rv 02-11-12

SPORTSThe N’West Iowa REVIEW • February 11, 2012 • Section C

Nighthawks win lengthy clash

B y S c ot t B y e r SS p o r t S e d i t o r

SHELDON—An epic opening-round win over Sergeant Bluff-Luton and an unexpected surprise in the Spirit Lake Park lineup conspired to keep Boy-den-Hull/Rock Valley just short of a bid to the state wrestling

dual team tournament during the Class 2A regional duals Tuesday in Sheldon. The Nighthawks knocked off Sergeant Bluff-Luton 24-22 in a dual that lasted two hours and 20 minutes.

Spirit Lake Park spent much of that time watching and plotting after beating OA-BCIG 49-30 in the other dual. The Indians made

great use of that time off, claiming a 41-26 win over the Nighthawks in the finals. With the win, Spirit Lake Park advanced to the state duals. “It was an intense night. Everyone has been talking to me about how fun that dual was to watch. You could just tell how special it was,” said Boyden-Hull/Rock Val-ley coach Stan De Zeeuw. “We would have liked to have won that second dual, too, but no one on our team should be hanging their heads or can leave with any regrets. They left it all on the mat.” Sergeant Bluff-Luton, ranked 12th as a dual team, had lost only once this season, but got more than it bargained for against the Nighthawks.

See WRESTLING on page C4

Golfers can start smoothing swing nowN’West Iowa golfers can watch televi-

sion and start to dream about one day playing the legendary Pebble

Beach Golf Links in California, but for many of us, the cost of such a trip is pro-hibitive. The cheapest hotel room on that course runs $715 per night, and green fees, includ-ing a cart, to play that course are $495 per person. That doesn’t even include the cost of traveling to get there. However, you can now play Pebble Beach for a lot cheaper than that.

Brian Engleman, owner of Sportsman’s Lanes & Lounge in Hawarden, has a high-tech HD Golf simulator at the facility. The machine can take you to Pebble Beach, or one of about 30 other courses around the country, to play a round. Golfers use their own clubs and golf balls, taking their nor-mal swings. It can even simulate putting. “It’s really a top-of-the-line deal. It’s kind of hard to convince people what this actu-ally is until they play it,” Engleman said. “Everyone thinks it is just going to be a computer graphic on the screen. That’s not what this is. They actually have high-definition shots, using satellites and GPS, that make what you see exactly what you

See BYERS on page C4

SCOTT BYERSSPORTS EDITOR

Host squads finish offregular season in style REGIONAL—Three Siouxland Confer-ence boys basketball games Friday served as excellent confidence boosters for the home team as it heads into the postseason. The other host certainly did not hurt its confidence much, considering the high level of play on both sides in that game. Sheldon, Boyden-Hull and West Lyon each won by a wide margin. Sioux Center, mean-while, hosted Class 3A top-ranked MOC-Floyd Valley and took the unbeaten Dutch into overtime before coming up short.

Pushing for fast pace worksout well for Orabs in victoryCENTRAL LYON 7 9 17 15 - 48SHELdON 15 16 18 17 - 66

SHELDON—Host Sheldon went with a rip-it-and-run philosophy Friday and it served the Orabs well in a 66-48 Siouxland

See BOYS on page C2

Central Lyon buzzing in first postseason contestFrenzied play on defenseputs away rival Mustangs


GEORGE-LiTTLE ROCK 4 6 10 16 - 36CENTRAL LYON 17 9 10 11 - 47

ROCK RAPIDS—Central Lyon had every-thing going its way in the opening quarter and rode that wave right on through a 47-36 win over George-Little Rock in the

opening round of the Class 1A girls basket-ball regional tournament Thursday. Central Lyon was up 19-6 two minutes into the second stanza. The Mustangs staged a brief revival, but the 11th-ranked Lions ended the first half on a 7-0 run to go up 26-10. “That good start really propelled us all night,” said Central Lyon co-coach Dan Kruse. “Kori Schulte was really good on the boards early. We were going to the glass

See GIRLS on page C3

THURSDAY GIRLS BASKETBALL: CLASS 1A REGIONAL

Victory takes physical, mental toll that shows up in fi nals

Central Lyon junior Lexi Ackerman and senior Abby Faletti trap George-Little Rock sophomore Jessica Sandbulte short of half-court as they apply a full-court press during a Class 1A regional opener Thurs-day in Rock Rapids. (Photo by Rylan Howe)

Freshman Gregory Palma of Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley celebrates an 8-7 victory over Sergeant Bluff-Luton senior Josh Fletcher at 285 pounds in a Class 2A regional dual Tuesday night. The points Palma picked up helped the Nighthawks to a 24-22 win.

Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley junior Tyler Dolieslager and senior Taylor Zeutenhorst pump their fists in celebration at the conclusion of a Class 2A regional dual against Sergeant Bluff-Luton on Tuesday in Sheldon. The Nighthawks knocked off the Warriors 24-22 before losing to Spirit Lake Park 41-26. (Photos by Rylan Howe)

TUESDAYWRESTLING:

CLASS 2AREGIONAL

Sheldon junior Chris Balster ele-vates in the lane against Central Lyon on Friday. The host Orabs beat the Lions. (Photo by Rylan Howe)

FRIDAY SIOUXLAND BOYS BASKETBALL

Teams build confidence for tourney

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BOYSContinued from page C1Conference boys basketball win over Central Lyon in the regular-season finale for both squads. Sheldon took a 15-7 lead in the first quarter and was up 31-16 at the intermission. “ We played wel l defen-sively, and early in the game we pushed the ball and got after them. Later, I thought we backed off a little, but not by design. A fast-paced game is fine with us,” said Sheldon coach Claude Struve. “We played good defense, rebounded and got the ball up and down the court. We didn’t always get layups, but we moved the ball around so that when we had numbers, we took advantage of it.” Central Lyon coach Ben Ger-leman said the Lions did not execute in the first half. “It was just not good. We didn’t play with any energy. We didn’t play with any urgency. We didn’t do a lot of the things we talked about,” Gerleman said. “We had too many turn-overs. You have to give credit to Sheldon for playing well, but at times we were just handing them the ball. Our effort was better in the second half, but it still wasn’t what we needed.” The Orabs were up 49-33 after three periods. “I was just disappointed that we didn’t end the regular sea-son playing well,” Gerleman said. “Win or lose, you want to end it playing up to your abili-ties, and we didn’t do that.” Dallas Ennema had 18 points and four assists for Sheldon. James Gradert notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Chris Balster made four assists and three steals. Cole Schleusner and Kyler Huisman each scored 11 points for Central Lyon. Ross Acker-man grabbed 11 rebounds. Jared DeBey had six assists. Sheldon, sporting a 11-10 record, receives a first-round bye in its Class 2A district. The Orabs then host either West Lyon (12-9) or Okoboji (1-20) at 7 p.m. Thursday. “We won two games this week and our defense has been good,” Struve said. “Offensively, we can play better and we’re going to have to. We need to be more efficient.” Central Lyon (9-12) begins Class 1A district play with a home game against Rock Valley (6-14). “I told the guys, the real sea-son is about to start. That’s what matters now; not what you did today, or last month or even all season,” Gerleman said. “This is the most impor-tant part, and we need to be prepared to put our best foot forward.”

West Lyon executesat both ends of floorROCK VALLEY 16 15 10 7 - 48WEST LYON 28 25 18 11 - 82

INWOOD—West Lyon’s 82-48 victory over Rock Valley in

Siouxland Conference boys basketball Friday certainly was a step in the right direction for the Wildcats with district play starting next week. West Lyon put pressure on the visiting Rockets early in the contest. The Wildcats applied a perimeter defense, which stunted the visitors’ ability to score throughout most of the game. “We just wanted to work hard on our perimeter defense,” said West Lyon coach Aaron Johnson. “The kids put good pressure on the basketball.” The Wildcats also had much success on the offensive end, outscoring Rock Valley 28-16 in the opening period and 25-15 in the second stanza for a 53-31 halftime lead. They maintained a comfortable margin through-out the final two frames. “We worked hard on getting good shots,” Johnson said,. The Rockets lost their spark early in the contest and fizzled under West Lyon’s aggressive play. “They executed really well with offense; we just couldn’t match it,” said Rock Valley coach Brad Beyke. West Lyon was led in scoring by Adam Teunissen with 19 points and Kaleb Heyer and Kacey Myrlie with 16 points apiece. Heyer also hauled in 10 rebounds. Brandon Snyder netted 11 points, six assists and three steals. The Wildcats, sporting a 12-9 record, host Okoboji (1-20) in the opening round of Class 2A district play at 7 p.m. Thursday. Kyle Jensen led Rock Valley’s scoring with 19 points. Andrew Van Ginkel contributed nine points, eight assists and three steals. Blake Bakker netted nine points. Brendan Harberts bagged five rebounds. “It was a good opportunity to see what we really need to focus on: Our execution and establishing ourselves with offensive rhythm,” Beyke said. The Rockets (6-14) host Central Lyon (9-12) in the first round of Class 1A district play at 7 p.m. Thursday. Rock Valley lost twice in conference play to the Lions during the regular season.

