Sports

CORALVILLE — The inaugural IGHSAU-sanctioned girls state wrestling tournament brought a sellout crowd to Xtream Arena on Thursday as fans got the chance to see 448 girls compete across 14 weight classes for the chance to be called a state champion. Le Mars brought five of those girls to state, but none of them advanced past the first day of action...

By Allen Hamil Sports Editor REMSEN — Bowlers from MMCRU/RSM hosted Sioux Central at Maple Lanes on Thursday. The home team earned a pair of wins. The boys came out on top with a score of 3,062 which was over 700 better than Sioux Central’s score. The team had three series scores in the 400s. ...

HULL — Akron-Westfield split their basketball doubleheader with Trinity Christian on Tuesday. The A-W boys were victorious in their half of the doubleheader, taking the game by a 51-40 score. Tatum Wilken finished with 21 points which led the Westerners in the game. He made four of the team’s five 3-pointers in the game...

HULL — The MMCRU girls basketball team went on the road Jan. 30 for a non-conference game against Western Christian. The Royals came out on top of a close game by a 63-61 score. Kora Alesch had a double-double for the Royals with 26 points and 11 rebounds. She was able to draw a lot of fouls in the contest and went 12-of-16 at the free-throw line. She also led the team with three assists...

REMSEN — The Remsen St. Mary’s boys basketball team picked up wins on Monday and Tuesday, but in contrasting styles. The first was a blowout win while the second needed an extra period to decide the winner. The Hawks hosted winless Storm Lake St. Mary’s on Monday and cruised to a 55-22 win. ...

REMSEN — The Class 1A No. 4 ranked Remsen St. Mary’s girls basketball team picked up a pair of wins on Monday and Tuesday. The Hawks met Storm Lake St. Mary’s for a non-conference game on Monday and came away with a 59-16 win. RSM scored in double digits in all four quarters while holding their opponent to five points or less in each of the frames...

LE MARS — Hinton’s 11th-ranked (Class 2A) girls basketball team showed how unselfish they were on defense immediately during Tuesday night’s 78-31 non-conference win over Gehlen Catholic at Deb Campbell Memorial Gym. Coach Matt Leary’s squad tallied eight points off steals in the opening quarter. ...

LE MARS — Long before Keaten Bonderson’s third-quarter eruption, it was Drake DeRocher who stole the show. DeRocher, who went into Tuesday night’s non-conference game against Hinton with an 11.4 scoring average, tallied 14 points by halftime, tickling the twines with three 3-point baskets...

SIOUX CITY — The Le Mars Community basketball teams handled Sioux City North in a Missouri River Activities Conference doubleheader on Tuesday. The Le Mars girls picked up a 61-27 victory after jumping out to a 16-2 lead by the end of the first quarter. The two teams played fairly even in the middle two frames before the Bulldogs finished off the game by outscoring the Stars 21-5 in the fourth quarter...

KINGSLEY — The Kingsley-Pierson girls basketball team will be playing in the Western Valley Conference championship game after beating West Monona by a 73-62 score in the conference semifinal round on Tuesday. The Panthers jumped out to a 17-5 advantage after the first quarter and the final margin ended up being just one point different than the margin after a quarter...

JOHNSTON — The Le Mars Community boys wrestling team, ranked No. 24, dropped their Class 3A regional dual by a 44-27 score to No. 9 Johnston on Tuesday. Johnston claimed the first five weight classes beginning at 106 pounds. Michael Dyett pinned David Henry in 29 seconds in the first match. ...

EMMETSBURG — The Kingsley-Pierson wrestling team won their first dual, but dropped their second at a Class 1A regional dual event Tuesday with a trip to the state duals on the line. Kingsley-Pierson, ranked No. 17 in Class 1A, faced off against No. 16 West Sioux in the first round. As what may be expected between two teams close in the rankings, the dual shaped up to be a competitive one with the Panthers coming out on top 42-39 as they won the final three weight classes to take the contest...

MOVILLE — The Hinton wrestling team is moving on to the state dual wrestling tournament in Class 1A. The Blackhawks took down Missouri Valley and Woodbury Central on Tuesday on their way to qualifying for Saturday’s event at Xtream Arena in Coralville...

LE MARS — Unbeaten bowling teams from Le Mars Community and MMCRU/RSM squared off Monday at Sweet 16 Lanes in a triangular which also included West Sioux. The Bulldogs were able to come out on top in both the girls and boys contests. It was a close three-way race in the boys standings. Le Mars finished on top with a 3,082 score. MMCRU/RSM tallied a 2,903 total while West Sioux ended with a 2,665 score...

COUNCIL BLUFFS — The Le Mars Community basketball teams made the trek to face Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson in a Missouri River Activities Conference doubleheader on Friday. The Le Mars girls cruised to a 61-22 win, scoring in double digits every quarter while holding their opponent to single digits in each frame...

