Mt. Pleasant, IA- One quarter down another one to go as we venture into the spring athletic season, reliving all of our state champions. It’s day two of our Year in Review sponsored by Two Rivers Bank and Trust, and it’s time to dive into months four through six.
Ironically, our eagerness to revisit the exciting nature of spring athletics will be met with a relatively slow start as uncooperative weather halted a reliable schedule. Nevertheless, none of the teams exhibited any rust.
The track and field season saw the Mt. Pleasant girls’ team jump out of the starting blocks with Alex Scott and the Panthers 4×200 meter relay team wining their events at the Demon Relays, while Kylee Hill of Burlington won the shot and discus events—we’ll hear more from her later.
At the same time the Van Buren County boys’ and girls’ team were putting pressure on other squads, winning the WACO relays. On the boys’ side, Bryce Moquin, Lincoln Bainbridge, Landry Loeffler, Tyler Stoltz, and Cameron Stoltz each put up 1st place performances in their respective events. The girls’ side had Carylin Schmitt twice, Ava Loeffler, Rylee Caviness, Rylee Philips, Ashley Fennel, Libby Bainbridge, Marlee Mertens, Lexie Wiley, along with five relay teams finish with the gold, excelling in the long-distance events.
At the same time, the Mt. Pleasant girls’ and boys’ tennis teams were serving up wins with dominant performances over conference opponents. The girls’ team made up of Jana Isanta (more on her later), Mary Kate Peterson, Bethany Drury, Victoria Smith, Zoey Carlsen, Hali Crane, and Ellie Situmeang finished the month with an impressive 6-3 record. Moreover, the boys’ team put up the same 6-3 record for April with Dane Cook, Sawyer Fulton, Zach Johnson, Beckham Prough, Gavin Ross, Elijah Rynders, Lou Schimmelpfennig, and Phoenix Watson comprising the team.
On the pitch, the Mt. Pleasant boys’ team picked up an early conference win against Fairfield in a shootout as Xachary LeBlanc ended the night with 8 saves. The Panthers would secure two more wins before the regular season close, outscoring Keokuk 7 to 4 in their two matchups as Dylan White netted three of the goals.
The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team proved to be a team that could dominate, outscoring their opponents 39 to 1 in their six wins in April. Tori Wilson and Charice Auwerda provided most of the fire power with Wilson scoring 20 goals and Auwerda netting 18. However, the SEC was controlled by two teams who saw time in the rankings between Fort Madison and Burlington, a rivalry that was decided in the Class 2A Region 8 bracket with the Grayhounds sneaking out with a 2-1 win.
Out on the golf course, Washington’s duo of Rajan and Roman Roth was leading the boys’ team to conference win after win. Mt. Pleasant was being paced by Reece Coffman and Nate Dismang with Merrick Lamm taking the lead for the Panthers at their own course but Fairfield, who had Sam Weaton as their ace, stayed jockeying for second with less than five strokes separating the two teams by the end of the regular season.
On the girls’ side of the SEC, Mt. Pleasant won the Fairfield meet thanks to Kylie Walderbach’s field-leading score of 47 and the Keokuk meet as Kylie and Sophia Walderbach finished with the best and third best scores of the meet, respectively. We’ll jump back for conference standings in a bit.
To keep up with some of our Southeast Iowa Super Conference teams, the Winfield-Mt. Union boys’ team was eyeing a deep run through the postseason after a stellar run last year, picking up a win against Columbus in April as Carter Loyd kept his form from a year ago. Burlington Notre Dame’s Carter West and Van Buren County’s TJ Jirak rounded out the top three.
Burlington Notre Dame hosted a pool of local team that saw Bo Herdrich’s 18-hole score of 79 put Central Lee on top for the tournament on the boys’ side, while Highland won the girls’ side, while the Nikes had Emersyn Hopkins put up the 5th best score of 99.
Jumping back to Track and Field, the Danville girls’ team took the Timm Lamb Penn City Relays with 152.5 points as the Bears won eight events with Alaina Gourley taking the 400-meter dash and the 1,500-meter run. Additionally, the Bears won four of the relays. Mt. Pleasant had Kynlee White win the 200-meter dash and Kya Goodrich take the Discus.
The Panthers would go on to win the Pather Relays and the Coed Brookhart-Crew Relays before April was over.