Fundamentally soundComets in commandBOYdEN-HuLL 16 21 15 19 - 71G-LR 11 12 4 11 - 38

GEORGE—Boyden-Hull had the lights on the scoreboard flickering, but coach Bill Fran-cis said there was little glitz and glamour to the Class 1A fifth-ranked Comets’ 71-38 Siouxland Conference boys basketball win over George-Little Rock on Friday. “There were no great runs. We just played steady, funda-mentally sound basketball all night,” Francis said. “We scored 71 points, but it wasn’t anything flashy or exciting. We just did our jobs, took care of business and got out of there with the win.” George-Little Rock scored the first five points of the game. That was about the end of the

good news for the hosts. “It was just going OK at that point; not great. We were not in rhythm,” said George-Little Rock coach Curt Schilling. “We would get the ball in the post, but our guys would shy away a little bit from the contact and get it blocked. We didn’t play physical. It wasn’t the way we need to be playing.” Boyden-Hull responded to the Mustangs’ early surge with a 10-2 run and just kept build-ing from there. By halftime, it was 37-23. After three quarters it was 52-27. “We started moving better. We were a little sluggish at first. We just seemed slow,” Francis said. “Then we started getting more cutters and picking up the pace.” Schilling was quite compli-mentary of the Comets. “They are a good team and they are going to be a tough out in the tournament,” he said. “They don’t have five guys that all do the same thing. They have one of everything, which is what makes a team great.” Brandt Van Roekel led Boy-den-Hull in scoring with 17 points. Bryce Moss accounted for 14 points and Taylor Francis netted 10. Evan Voss and Judd Rosen-boom each scored eight points for George-Little Rock. Eric Schilling secured six rebounds. Tanner Ver Steeg and Colin Sandbulte each dealt out three assists. Dawson DeBoer made three steals.

Boyden-Hull, sporting a 19-2 record, receives a bye in the opening round of Class 1A district play. The Comets then host Sibley-Ocheyedan (8-12) or Spalding Catholic (4-17) at 7 p.m. Thursday in Hull. “Defensively, we did a great job tonight. They have two very good big guys and they each only had six points,” Francis said. “You know, offense can come and go, so once you get to the postseason, you’ve got to be able to hang your hat on defense and rebounding so that you can survive if you do have a bad shooting night.” George-Little Rock (6-16) opens Class 1A district play hosting Hartley-Melvin-San-born (8-14) at 7 p.m. Monday. The winner faces Trinity Chris-tian (11-5) on Thursday.

Dutch need overtimeto remain unbeatenMOC-FV 20 16 19 10 11 - 76SiOux CENTER 11 19 14 21 7 - 72

SIOUX CENTER—Sioux Cen-ter put the pressure on Class 3A top-ranked MOC-Floyd Valley, but fell short after challeng-ing the undefeated Dutch in a 76-72 overtime classic between the Siouxland Conference boys basketball rivals Friday. “It was two really good teams going at it,” said MOC-Floyd Valley coach Loren De Jong. “It was a great atmosphere.” The Dutch broke out of the gates and secured a 12-0 lead against the Warriors in the first

three minutes of the contest. Sioux Center was trailing by eight points in the first frame when coach Todd Arends called a timeout. Following the break, the War-riors stabilized and became more aggressive, closing the gap by six points. “After the first quarter it was basically a dogfight,” De Jong said. Each team had its strong points, with Sioux Center forc-ing turnovers while MOC-Floyd Valley controlled the boards. The Dutch went to the half ahead 36-30. The visitors went further ahead in the third quar-ter, pushing it to 55-44, but the Warriors were not done yet. “Our kids kept clawing and kept digging in,” Arends said. S i o u x C e n t e r m a d e a n impressive push to get it close in crunch time. With five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the War-riors’ Andrew O’Donnell made a reverse layup, tying the score at 65-65 to send it into over-time. MOC-Floyd Valley got the first bucket, then Jacob Conaway blocked a Sioux Center shot, giving the Dutch a transition opportunity that ended in

Caleb De Haan’s three-pointer resulting in a 70-65 lead. The Warriors hung around by getting to the foul line in the extra session, but this time MOC-Floyd Valley did not allow the hosts to complete the rally. “You’ve got to give them cred-it,” Arends said. “We just felt we left some things on the floor.” Daniel Jansen led MOC-Floyd Valley with 19 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. De Haan contributed 18 points and four assists. Keegan Mulder netted 15 points and five assists. Justin Van Kalsbeek added 13 points. T.J. Buyert paced Sioux Center with 26 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Beau Boer chipped in with 14 points. O’Donnell finished 12 points, four assists and two steals. The Warriors are 15-6 overall and will receive a bye in the first round of Class 2A district play. They will host Unity Christian (11-10) or Cherokee (3-17) at 7 p.m. Thursday. MOC-Floyd Valley remains undefeated at 21-0 overall and 18-0 in the conference. The Dutch will get a long break before starting Class 3A district play at home against Spencer (8-11) on Feb. 20.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2012 n THE N'WEST IOWA REVIEW/SHELDON, IA C2

SPORTS

Junior Tom Brown looks for a Sheldon teammate as the Orabs run their offense against Central Lyon on Friday evening in a Siouxland Conference confrontation.

N’West Iowa teamsend slate on losses

B y J o r d a n H a r m e l i n kS t a f f W r i t e r

REGIONAL—The two N’West Iowa teams from the War Eagle Conference that were involved in Friday boys basketball each got locked into a defensive struggle. Unfortunately for South O’Brien and West Sioux, each of them wound up on the short end of the scoreboard in those contests.

Gehlen clears keyrebound to finish winSOuTH O’BRiEN 13 12 11 8 - 44LEMARS GEHLEN 11 14 9 13 - 47

L E M A R S — H o w a t e a m attacks the boards offensively and defensively can have an affect on the outcome of the game. South O’Brien’s inabili ty

to bring in a few defensive rebounds in the first half was the tipping point of the contest as the Wolverines went down 47-44 to War Eagle Conference boys basketball foe LeMars Gehlen Catholic on Friday. “The story of the first half was how well Gehlen crashed the offensive glass,” said South O’Brien coach Kiley Yates. “We scored 25 points in the first half and we felt we should have built a lead had we not given up so many offensive rebounds.” The Wolverines led 13-11 after a quarter. The score was tied 25-25 at the half. South O’Brien again posted a slight 36-34 edge after three, and everyone knew the final quarter would be a tight one. That it was. With under a minute to go, LeMars Gehlen Catholic hit a basket and a free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play. South O’Brien drove down the other end and missed a shot. Each team then traded posses-

sions with two-point baskets before the Wolverines found themselves down three with 2.9 seconds to go. At the char-ity stripe with the opportunity to cut into the deficit, Adam Paulsen deliberately missed the second free throw shot after sinking the first one in an attempt to gain an extra pos-session. The intentional missed shot was grabbed by the Jays and they were able to put it away with free throws. “This was just a good high school game and it came down to the end like they often do,” Yates said. “I’m sure the fans in the stands enjoyed watching this game.” Paulsen finished the game with 27 points and eight rebounds. Matt DeVos grabbed four rebounds. With the loss, South O’Brien finishes the regular season with a 17-4 overall record, finishing second in the conference with an 8-3 mark.

“We made some good im -provements and we accom-plished a fair amount,” Yates said. South O’Brien will have to wait and see who its next oppo-nent is as Class 2A district play opens. It will either be Emmets-burg (13-8) or Sioux Central (8-13), but either way, the Wol-verines will host the contest at 7 p.m. Thursday. “We’re glad to have a first-round bye and we’re glad to be hosting a tournament game,” Yates said. “But we have clear our minds and come out ready to play for this tournament. Everyone is 0-0 now.”

Risky strategy ploybackfires on FalconsAKRON-WESTFiELd 16 14 5 8 - 43WEST SiOux 10 8 9 8 - 35

HAWARDEN—Sometimes rolling the dice pays off, other times it doesn’t. West Sioux boys basketball coach Brad Klarenbeek found

out the hard way that gambling sometimes isn’t the best option. Klarenbeek’s West Sioux squad lost a 43-35 War Eagle Conference decision to Akron-Westfield on Friday due to a sloppy first half. “We started off the game with a bit of gamble,” he said. “After seeing how it went where Akron went up 10-2 on us early, I don’t think I’ll try it again.” The Falcons found them-selves down 30-18 at halftime, but made some key adjust-ments in the locker room to make the contest a closer match. “The second half we did lots of things better,” Klarenbeek said. “We outscored them 17-13, so we won the second half.” The first-half debacle proved to be the difference for West Sioux as it was unable to mount any form of comeback. Braedon Petersen was the Falcons’ leading scorer with 10 points, but Klarenbeek

highlighted the play of Logan Vlotho. “We put Logan on their top scorer and he shut him down in the second half. He really stepped it up,” the coach said. With the district tournament looming, Klarenbeek offered his insight to West Sioux’s regular-season campaign. “We played 21 tough games — night in and night out. I can’t look back at a game and say that I wasn’t proud of the guys, they work their tails off every night,” he said. West Sioux will not have to wait long to get another crack at Akron-Westfield as the Class 1A District 4 pairings match the Falcons and Westerners once again at 7 p.m. Thursday. This time, it will be played in Akron. “It’s going to be a great game,” he said. “Both teams may not have had the best records but that doesn’t matter as you enter tournament play. It’s all on the line, and I know the guys are excited to play them again.”