HINTON — The Hinton basketball teams hosted Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn for a doubleheader on Friday in War Eagle Conference action. The Hinton girls, ranked No. 13 in Class 2A, blasted their opponent by a final score of 87-31. Bailey Boeve finished with 22 points for the Blackhawks in the win. Natalee Junck ended with 20 points. Aubree Lake contributed 10 points...

LE MARS — Plenty of aspects about Friday night’s 79-54 War Eagle Conference victory over South O’Brien excited Gehlen Catholic boys basketball coach Mike Langel. Fifty-two percent (32-of-61) field goal shooting marked the eighth time this season the Jays topped 50 percent. The Jays improved to 9-0 this season when scoring 20 or more first-quarter points, as evidenced by a 24-15 lead when the opening eight minutes ended...

LE MARS — Sharp second-half offense brightened the feelings of Gehlen Catholic girls basketball coach Brandon Schaecher Friday night. Miyah Whitehead and Rysaiah Sitzmanan combined for 13 points in a 15-0 run during the first 4 ½ minutes of the second half as the Lady Jays clipped winless South O’Brien 59-39 in a War Eagle Conference clash at Deb Campbell Memorial Gym...

MARCUS — The MMCRU boys basketball team dropped a 62-36 War Eagle Conference game to West Sioux on Friday. Mason Coppock hit six 3-pointers as he finished with 18 points to lead the Falcons in the win. Dylan Wiggins added three triples for nine points. Booker Walsh scored another 11 points for the Falcons...

LAKE PARK — The Akron-Westfield basketball teams traveled to play Harris-Lake Park in a pair of War Eagle Conference basketball games on Friday. The A-W girls squeaked by with a 33-31 win. The team had a cold-shooting performance making under a quarter of their shots in the game. Makenzie Hughes had the most success for the Westerners, making 7-of-16 shots from the field, including three from 3-point range, to end with 19 points. She added a team-high eight rebounds and three steals...

SIOUX CITY — The first IGHSAU girls state wrestling tournament will feature five Le Mars Community wrestlers after they qualified at a regional qualifying tournament held at the Tyson Events Center on Friday. “I thought today we wrestled pretty well. Getting five to the state tournament is huge in our first year of actually going through this process which is completely new to every single one of these girls. Those girls handled the pressure really well,” Le Mars Head Coach Greer Milledge said...

KINGSLEY — The Kingsley-Pierson basketball teams are working their way through the Western Valley Conference tournament. The boys tournament began on Thursday as the second-seeded Panthers hosted seventh-seeded Lawton-Bronson. The Panthers jumped out to a double digit lead by the end of the first quarter and cruised to a 62-35 victory...

LE MARS — After a pair of tough losses earlier in the week, Class 1A 10th-ranked Gehlen Catholic halted the skid and cruised past Trinity Christian 65-31 in a nonconference boys basketball game on Thursday. “They were ready to get back on the winning side,” said Jays’ coach Mike Langel. “They came out and showed that right away in the first quarter. They did the little things better.”...

The MMCRU girls basketball team has been able to string together several wins in a row as they reach the end of January. HARTLEY — On Jan. 24, the Royals went on the road and picked up a win over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn by a 63-41 score. The team finished with four players in double figures and another just off of that mark in the win. Kora Alesch led the team with 15 points, eight rebounds, eight steals and tied for the team lead with seven assists...

SIOUX CITY — Western Iowa Tech Community College (WITCC) is pleased to unveil a new logo to represent the school’s athletics teams. The logo is inspired by WITCC’s mascot — the Comets. By remaining loyal to the original mascot, the college is paying tribute to its long, distinguished 50-year history as Siouxland’s community college...

BOONE — The Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Board of Control held its regular meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26, reviewing winter reports and approving several football recommendations ahead of the 2023-24 cycle. Following the Iowa State Board of Education’s approval of a new socioeconomic factor for IHSAA football classifications earlier this month, the Board of Control approved Thursday a lowering of the enrollment cap for Eight-Player football from 120 to 105...

LE MARS — It was a pretty successful Missouri River Activities Conference wrestling tournament for Le Mars Community as they finished second in the team standings and had one individual champion. Head Coach Shane Hessenius said it was the team’s best performance in a tournament setting this season...

HULL — The Le Mars Community girls basketball team renewed their rivalry with Western Christian in a non-conference game on Thursday. The Bulldogs jumped out to a big lead after a quarter and held on for a 65-56 win. Le Mars led 25-9 after the first eight minutes of play before the Wolfpack began chipping away at that lead and eventually pulled to single digits...

HULL — Class 2A No. 3 ranked Western Christian hosted Class 1A No. 7 ranked Remsen St. Mary’s in a boys basketball non-conference game on Thursday. The Wolfpack came out on top by a final score of 55-46. The game was tied after a defensive first quarter at 7-7. ...

SIOUX CITY — The Le Mars Community bowling teams won their Missouri River Activities Conference matchups against Sioux City East at Rush Werks on Thursday. The girls won by a 2,601-1,549 score. Natalie Vanderloo had the best series score of 384. Bailey Gill was next with a 374 series. Gill had the best overall game of 227...

REMSEN — Bowlers representing MMCRU/RSM picked up wins over OABCIG at Maple Lanes on Thursday. The home team won the boys contest by a score of 2,864-2,688. Austin Klein had the top score for the team with a 446 series. He had the only game scores over 200 for the team with a top score of 233...

PAULLINA — The Hinton basketball teams went on the road for a pair of War Eagle Conference games on Thursday. The Class 2A No. 13 ranked Hinton girls had little trouble against a winless South O’Brien squad, winning 68-26. The Blackhawks took command of the game early as they led 24-4 at the end of the first quarter and continued to add to their lead throughout the contest...

HARTLEY — The MMCRU boys basketball team dropped their game against Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Tuesday. MMCRU fell by a final score of 63-51 as the Hawks avenged their 44-40 loss to the Royals earlier in the month. Lance Berends had a double-double of 27 points and 17 rebounds for the Hawks. He also had six blocks. Kooper Ebel added an unconventional double-double of 19 points and 10 assists as he added seven rebounds and led the team with three steals...

AKRON — The Akron-Westfield basketball teams hosted Lawton-Bronson in a non-conference doubleheader on Jan. 23 and came away with a pair of wins. The A-W girls picked up a 45-29 victory. The team had the advantage from the perimeter, making seven 3-pointers compared to just one for the Eagles...

LE MARS — Smiling in the front row for team pictures in the Gehlen Catholic auxiliary gym while holding a homemade sign was Miyah Whitehead, who became the newest member of the 500-rebound club following Tuesday night’s 55-53 overtime win over West Sioux...

LE MARS — Scoreless in the first half, Mason Coppock was productive in the second half. Coppock tallied 15 points in the game’s final 14 minutes as West Sioux rallied for a 68-53 non-conference boys basketball victory over No. 10 (Class 1A) Gehlen Catholic Tuesday night at Deb Campbell Memorial Gym...

SIOUX CITY — The Le Mars Community boys basketball team brought an end to a losing streak of seven games with an upset win over Class 3A No. 6 ranked Bishop Heelan on Tuesday in a Missouri River Activities Conference game. Le Mars Head Coach Dave Irwin said he wishes he knew what the magic formula was to get everything to finally click...

SIOUX CITY — The Le Mars Community girls basketball team led Class 4A No. 4 ranked Bishop Heelan for a decent amount of game time on Tuesday in Missouri River Activities Conference action, but the Crusaders scored the final 12 points of the contest to survive with a 60-50 win...

LAWTON — Injuries have piled up for the Akron-Westfield wrestling team this season and that has made things difficult for Head Coach John Sievert to manage his lineup. Still, the Westerners were able to win one of their duals in a quadrangular meet on Tuesday. They were able to come out on top of host Lawton-Bronson by a 42-39 score despite having to leave three of their weight classes open...

LAWTON — In their last set of duals prior to the regional dual tournament next week, the Class 1A No. 12 ranked Hinton wrestling team picked up three wins in a quadrangular meet on Tuesday. “We’re a pretty solid team up and down the lineup,” Hinton Head Coach Casey Crawford said. ...

HAWARDEN — The Le Mars Community boys wrestling team picked up a pair of dual wins on Tuesday. The team won in a tiebreaker against Adrian (Minn.) which went down to the eighth criteria. The score was tied 31-31 after all of the matches. The tie was finally broken by the criteria of most first points total in which Le Mars held the edge 15-8...

HINTON — Hinton won a pair of basketball games over Akron-Westfield on Tuesday. The Class 2A No. 15 ranked Hinton girls scored as many points in the first quarter as the Westerners would have the entire night in the most lopsided game in the series since January 2019. Hinton jumped out to a 22-4 lead after a quarter and went on to win by a 60-22 final score...

HARTLEY — The Remsen St. Mary’s basketball teams traveled north for a War Eagle Conference doubleheader Monday at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn. The Class 1A No. 4 ranked RSM girls cruised to a 60-28 win. Three players reached double figures for RSM in the win. Whitney Jensen was the top scorer with 18 points. She had both of the team’s makes from 3-point range in the game. She also led the team with two blocks and six steals and was second on the team with eight rebounds and three assists...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community bowling teams picked up a pair of wins over Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson in a Missouri River Activities Conference matchup on Monday at Sweet 16 Lanes. The Le Mars girls rolled their way to a 2,979 score which easily topped the Yellow Jackets’ score of 1,820. Both teams came into the meeting undefeated...

CORRECTIONVILLE — MMCRU picked up a pair of non-conference wins over River Valley in a basketball doubleheader on Monday. The MMCRU girls won by a 49-46 score. The team finished with three players in double figures in scoring. Kora Alesch led the team with 18 points, half of which came at the charity stripe...

KINGSLEY — The Kingsley-Pierson wrestling team squared off against three Western Valley Conference foes in dual action on Monday. The team faced off against Westwood in their first dual which went down to the wire with the Panthers losing by a close 42-36 score...

IDA GROVE — Kingsley-Pierson competed at the Herb Irgens Invitational held Friday and Saturday at OABCIG High School. In the team scoring, out of 25 teams, Kingsley-Pierson took 13th. Kingsley-Pierson’s best finish was a third place result for Tyler Orzechowski at 138. ...

IDA GROVE — Akron-Westfield competed at the Herb Irgens Invitational held Friday and Saturday at OABCIG High School. In the team scoring, out of 25 teams, Akron-Westfield was 16th. The Westerners had a pair of placing individuals. At 126 pounds, Jadyn Friedrichs placed second. ...

SIOUX CITY — Le Mars Community’s Ayden Hoag won his weight class at the Bishop Heelan Invitational on Saturday. The individual title helped the Bulldogs finish fifth out of 15 teams in the final team standings. Hoag picked up three victories after a bye to bring home the 220-pound title. ...

OMAHA, Neb. — For the fourth time this season the Hinton wrestling team claimed a team title. The most recent came Saturday as the Blackhawks took the title at a tournament hosted by Omaha Burke. Hinton took the top spot out of 15 teams with 13 of those teams from Nebraska...

PAULLINA — Akron-Westfield visited South O’Brien on Friday for a War Eagle Conference basketball doubleheader. The A-W girls won by a 52-25 score to sweep the regular season series. The Westerners won the other meeting in early January by a 41-27 score...

ONAWA — Kingsley-Pierson picked up a doubleheader sweep of West Monona in Western Valley Conference basketball action Friday. The K-P girls won by a 63-45 score. The Panthers had three players score in double figures in the win. Sydney Doeschot scored a team-high 25 points and led the team with eight rebounds and two blocks. She also tied for the team lead with four steals with Avery Schroeder. Adding 20 points was Schroeder as she had a pair of 3-pointers. She added seven rebounds...

LE MARS — Gehlen Catholic’s boys basketball team has lost two games this season. After avenging one of those losses to Remsen St. Mary’s, the Jays avenged their other loss, to Unity Christian, on Friday night in War Eagle Conference play. On Jan. 12, the Jays came up a point short in a 57-56 game. The team came out firing right away in the rematch as they took the followup by a 75-53 score...

LE MARS — It was a physical, rough-and-tumble affair Friday as the Le Mars Community boys basketball team hosted Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln in a Missouri River Activities Conference game. The game featured 48 fouls including a technical foul on each side in a 55-43 Bulldog loss...

HINTON — Hinton came away with a doubleheader sweep of Harris-Lake Park in War Eagle Conference action Friday. The Hinton girls, ranked No. 15 in Class 2A, came away with a 65-35 win. The Blackhawks had three players finish in double digits in scoring. Natalee Junck led the team with 16 points. She made three 3-pointers in the game...

LE MARS — Class 3A No. 2 ranked Unity Christian was too much for the Gehlen Catholic girls basketball team to overcome in a 66-40 loss to the Knights on Friday in War Eagle Conference action. Unity held a 24-8 advantage by the end of the first quarter...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community girls basketball team hosted Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln in a Missouri River Activities Conference game on Friday. The Bulldogs picked up the win by a 62-49 score. The two teams met earlier in the season with Le Mars winning by a closer 46-42 score as they rallied from a nine point deficit at the end of the first quarter to secure the win. ...

DES MOINES — A football classification amendment approved by the IHSAA’s Board of Control and a December vote of member schools was approved Jan. 12 by the Iowa State Board of Education. The proposed amendment to the Articles of Incorporation will add a socioeconomic factor to football classifications starting in 2023-24, implementing a formula for free and reduced lunch percentages and school enrollments to determine new final classification numbers...

AKRON — Akron-Westfield and Hinton met Tuesday in dual action on the wrestling mat. The Blackhawks, ranked No. 13 in 1A in the IWCOA dual team rankings, came away with a 54-24 win over their foe who was receiving votes just outside the top 24 in the 1A rankings...

CORRECTIONVILLE — Kingsley-Pierson picked up a pair of wins over Western Valley Conference foe River Valley on Tuesday. The K-P girls won by a 50-33 final score. The Panthers jumped out to a 21-9 lead after a quarter while adding just small margins to their lead in each of the final three frames...