Sports

LE MARS — The No. 3 ranked Gehlen Catholic volleyball team picked up a 3-0 victory over Akron-Westfield in the Class 1A regional semifinals on Monday. The win saw two close sets along with a surprising blowout frame. “It was a bit of a strange night as we seemed to be like Dr. ...

MARCUS — After surviving a five-set thriller against Kingsley-Pierson in their regional quarterfinal, MMCRU’s Class 1A regional semifinal match against Westwood on Monday was a relative cakewalk as the team picked up a 3-0 victory. The Rebels did keep things fairly competitive in the three sets, including a 26-24 score in the second, but the Royals came away with 25-20 and 25-17 wins around the extended second set for the sweep...

HULL — A marathon fourth set finally went in favor of Class 2A No. 4 ranked Boyden-Hull in a regional semifinal match Monday as the Comets fended off an upset bid from Hinton by a 3-1 score. Boyden-Hull clinched the match with a 32-30 victory in the fourth set. The Comets, who had beaten Hinton 2-0 twice this season at separate weekend tournaments, also got out to an easy 2-0 advantage in this meeting by scores of 25-13 and 25-16...

NEWELL — The Kingsley-Pierson football team was held to just 38 yards of offense as they dropped an 8-player playoff pod second round game on Friday to 8-player AP No. 9 ranked Newell-Fonda by a 20-0 score. The zero on the scoreboard for the Panthers came a week after scoring their season high in a 64-29 win over Ar-We-Va...

HARTLEY — Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn came away with a 38-6 victory over Gehlen Catholic on Friday in the second round of a Class A playoff pod. The highlight of the game for the Jays came on an 83-yard touchdown pass from Connor Kraft to Ryan Livermore to make the score 14-6 near the end of the first half...

REMSEN — No. 2 Remsen St. Mary’s put up the most points of any 8-player team in action across the state in the second round of the playoff pods, scoring a 71-6 victory over West Harrison on Friday. The offensive surge was propelled by a return to the lineup of quarterback Blaine Harpenau. He opened the scoring with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Damen Brownmiller. Then on the team’s next possession, he took a low snap and ran 35 yards for a touchdown...

ORANGE CITY — It was a close four-way race in the girls team standings at the Class 2A state qualifying meet held at Landsmeer Golf Club on Thursday. Unfortunately for the WC-KP team, they were left on the outside looking in when the final point totals were tallied, finishing in fourth place when only the top three teams advance to state...

HOLSTEIN — In an attempt to reduce the number of teams and spectators as a precautionary COVID-19 measure, Class 1A state qualifying cross country increased the number of sites from five to eight this season. Coinciding with that change, only two teams and 10 individuals from each site advanced to the state meet, lower than the usual 15 individuals and three teams from each site...

ALTA — The 8-13 Hinton volleyball team was a bit of an underdog entering their Class 2A regional quarterfinal match against Alta-Aurelia on Wednesday as the Warriors sported a 15-4 record. That didn’t matter to the Lady Blackhawks who scored a three-set sweep to advance to the next round...

REMSEN — Less than a week after sweeping them in the regular season finale, the Akron-Westfield volleyball team did the same thing in Class 1A regional quarterfinal action Wednesday as they won by scores of 25-15, 25-20, 25-19 over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn...

LE MARS — The No. 3 ranked Gehlen Catholic volleyball team came off their first round bye looking like a well-oiled machine in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal match against George-Little Rock on Wednesday, winning in straight sets by scores of 25-14, 25-5, and 25-8...

MARCUS — After MMCRU and Kingsley-Pierson went to five sets in their first meeting of the season, it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that the two evenly matched teams would battle it down to the wire again in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal matchup Wednesday. The Royals came away with another 3-2 win over the Panthers, but the battle was as close as possible as all five sets were decided by the minimum margin of victory of two points...

SPENCER — After knocking on the door the last two seasons but falling one place short with fourth place finishes, the Le Mars Community boys cross country team finally found their way into the top three teams to advance to the state meet as a full team for the first time since 2009...

LE MARS — A decade of dominance for Le Mars over Spencer in volleyball came to an end Tuesday in Class 4A regional quarterfinal action. The Lady Bulldogs had won 18 straight in the series dating back to 2011, including a 2-0 win in a season-opening tourney match this year, but fell short in a 3-1 match to have their season come to a close...

REMSEN — Akron-Westfield secured a sweep of Remsen St. Mary’s in the first round of Class 1A regional volleyball action Monday. The Westerners won the first two meetings of the season, but had given up a set in each of those matches. A-W Head Coach Robyn Van Eldik said her team was focused on getting the sweep...

KINGSLEY/MARCUS — The Kingsley-Pierson and MMCRU volleyball teams will meet Wednesday after both teams won their respective first round Class 1A regional matches by sweeps on Monday. The Panthers swept their Western Valley Conference foe River Valley for the second time this season as they came away with a 25-20, 25-22, 25-13 win. It is the 11th consecutive win for K-P in the series dating back to the 2016 season...