Defense, rebounding determine War Eagle outcomesFRIDAY WAR EAGLE BOYS BASKETBALL

Sheldon settles in again with strong defense

2012 BOYS BASKETBALL DISTRICT

CLASS 3A DISTRICT 2

LeMars

Spirit LakeMonday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. @ LeMars

MOC-Floyd Valley

SpencerMonday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. @ Orange City

Thursday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m. @ Sioux Center

Sheldon senior Brandon Frick and junior James Gradert scramble for a loose ball underneath the basket with Central Lyon junior Cole Schleusner and senior Ross Ackerman on Friday. The host Orabs closed out the regular season with a 66-48 victory over the Lions. (Photos by Rylan Howe)


SPORTS

GIRLSContinued from page C1hard. Lexi Ackerman hit two three-pointers in that early run and Kelsey Ackerman had one. We just did a really good job of getting out to that lead and maintaining it from there.” George-Little Rock, on the other hand, had a tough time getting anything to work. The Mustangs made 15-of-54 field goals in the game, including 1-of-11 three-point shots. “We didn’t shoot well outside, but the more frustrating thing was the inside shots that didn’t go in. Early in the game we got a lot of high-percentage shots. It is important to take advan-tage of those opportunities, and we just couldn’t get the shots to go in,” said George-Little Rock coach Heather Grafing. “The beginning of the game just didn’t go well. Taylor Carstensen got in foul trouble early and we need her out there. She’s one of our best rebounders. Central Lyon is a really good team. They have some kids that can find a lot of ways to score.” Kruse said Lion co-coach Br u c e Ec k e n ro d h a d t h e defense focused on pressuring the ball. “They were able to break it at times, but we had runs where we were getting some steals at times. We only allowed them to make one three-pointer, so that was big,” Kruse said. “We knew this would be a tough game. George-Little Rock is well-coached. We share a lot of sports with them and it’s a county rivalry. Our girls han-dled it well. This was step one. Now we’ve got to go on to the next game.” George-Little Rock outscored Central Lyon in the second half, but not enough to really tighten the gap. “Our girls kept fighting. I’m extremely proud of their effort. There were times when we were able to make a few short runs, but when we did they came right back at us,” Grafing said. “The message I really want to get across is that our kids have tremendous character. It’s been an up-and-down year, but they gave me all they had.” Lexi Ackerman finished with 17 points and four assists for Central Lyon. Kelsey Ackerman netted 15 points. Schulte was solid all-around with 10 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Jennifer Johnson collected seven rebounds and blocked two shots. Carstensen led George-Little Rock with 10 points. Dani Eben grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked a shot. Sarah Kruse delivered four assists and made three steals. The Mustangs finished 12-11 on the season. Central Lyon improved to 19-3 and hosts 10th-ranked Boyden-Hull on Tuesday. The Lions beat the Comets 45-29 in Hull, but Boyden-Hull earned a 55-52 win in Rock Rapids in the second matchup between the two teams in the regular season.

Large lead allowsComets extra restTRiNiTY CHRiSTiAN 2 3 6 20 - 31BOYdEN-HuLL 11 18 15 13 - 57

HULL— Class 1A 10th-ranked Boyden-Hull blanketed Trinity Christian at every turn in the first three quarters, then hand-

ed the keys to its reserves in the final stanza of a 57-31 win in the first round of the girls bas-ketball regional tournament Thursday. The Comets gave up just five points in the first half and 11 through three quarters. “We did some good things. We put a lot of pressure on them and I don’t think they are used to that,” said Boyden-Hull coach Bruce Keizer. “We forced a lot of turnovers and got them to rush their shots. They just looked very uncomfortable.” Trinity Christian shot 24 per-cent from the field and com-mitted 24 turnovers. “We struggled to get the ball up the floor, and when we did get it up the floor, we struggled to get it in the hoop,” said Trin-ity Christian coach Kassandra Heynen. “Their guard pressure is very good. Their guards are very quick and very fast. Defen-sively, I thought we played pretty well. We didn’t allow them to get into the lane. The problem was they made nine three-pointers. They just took what we gave them.” Keizer said Trinity Christian’s defense caused an unusual offensive night for the Comets. He noted Boyden-Hull made more three-pointers than it did free throws. The Comets were 9-for-22 from beyond the arc. “We were able to get out and run some. In the half court, they were really packing it in and forcing us to shoot from the outside,” Keizer said. “At times we did a good job of attacking, but when outside shots are falling like that the confidence just shoots up.” He was thankful for the lead with his squad being banged up. Courtney Schafer sat out the whole game. Whitney Vander Maten played lim-ited minutes. Both are nursing ankle injuries. “We had some girls step up,” he said. “Kassidy Van Voorst

and Nicole Ewoldt really took on the challenge of needing to score more.” Van Voorst led Boyden-Hull with 16 points. Ewoldt and Vander Maten each scored 14. Van Voorst and Jenna Ribbens each grabbed six rebounds. Vander Maten netted five rebounds and five assists. Lanae Regner us had 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals for Trinity Chris-tian. Kalista Heynen scored seven points. Trinity Christian finished the year with a 7-8 record. “We had a great season. This was really our first full sched-ule. It was fun to get in there and get some victories,” coach Heynen said. “We had four great senior leaders. This game was hard, but it was still an exciting year. It was a lot of fun.” Boyden-Hull moved to 17-5 on the year. The Comets visit 11th-ranked Central Lyon on Tuesday for the rubber match between the two Siouxland Conference members. Each team won on the other’s home court during the regular sea-son.

Langel, Jays powerthrough Spartans’ DSpALdiNG CATHOLiC 11 9 8 9 - 37LEMARS GEHLEN 21 14 16 11 - 62

LEMARS—Kaitlin Langel scored 21 points and Class 1A ninth-ranked LeMars Gehlen Catholic made a living on the offensive boards in a 62-37 win over Spalding Catholic in the first round of the girls bas-ketball regional tournament Thursday. The Jays started out the game on fire, hitting their first five shots. Most of those came from inside despite a special defense the Spartans used to prevent just that. “After they hit those shots early, our defense worked pret-ty well. They continued to try

to push it inside despite what we were doing,” said Spalding Catholic coach Scott Willman. “And with their athletes, they were still pretty effective doing it. We gave up some offensive rebounds due to their athleti-cism and size.” LeMars Gehlen Catholic was up 15-11 late in the first quar-ter. Spalding Catholic then hit an extended drought that lasted until midway through the second stanza. The Jays led 29-11 at that point. It was 35-20 at the half. “Offensively, we got a lot of fantastic looks and we didn’t hit nearly enough of them,” Willman said. “We need to be able to make the most of those opportunities.” For the game, the Spartans were 7-for-25 from two-point range and 4-of-24 from three-point land. Willman said the young Spalding Catholic squad played with good energy in the con-test. “We get a lot of these girls back. We gained a lot of experi-ence with our younger girls this year and that’s going to help us,” Willman said. Caitlyn Murphy had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Spar-tans. Alex Willman netted eight points and three assists. Carli

Murphy added seven points. Madison Pottebaum pulled down six rebounds. Samantha Newborg made three steals. LeMars Gehlen Catholic improved to 17-4 on the year. The Jays host eighth-ranked Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn (20-3) in the next round on Tuesday. Spalding Catholic ended its year at 3-20.

West Sioux awakensafter halftime chatAKRON-WESTFiELd 12 7 6 4 - 29WEST SiOux 13 13 17 8 - 51

HAWARDEN—Fifth-ranked West Sioux got stronger on defense as the game went along, shaking free of rival Akron-Westfield for a 51-29 win in the first round of the Class 1A girls basketball regional tour-nament Thursday. The first half was a little too close for Falcon coach Dennis Weerheim’s liking, especially considering what transpired in the previous meeting between the two schools. “By the end of the second quarter, we had a little lead, but at halftime I told them that this is not good. We should have been further ahead and we really needed to pick it up and get after them,” Weerheim said.

