Sports, Wednesday, September 15th

Prep Volleyball: No. 1 Notre Dame Flexes Muscles, Sweeps Holy Trinity, Mount Pleasant Wins:

Notre Dame 3, Holy Trinity 0 

If the No. 1 (1A) ranked Notre Dame Nikes needed to give a reminder that they were the favorites to win it all again this year, last night might have been just that.

The Nikes swept No. 4 Holy Trinity last night 25-19, 25-19, 25-23 earning a massive South Division win yesterday.

Josie Bentz led the way with 17 kills, while Gabby Derry added 14.

Jenna Bentz had 38 assists.

Natalie Randolph and Kassi Randolph paced Holy Trinity’s attack with 15 and 11 kills respectively.

The win moved Notre Dame to 19-6, while remaining undefeated in Super Conference action.

Holy Trinity fell to 5-2.

Winfield-Mount Union 3, Columbus 0 

Winfield-Mount Union rolled to a sweep win yesterday over Columbus, 25-16, 25-9, 25-10.

Bradie Buffington and Lily Freeman had eight kills, while Keetyn Townsley and Audrie Gipple chipped in with six.

Keely Malone had 27 assists.

Winfield-Mount Union moved to 9-4, while Columbus slipped to 2-12.

Other area finals:

  • Mount Pleasant 3, Washington 0
  • No. 7 West Burlington 3, Cardinal 0
  • Fairfield 3, Keokuk 0
  • Wapello 3, Highland 0
  • COLLEGE: Waldorf 3, Iowa Wesleyan 0
    • Iowa Wesleyan: 0-10

Prep Cross Country: Danville-New London Boys, Winfield Boys Win: 

The No. 1 Danville-New London got a huge race from Ty Carr, as they rolled to a team championship in Oskaloosa last night.

Carr was the medalist while Alexander Julian placed third.

Rylan Martin placed fifth, Seth Bailey finished eighth.

The Bears took first out of 12 teams.

The girls placed ninth.

Carissa Mackey was the top finisher at 35th overall.

Meanwhile in Donnellson, Winfield-Mount Union’s Gabe Hemsworth went 18:58.28 to lead the Wolves to a boys championship.

The Wolves finished with 45 points while Louisa-Muscatine and Keokuk rounded out the top-three.

Kohlby Newsom finished third for the Wolves.

On the girls side of things, Cardinal was the team champion. Winfield-Mount Union was paced by Olivia Martinez’s 19th place finish. .

College Football: Iowa’s Taylor Named Special Teams POW:

Iowa punter Tory Taylor has been named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week, the league announced yesterday.

Taylor was terrific in the Hawkeyes win at Iowa State, averaging 51.1 yards per punt, consistently flipping field position.

Five of his punts were downed inside the 20, while Iowa State had just one punt return.

The returning conference punter of the year, Taylor was also selected to the Ray Guy Award preseason watch list, given annually to the nation’s top punter.

College Basketball: MVC Announces Conference Schedule:

The Missouri Valley Conference has released their upcoming conference basketball slate for the 2021-22 season.

The conference season will begin on December 1st, when Northern Iowa travels to Peoria, Illinois to scrap with Bradley.

Drake opens their season on the road the following night at Valparaiso.

UNI and Drake are both among the clear crop of favorites to take the Missouri Valley crown.

Drake was ousted in the NCAA Tournament first round last year by USC.