ONAWA — For the fourth straight year, the WC-KP girls cross country team claimed the Western Valley Conference title. Saturday’s race saw Erika Kuntz reclaim her individual WVC title after a one-year absence from the top spot. The junior won the race with a time of 20:42.24. She won the title two years ago, but dropped to second place last year...

HARTLEY — It was a bad case of deja vu for the MMCRU football team as they played Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Friday in a Class A playoff pod opener. After losing to the Hawks by a 62-0 score in their district meeting, the team saw themselves in an identical scoring game in the postseason matchup...

KINGSLEY — Whether or not you want to put an asterisk next to it because of this year’s expanded playoff format, the Kingsley-Pierson football team did something Friday which they’ve only done once before — win a playoff game. The Panthers did so by topping Ar-We-Va 64-29 in the 8-player first round pod...

STORM LAKE — The Le Mars Community football team fell a touchdown short of Storm Lake in the opening round of the Class 3A playoff pod on Friday as they lost by a 36-28 score. The game was closer than their regular season meeting just two weeks prior where the Tornadoes outscored the Bulldogs 27-6. Le Mars led in Friday’s game until 3:39 left in the third quarter when the Tornadoes took the lead for the first time and they did not relinquish it after that...

REMSEN — Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire kept things interesting for most of the first quarter against No. 2 ranked Remsen St. Mary’s, but the Hawks took control after that for a 56-14 win in the first round of 8-player playoff pod action Friday...

ALTA — After a scoreless first half, the second half turned out to be an exciting back-and-forth battle between Gehlen Catholic and Alta-Aurelia in the opening round of the Class A playoffs on Friday. A scoring run with 1:36 left in the game gave the Jays a 23-20 victory...

SIBLEY — After keeping their regular season matchup with Sibley-Ocheyedan close in a 14-0 loss, the Hinton football team hoped they could keep things competitive and possibly avenge that loss in a Class 1A postseason pod game Friday. Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, that wasn’t the case as the Generals scored the first 38 points before Hinton answered with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 38-12 loss...

HOLSTEIN — Ridge View’s rushing attack overpowered Akron-Westfield 45-6 in a Class A postseason pod matchup on Friday. The Westerners trailed by just a touchdown at halftime by a 13-6 score, but the Raptors scored 32 unanswered points in the second half to pull away...

AKRON — The Akron-Westfield volleyball team ended the War Eagle Conference season with a 3-0 win over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Thursday. A-W won by scores of 25-19, 25-14 and 25-15. Natalie Nielsen’s 15 kills were just one shy of what H-M-S had as a team as she hit .321 for the match. Aubie Hartman was next with seven kills while Molly Vondrak and McKenna Henrich had four apiece...

REMSEN — The Remsen St. Mary’s volleyball team stunned MMCRU in the War Eagle Conference finale for both teams Thursday in a 3-2 final. RSM won the first (25-21), third (26-24) and fifth (15-9) sets to claim the match while MMCRU took the second (25-22) and fourth (25-14) sets...

LE MARS — The Class 1A No. 3 ranked Gehlen Catholic volleyball team won their 16th consecutive match to end the regular season, sweeping Harris-Lake Park in War Eagle Conference action Thursday. The Lady Jays won the first set 25-15 and stretched the margins out the next two sets with 25-11 and 25-10 wins...

COUNCIL BLUFFS — The Le Mars Community boys cross country team finished in second place at the Missouri River Activities Conference meet on Thursday at Iowa Western Community College. The Class 3A No. 10 ranked team trailed only Class 4A No. 3 ranked Sioux City North in the team standings as North nearly had a perfect team score with just 16 points as they had all seven of their runners within the top eight individuals...

SANBORN — The War Eagle Conference cross country meet was held at Sanborn Golf and Country Club Monday. Unity Christian claimed both team titles at the event. In the girls race, the Knights had the top three times, led by Amaya Van Essen in 21:18.60...

HAWARDEN — West Sioux was hoping to avoid their 10th straight loss and they won the first set against Akron-Westfield, but the Westerners claimed the next three sets to win 3-1 over their War Eagle Conference rivals on Tuesday. The Falcons won a set earlier in the season over A-W at a tournament, but also lost that match as the Westerners have won the last six meetings in the series...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community volleyball team finished off the Missouri River Activities Conference portion of their schedule Tuesday night with a 3-0 sweep of Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson. While the Bulldogs came away with the win in straight sets, Head Coach Jakki Tentinger said it wasn’t a perfect match from her team against the only team who hasn’t won an MRAC contest this season...

HINTON — The Hinton volleyball team started the season with six consecutive wins, but the Blackhawks have been stuck in a bit of a rut since then, winning just one of their next 13 matches. A losing streak of eight consecutive matches, all of which saw the team fail to win even one set, came to an end Monday as the Blackhawks took down Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 3-1 in War Eagle Conference action...

IDA GROVE — Despite Manson-Northwest Webster having three of the top four times, it was the WC-KP girls cross country team who came away with the team title at the Bob Saunders Cross Country Classic hosted by OABCIG on Monday...

