Mt. Pleasant, IA- The 7th inning stretch is over and it’s time to head back out to the old ball game. It’s time for Quarter 3 of our Year in Review brought to you by Two Rivers Bank and Trust.
High school baseball and softball possess the sole spotlight for the month of July with postseason play rounding out the summer. But it was Mt. Pleasant and New London softball who teed off the month with an exciting back-and-forth non-conference senior night for the Tigers. The Panthers held off a late rally to secure an 11-8 victory.
Postseason baseball saw a couple of Southeast Iowa Super Conference squads pit against one another in a Class 2A doubleheader at Mediapolis. Winfield-Mt. Union watched Trevor Phillips pitch a gem that saw him fan 10 Falcons in a 4-1 win over Louisa-Muscatine.
Mediapolis’ Lance Ludens followed uniformly as he tallied seven strikeouts on the mound and an RBI triple at the plate as did Kyler Crow in a dominant 8-0 victory over West Burlington.
New London softball continued to put up thrilling contests as they played host to Danville in their first-round playoff match that saw the Tigers score five runs in the bottom of the 7th inning as they appeared poised to walk-off the Bears. However, Aubrey Nahorny’s glove had other plans to seal a 9-7 win for Danville. Elsewhere, centerfielder Josie Nelson of Winfield-Mt. Union slammed the door on Pekin with a game-winning throw-out at home to defeat the Panthers 9-8.
Switching back to baseball, Class 1A’s Burlington Notre Dame, the comeback kids from a year ago, was eyeing a second consecutive trip to the state tournament, but a rain out put a pause on their first game against New London, who defeated Pekin 3-0 as Memphis Watson notched a two-RBI double, with the game tied at one. After resuming the game the next day, the Nike offense completely took over as Notre Dame moved on with a 9-1 thrashing of the Tigers.
Moving up to Class 3A, Mt. Pleasant engaged in a Southeast Conference (SEC) rivalry against Fort Madison that saw Payson Coleman deliver the game-breaking double. The Panthers would go on to eliminate the Bloodhounds 4-2 and end the season with an impressive 22-9 record in a loss to Central DeWitt that saw Payton Hagans smack his first career home run.
Fairfield had Tallon Bates slap a two-run homer against Assumption, but the Trojans could not overcome the Saints in a 6-3 loss as Fairfield finished the season with a 22-12 record.
In softball, Central Lee pulled off a late upset against Washington with a 5-4 with that saw the Hawks score four runs in the top of the 7th and dismiss a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the inning. Central Lee would fall in the Regional Championship to Assumption.
Wapello’s season also ended their season a game before the state tournament in a 2-1 loss to Sigourney as the Arrows claimed a 20-14 record.
Burlington Notre Dame’s run would continue in a second-round rematch from a year prior, though the script read a bit differently as they poured on the runs after a litany of mistakes by Moravia’s defense. A Logan Brent three-run exclamation point eventually led to a 10-0 drubbing of the Mohawks.
Unfortunately, the Nikes would end the season with a 28-4 record and one game shy of a return to Carroll as the Nikes fell to Sigourney 4-2 in their first trip to the state tournament in program history. Eli Oleson nabbed an RBI for the Nikes in the loss.
For SEC All-Conference nominations, Mt. Pleasant’s Ben Newton took home SEC Player of the Year as the senior collected a 9-1 record, 55 strikeouts, a 3.66 ERA, a home run, and 26 RBIs at the plate. Payson Coleman also made the First Team for the Panthers. Burlington had Cristos Kantzavelos named First Team All-Conference infielder and Gabe Robinson made the First Team for the outfield.
For softball, Saydee Plummer of Burlington was named SEC Player of the Year as she tossed 174 strikeouts to go along with a 0.76 ERA. The Grayhounds had Lilly Hand, Kierah Wiseman, and Kylee Hill named First Team All-SEC.
Faith Jones was the lone First Team selection for Fairfield. Savannah Hollander was named to the Second Team, while Laney Norris and Olivia Hollander grabbed Honorable Mention.
Senior Emma Starr finished her Mt. Pleasant career with a First Team All-Conference nod. Starr finished the season with a 0.341 average, 9 RBIs, two triples, and a team leading seven doubles and the team’s only home run. Keagyn Coleman was named to the Second Team for the Panthers with a team leading 12 RBIs and a 0.288 batting average. The freshman also caught three runners from behind the plate. Lila Cook and Myah Starr were named Honorable Mentions.
For All-District softball teams, Class 1A had Emily Ross of Holy Trinity Catholic and Ada Boysen of Wapello make the team. For Class 2A, Van Buren County had Ashlynn Huff and Columbus had Lily Coil make the squad.
Class 3A had quite a collection of local talent with seven local players making up the team. Central Lee had Shanna Buford and Kenna Sandoval claim a spot as the duo combined for 15 home runs.
Payton Harris of Mediapolis showed out for her 8th grade season. Washington’s Bella and Leighton Salazar earned a spot, while West Burlington/Notre Dame’s Logan Kelley and Lauren Krieger each grabbed a spot as Kelley also played in the 2024 All-Star showcase.