“We played them right before Christmas and led all the way in that game, but really struggled at the end and only won by four. I didn’t want that to hap-pen again.” West Sioux led 13-12 after one quarter and 26-19 at half. The Falcons broke the game open in the third quarter, out-scoring the Westerners 17-6. “We played a pretty solid ball game. We kept switching up on defense until we found a press that worked,” Weerheim said. “We eventually wore them down. Offensively, we had a good mix of inside and outside. If we can keep that up, we’re going to be tough to defend.” West Sioux made 20-of-46 shots from the field and only turned the ball over eight times. Senior Dana Weerheim scored 19 points for the Falcons, giving her 1,004 for her career. Jade Lynn Vlotho scored 17 points. Vlotho and Shannon Kots each garnered seven rebounds. Brooke McManaman snatched five steals. Dana Weerheim and Carissa Anderson were each credited with two assists. West Sioux improved to 21-1 and will host Remsen St. Mary’s (8-13) on Tuesday in a second-round matchup. The Falcons have beaten the Hawks twice this season.

Feldkamp, Hartwigplay major roles in win


OKOBOji 14 10 14 5 - 43SiBLEY-OCHEYEdAN 21 18 19 22 - 80

SIBLEY—Harrison Feldkamp had a career night as he and the rest of the Sibley-Ocheyedan seniors celebrated their final regular-season home game with an 80-43 win over Okoboji in Siouxland Conference boys basketball Thursday. Feldkamp’s 26 points were a career best, and he snagged 15 rebounds. Caleb Hartwig turned in his first career triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. “After our debacle at Boyden-Hull the other night, we came back and finally played ball the way we are capable

of playing,” said Sibley-Ocheyedan coach Rick Braby. “It was Senior Night, and those guys rose to the occasion both offensively and defensively.” The Pioneers knocked off the Gener-als 49-45 on Jan. 6 in Milford. Sibley-Ocheyedan has since heated up and now has won seven of its last 10 out-ings. “Their play certainly reflected that,” Okoboji coach Ryan Paulsen said of the Generals’ current hot streak. “Hartwig is playing at a really high level. He is difficult to stop because he can score inside or out, and he’s one of the best passers I’ve seen in our league this year.” Sibley-Ocheyedan was up 21-14 after a quarter and 39-24 at the half. “We were all right until a period where there was about five minutes left in the half,” Paulsen said. “We were down 25-20 and missed two free throws; then Hartwig came down and

hit a three. Instead of it being 25-22, it’s 28-20. We were just a different team after that. We went cold offensively and allowed them to open up a lead on us. Then we were unable to get any of that momentum back in the third quarter when we really needed to.” It was 58-38 after three quarters. “Offensively, we had to beat their zone. We were able to take them out of that. They didn’t have an answer for our penetration. We were able to dictate to them what we wanted to do,” Braby said. “Defensively, we had to stop their shooters. We tried to double-team (Dalton) Syverson, but he has such a high-arcing shot. He’s got a little hook working there. We did shut down their outside shooters, and we were able to jump them on their drives and get a lot of steals.” Okoboji made 17-of-49 field goals in the contest, including 3-of-15 treys. Pat Alexander scored nine points for

Sibley-Ocheyedan. Casey Hertz and Jacob Seivert each had eight. Syverson led Okoboji with 19 points and five rebounds. Keith Oskvig scored nine points.

Western Christian capsregular season with winSF CHRiSTiAN 14 13 10 19 - 56WESTERN CHRiSTiAN 18 22 16 15 - 71

HULL—Host Western Christian had Sioux Falls Christian outmanned Thursday, taking down its guests 71-56 in nonconference boys basketball. The Wolfpack shot 57 percent from the field in its regular-season finale. The home team outrebounded Sioux Falls Christian 29-17. “Sioux Falls Christian is a very scrappy team that can really shoot the three,” said Western Christian coach Jim Eekhoff. “Unfortunately, they’ve had several key injuries.”

The Chargers tried 33 three-point shots in the game, making nine. Meanwhile, Western Christian made its living in the paint, led by 6-foot-11-inch senior Mading Thok. He made 11-of-14 shots from the floor and fin-ished with 28 points, seven rebounds and three assists. When the Wolfpack chose to go outside, it hit 5-of-12 three-point shots. “We played pretty well. Mading was a force,” Eekhoff said. “This was a pretty solid effort by all of our guys and a good way to finish the regular season.” Western Christian turned an 18-14 first-quarter lead into a 40-27 halftime advantage. It was 56-37 after three periods of play. Michael Den Herder and Taylor Feenstra each scored 11 points for Western Christian. Kyle Fopma fin-ished with nine. J.D. Boer and Feenstra each issued four assists. Boer made four steals.

Generals’ seniors leave floor on with positive vibeTHURSDAY BOYS BASKETBALL

Lions’ defense stifles Mustangs once again

George-Little Rock senior Sarah Kruse takes a shot in front of Central Lyon senior Taylor Bork and junior Lexi Ackerman on Thursday. (Photos by Rylan Howe)

Central Lyon junior Kori Schulte takes a jump shot from the elbow over George-Little Rock sophomore Jessica Sandbulte in the opening round of Class 1A regional play Thursday. Schulte netted 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 47-36 victory for the Lions.

GIRLS BASKETBALL STATE RANKINGS

Source: Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union

Class 3A 1. Benton (Van Horn) 2. Davenport Assumption 3. MOC-Floyd Valley 4. Sioux City Heelan 5. Glenwood 6. South Tama 7. Dubuque Wahlert 8. Williamsburg 9. Union (LaPorte City) 10. Waverly-Shell Rock 11. Bondurant-Farrar 12. Denison-Schleswig 13. Sergeant Bluff-Luton 14. Ballard (Huxley) 15. Washington

Class 2A 1. OA-BCIG (Ida Grove) 2. West Hancock (Britt) 3. IKM-Manning 4. Carroll Kuemper 5. Western Christian 6. Estherville LC 7. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 8. Panorama (Panora) 9. Maquoketa Valley 10. Van Buren 11. Mediapolis 12. Lawton-Bronson 13. Gilbert 14. Bellevue 15. Pella Christian

Class 1A 1. North Mahaska 2. North Butler (Greene) 3. Bedford 4. Lynnville-Sully 5. West Sioux 6. Ar-We-Va (Westside) 7. Newell-Fonda 8. M-M-C 9. LeMars Gehlen Catholic 10. Boyden-Hull 11. Central Lyon 12. Adair-Casey 13. North Tama (Traer) 14. Burlington Notre Dame 15. Coon Rapids-Bayard


SPORTS

WRESTLINGContinued from page C1 The dual started innocently enough. The Warriors got a pin at 138 pounds to take a 6-0 lead. That was the only match that did not go the distance. Two of the bouts went to overtime. “It was just one intense match after another one. In every one of them, it wasn’t certain how it was going to come out until right at the end,” De Zeeuw said. “I talked to some parents, and they said they were just exhausted after the first dual. It was really loud, and everyone was really into it.” The Nighthawks were down 15-12 when Gregory Palma scored on a takedown with seven seconds left to beat Josh Fletcher 8-7 at 285 and tie it up again. Sam Klarenbeek was in charge from start to finish in winning a decision at 106. Max Klarenbeek broke a score-less tie at 113 with less than 30 seconds left by reversing Duece Phaley and taking him to his back for a five-point move. Austin Gregg then scored two back points with 20 seconds left to beat Ben Graber 4-2 and make it 24-15. Ninth-ranked Preston Hoebelheinrich lost by decision in overtime to second-ranked Colton McCrystal. At that point, even a pin by Steven Garcia of Sergeant Bluff-Luton would have only sent the dual to criteria, which looked likely to favor the Nighthawks. De Zeeuw and the Night-hawks did not notice just how long they had been going by the time the final score was posted. “You don’t think about it when you are wrestling. I didn’t real-ize how long that was until the bus driver said it was two hours and 20 minutes, and he didn’t want to leave for a minute,” he said. “After the dual, we just went into the locker room and regrouped and talked about the plan for Spirit Lake. I didn’t even think about how much that first dual might have taken out of us. Spirit Lake got to sit there and watch us for about an hour and a half. I guess when I look back, it might have taken more out of us than I realized.” In both duals, De Zeeuw mas-saged the Nighthawk lineup looking for points where he could find them. “In the first dual, we really o n l y m ove d o n e we i g h t . That didn’t work exactly as I had hoped,” De Zeeuw said. “Against Spirit Lake, they kind of sandbagged and used a 170-pounder we thought was out for the year. Had I known that going in, I would have did it differently, but there is noth-ing you can do now.” That chance made further change necessary later in the dual. “Spirit Lake is just so strong at 113 and 120 that we figured our better opportunity was to move Austin up. We figured Preston

would handle his business no matter where we put him,” De Zeeuw said. “That didn’t really work out the way we thought, but some of that was due to the team score. By the time Preston wrestled, he knew a decision wouldn’t do. He needed to try for a pin.” De Zeeuw said, ultimately, it will be a memory that will last a long time for the Nighthawks. “We had a lot of broken hearts in our locker room. There was a lot of disappointment,” he said. “But when you maximize your effort all night like we did, there is nothing to hang your head about.”

Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 24,Sergeant Bluff-Luton 22

106: Sam Klarenbeek (BHRV) dec. Keegan Putnam 6-1; 113: Max Klarenbeek (BHRV) dec. Duece Phaley 5-0; 120: Austin Gregg (BHRV) dec. Ben Graber 4-2; 126: Colton McCrystal (SBL) dec. Preston Hoebelheinrich 9-7 OT; 132: Steven Garcia (SBL) maj. dec. Seth Hoogendoorn 11-1; 138: Hunter Langley (SBL) pinned Zach Konz 3:35; 145: Hunter Berkenpas (BHRV) dec. Braden Christiansen 6-3; 152: Dillon Schamber (BHRV) dec. Brett Tomoson 9-6; 160: Dallas Rozeboom (BHRV) dec. Josh King 7-6; 170: Blake McCauley (SBL) dec. Waylon Rau 10-7; 182: Sean Fitzgerald (SBL) dec. Taylor Zeutenhorst 7-5 OT; 195: Ty Koldenhoven (BHRV) dec. Taylor Christiansen 10-4; 220: Tyler Nguyen (SBL) dec. Tyler Dolieslager 15-8; 285: Gregory Palma (BHRV) dec. Josh Fletcher 8-7.Spirit Lake Park 41, Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 26

106: Sam Klarenbeek (BHRV) pinned Cody Clipperton 2:38; 113: Doug Minor (SLP) pinned Max Klarenbeek :16; 120: Zack Skopec (SLP) won by forfeit; 126: Sam Bosma (SLP) dec. Austin Gregg 9-4; 132: Kenten Murray (SLP) dec. Preston Hoebelheinrich 4-1; 138: Isaac Lundgren (SLP) won by forfeit; 145: Hunter Berkenpas (BHRV) dec. Dylan Bryce 10-5; 152: Dillon Schamber (BHRV) maj. dec. David Trucksess 13-3; 160: Rick Maris (SLP) pinned Dallas Rozeboom 2:53; 170: Mark Norland (SLP) pinned Waylon Rau 3:43; 182: Taylor Zeutenhorst (BHRV) pinned Jacob Jenness 1:50; 195: Ty Koldenhoven (BHRV) maj. dec. Casey Jones 12-2; 220: Tyler Dolieslager (BHRV) dec. Nathan Kyle 9-4; 285: Cody Norton (SLP) pinned Gregory Palma 1:24.

Top-ranked Cowboysmanhandle Pioneers BRITT—Okoboji made a long trip for a short stay at the Class 1A regional wrestling duals Tuesday, falling to top-ranked Clarion-Goldfield in the first round on Tuesday in Britt. Clarion-Goldfield pinned the Pioneers 61-12. On the other side of the brack-et, Emmetsburg beat Lake Mills 46-30. Clarion-Goldfield then flat-tened Emmetsburg 51-21. The Cowboys had the top seed when the state dual team tournament brackets were announced. Okoboji coach Nate Dau knew what the Pioneers were getting into. “I kind of knew what they were about. I grew up around the North Central Conference. It’s been a while now, but the style there has always been the same,” Dau said. “They are going to pound on your head for a while then go for the high crotch. They try to be physical and work you out of position. And that’s exactly what hap-pened. They didn’t use what I would call on offensive move for the first five matches.”

Tanner Taylor gave Okoboji its biggest positive of the night. The 182-pounder, ranked second in the state, broke the school’s win record with a pin of Bailey Kothe. Taylor has 142 wins. The previous mark was 141 set by Michael Jones, who graduated in 2004. “Tanner has our all-time win record and our all-pins record, and he’s creeping up on the single-season records,” Dau said. Zach Jones and Justin Rich-

ardson won decisions for the Pioneers. “Zach got a little conservative at the end, but he wrestled a tough match,” Dau said. “Jus-tin’s timing has been a little off lately. He is really a 160-pound-er, but he scraps as hard as anyone.” Despite the loss, Dau said the trip was worth it. “It was good for our kids,” he said. “They are obviously one of the best in the state. That level of wrestling shows us the kind

of time you have to put in dur-ing the offseason not just wres-tling but also lifting weights and getting stronger.”

Clarion-Goldfield 61, Okoboji 12 106: Ezekiel Rosenbaum (CG) pinned Ryan Bolster 3:15; 113: Joel Haberman (CG) pinned Adam Dublinski :52; 120: Aaron Anderson (CG) pinned Kaleb Vanderpool :36; 126: Taylor Lehman (CG) pinned Cameron Arnold 1:45;

132: Marcus Peterson (CG) pinned Brody Linn 5:06; 138: Sam Solis (CG) pinned Taylor Cody 3:33; 145: Matt Odland (CG) pinned Jordan Hanna 3:01; 152: Maxx Schultz (CG) dec. Cody Louscher 6-0; 160: Zach Jones (Oko) dec. Jake Haberman 3-0; 170: Justin Richardson (Oko) dec. Ryan Anderson 7-2; 182: Tanner Taylor (Oko) pinned Bailey Kothe :28; 195: Knute Severson (CG) pinned Jacob Sauter 3:49; 220:Caleb Hansen (CG) won by forfeit; 285: Mitch Gambrill (CG) maj. dec. Blake Manwarren 11-1.

BYERSContinued from page C1would be seeing if you were playing that course that day.” Engleman bought the machine on Labor Day but could not get it installed until January. That was just as well, since he had to build an addi-tion to the bowling alley to make room for the machine. “It’s a pretty big deal. The guy that came and installed it had just came from installing one in the house of the CEO of the NASDAQ exchange, and then he put one in for Chris Carpen-ter, the pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals,” Engleman said. Engleman charges $25 per hour for use of the machine. He stressed that charge is per group, not per person. Up to four people can be included in a group. “If you get four guys together, most people can play Pebble in about three hours,” Engleman said. “That’s a lot cheaper than the real green fees. And they recreate everything at these 30 courses. You really need to play it to understand what it is like.” The machine also has uses for the competitive or semi-competitive golfer that wants

to get ready for league play but can’t get out due to the winter weather in our region. The simulator has three modes — practice, full rounds and games of skill. “It’s a huge teaching tool. A lot of the pros use it,” Engle-man said. “If you go to a driv-ing range and hit balls, that’s good, but you are just guessing

how far it is going. With this, for example, you can hit your 5-iron 20 times. It will show you exactly how far you hit it each time and what you average with that club. It also tells you if you sliced it, if that was because your swing was inside-out or if it was because your club face was open. You can do it over and over again to

improve your game.” Engleman said the simula-tor drew some curious looks at first; then people started to try it. He said now it is fairly busy on the weekends, but tee times still are available any day of the week. To make your res-ervation, contact Sportsman’s Lanes & Lounge at (712) 551-1415.

Brian Kelhower of Hawarden swings while using a golf simulator at Sportsman’s Lanes & Lounge in Hawarden. The simulator can take golfers through 17 different courses, including Pebble Beach. (Photo by Josh Harrell)

Simulator offers resort experience COLLEGE

Three N’West Iowa wrestlers joined the rankings in the final poll of the season put out by The Predicament just before the sectional tournaments. Sheldon-South O’Brien senior Bruce McWilliams missed the first half of the season with an injury but did enough to draw notice and get put in the eighth spot in Class 2A at 195 pounds. Orab senior Austin Bainbridge, who has been in and out of the rankings at 106 all year, is back in at 10th. In Class 1A, Western Christian senior Trevor Van Den Top rejoined the rankings at 220 at eighth. Okoboji senior Tanner Taylor and Central Lyon/George-Little Rock senior Terron Geerdes are N’West Iowa’s highest ranked wrestlers. Taylor jumped to second at 182 in the Class 1A rankings. Geerdes remained second at 220 in Class 2A. Here is a look at all the ranked individual wrestlers from the region. Class 2AWeight Wrestler Rank Prev.106 .......... Austin Bainbridge, SHS-SOS senior ... 10th .... NR126 .........Preston Hoebelheinrich, BHRV senior .... 9th .... 9th160 ..............Dallas Rozeboom, BHRV junior ......... 3rd .... 4th170 ...........Tanner Matthews, SHS-SOS senior ..... 6th .... 7th170 .............Taylor Zeutenhorst, BHRV senior ....... 7th .... 8th195 ..........Bruce McWilliams, SHS-SOS senior ..... 8th .... NR220 .............. Terron Geerdes, CLGLR senior ........ 2nd ... 2nd Class 1AWeight Wrestler Rank Prev.126 ..................Nick Drenth, H-M-S senior ............ 7th .... 6th152 .................. Brett Flynn, H-M-S senior ............. 6th .... 5th160 .................Zach Jones, Okoboji senior ............ 7th .... 5th182 ................Tanner Taylor, Okoboji senior .......... 2nd .... 3rd195 .............Sam Van Ginkel, Western senior ........ 8th .... 9th220 .......... Trevor Van Den Top, Western senior ..... 8th .... NR285 ..........Logen Bonnema, West Sioux senior ..... 7th .... 7th

WRESTLING STATE RANKINGS:

Nighthawks win marathon dual, wear down later

Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley sophomore Waylon Rau and Sergeant Bluff-Luton junior Blake McCauley size each other up as they circle the mat during their 170-pound bout at the Class 2A regional dual meet Tuesday in Sheldon. Rau lost 10-7 but the Nighthawks picked up the dual win 24-22. (Photo by Rylan Howe)

Junior Maxwell Klarenbeek of Boyden-Hull/Rock Val-ley looks at the clock as he holds down Sergeant Bluff-Luton sophomore Duece Phaley during the third period of their 113-pound match at the Class 2A regional dual meet Tuesday in Sheldon. Klarenbeek won a 5-0 deci-sion and the Nighthawks claimed a 24-22 triumph.