LAKE PARK — The Kingsley-Pierson volleyball team went 2-2 at the Harris-Lake Park Tournament on Saturday. The Panthers earned a 2-0 win over Manson-Northwest Webster by scores of 21-13 and 21-12. It was the first meeting between the schools since 2015 and the first win for the Panthers in their previous nine attempts dating back to 2009...

REMSEN — Ranked No. 3 in 8-player football, Remsen St. Mary’s came away with a 48-13 win over Kingsley-Pierson in a matchup of Plymouth County’s only 8-player squads on Friday in the regular season finale. RSM Head Coach Tim Osterman said this is exactly where they wanted to be entering postseason play...

AKRON — The Akron-Westfield football team snapped a five-game losing streak with a 22-12 victory over MMCRU in Class A District 1 action Friday. The Westerners took a 14-0 lead into the intermission and held off the Royals in the second half. All three scores for the Westerners came on the ground. Sam Mullinix powered his way to 129 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown in the contest and quarterback Cade Walkingstick dashed for two more as he finished with 19 carries which covered 92 yards...

SIOUX RAPIDS — Trailing 20-0, the Hinton football team rattled off 40 unanswered points to come away with a 40-20 victory over Sioux Central in Class 1A District 1 action Friday. The rally gave the Blackhawks their first win of the year in the regular season finale...

LE MARS — The Gehlen Catholic football team finished off the regular season with their homecoming game Friday against South O’Brien in Class A District 1 action. The result wasn’t what the Jays were hoping for as they dropped the contest by a 32-12 score...

SIOUX CITY — A pair of fourth quarter scores propelled the Le Mars Community football team over rival Bishop Heelan at Memorial Field in Class 3A District 1 action Friday as the Bulldogs earned their first win of the season. Le Mars got on the board first with a late first quarter 1-yard rush from quarterback Carter Arens to take a 6-0 lead after a failed 2-point conversion attempt...

ATLANTIC — The Class 3A No. 10 ranked Le Mars Community boys cross country team went up against some different competition than they normally see with a trip down to Atlantic on Thursday. That didn’t stop the Bulldogs from finishing in first place out of 19 complete teams in the race and it wasn’t really a close race in the team standings as Le Mars won with 63 points. Runner-up Atlantic, who is No. 15 in 3A, totaled 111 points...

HAWARDEN — The Gehlen Catholic boys and WC-KP girls each brought home Class B titles at the West Sioux cross country meet held at Hawarden Golf Club on Thursday. While the distance for a cross country race is 5,000 meters, it was determined that the course setup was more than that so times were slower than normal...

HAWARDEN — Up to No. 3 in Class 1A, the Gehlen Catholic volleyball team came away with a 3-0 sweep of West Sioux in War Eagle Conference action Thursday. The win was the 14th in a row for the Lady Jays while their opponent lost their ninth consecutive match...

MARCUS — South O’Brien made MMCRU work for their volleyball win in War Eagle Conference action Thursday. After winning the first two sets with relative ease, MMCRU dropped the third set and escaped going to a fifth set by the minimum two points in a 3-1 victory...

KINGSLEY — In their first match since winning the Western Valley Conference tournament, the Kingsley-Pierson volleyball team got a challenge from their rivals from Woodbury Central. The Lady Panthers needed all five sets to come away with the victory Tuesday...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community and Bishop Heelan volleyball teams entered Tuesday’s Missouri River Activities Conference match with identical 7-11 records. While the records were even, the match skewed in favor of the Crusaders in a three-set sweep by scores of 25-20, 25-17 and 25-19...

KINGSLEY — The WC-KP girls cross country team defended the turf at Brookside Golf Course for a team win at the Kingsley-Pierson Invitational on Tuesday. The home team had four of the top six runners and finished 30 points below second place South O’Brien in the team standings. WC-KP is ranked No. 4 in Class 2A by the IATC...

KINGSLEY — Several local boys had good runs at the Kingsley-Pierson Invitational held at Brookside Golf Course on Tuesday. The local area had five runners within the top 10 of the 59 runner field at the cross country meet. Siouxland Christian’s Eric Brannon had the winning time of 17:27.37 as he is the IATC’s No. 28 ranked individual in Class 1A. The win, along with two other times in the top 10, helped the Class 1A No. 14 ranked Siouxland Christian team to the team title...

SIOUX CITY — The competition was tough and the Le Mars Community boys golf team was without their top golfer as their season came to an end at the district fall golf meet held at Whispering Creek Golf Club on Monday. Dylan Susemihl wasn’t in the Le Mars lineup which led the Bulldogs to drop below three of the Missouri River Activities Conference teams they had just beaten at the conference tournament at Green Valley...

NEWELL — Trailing by two touchdowns at halftime, the Remsen St. Mary’s football team fought back in the second half to claim a 30-28 victory over Newell-Fonda in a clash of ranked teams in 8-player District 1 action Friday. The Hawks entered the game ranked No. 3 in the class while Newell-Fonda was sixth in the AP poll...

MARCUS — The Gehlen Catholic football team got back in the win column after two straight losses as they went on the road and spoiled MMCRU’s homecoming game in a 54-7 rout of the Royals in Class A District 1 action Friday. The Jays got out to a strong start with 40 points in the first half...