It also introduced us to future state qualifiers in Winfield-Mt. Union’s Tessa Huston, who won the 400-meter hurdles, and Quin Smith, grabbing the high jump gold.
Despite the wind and rain, Mt. Pleasant held the Denny White Relays and the Panther girls’ team grabbed another gold for the season, while Clear Creek Amana took the boys’ side. The Panthers were led by their relays with four teams taking 1st place along with Savannah Slobodnik winning the discus.
On the boys’ side, Mediapolis, looking to eventually defend their state championship, finished in 2nd place as a team as the Bulldogs won six events. Winfield-Mt. Union also grabbed six golds headlined by Kohlby Newsom and Gabriel Hemsworth. The Wolves would go on to win the Warrior Relays at the end of the month.
The Drake Relays would see some of our top talent compete against the entire state and clinching a spot in the top 10 was Solomon Zaugg of Mediapolis in the 3200-meter run, Burlington’s Kylee Hill took the bronze in the shot put and Keshawn Wyldon finished in 5th in the long jump, and the team of Owen and Will Schmidgall, Solomon Zaugg, and Logan Rosas raced to a phenomenal time of 7 minutes and 50 seconds, which was good enough for 5th place in the 4×800 meter relay.
To officially close April, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union also announced that the State Soccer Championships will move to Ames starting in 2025 and Mt. Pleasant’s Rellana Van Duren signed-on to Iowa Central’s dance team.
Lastly, the Panther trap shooting team, led by perfect scores by Izaac Zihlman, Mason and Landon Yocum, saw the boys’ team win at New London and Fort Madison as Addison McGehearty finished in 1st place at the varsity level in New London.
The month of May started on the golf course as the Washington boys’ team claimed the conference crown as the Demons owned the entire top five, including a 5-under par performance from Roman Roth. Fairfield grabbed 2nd led by Archer Kreuter and Mt. Pleasant took 3rd with Nate Dismang and Merrick Lamm each shooting an 86.
The boys’ teams of the SEISC competed for the conference title with Mediapolis garnering the hardware as Jacob Grier shot an 80.
Sticking with the conference theme but changing up the sport, the SEC saw Jana Isanata win the conference crown for the Mt. Pleasant girls’ team, dropping only two sets in the process. Situmeang and the team of Bethany Drury and Audrey Richmond also grabbed 5th place. The boys had the team of Schimmelpfennig and Watson finish with the silver, while Gavin Ross took home 5th place as Ruimin Luo of Fairfield took the singles crown.
The SEC ran their track conference meets as well with Washington sweeping both the boys’ and girls’ titles. The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team had Franklin Tousignant take 2nd place in the discus for the Panthers. On the girls’ side, Mt. Pleasant finished in second with 125 points and five conference champions. Alex Scott won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.79 seconds. The 4×100, 4×200, and 800 medley relay teams grabbed the gold and Bailey Jalas took the long jump with a leap of 16 feet and 2.75 inches.
Following behind was the SEISC conference meets as the girls’ teams champions from the North and South were Pekin and Mediapolis, respectively, while on the boys’ side Columbus won the North and Mediapolis put on a clinic for the South.
The WACO girls’ team had the 4×100 meter shuttle hurdle relay team of Ally Rinner, Brenna Graber, Madelyn Farmer, and Zoey Dennler finish as conference champions with a time of 1 minute and 15 seconds.
Winfield-Mt. Union’s conference champions were two hurdlers as Josie Nelson won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.2 seconds and Tessa Huston took the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1 minute and 12 seconds. Quin Smith won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet and 2 inches.
Mediapolis’ Bryn Wright ran the 1500-meter in 5 minutes and 21 seconds to win the event. Kendall VanWinkle won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1 minute and 14 seconds. The Bulldogs rattled off wins in the 4×100, 4×200, and 4×400 meter relays. Avery Crear leapt to a first-place finish in the high jump with a height of 4 feet and 8 inches.
West Burlington’s Ady Lamm grabbed first place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.57 seconds. Kaitlyn Kipp paced herself to a win in the 3000-meter run with a time of 11 minutes and 37 seconds. The 4×800 meter relay team grabbed the victory and Nadiya Jones won gold in the shot put with a heave of 32 feet and 1.5 inches.
Danville took third place with 110 points and four conference champions. Jaeda Molle won the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.17 seconds. Miya Orbiana raced to a time of 1 minute and 4 seconds in the 400-meter dash. The 800-sprint medley team won by seven seconds and Kenna Furnald took the long jump with a leap of 15 feet and 9 inches.