Senior Preston Hoebelheinrich of Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley holds on tight at Sergeant Bluff-Luton junior Colton McCrystal drags him across the mat during their bout at 126 pounds at the Class 2A regional dual meet Tuesday in Sheldon. Ninth-ranked Hoebelheinrich lost 9-7 in overtime to second-ranked McCrystal.

blades come up empty SIOUX CENTER—The Dordt Col-lege hockey team went without a win in a home-and-home series with South Dakota State University on Feb. 2-3. The teams faced off in Brookings on Feb. 2 with the Jack-rabbits outscoring the Blades 9-7. Brandon Fast had two goals and two assists for the Blades. Doug Veldhuisen found the net twice. Eric Huitsing had a goal and two assists. Jeremy Van Woerden and Andrew Ter Haar also had goals for Dordt. Riley Braun had 40 saves in goal. South Dakota State then traveled to Sioux Center and earned a 9-3 win over Dordt. The Blades got all three goals in the first period and led 3-1 at that point. South Dakota State scored five times in the sec-ond period and never looked back. Huitsing, Kevin Vermeer and Kevin Christian had the goals for Dordt. Fast, David Prins and Andrew De Young had assists.

floen to attend doRdt SIOUX CENTER—Jacob Floen, a senior at Unity Christian High School in Orange City, has signed a letter of intent and will attend Dordt College, where he will par-ticipate in football and track and field. Floen has qualified for the state track and field meet for three straight years and twice has earned all-district honors in football. As a sprinter in track and field, Floen has personal bests of 10.85 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 22.12 seconds in the 200. In football, he ran for 485 yards with an average of

5.8 yards per carry and also had 183 receiving yards in his senior year for the Knights.

ReicheRt to attend doRdt SIOUX CENTER—Nathan Reichert of Sioux Center has committed to Dordt College and will join the Defender cross country and track and field programs. He attends Uni-ty Christian High School in Orange City. Reichert is a three-time All-War Eagle Conference honoree in both cross country and track. He has personal bests of 2 minutes, 4 sec-onds for 800 meters; 4:46 for 1,600; and 16:50 for the 5,000-meter run.

nwc socceR adds RecRuit ORANGE CITY—Josh Potter has decided to attend Northwestern College, where he will join the Red Raider soccer team. The Orland Park, IL, native is a defender who played at Chicago Christian High School. Potter helped his team go 18-6-1 and win a regional champi-onship last year. He scored seven goals and handed out 12 assists.

gRiddeRs named to list ORANGE CITY—Three North-western College football players were named to All-American status by Beyond Sports College Network for their play in the 2011 season. Nathan Nieuwendorp, a 6-foot-4-inch, 280-pound junior offensive guard from Orange City, was a second-team selection. Red Raider junior running back Brandon Smith and junior defensive lineman Jor-dan Carlson made the third team.


SPORTS

Shocks Midgets inlast league contest


WESTERN 10 21 12 13 - 56ESTHERViLLE LC 11 12 10 6 - 37

ESTHERVILLE—Western Christian caught fire offen-sively in the second period and made the most of that hard-earned advantage, earning a share of the Lakes Conference girls basketball crown with a 56-37 upset of Estherville Lin-coln Central on Tuesday. The Midgets, last year’s Class 2A state runner-up, were ranked second in the state going into the game and were unbeaten in the Lakes Confer-ence. Included in that was a 42-41 win over eighth-ranked Western Christian, the first time the two teams tangled this season. “It was fun. It was a tremen-dous atmosphere. They had a full gym for their senior night,” said Western Christian coach Bill Harmsen. “The game was hard-fought, intense and well-

played all the way through.” The Midgets led 11-10 after one quarter. The tone of the game changed quickly in the second quarter. Erika Douma hit a pair of treys, and Elissa Jansma added one as the Wolf-pack outscored its hosts 21-12 in the second period to take a 31-23 lead to the half. “Our defense did a great job of limiting the post touches for Alyssa Johnson. It was a tremendous defensive effort. The girls were having fun and working hard. They were really tuned in,” Harmsen said. “We did have to make some adjust-ments to their high-low stuff, but mostly at halftime the thought was to just keep it roll-ing.” Johnson, who also battled foul trouble, had just six points in the contest. The third quarter was a bit of a waiting game. Western Chris-tian was content to maintain its cushion until it got to the fourth quarter. It then spread out the offense. “We did an excellent job of executing the spread offense,” Harmsen said. “We were able

to get to the basket or get to the line.” Western Christian also had a 35-18 rebounding advantage, including a 13-4 edge in offen-sive boards. Brooke Wolterstorff led the Wolfpack with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Elissa Jansma had 13 points. Alyssa Pollema chalked up four assists and three steals. Shae De Jager also made three steals.

Western Christianromps in road testWESTERN 20 13 22 12 - 67ESTHERViLLE LC 13 8 5 2 - 28

ESTHERVILLE—Western Christian tightened the screws defensively more and more as the game went on, running away with a 67-28 Lakes Con-ference boys basketball victory at Estherville Lincoln Central on Tuesday. Estherville Lincoln Central, motivated by its senior night crowd, did its best to stay close but eventually ran out of answers on the offensive end. The Wolfpack led 20-13 after a quarter and 33-21 at halftime.

“We pretty much controlled the game from the start,” said Western Christian coach Jim Eekhoff. “ELC did hit three three-pointers in the second quarter to keep it within reach, but then we made a big run in the third quarter, and there was running clock most of the fourth quarter.” Western Christian went on a 22-5 run in the third quarter and outscored the Midgets 12-2 in the final stanza. Western Christian had major advantages in every category. It hit eight three-pointers to Estherville Lincoln Central’s three. Western Christian was 21-of-28 from the line. The Midgets were 1-of-2. The Wolf-pack came up with 35 rebounds, 18 of them offensive. Estherville Lincoln Central finished the game with eight rebounds. J.D. Boer had 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Taylor Feenstra scored 14 points. Michael Den Herder had 13 points and eight rebounds. Mading Thok chipped in 11 points and nine rebounds. Brady Bootsma had three assists.

Unity Christianupset bid fizzles


M-M-C 10 12 17 21 - 60uNiTY CHRiSTiAN 14 11 9 9 - 43

O R A N G E C I T Y — U n i t y Christian did its best to derail Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn, but the Eagles stayed on task and wrapped up the War Eagle Conference girls basketball title with a 60-43 win Tuesday in Orange City. Unity Christian was enjoying the spoiler role, leading 14-10 after one quarter. The Knights still were up 25-22 at halftime. “We played great in the first quarter and the first part of the second quarter,” said Unity Christian coach Jay Schuite-man. “We were moving the ball and playing with confidence.” Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn, ranked ninth in Class 1A, made an adjustment to ramp up its offense after the break. Unity Christian, meanwhile, hit a slight downturn. “Basketball is a game of runs. We gave them our best shot. With the team they are, you knew they would be coming right back at us,” Schuiteman said. “They started to figure out what we were doing. At first, we had them in a bit of a panic. I think they thought they had to get (Erica) Dreckman the ball no matter what. They settled down in the second half. Our approach was we wanted their other girls to have to beat us, and they did. They scorched it in the second half.” Schuiteman said the Knights’ shooting wasn’t quite as sharp later in the game. “ We sti l l have our l i tt le droughts where we just can’t score. We weren’t knocking down open shots, and they weren’t giving us second op -portunities,” he said. Jill Schouten led Unity Chris-tian with 13 points. Elizabeth Kiel snared 13 rebounds. Shel-by Kruger issued three assists.

