Sports

BRUNSVILLE — The Missouri River Activities Conference let newest member Le Mars Community host the league’s conference meet Thursday at Prairie Rose Golf Club. It is the first time since 2011 that the MRAC meet hasn’t been held at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs...

HINTON — The Gehlen Catholic volleyball team appears to be peaking as the regular season winds down and regional play gets set to begin. The Class 1A No. 5 ranked Lady Jays swept Hinton on Tuesday in War Eagle Conference action for their eighth consecutive win and their sixth consecutive match which went the minimum number of sets...

COUNCIL BLUFFS — The Le Mars Community volleyball team picked up a win in their MRAC finale Tuesday by sweeping Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson. The Bulldogs won by scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-23. Pypr Stoeffler had the most kills on the team as she knocked down 12 for the match. She also led the way with 18 digs...

KINGSLEY — The Kingsley-Pierson volleyball team denied MVAOCOU another shot at a victory as the winless Rams were swept by their Western Valley Conference foe Tuesday. The Rams, who are now 0-27, have won just four sets this season, but didn’t just roll over for the Panthers...

Sentinel Player of the Week Will Roder, Gehlen Catholic 1st of 49 at War Eagle Conference (15:43.33) 3rd of 64 at West Sioux (16:40.21) 1st of 68 at Kingsley-Pierson (16:51.47) Gehlen Catholic runner Will Roder has put together another solid fall of running. In his last week of races he won two meets and finished third behind a pair of Class 4A runners at West Sioux. Roder is ranked No. 2 in Class 1A by the IATC...

MARCUS — A 1-2 finish from Will Roder and Isaac Vaske propelled the Gehlen Catholic boys cross country team to the War Eagle Conference title at Marcus Golf Club on Monday. The course and conditions were ideal for personal records on the day including for Roder who met a long-time goal of finishing a 5k race in less than 16 minutes...

MARCUS — MMCRU senior runner Kaitlyn Goth got the opportunity to run on the home course at Marcus Golf Club on Monday for the War Eagle Conference meet. As her career winds down, Goth said it was a special moment to be able to run at home. “Honestly, that was just like the highlight of my season so far,” Goth said. “It was just a great day to run on the home course senior year and I just loved it a lot.”...

IDA GROVE — The Class 2A third-ranked WC-KP girls cross country team picked up a team win at the Bob Saunders Cross Country Classic held Monday. The team easily won the team title with 37 points, almost 60 points better than runner-up Manson-Northwest Webster. There were 16 full teams competing for the varsity girls title...

FORT DODGE — Iowa Central head coach Jesse Montalto has made it known that if you are doing all the right things, you will be rewarded. Elijah Freking heard Montalto’s words and ran with them. The Triton linebacker made his first career start this past weekend, recording eight tackles, a sack and picking off a pass in a 39-21 victory over Dodge City on the road...

ATLANTIC — The Le Mars Community boys cross country team finished seventh out of 17 full teams at the rescheduled Atlantic Invite held Saturday. The field included several Class 4A schools along with the second-ranked teams in both 2A and 1A. Ankeny Centennial took the team championship at the event...

HULL — After not beating Bishop Heelan in six years prior to their Oct. 8 meeting, the Le Mars Community volleyball team earned their second win over the Crusaders in five days when the two teams met at Western Christian’s tournament Saturday. It’s the first time the Bulldogs have won consecutive matches over Heelan since the 2013 season when the two teams met a total of four times at three weekend tournaments and then in the regional tournament...

LE MARS — Gehlen Catholic kept themselves at the top of the mix in Class A District 1 with an upset win over South O’Brien at Jim Lorenzen Field on Friday. The No. 6 ranked Wolverines entered the contest undefeated for the season at 6-0, but left with their first loss in a 14-7 final score...

SIOUX CITY — The rivalry series on the gridiron between Bishop Heelan and Le Mars Community has been fairly lopsided since the two teams began meeting regularly in the 2006 season. Le Mars won the 2006 meeting in a game that stretched from Friday into Sunday due to weather by a 31-7 score at Jim Lorenzen Field. The Bulldogs never won a game after that until Friday night when the team ended 12 years of futility against their rival with an 8-7 victory at Memorial Field...

WEST BEND — The second-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s football team secured their third shutout win of the season by beating West Bend-Mallard 57-0 on Friday. It was the first time the Wolverines have been held without a point this season. The Hawks deployed their rushing attack to win the game on a cold, blustery night. ...

HARTLEY — For the third consecutive game, Akron-Westfield failed to find the scoreboard as they dropped a 38-0 game to Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in district play Friday. The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Hawks who had failed to score in two of their prior three games...

KINGSLEY — While most 8-player games are high-scoring affairs, the cold and windy conditions Friday evening at Robert Bahl Memorial Field made scoring a bit difficult. In the end, Kingsley-Pierson secured their third consecutive victory with an 18-8 final score against River Valley. It was the fewest points the Panthers have scored in a victory since moving to the 8-player game in 2010...

MARCUS — The Hinton football team hasn’t given up a point in their last four games as they earned their fifth overall shutout of the season in a 47-0 win over MMCRU on Friday. The Blackhawks have also scored at least 34 points in each of the last four wins...

HAWARDEN — Cold, damp and breezy conditions didn’t stop runners from competing at the West Sioux cross country meet Thursday at Hawarden Golf Club. The Le Mars Community girls made last-second plans to attend after their meet at Atlantic was postponed. The team finished fourth in the team standings...

KINGSLEY — Right on the heels of a five set win Tuesday over Woodbury Central, the Kingsley-Pierson volleyball team went the distance again Thursday in another 3-2 win in Western Valley Conference play, this time against Westwood. The two teams went a full-length best-of-three at the conference tournament with the Rebels claiming that match...

SIOUX CENTER — Premier Communications is pleased to announce that an agreement with Iowa High School Sports Network (IHSSN) has been reached to broadcast Iowa high school boys state tournament games. This fall, Ken Krogman, President of the Iowa High School Sports Network (IHSSN) announced a new distribution method of viewership coverage for the Iowa Boys State tournament events, granting Premier Communications the opportunity to rebroadcast the games. ...

REMSEN — It came down to the wire in the third set and in the end Remsen St. Mary’s came away with the sweep over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in War Eagle Conference volleyball action Thursday. “It’s always a good feeling to win,” RSM Head Coach Alex Willman said. “I thought the girls were aggressive pretty much the whole time through. The third set, yeah, they gave us a run for our money, but they pulled through it and the outcome was what we wanted.”...

LE MARS — Class 1A No. 5 ranked Gehlen Catholic picked up their 20th win of the season in a 3-0 sweep over West Sioux in War Eagle Conference action Thursday. The Jays won by set scores of 25-11, 25-15 and 25-15 over their opponent. “Going into the match I was concerned because we haven’t been able to have a normal practice for some time due to illnesses and other unavoidable circumstances,” Gehlen Head Coach Mike Meyer said. ...

MOVILLE — The Kingsley-Pierson volleyball team snapped Woodbury Central’s five-match winning streak in a marathon match in Western Valley Conference play Tuesday. The two teams battled it out for the full five sets with the Panthers emerging victorious at the end of a long night. It was Woodbury Central’s first match of the season to go the full five sets. This is the second five-set win of the year for the Panthers who also went full length against Trinity Christian...

HINTON — Class 3A No. 12 ranked Unity Christian came away with a sweep of Hinton in War Eagle Conference action Tuesday. The Knights picked up the win by set scores of 25-15, 25-15 and 25-13 as they remain perfect in conference matches. Hinton was held to a negative hitting percentage in the match with one more attacking error than kill. ...

KINGSLEY — On a sunny and breezy afternoon at Brookside Golf Course on Tuesday, the Gehlen Catholic boys picked up the team title at the Kingsley-Pierson cross country invitational. Gehlen’s team trophy was easily won as they scored 64 fewer places than the runner-up Royals. The Jays had four of the top eight times in the race...

KINGSLEY — The WC-KP girls cross country team defended the home turf at Brookside Golf Course on Tuesday, winning by over 50 points in the team standings. The team had six runners within the top nine at the meet. Erika Kuntz led the way with a winning time of 21:18.65. She ended 26 seconds in front of the second place runner. Sarahy Hamman placed third for WC-KP as she concluded two seconds after the 22-minute mark...

SIOUX CITY — The Le Mars Community volleyball team accomplished something that hadn’t been done since 2013 as they knocked off Bishop Heelan on Tuesday. Now Missouri River Activities Conference foes, the two teams have played at least twice every year since 2013 in weekend tournaments as well as in postseason matches. ...

SIOUX CITY — The Le Mars Community boys golf team ended their first fall golf season at the district meet held Tuesday at Whispering Creek Golf Club. The Bulldogs were seventh out of the 14 teams in the district as they shot a 365 team score. Waukee had the lowest team score with a 324, followed by Dowling Catholic at 345. ...

Sentinel Player of the Week Blaine Harpenau, Remsen St. Mary's 12-of-16 passing for 149 yards, 4 TDs 146 rushing yards on 23 carries, 2 TDs 1 catch for 5 yards RSM quarterback Blaine Harpenau has helped the Hawks to a 6-0 start including a win over a ranked Harris-Lake Park team last week. Harpenau leads all of the state’s 8-player quarterbacks who have at least 75 pass attempts in QB rating (249.7) and yards per completion (19.2)...

BOONE — The Iowa High School Athletic Association released their first set of football RPI rankings Monday. The RPI will determine the final qualifiers to the postseason of those teams who did not automatically qualify via a district championship. Remsen St. ...

CORRECTIONVILLE — The Remsen St. Mary’s volleyball team picked up a pair of wins at a tournament hosted by River Valley on Saturday. The team’s two wins came against Boyer Valley and Storm Lake St. Mary’s. The Hawks won in three sets over Boyer Valley as they claimed the first set 21-11, but dropped the second set 21-16. ...

URBANDALE — The Le Mars Community volleyball team picked up a split in their four matches played Saturday in a tournament hosted by Urbandale. The Bulldogs earned a 2-1 victory over Indianola. The two teams traded blowout wins in the first and second with the Bulldogs claiming the opening set 21-8 and the Indians getting a 21-11 win in the second. The third turned into a close battle with Le Mars earning a 15-13 victory...

PAULLINA — The MMCRU football team returned to the field after forfeiting their district opener to Gehlen Catholic due to a lack of healthy players. While the Royals were able to put a team on the field, the result wasn’t much different from the rest of the season’s outcomes in a 46-0 loss to an undefeated South O’Brien team...

LAKE PARK — It was a battle between undefeated top-10 teams in 8-player action Friday as No. 8 Harris-Lake Park hosted second-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s in a District 1 showdown. The Hawks hadn’t been tested since their opening game of the season when they eked out a one-point win over Audubon in the final seconds. ...

HINTON — The Hinton football team recorded their third consecutive shutout with a 43-0 homecoming win over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Friday. The Blackhawks have outscored their opponents 117-0 in their last three games as the team now has four shutouts this season, already surpassing the three the team had in last year’s playoff qualifying season...

LE MARS — With 17 unanswered points in the final 14 minutes of the game, No. 8 ranked Sergeant Bluff-Luton pulled away for a 38-18 win over Le Mars Community in Class 3A District 1 action Friday. Trailing 21-6 at halftime, Le Mars had another good start to the second half much like their comeback after trailing Storm Lake in the district opener the week before. ...

KINGSLEY — The Kingsley-Pierson football team celebrated homecoming with a 32-14 win over West Bend-Mallard on Friday. It was the team’s second win in a row. The Panthers focused most of their efforts to the ground game where they found the most success. Preston Pfaffle rushed the ball 22 times for 191 yards and three touchdowns in the game. His night included breaking away the longest touchdown of the night for 60 yards...

AKRON — After a mid-season break with a forfeit win over MMCRU, the Gehlen Catholic football team returned to the gridiron Friday for a 35-0 win over Akron-Westfield. It’s the third time in the last four games the Westerners have failed to find the scoreboard and the first time since a 2017 win over Lawton-Bronson that the Jays have held a team scoreless in a contested matchup...

PAULLINA — The Hinton and MMCRU cross country teams have seen quite a bit of each other this season as the schools have scheduled most of the same meets. Such was the case again Thursday as the two schools were joined by Remsen St. Mary’s for races at the Paullina Golf Course...

LE MARS — The Gehlen Catholic volleyball team is in the midst of a season-best stretch of six consecutive wins with the latest being a sweep of Trinity Christian in War Eagle Conference action Thursday. “Tonight we got a pretty solid effort with our offense and also our serving,” Gehlen Head Coach Mike Meyer said. “We hit over .300 as a team and I was most pleased that we got our middle hitters, Miyah and Rachel, untracked. Combined they hit over .500.”...

LE MARS — Le Mars Community hosted the Missouri River Activities Conference golf tournament Thursday in their first year in the league. Rainy conditions postponed the tournament from Tuesday and while there wasn’t rain Thursday, the course at Willow Creek was still wet according to Le Mars Head Coach Steve Wick...

HARTLEY — An 11-match losing streak for the Hinton volleyball team came to an end Tuesday with a sweep of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in War Eagle Conference action. The Blackhawks picked up the victory by set scores of 25-20, 25-17 and 25-20. Anna Coffee reached a season-high in kills as she ended the match with 21. Her previous best was 20 in a loss to Akron-Westfield on September 3. Coffee added nine digs, an ace serve and a block to her totals...

REMSEN — MMCRU held Harris-Lake Park to just four kills on a negative team kill efficiency in an easy sweep in War Eagle Conference action Tuesday. The Royals won by set scores of 25-14, 25-10 and 25-8. The Royals hit .375 for the match with five players recording at least four kills. Jaylen Bork led the way with 14 kills while Ellie Hilbrands also finished in double digits with 10...

AKRON — Gehlen Catholic’s trip to face Akron-Westfield had the signs of a potential upset written all over it. A road match against a senior-laden team who had won over two-thirds of their matches had Gehlen Head Coach Mike Meyer a bit worried heading into Tuesday’s War Eagle Conference match...

LE MARS — The Le Mars Community volleyball team knew they were going to have their hands full against second-ranked Sergeant Bluff-Luton in a Missouri River Activities Conference match on Tuesday. Still there was a bit of reason for optimism. The Lady Bulldogs were the only team who had picked off a set against the Warriors in their first 16 matches of the season before SB-L’s only loss of the year came against a West Des Moines Valley team currently ranked third in the class above them...

Sentinel Player of the Week Jaden Harris, Akron-Westfield 14 assists, 5 digs, 1 ace vs. Unity Christian 76 assists, 25 digs, 11 blocks, 5 aces at Alta-Aurelia tournament Jaden Harris surpassed 1,000 career assists this past week and is second in the War Eagle Conference with 309 assists through Sept. 30. Harris also leads the conference with 45 ace serves and her 0.88 aces per set is second-best in Class 1A among those with at least 160 serve attempts...

ALTA — The Hinton and MMCRU cross country teams competed at the Alta-Aurelia meet held on Monday. Both teams had individual runners make the top 10. The best finish on the day was a third place run for Hinton’s Steven Greigg. He was the last runner to post a time under 19 minutes as he concluded in a time of 18:52.75. The winning time in the 79 runner varsity field came from Cherokee’s Bryce Kremer who ended in 17:35.84...

PAULLINA — A strong hitting and serving performance from South O’Brien earned them a 3-0 sweep over Remsen St. Mary’s in War Eagle Conference volleyball action Monday. The Wolverines claimed the match by scores of 25-12, 25-13 and 25-8. South O’Brien hit .458 as a team for the match which was better than the .107 rate in which the Hawks were able to complete kills. ...

SLOAN — The Kingsley-Pierson volleyball team competed at the Western Valley Conference tournament Saturday to determine who would advance to Monday’s final round. The Panthers fell short of advancing as they secured just one win at the event. The team’s lone win came against River Valley, a team they’ve now beaten three times this season. ...

SIOUX CITY — The Hinton volleyball team faced some tough competition against bigger schools at a tournament hosted by Sioux City East on Saturday. The Blackhawks went winless against competition which included ranked teams in Classes 4A and 5A. “Was a tough tourney with great competition,” Hinton Head Coach Malina Ard said. ...