Van Buren County finished with 94.5 points, Central Lee 63.5 points, and New London grabbed 12 points. For the Warriors, Kayley Snowgren won the 800-meter run. Marlee Mertens took the 100-meter hurdles. The distance medley and 4×100 meter shuttle hurdle team each took home first place. The Hawks had a conference champion in Aubrey Weber in the discus with a throw of 93 feet.
On the boys’ side, Winfield-Mt. Union’s Ty Scorpil won the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.76 seconds and 400-meter hurdles with a time of 58.11 seconds. Kolby Newsom grabbed the gold in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes. The 800-sprint medley and distance medley teams finished with the win. Jake Edwards leapt 6 feet to take the high jump and Cam Buffington won the long jump with a distance of 20 feet and 11 inches.
Mediapolis won 11 events as senior Solomon Zaugg won two events with first place finishes in the 1600 and 3200-meter runs. With the state track meet coming up, we’ll hear from some of these names soon enough.
The SEISC girls met on the golf course for the conference crown, and it was Highland who snuck past New London to seal the victory. Taylor Phillips, the Tiger phenom, finished with the gold, shooting a 76 for the 18-holce course, as Sophie Malott took top four. Mediapolis’ Oliva Hines finished with the silver.
Heading back to the pitch, the Mediapolis boys’ team took down Burlington Notre Dame 4-1 as Alessandro Markomichelakis’s hat trick sealed the Bulldogs’ second consecutive conference title.
On the tennis court, Mt. Pleasant’s Isanta continued her undefeated season by punching her ticket to the state tournament, dropping a set in only three of her matches. Garnering the #4-seed for the Class 1A state singles tournament, Isanta would finish the year 20-2 and claim 4th place overall.
On the boys’ side, Mt. Pleasant defeated Albia in the first round of the Substate 5 tournament, but Fairfield narrowly defeated the Panthers 5-3 to end the season with an 8-4 record. The Trojans would lose in the Substate championship match, but Rumin Luo would go on to claim 6th place at the Class 1A state singles tournament.
Before we close out the spring sport season with the state track meet, the SEISC was busy tearing through the fairways. The Winfield-Mt. Union boys’ team narrowly punched their ticket to the state tournament as Justin Knipfer led the Wolves with the 5th best score. The girls were headlined by New London who finished with the second-best score at the Regional Final as Phillips and Malott headlined individual scores. In Class 2A, Mediapolis had Olivia Hines qualify for the state tournament for the third consecutive year. Adding one more team to the mix, the Washington boys’ team qualified for the state tournament.
For the boys’ state tournament, a thunderstorm cut the party short with only the day one results counting. Winfield-Mt. Union took 6th as a team with Carter Loyd finishing 15th as an individual. Washington’s Roman Roth grabbed the bronze as the Demons claimed 5th place.
On the girls’ side, New London’s Phillips concluded her terrific career with an individual state championship with Malott finishing in 21st place as the Tigers claimed 4th as a team. Olivia Hines of Mediapolis took 9th individually.
Three days, four classes, and a whole lot of state championships to dole out. The state track and field meet is fun, high-octane action that can see a team’s title decided all on championship Saturday. Here’s some of our top moments.
Mt. Pleasant’s Kya Goodrich would turn some heads in Class 3A’s discus event as her throw of 119 feet and 6 inches grabbed her 7th place after starting in the first heat of the throws. The 4×100 meter relay team of Kynlee White, Alex Scott, Bailey Jalas, and Andi Scott took 5th place.
In a competitive high jump field for Class 3A, Eli Zillman of Fairfield claimed the gold as he was the only jumper to clear 6 feet and 9 inches.
Burlington’s freshman sensation, Kylee Hill, tossed the discus 137 feet and 10 inches, which was good enough for 4th place, totaling five points for the Grayhounds. She also won the girls’ Class 4A shot put with ease, heaving the shot 45 feet and 2.5 inches.
The Danville girls’ team brought home some hardware as Kenna Furnald took 7th in the long jump, the distance medley team of Furnald, Jadea Molle, Miya Orbiana, and Alaina Gourley earned the bronze and the sprint medley team that had Violet Sowell jump in for Orbiana took home the gold.