To round out the summer, Burlington Notre Dame had five All-State selections in Spencer Brent, Landry Haberichter, Jaxon Sadler, Caden Schwenker, and Dylan Kipp, while Brock Thuleen of West Burlington made the Second Team.
The slow month of August saw Taryn Stephens take home ICCAC Athlete of the Week for Southeastern Community College after averaging 5.18 digs per set. Additionally, the Holy Trinity Catholic girls’ basketball team hired Shawn Hopper to take over the program.
The fall athletic season kicked off in late August as WACO thumped Central City 51-36 in a week zero matchup that saw Clayton Miller throw for three touchdowns and Louden Huisenga rush for three touchdowns as the pair would light the area up in future weeks.
Volleyball saw southeast Iowa’s perennial state volleyball contender in Holy Trinity Catholic start the year as Class 1A’s #2 team after a runner-up finish in the 2023 state tournament. Class 2A also put West Burlington at #11 in the preseason rankings. However, an early tournament in Wapello saw the Crusaders struggle out of the gate, losing to Central Lee and Wilton, while Burlington Notre Dame was playing themselves into the top 15 with a third-place finish at the same tournament putting the Nikes at #13 in the next round of rankings—they would climb as high as #12 in the rankings.
Football’s first week provided one of the biggest moments of the year, as Mt. Pleasant marched into Fairfield and ended their 23-game losing streak in comeback fashion as Payton Walker plunged into the endzone with a little over two minutes left in the game then again in overtime as Dylan White nailed the game-winning extra point to win 13-12.
Cross Country has rivalries brewing in Class 3A between SEC foes in Washington and Fort Madison on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, while the boys’ Class 1A teams featured intense matchups between Van Buren County, Danville, and Columbus.
Fort Madison would land the first blow at Elks Fairview Golf Course in Keokuk, though without Washington in attendance, as Avery Rump took 1st place on the girls’ side and Jacob Shottenkirk took the gold for the boys’ teams. Mt. Pleasant had two top ten finishers in Locken Henderson, who took 4th place, and Quintire Lee, who grabbed 8th place.
Winfield-Mt. Union volleyball’s team saw a runner-up performance at the English Valleys tournament as Quin Smith tallied 30 kills and Madisen Kellogg dished out 61 assists. West Burlington won the tournament at Burlington Notre Dame behind Taryn Snodgrass capturing her 1,000th career assist and Carli Cline notching her 1,000th career dig.
Mt. Pleasant would also score their first conference win of the season at home in three set sweep of Fort Madison as Savannah Slobodnik captured seven kills in the win.
Moving back to the cross-country meets, WACO’s Josie Dykstra set a new school record with a 6th place time of 21 minutes and 54 seconds at a meet in Sigourney. Van Buren County hosted their own meet that featured some of the best runners in the state.
Danville’s #13 Jackson Shacklett outpaced Van Buren County’s #7 Lincoln Bainbridge, Mediapolis’ Will Schmidgall, and Winfield-Mt. Union’s #10 Kohlby Newsom to claim the top spot as the Bears also claimed the gold. The Danville girls’ team, led by #19 Alaina Gourley’s 2nd place finish, had the Bears also take the gold.
Switching back to the volleyball courts, Holy Trintiy Catholic started to find their strid after dominating their opponents at their own classic, including a three-set win over Burlington in the championship match as the tandem of Presley Myers and Adalyn Kruse each collected 26 kills.
That momentum continued into the SEISC tournament as the Crusaders would knock off last year’s champion, West Burlington, in a thrilling 17-15 final of the third set for their 9th conference title, as Myers and Kruse produced a couple of key blocks to seal the win as Kruse led the team with 31 kills. Notre Dame battled for 3rd place, defeating Wapello in both sets.
The Fort Madison girls’ team continued their success in cross-country as they won the Timm-Lamb Invitational with Avery Rump leading the team, while the Washington boys’ team staked their claim for the top spot as all five of their runners finished in the top 10 with Tyler Alderton taking 1st place.
For Class 1A and 2A, Ty Muniz’s 4th place run for Columbus had the Wildcats usurp Danville’s stranglehold for the top spot with narrow victory over Van Buren County as Bainbridge finished in 3rd place. The Warriors would go on to be involved in history as Van Buren County participated in the first lighted high school cross county meet in state history at Ottumwa. Bainbridge would finish in 1st place as the girls’ team had Rylee Phillips take 8th place.
Lastly, WACO’s Jude Dykstra would grab the bronze in a return to Mt. Pleasant, finishing with a personal best time of 16 minutes and 34 seconds as he would climb up the individual rankings.
To end the third quarter, Bob Evans Field witnessed their first win in 1,428 days as Mt. Pleasant handled Tipton 33-24 behind some big plays by their seniors. Cooper Coleman would find the endzone twice, Payton Walker would snatch a safety, and Zach Newton and Ain Truong would connect on a 46-yard passing touchdown. The Panthers would not stop there, but we will pick that back up in quarter four as West Burlington, Winfield-Mt. Union, Danville, Mediapolis, and WACO would continue their push towards the postseason.
One more quarter in the books and one last one to go as we finish up the fall athletic season and dive into the early goings of winter athletics for KILJ’s “Year in Review” sponsored by Two Rivers Bank and Trust.