Falcons tested andready for postseasonWEST SiOux 6 18 15 10 - 49LEMARS GEHLEN 17 8 12 9 - 46

LEMARS—West Sioux rolled through its first 18 games this girls basketball season, playing only two that were decided by single-digit margin. The Class 1A fifth-ranked Falcons now can be consid-ered battle-tested entering the postseason after closing out the regular-season schedule with three straight nail-biters. Tuesday’s contest featured a massive comeback by the Falcons and some drama at the end as West Sioux beat sixth-ranked LeMars Gehlen Catholic 49-46 in War Eagle Conference play. “We got off to a slow start, but once we got going, it was exciting,” said West Sioux coach Dennis Weerheim. That is a bit of an understate-ment. West Sioux trailed 17-6 after one quarter and was in danger of getting buried early when the Jays scored the first six points of the second period. “We were trying to go zone and plug the middle. We

wanted to make them shoot outside. They were doing a good job of that, and they were still able to get it inside on us,” Weerheim said. “After that, we pretty much went man-to-man the rest of the way.” The switch produced imme-diate results as West Sioux finished the first half on an 18-2 run to cut the lead to 25-24. “It was huge to even be close. It gave us a lot of momentum and was huge mentally,” Weer-heim said. “It went back and forth the rest of the way. Gehlen is a very good team, and it went right down to who could make the plays in the end. I think it helped us that we’ve been in a few close games now. We kept our composure and kept play-ing hard.” Carissa Anderson’s three-pointer gave West Sioux a 47-45 lead with 1:25 left. Kaitlin Lan-gel scored a free throw with 22 seconds left for Gehlen Catho-

lic to cut the lead to one. The Jays were making every effort to foul with 12 seconds left. “Dana (Weerheim) had the ball, and they double-teamed her. She said she looked at Jade (Vlotho) and Carissa, and they weren’t open. Then she looked at Brooke (McManaman), and she was covered,” coach Weerheim said. “There was a lot of pressure on her, and she saw Shannon (Kots) at the last second. She had to heave it left-handed just to get it there.” Dana Weerheim’s pass found Kots, who had been 0-for-8 from the floor, and Kots deliv-ered two points with four sec-onds remaining. The Jays only could get up a rushed three-pointer as the horn sounded. Vlotho led West Sioux with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Dana Weerheim had 12 points and five steals. Anderson handed out five assists.

Hawks’ hard workshows in win columnSOuTH O’BRiEN 4 4 8 14 - 30H-M-S 11 12 8 12 - 43

HARTLEY—Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn clinched a winning season Tuesday, shutting off South O’Brien 43-30 in War Eagle Conference girls basket-ball. The Hawks finished the regu-lar season at 12-10. “It’s the first winning season we’ve had in a long time around here. The girls feel good about it, and they should. They put a whole lot of time and effort into this,” said Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn coach Mark Japenga. The Hawks and Wolverines had played one week earlier. In that matchup, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn used a strong second half to come back for a win. This time, the Hawks took con-

trol in the first half and main-tained from there. “The first half was the best basketball we’ve played all year. Our defense was fantastic,” Japenga said. “We were able to transition well and capitalize on the turnovers we created. We ran our half-court sets well and got some good looks close to the basket. It was a good mix. In the second half, we were able to keep the lead where we needed it.” South O’Brien had tried press-ing Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in the first matchup and had some success but eventually wore itself out. The Wolverines were more conservative this time, but offensive woes kept the game plan from develop-ing. “In the first half, we shot poor-ly, and we had 12 turnovers. We were playing half-court, but we were just shooting so poorly,”

said South O’Brien coach Allen DeVos. “Giving up 23 isn’t too bad, but you’ve got to score more than eight in the half.” DeVos said the Wolverines talked about having a more aggressive mindset in the second half. They scored five points in the first minute of the third quarter, then hit another extended drought. “We were still at a point where if you get a few stops followed by a few baskets, you are start-ing to feel pretty good, but we just couldn’t get anything going.” South O’Brien shot 26 percent from the field in the contest. Katie Mills had 10 points and six rebounds for the Hawks. Taylor Sweeney compiled nine points, five steals and five assists. Jessica Stofferan scored eight points. Casie Rehder chalked up 10 points, six rebounds and two steals for the Wolverines. Erin Brasser scored eight points.

Murphy’s big nightspoiled by HawksSpALdiNG CATHOLiC 16 13 9 16 - 54REMSEN ST. MARYS 13 18 12 15 - 58

REMSEN—Spalding Catho-lic and Remsen St. Mary’s entertained the crowd with an intense rivalry matchup, but the Spartan fans left a little dis-appointed as the Hawks took a 58-54 War Eagle Conference girls basketball victory Tuesday. “It is a rivalry, and both teams get up for the game,” said Spalding Catholic coach Scott Willman. “You hate to lose, but to play good basketball like that felt good.” Caitlyn Murphy had a day that was almost historic for the Spartans. She scored 26 points, one off the Spalding Catholic school record. Murphy also had 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals. “She had a great line,” Willman said. “So did Madison Potte-baum.” The Spartans led 13-7 late in the first quarter. The Hawks tied it at 13-13, but Pottebaum hit a trey that gave Spalding Catholic a 16-13 lead heading into the second quarter. That lead even-tually grew to 26-15. Remsen St . Mar y’s then started making noise, finishing the half on a 16-3 run to take a 31-29 lead. The Hawks pushed their lead to seven points before the Spartans started to come back. It was 43-38 Remsen St. Mary’s after three, but the fourth quarter was nip and tuck the whole way. “It was a game of runs, but none of them were those fast runs. They all kind of happened slowly over time,” Willman said. Spalding Catholic had it down to two late in the game before a key three-pointer helped the Hawks seal the deal. “We are such a young team. As far as the future of Spalding Catholic girls basketball, getting into these kind of situations is something that is really going to help us in the future,” Willman said. “It’s a tough loss, but there is some benefit there.” Pottebaum had 10 points, nine rebounds and five steals before fouling out. Par is Schnepf, who also eventually fouled out, contributed three assists for the Spartans.

Wolfpack earns share of Lakes titleCOLLEGE

Red RaideRs blast foe YANKTON, SD—Northwestern College got off to a big start and never trailed, drilling Mount Marty College 87-66 in Great Plains Athletic Conference men’s basketball Feb. 8. The Red Raiders started the game with an 18-2 run and led by as many as 19 po in t s i n the opening half. Northwestern, ranked 14th in NAIA Division II, was up by more than 20 for a good portion of the second half. The Red Raiders shot 52 percent from the field in improving to 19-6 overall and 12-5 in the GPAC. Walk-er Seim had 18 points. Ben Miller had 16 points and eight rebounds. Daniel Van Kalsbeek had 12 points and Stu Goslinga had 10.

RunneRs compete at dc SIOUX CENTER—Northwestern College was among the teams that joined the meet hosts Feb. 4 at the Dordt College Invitational in Sioux Center. Finishing f irst for the Dordt women were Katie Bonnema in the 600-meter run, Briana Vander Woude in the 55 hurdles and the 1,600 relay team. Eric Tudor led the Dordt men, winning the mile run. Three Northwestern women qualified for the national meet by meeting the “A” standard in their respective events. Krystina Buchard and Brianna Hobbs each made it in the 600 run while Dawn Gildersleeve did it in the 1,000 run. Gildersleeve and

Bouchard finished second in their respective events at the meet. Megan Walhof was second in the 400, Teresa Kerkvliet took second in the 800 and Amy Van Skike was second in the 3,000 run. The Northwestern men had two individual champions at the meet. Matt Huseman won the high jump and Logan Hovland won the 1,000.

mistakes haunt RaideRs SEWARD, NE—Turnovers were the key in a battle of two of the top NAIA Division II teams in the country as Concordia University fended off Northwestern College 76-62 in Great Plains Athletic Con-ference women’s basketball Feb. 6. Seventh-ranked Northwestern committed 26 turnovers in the contest. Second-ranked Concordia made just nine turnovers. The Bulldogs led 58-57 with seven min-utes left but held the Red Raiders without a point for five minutes in putting together a critical 16-0 run. Kami Kuhlmann led Northwestern with 15 points. Kendra De Jong had 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

daugheRty joins RaideRs ORANGE CITY—Missouri Val-ley native Brian Daugherty has s igned a l e t te r o f i n ten t t o wrestle at Northwestern College. He is a 145-pound grappler from Missouri Val ley High School . Daugherty was 26-11 as a junior and has been named a team captain this season.

TUESDAY LAKES BASKETBALL

Knights can’t deny Eagles conference crownTUESDAY WAR EAGLE GIRLS BASKETBALL

Unity Christian freshman Kassidy De Jong shoots the ball over Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn senior Kayla Foresman Tuesday in Orange City. The Knights lost to the Eagles 60-43. (Photos by Josh Harrell)

Senior Shelby Kruger tosses up a bunny for Unity Chris-tian on Tuesday against Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn.

Junior Jill Schouten of Unity Christian looks to pass around Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn senior Jalyn Doeden Tuesday. Schouten scored 13 points to lead the Knights.