Columbus grabbed a silver and bronze medal as the 4×100 meter relay team of Juan Chairez, Riley Kaalberg, Lamar Ceant, and Kaiden Amigon captured 2nd place and eight points with a time of 43.3 seconds, while Russell Coil heaved the shot put nearly 52 feet for 3rd place.
Winfield-Mt. Union had Gabriel Hemsworth, the distance medley and 4×400 meter relay teams of Kohlby Newsom, Ty Scorpil, Sheaden Adams, and Hemsworth all finish in the top 6 of their respective events.
West Burlington-Notre Dame had speedster Landy Haberichter chase down a silver medal in the Class 2A 100-meter dash with a time of 11.16 seconds.
Now, that exhilarating chase for the title we discussed earlier. The Mediapolis boys’ team entered Saturday in 8th place in the team standings, but the Bulldogs simply kept gaining points with one bronze performance, three silvers, and a gold medal by the end of the three days to take sole possession of the Class 2A team title for the second year in-a-row.
Solomon Zaugg grabbed the gold in the 3,200-meter run. Noah Schmidgall, Zaugg, and the 4×800 meter relay team of Owen and Will Schmidgall, Zaugg, and Logan Rosas took the silver medals in their respective events. The bronze went to the distance medley team of Aedin Nelson, Noah Schmidgall, Reese Campbell and Rosas.
The month of May was rounded out with the All-SEC teams for boys’ soccer as Dylan White, who tallied eight goals and four assists, and Jackson Newman of Mt. Pleasant made the All-Conference team. The SEC Co-Players of the Year went to Fort Madison’s Leif Boeding and Washington’s Randy Huertero.
The Southeastern Community College baseball team concluded their season in the NJCAA tournament, collecting a 43-19 record for the season.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union announced that the Board of Directors approved the move to divide the 2024-2025 girls’ wrestling season into two classes to support the growth of the sport.
Lastly, Mt. Pleasant’s Payton Hagans announced his decision to continue his basketball career at William Woods University, joining two other Mt. Pleasant alums Aaiden and Jordan Ashton. Mediapolis also had Jacob Grier and Ben Wolter announce their commitment to playing golf at SCC.
The month of June brought us some team awards for the Mt. Pleasant girls’ track and field team. Alex Scott nabbed a school record and “Leading Scorer.” Kya Goodrich and Bailey Jalas earned “Most Improved” as Jalas also set a school record in the long jump. Rookie of the Year went to Kiyah Sanders. Andi Scott, a senior, and Kynlee White, a sophomore, also finished with school records as they both made trips to the state meet. Courtney Raub was the honoree for the “Panther Award.” Ultimately, the girls’ team finished in first place in five meets and second in two meets, including the SEC meet.
Fairfield also introduced the community to the new girls’ basketball coach in a familiar face, Jerrod Belzer. He also holds the head coach responsibilities for the girls’ and boys’ cross country and girls’ track and field teams.
Olivia Hines of Mediapolis would finally get ahold of a gold medal with the help of fellow Bulldog Ben Wolter at the Iowa Coed State Golf Class 1A meet as the duo shot a 72.
Of course, we’d be remised if we did not mention high school baseball and softball that saw most of our local teams wrap up their regular seasons in June. Some of the big story lines of the season included the West Burlington and Burlington softball teams ranked within the top 15 for multiple weeks as the Falcons could not stop scoring, while the Grayhounds touted one of the best pitchers in the state in Saydee Plummer. Washington soon joined the Class 3A rankings, climbing as high as #8.
That was until Central Lee knocked West Burlington out of the top 15 with Kenna Sandoval and Shana Buford slugging the ball.
Sticking with softball, Mt. Pleasant picked up a dominant conference win over Keokuk 10-3, while the Mt. Pleasant boys’ team jockeyed with Fairfield for the conference crown that the Trojans would eventually outsprint the Panthers to, marking their first title since 2018.
Burlington Notre Dame, attempting to attend the state tournament for the second year in a row, garnered top consideration from the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association consistently staying within the top two spots of the Class 1A rankings as the Nikes touted a thrilling offense and a stifling defense, pitching eight shutout games during the regular season.
It’s time for the 7th inning stretch for this year’s edition of KILJ’s Year in Review brought to you by Two Rivers Bank and Trust. Tune in on Monday for quarter 3 as the summer heat cools to an autumn wind.