Sports, Wednesday, September 16th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Area Volleyball Round-Up:

Fort Madison 3, Mount Pleasant 1 

Fort Madison picked up win no. 1 of their season yesterday, defeating Mount Pleasant 3-1 at Mount Pleasant High School.

The Bloodhounds earned a game one 25-18 victory to take the early advantage.

Mount Pleasant rallied back in set two, winning 25-15. From there, however, it was all Fort Madison.

The Bloodhounds picked up 25-22 and 25-17 victories to close the game in four sets.

The loss pushed Mount Pleasant to 5-10, while Fort Madison improved to 1-5.

Off today, Mount Pleasant will be back at home Thursday when they host Albia.

First serve is set for 7:00 p.m.

WACO 3, Central Lee 2 

WACO snapped a four-match losing streak to Central Lee as the Warriors won their 11th straight this season in five sets.

WACO won sets two, three and five to improve to 11-1 this year.

Morgan Graber paced the Warrior attack with 17 kills, while Elie Miles chipped in with 11.

Central Lee started hot with a 25-23 win, but WACO rallied for 25-10 and 26-24 wins in the ensuing two matches.

The Lady Hawks grabbed game four 25-14 before WACO took the decisive game 15-11.

Mya Merschman led Central Lee with 17 kills.

WACO will play at Danville on Thursday, while Central Lee, now 5-4, will take part in the Keokuk tournament on Saturday.

Winfield-Mount Union 3, Columbus 0 

Jenna Buffington had 11 kills, while Melina Oepping had nine as Winfield crushed Columbus yesterday in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division battle.

The Wolves cruised to 25-14, 25-15 and 25-20 wins to keep their conference record unblemished.

Olivia Carrier led Columbus with six kills.

Winfield-Mount Union, who is now 10-4 overall, will play the Huskies of Highland on Thursday.

Columbus slipped to 6-8.

Mediapolis 3, Highland 1 

Mediapolis kept their winning ways up as they defeated Lone Tree 25-22, 25-14, 22-25 and 25-18.

Kennedy Welliver lead Mediapolis with 21 helpers while Briana Birkenstock was tough from the service line going 22-for-25.

The win improved the Bullettes to 3-4, while Lone Tree dropped to 4-9.

Other area tilts:

  • Wapello 3, Highland 1
  • Keokuk 3, Washington 0
  • West Burlington 3, Cardinal 0

And in 7th grade volleyball, the Mount Pleasant A team won 2-1, the B team fell 2-0 and the C team split, 1-1.

They’ll be back in action at home against Ottumwa next Monday.

Winfield, Central Lee Nab Titles in Donnellson:

The Winfield-Mount Union boys and the Central Lee girls won team titles at yesterday’s Central Lee Invite ran at Green Acres Golf Course.

Dane Sweezer paced the Wolves with a four place overall finish, running 19:52.86. Lane Scorpil finished 6th, Gabe Hemsworth 7th and Ty Scorpil 12th.

Louisa-Muscatine finished in second in team scoring while Central Lee was third.

On the girls’ side of things Central Lee scored 49 points besting Cardinal by nine.

Amanda Gilpin won the event with a time of 21:18.14.

IATC Announces Week 3 Rankings

The Iowa Association of Track Coaches has released their updated individual rankings ahead of week three and there are several KILJ-area athletes recognized.

In 2A Boys’ Danville-New London’s Ty Carr has moved back into the top-10, the junior is now #8 in the state in 2A.

Meanwhile, his teammate and classmate Alexander Julian is currently #11 in 2A.

In 2A Girls’ Addison Parrot of Danville-New London is #13 this week.

The Mid-Prairie tandem of Danielle Hostetler and Jaden Yoder remain 1-2 in this week’s rankings.

In 1A Boys’ Winfield-Mount Union’s Brody Barton stayed at #25 this week.

Brady Griebel of Bellevue Marquette is the top-ranked Boys’ 1A runner.

Big Ten Football Return “Imminent”, Official Announcement Pending:

It seems as though the Big Ten has reversed it’s decision to postpone the 2020 season and several reports have indicated the decision to play this fall is in it’s final stages.

College Football insider Brett McMurphy stated the first option is for the Big Ten season to resume starting October 17th.

The Big Ten Title game would then be December 19th, just one day before the final College Football Playoff Rankings.

If the season were to start by October 17th, McMurphy says the league would play an eight-game schedule over the course of nine weeks.