces in the winning efforts.
Highland finished as the runner-up, as the Huskies defeated New London (21-15, 21-16), WACO (21-16, 21-13), and Columbus (21-19, 21-15) in straight sets.
In the final pool, Pekin hosted Wapello, Burlington Notre Dame, and Danville. It was the Arrows who claimed the top seed and Burlington Notre Dame who grabbed the runner-up slot.
The SEISC tournament finals will start tomorrow, September 28th, at 5 pm at Southeastern Community College. Holy Trinity Catholic will face off against Central Lee and Hillcrest Academy will clash with the defending champs West Burlington to start off the night, followed by Highland versus Wapello and Mediapolis taking on Burlington Notre Dame.
Mt. Pleasant will host Fairfield on Tuesday, October 1st, at 7:15 pm for their senior night.
High School Cross Country
Burlington hosted their invitational last night and the Van Buren County boys’ team skirted past Mediapolis with 34 teams points, anchored by Lincoln Bainbridge’s 1st place finish, while the Keokuk girls’ team ran to the team gold with three runners finishing within the top 10.
Looking at the boys’ race, Van Buren County and Mediapolis each had four runners finish in the top 10 as Leo Sawyer of Van Buren County’s 13th place finish was enough to defeat Mediapolis with Caleb Massner taking 16th place for the Bulldogs.
Bainbridge won the race with a time of 17 minutes and 1 second, followed by Will Schmidgall of Mediapolis taking 2nd place with a time of 17 minutes and 12 seconds. Mediapolis’ Simon Wendel and Van Buren County’s Landry Loeffler grabbed 3rd and 4th place, respectively.
Liam Haeger was the top runner for West Burlington/Notre Dame with a 14th place time of 20 minutes and 7 seconds, as the squad finished in 4th place. Wapello’s Will Parsons raced to a 31st place finish.
On the girls’ side, Marie Yoder of Hillcrest Academy raced to a 1st place finish of 20 minutes and 23 seconds. Kaitlyn Kipp of West Burlington/Notre Dame grabbed 3rd place with a time of 21 minutes and 40 seconds. Van Buren County had their top duo of Kayley Snowgren and Rylee Phillips take 5th and 6th place, respectively.
Avery Dietz was the top runner for Mediapolis as her 9th place time of 23 minutes and 1 second helped the Bulldogs claim 2nd place as a team. Kenna Small led Wapello with a time of 23 minutes and 13 seconds, which was good enough for 10th place.
Van Buren County will host Holy Trinity Catholic, Central Lee, and New London on Tuesday, October 1st.
Mediapolis will participate in a meet hosted by Winfield-Mt. Union on Thursday, October 3rd.
Winfield-Mt. Union, Columbus, and New London will run at Iowa City on Monday, September 30th.
Mt. Pleasant, WACO, and Fairfield will travel to Washington on Tuesday.
Danville will travel to Williamsburg on Tuesday.
Southeastern Community College
The volleyball team rallied from a 26-24 first set loss to win the match 3-1, taking the rest of the sets 25-21, 25-18, and 25-19 as McKenna Marlow tabbed her 500th career kill. The Blackhawks will stay at home to compete against North Iowa Area Community College on Wednesday, October 2nd, at 7 pm.
College Football
#18 Iowa State will start Big 12 play tomorrow, September 28th, at 6 pm against Houston. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will have the broadcast.
Iowa is on their bye week.
This Day in Sports History
1939 – The Chicago White Sox play the first “day-night” doubleheader against Cleveland, but lose both games, 5-2 and 7-5.
1942 – The New York Giants beat Washinton 14-7 without gaining a 1st down. The only team to ever accomplish this feat.
2006 – The Boston Red Sox honor former player Johnny Pesky by officially naming Fenway Park’s right-field foul pole “Pesky’s Pole.”