Back in Plymouth County

But I digress.

I'm heading up to Sheldon tonight for the Class 2A girls basketball regional final between Hinton and Spirit Lake. The sixth-ranked Blackhawks are 23-0. Win No. 24 would qualify them for next week's state tournament, which Bethany has called dibs on.

With her sister's Pella Christian team one game away themselves and my recent foray to Central Iowa, I guess that's only fair.

The Hinton boys will try to beat Unity for the second time this season tomorrow night in their district final at Le Mars. The reward for the winner of that game? A substate showdown with top-ranked and two-time Class 2A defending state champion Western Christian (most likely).

A few final thoughts on my trip to state wrestling:

- It was cool to see the crowd's reaction when Don Bosco's Bart Reiter won his fourth state title. He received a standing ovation and it was just like the book "Four Days to Glory" described it.

- I've never seen so many adolescent boys cry as I saw at the state tournament. The driest session was probably the Saturday afternoon session where all the wrestlers were out of championship contention and fighting for third through eighth places.

- Chet Utesch jumped into A-W coach Mark Van Oort's arms after pinning Jake Hopkins of New London/WMU for seventh place. I found that humorous since Utesch's brother Chad was standing right next to Van Oort.

"I think he was just looking for anybody to hug," Van Oort said afterward.

Chet then hugged Chad.

Finally, the Des Moines Register does a cool thing where they produce posters of all the state champions available for download or purchase at their website. Check out A-W's Joe Sievert:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb...