Sports

Sentinel Player of the Week Lauren Heying, Gehlen Catholic 24 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks vs. G-LR 19 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals vs. SLSM Gehlen’s Lauren Heying has found her groove once again and it’s come at the right time for the Jays as she’s led the team in scoring in each of their first two regional games. ...

DES MOINES — Akron-Westfield’s Logan Smith kept his season alive one more day after a consolation win on Thursday. He opened the tournament against the No. 5 seed in 1A-220, Blake Haub of Ogden who entered with a 37-3 record. Haub took a 2-0 lead after a period and added three points in the second with an escape and takedown. In the third, Haub scored another takedown before Smith got his only points of the match on an escape. The Ogden senior closed the bout with another takedown to win 9-1...

DES MOINES — Kingsley-Pierson’s Damon Schmid had his season come to a close on Thursday after a pair of losses at the state wrestling tournament in the 1A-138 bracket. In his first round match he went up against Jordan Khommanyvong of South Central Calhoun who was the No. ...

DES MOINES — The lone freshman in the Class 2A-170 field was unable to advance past Day 1 of the state wrestling tournament, bowing out with a pair of losses. Brenden Fisch faced 35-1 Spencer Mooberry of Osage in the first round and kept it competitive through the first period. ...

DES MOINES — Two of Hinton’s three state qualifying wrestlers are still alive after Day 1 at the state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena including one who won his first round match to stay in the championship bracket. Derek Anderson earned the No. 4 seed in the 1A-195 bracket and came away with a low-scoring 2-0 win over hist first round opponent, Trevor Thompson of South Hamilton. ...

DES MOINES — Le Mars Community has two wrestlers still alive after Day 1 of the state wrestling tournament held at Wells Fargo Arena. Jake Francksen-Small and Colton Hoag each won their opening round matches on Thursday. Francksen-Small competed in the 3A-160 bracket where he was the No. ...

SERGEANT BLUFF — With a split decision entering the night between the Le Mars Community and Sergeant Bluff-Luton girls basketball teams and those two games each being one-possession games, it shouldn’t have come as much surprise that the rubber match between the two Missouri River Activities Conference rivals would come down to the wire once again Wednesday...

ONAWA — The Hinton girls basketball team had their season come to an end on Tuesday in a Class 2A regional quarterfinal game against West Monona. The Spartans were able to advance with a 77-53 win over the Blackhawks. Sara Maule and Mallory McCall scored 20 points apiece for the Spartans as part of five players in double digits. The pair also led the way with seven rebounds apiece with McCall topping the team with six steals and four assists...

KINGSLEY — The first time Kingsley-Pierson and Siouxland Christian met this season, the Panthers won by 30 points and built up all of that margin by the end of the third quarter. In Tuesday’s Class 1A regional quarterfinal action, the No. 9 ranked Lady Panthers led by just five entering the fourth quarter before pulling away for a 63-47 win...

AKRON — Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn kept it within four points entering the fourth quarter, but the Akron-Westfield girls basketball team outscored the Hawks 16-7 across the final eight minutes to pull away for a 46-33 win in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal game on Tuesday...

LE MARS — The Gehlen Catholic girls basketball team advanced its farthest since the 2014 tournament with a 60-51 win over Storm Lake St. Mary’s in Class 1A regional action Tuesday. The win puts the Lady Jays in the regional semifinal for the first time since bowing out to George-Little Rock 70-61 at the end of the 2013-14 season...

MARCUS — When MMCRU and Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire met earlier this season, the Royals escaped with a 58-56 road victory. The rematch in 1A regional play was not nearly as close, ending with a 71-34 win for the No. 6 ranked Royals. Avoiding a sluggish start was key for the Royals who were coming in off a bye according to sophomore Ellie Hilbrands...

LE MARS — The MMCRU/RSM boys bowling team competed in the Class 1A state qualifying meet held at Sweet 16 Lanes on Tuesday. The team finished third out of the seven teams in attendance. Forest City came away with the automatic bid to state with the highest team score of the day with 3,149. That score was exactly 200 better than runner-up Harlan while the MMCRU/RSM team finished with a 2,775 score...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community boys bowling team was nosed out by Fort Dodge for the automatic state qualifying bid at the Class 2A district meet held at Sweet 16 Lanes on Tuesday. Fort Dodge posted a team total 46 points better than Le Mars with a 3,234 total...

LE MARS — For the sixth consecutive year, the Le Mars Community girls bowling team will be making a trip to the state tournament. “The girls had a great win today,” Le Mars coach Gail Swanberg said. “Winning a trip to state is always in the plans, but it’s nice when they work together and figure it out and come across as winners. Sam Schiefen, Alyssa Williams, Kaitelin Konz and Emily Peters all in the top 10 for singles for girls.”...

IOWA CITY — The Sioux City Metro swimming team competed at the state meet held at the University of Iowa Aquatic Center on Saturday. The team picked up the last point-counting spot in the 200 medley relay with a 16th place finish. Brody Spies of Hinton swam the third leg of the event as they finished with a time of 1:41.35 which was a fraction back of their seed time. ...

AKRON — The Akron-Westfield girls basketball team began 1A regional play with a 59-35 win over Trinity Christian on Thursday. The team got most of their lead built up in the first half, doubling up the Tigers 16-8 in the opening quarter and outscoring them 17-3 in the second quarter...

MAPLETON — Of the six team members who qualified for districts, half of them will be advancing to the state tournament for the Hinton wrestling team after making the top two in their weight class at the Class 1A District 3 meet on Saturday. The three qualifiers for the Blackhawks will all be making their first appearance at state...

SHELDON — Brenden Fisch is making the trip to the state wrestling tournament as a freshman following a runner-up result at the Class 2A District 7 meet Saturday. Fisch, who attends school at Remsen St. Mary’s and is their first ever participant in the state wrestling tournament, will compete at 170 pounds for Cherokee...

SIOUX RAPIDS — Kingsley-Pierson will be sending their first wrestler to state since 2011 as sophomore Damon Schmid secured a qualifying spot from the Class 1A District 5 meet Saturday. Schmid took the runner-up spot in the 138-pound class to advance to Des Moines...

FORT DODGE — The Le Mars Community wrestling team will be taking five members of their team to the state tournament following action at the Class 3A District 5 meet on Saturday. Justin Otto took first place for the team in the heavyweight division as he earns his first state tournament berth. Otto opened with a quarterfinal win by fall in 2:40 against Mason City’s Carter Gorder...

MAPLETON — Akron-Westfield’s only district qualifier, Logan Smith, was able to keep his season alive for another week by earning a trip to the state tournament after a runner-up finish in the 220-pound weight class at the Class 1A District 3 meet Saturday. For the senior, it was a great way to finish his high school career by earning the trip to Des Moines...

LE MARS — The Gehlen Catholic girls basketball team opened up regional play with a 58-38 win over George-Little Rock on Thursday. The game played out about as expected with the Lady Jays scoring right at their season average and the scoring average given up by the Mustangs this season...

Sentinel Player of the Week Alec Dreckman, Le Mars 15 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, 1 steal vs. Cherokee 28 points, 4 steals, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block vs. Sioux City West 51 points, 2 steals, 1 rebound vs. Sioux City East Alec Dreckman had a performance for the ages against Sioux City East this week, scoring 51 points on 16-of-22 shooting from the field including 5-of-9 from 3-point range. ...

LE MARS — Despite a record-breaking performance from Alec Dreckman, the Le Mars Community boys basketball team fell just short against Sioux City East, losing by a 75-72 final score in Missouri River Activities Conference action on Tuesday. The 6-foot junior Dreckman had a dominant performance with 51 points as the only player on the team with more than two field goal makes. ...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community girls basketball team knocked off Class 5A No. 15 Sioux City East in MRAC play Tuesday by a 60-54 final score. The win avenged a 58-36 loss earlier in the year. Kylie Dreckman led the Lady Bulldogs with 18 points as she knocked down five shots from 3-point range and three free throws. The total was a season high for Dreckman...

MARCUS — With a 43-40 win over South O’Brien on Tuesday, the MMCRU girls basketball team completed a perfect regular season with a 20-0 record. The No. 6 ranked Royals join top-ranked Newell-Fonda as the only 1A teams to finish the regular season undefeated...

LE MARS — The Hinton boys basketball team came away with the regular season sweep of Gehlen Catholic on Tuesday, picking up a 65-53 win. It’s the largest margin of victory for either side in the series dating back to a 60-47 win for the Blackhawks in November of 2016...

LE MARS — It was a tale of two halves in Tuesday’s meeting between Gehlen Catholic and Hinton. The first half saw the Lady Jays play some of their best basketball of the season. The second half Hinton rallied from a deficit of over 20 points to make things interesting. While Gehlen was able to hold on for a 61-54 win, in many ways the team’s second half clouded what was a phenomenal first half which saw the team get out to a 43-23 advantage...

FORT DODGE — The Sioux City Metro swim team qualified seven events to state following Saturday’s district meet at Fort Dodge. Brody Spies of Hinton is on two of the team’s qualifying relay teams. One of those was the 200-yard medley relay which finished in fourth place with a time of 1:41.35. ...

HAWARDEN — The first meeting of the season between Remsen St. Mary’s and West Sioux featured two top-ranked teams in their respective classes of 1A and 2A. The Falcons won that meeting 72-58 and appeared to be well on their way to a repeat performance on Monday before the Hawks came charging back for a 74-71 win as the two teams remained in the top 10, but both dropped from their perch as the top teams in the class. West Sioux entered this game at No. 4 in 2A while the Hawks are No. 7 in 1A...

COUNCIL BLUFFS — The Le Mars Community bowling teams wrapped up league titles in their first year in the Missouri River Activities Conference on Monday as they took down the rest of the MRAC at the Thunderbowl. Coach Kellie Bork said it’s a great accomplishment for the school...

KINGSLEY — For the fourth year in a row, the Kingsley-Pierson girls basketball team has won the Western Valley Conference tournament title. The team pulled away from Ridge View in the final minutes for a 64-53 win. “I’m so proud of the girls,” K-P Head Coach Nicole Goodwin said. “They came out strong that second half and won the third quarter and fourth quarter even though they had a little bit of a deficit going into the second half. They finished strong.”...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Remsen St. Mary’s made the trek to the Sanford Pentagon on Saturday to take on Tea Area in one of several games in a basketball classic. Tea Area entered with a 9-6 record in South Dakota Class A, the middle of three classification levels, but was able to knock off Iowa’s Class 1A No. 7 ranked Hawks in a 51-42 final...

CORRECTIONVILLE — The Kingsley-Pierson boys basketball team ended the Western Valley Conference tournament with a consolation win over West Monona on Friday by a 70-59 score. It was the largest margin of victory in the three games against their league foe this season. The first meeting went to overtime with the Panthers winning 73-68 and the second meeting was a 49-47 win for K-P...

AKRON — A strong third quarter helped the Akron-Westfield girls basketball team to a 59-31 win over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Friday. The Lady Westerners outscored the Hawks 21-4 in the third quarter as they pulled away from from a seven point halftime advantage...

MOVILLE — Just a year after setting a school record with five wrestlers advancing to the district round, Hinton bumped up their number of qualifiers to six this year. After all of last year’s members qualified as the second place person in the class, most did the same this year with the lone exception being Aiden Christiansen who took first place at 120 pounds...

SIBLEY — Kingsley-Pierson is advancing three wrestlers to the next round of the postseason. Freshman Carson Seuntjens earns a spot at 106-pounds with a second place finish. He earned a bye to start before getting a 7-2 win over Keagan Riley of Sioux Central. In the first place match, West Sioux’s Mikey Baker improved to 42-0 on the season with a win by fall in 49 seconds. Seuntjens won second place by rule with his semifinal win over Riley who took the third place match...

SERGEANT BLUFF — Among Cherokee’s wrestling team are nestled a handful of wrestlers from MMCRU and Remsen St. Mary’s. The Braves advanced three wrestlers out of their Class 2A sectional meet hosted by Sergeant Bluff-Luton including one of the RSM students, Brenden Fisch. Wrestling at 170 pounds, Fisch was able to claim second place in his class to advance to districts...

MOVILLE — Logan Smith was the only Akron-Westfield wrestler to earn his spot at the district meet following action at the Class 1A sectional 6 meet Saturday. Smith wrestled at 220 pounds at the meet and entered with a 20-11 record for the season. He earned a first round bye before meeting Zach Erpelding of Alta-Aurelia in the semifinal round. ...

HINTON — The Hinton boys basketball team couldn’t recapture the magic of the night before, when they knocked off Class 2A top-ranked West Sioux, in their latest game against another ranked team on Friday. Class 1A No. 6 ranked South O’Brien came away with their sixth straight victory and their 14th triumph in their last 15 games with an 82-53 win...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community boys basketball team needed a fourth quarter rally to earn a 72-69 win over Sioux City West on Friday. It was the second three-point win for the Bulldogs over the Wolverines this season after the team’s 63-60 win over their MRAC foe on Jan. 14...

LE MARS — War Eagle Conference action between Gehlen Catholic and MMCRU resulted in a split decision Friday as the Royals took the girls basketball game before the Jays picked up the win in the boys contest. Class 1A No. 6 MMCRU moved to 19-0 on the season with a 58-34 victory over the Jays...

HINTON — Tied at 70-70 with the final seconds ticking off the clock, Hinton leading scorer Caleb Holmes was double-teamed at the top of the key by two West Sioux defenders. Holmes flipped the ball to a wide-open Jacob Means who sank the game-winning 3-pointer from the left corner as time expired to give Class 2A No. 1 ranked West Sioux their first loss of the season, 73-70...

CHEROKEE — Former Lakes Conference foe Cherokee tripped up the Le Mars Community boys basketball team on Thursday. The Braves picked up a 55-46 win for their first win over the Bulldogs since a 53-50 victory back on December 5, 2008. Le Mars had won 21 consecutive in the series prior to Thursday’s loss...

SIOUX RAPIDS — The MMCRU/RSM bowling teams scored a pair of wins over Sioux Central in action on Thursday. The girls team led by 100 after the first round and extended out to a 143 margin of victory following the Baker games. Mattie Dias led the way with a 304 series for the team with games of 142 and 162. She had the top girls score for either team as she beat Sioux Central’s Emily Smith by four...

District football assignments have been announced for just the upcoming year, a change from the normal two-year cycle as the Iowa High School Athletic Association continues to take a look at competition factors and playoff qualifiers. The IHSAA once again shut down a request from the football advisory committee and Iowa Football Coaches Association to expand the number of playoff qualifiers to 32 per class, the number of teams who had made the playoffs from 2008 through 2015. ...

Sentinel Player of the Week Jake Francksen-Small, Le Mars Community 160-pound championship at MRAC tournament 160-pound championship at Kingsley-Pierson Invitational Win by fall at MOC-Floyd Valley dual Currently ranked in the top 10 by both The Predicament and IAWrestle, Jake Francksen-Small won two tournaments in a span of three days last week, claiming the 160-pound title at the MRAC tournament as well as the Kingsley-Pierson Invitational. ...

ORANGE CITY — The Le Mars Community wrestling team came away with a 40-21 win over MOC-Floyd Valley in dual action Tuesday. The Dutch started out with wins in the first four classes starting at heavyweight. Stephen Trejo picked up a 3-1 decision over Justin Otto to begin the dual...

HARTLEY — The No. 6 ranked MMCRU girls basketball team improved to 18-0 on the season with a 57-33 win over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Tuesday. The Royals jumped out to a 14-2 lead after a quarter and added to their lead each of the next three quarters...