SPORTS

LAKES CONFERENCE BOYS Conf All Home Away Off Def W L W L W L W L Ave Ave Streak

➤ LeMars 13 1 16 4 8 1 8 3 65.8 49.1 L 1 Western Christian 11 3 14 7 9 1 5 6 62.6 53.7 W 2 Spirit Lake 9 5 13 7 8 4 5 3 48.2 42.5 W 2 Emmetsburg 7 7 13 8 6 4 7 4 57.5 50.6 W 6 Storm Lake 7 7 11 8 6 3 5 5 65.4 62.7 L 2 Spencer 6 8 8 11 5 6 3 5 50.0 54.5 L 2 Estherville LC 3 11 7 15 6 6 1 9 44.6 58.2 L 3 Cherokee 0 14 3 17 2 8 1 9 46.8 63.1 L 10

SIOUXLAND CONFERENCE BOYS Conf All Home Away Off Def W L W L W L W L Ave Ave Streak

➤ MOC-Floyd Valley 18 0 21 0 11 0 10 0 70.5 47.9 W 21 Boyden-Hull 16 2 19 2 9 1 10 1 64.8 46.6 W 6 Sioux Center 13 5 15 6 8 2 7 4 67.0 56.3 L 1 Sheldon 10 8 11 10 6 6 5 4 51.6 50.7 W 2 West Lyon 9 9 12 9 6 5 6 4 59.6 56.5 W 1 Central Lyon 7 11 9 12 6 5 3 7 54.6 54.7 L 1 Sibley-Ocheyedan 7 11 8 12 5 5 3 7 55.8 58.3 W 1 Rock Valley 5 13 6 14 1 8 5 6 54.2 72.4 L 4 George-Little Rock 4 14 6 16 1 9 5 7 55.3 64.8 L 6 Okoboji 1 17 1 20 1 9 0 11 42.5 63.1 L 10

WAR EAGLE CONFERENCE BOYS Conf All Home Away Off Def W L W L W L W L Ave Ave Streak

➤ LeMars Gehlen 10 0 19 2 10 0 9 2 56.2 43.4 W 7 South O’Brien 8 2 17 4 8 2 9 2 57.6 41.2 L 1 Unity Christian 8 2 11 10 5 6 6 4 60.9 54.9 W 1 Remsen-Union 7 3 15 7 10 3 5 4 58.8 51.6 W 3 H-M-S 5 5 8 14 3 8 5 6 47.7 51.3 L 2 M-M-C 5 5 11 10 5 4 6 6 54.1 49.5 L 3 Hinton 4 6 11 11 5 5 6 6 56.8 52.2 W 2 Akron-Westfield 3 7 6 15 4 7 2 8 40.5 48.0 W 1 Remsen St. Mary’s 3 7 7 13 4 6 3 7 41.5 49.3 W 2 Spalding Catholic 1 9 4 17 3 9 1 8 48.3 63.0 L 6 West Sioux 1 9 5 16 2 7 3 9 37.3 51.0 L 7

Foes’ recent playhad B-H on alert


SiBLEY-OCHEYEdAN 8 14 15 20 - 57BOYdEN-HuLL 27 16 20 11 - 74

HULL—Boyden-Hull was focused on the task at hand from the first tick of the clock Tuesday, racing out to a huge lead on its way to a 74-57 Sioux-land Conference boys basket-ball win. The Class 1A fifth-ranked Comets defended their home court in convincing fashion. Boyden-Hull already was ahead 27-8 after the first eight minutes. “Sibley-Ocheyedan has been playing well. They’ve been winning a lot, so they had our attention. Our kids played hard right from the beginning,” said Boyden-Hull coach Bill Fran-cis. “We kept things moving. We were moving the ball, and we were moving within our offense. We got a lot of easy looks.” Francis said the Comets knew a Generals’ strength was rebounding, so they did their best to take that away. The hosts outrebounded Sibley-Ocheyedan by 12. “Rebounding well was one of our top goals, and in order for us to be able to do that against them, our guards had to be willing to help out,” Francis said. “Considering our point guard led us in rebounding, I think our guards got the hint.” Sibley-Ocheyedan coach Rick Braby said a quicker start could have made a world of differ-ence, but the deficit caused the Generals to wear out quickly. “We played flat. We had an emotional ball game the night before, and we were just drained physically and men-tally. We played like it,” Braby said. “We did not play with any kind of emotional energy at all. We were just tired. After you play in an emotional game like that the night before, it’s hard to get it back again.” The Comets shot 53 percent from the field in the contest. Bryce Moss led the way with 25 points. Brandt Van Roekel had 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Taylor Francis tossed in 15 points. Harrison Feldkamp had 13 points and five rebounds for the Generals. Caleb Hartwig had five rebounds and three steals. Pat Alexander had four assists and three steals. Jacob Seivert passed around four assists.

Stellar second periodcarries Lions to winG-LR 12 8 12 16 - 48CENTRAL LYON 10 21 10 13 - 54

ROCK RAPIDS—Central Lyon controlled the middle portion of the game and hung on as the clock ran out on George-Little Rock, granting the Lions a 54-48 Siouxland Conference boys basketball triumph Tues-day. George-Little Rock fired the first salvo, leading 12-10 after a quarter. Central Lyon then played its best eight minutes of the night, outscoring the Mustangs 21-8 to take a 31-20 halftime lead. The second quarter was the only one of the four in which Central Lyon outscored

George-Little Rock. “We actually did a nice job in the first quarter of staying with them. They hit their first four shots, and there were a couple of threes in there,” said Central Lyon coach Ben Gerleman. “We kept it close. Then, in the second quarter, we started to play better. Defensively, we kept them in front of us. They went to a smaller lineup for a while, and we were able to take advantage of that by getting stops and then getting the ball inside offensively.” Jaren Schrick scored eight points in the second quarter for the Lions and Ross Ackerman had six. The Lions still were up nine at the end of the third quarter. The closest it got in the second half was three points with three minutes left. “It was a game where we played really well for about a third of the game and really poorly for about two-thirds of the game. In the second quar-ter, we just got lackadaisical. That was pretty much the game right there,” said George-Little Rock coach Curt Schilling. “Our defense was really mediocre. We weren’t as physical as we need to be. It wasn’t like we got in foul trouble or anything. It was just a lack of concentra-tion.” Gerleman said the Lions also could have been better a lot of the time. “It was one of those games where we didn’t play our best basketball, but we played well enough to win,” he said. “They would come up with a spurt, and we’d come right back to hold them at bay.” Ackerman compiled 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Lions. Kyler Huisman had 12 points

and four steals. Schrick scored 10 points. Jarod DeBey had seven assists and three steals. Schilling credited Tanner Ver Steeg, who finished with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, for keeping the Mustangs in it when the team was struggling. Eric Schilling netted 14 points for George-Little Rock. Matt Nagel had 11 points and six rebounds. Judd Rosenboom issued four assists.

Buyert rings up 40 invictory for WarriorsSiOux CENTER 28 27 15 29 - 99ROCK VALLEY 16 14 22 26 - 78

ROCK VALLEY—T.J. Buyert went 7-of-10 from three-point land and tallied 36 points to lead the offensive showcase as Sioux Center topped Rock Val-ley 99-78 in Siouxland Confer-ence boys basketball Tuesday. Both teams were bombing away from deep throughout the contest, helping to keep the scoreboard churning. Sioux Center hit 11-of-24 treys as a team and shot 59 percent over-all. Rock Valley hit 10-of-30 treys and converted at 37 percent overall. “Overall, it was a win. I didn’t feel like we played very hard defensively,” said Sioux Center coach Todd Arends. “We did make a lot of shots. Obviously, T.J. shot the ball well, and I thought Steven Kragt played well offensively. I just felt like we had too many breakdowns. We got away with it, but those are the type of things that are handicapping us in the close games. Hopefully we can watch the film and learn from it before we start the tournament trail.” The game never was that close. The Warriors led 28-16 after a quarter and 55-30 at the

half. It was 70-52 after three quarters. “The kids played hard and really picked up the energy in the second half. We just dug a hole in the first half and couldn’t get out of it,” said Rock Valley coach Brad Beyke. “I was proud of how hard the kids played and how they really finished the game by looking to attack.” Kragt had 22 points for the Warriors and Beau Boer added 12. Kragt, Boer and Patrick Van Muyden each had four rebounds. Buyert and Andrew O’Donnell dealt out six assists. Kragt rejected three shots. Jarod Hansen hit six treys and scored 29 points for Rock Valley. Andrew Van Ginkel just missed a triple double with 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Scott Westra snatched three steals.

Focused Dutch takecontrol vs. PioneersMOC-FV 18 21 17 10 - 66OKOBOji 6 8 4 13 - 31

MILFORD—Class 3A top-ranked MOC-Floyd Valley established that there would be no upset early on, roll-ing through Okoboji 66-31 in Siouxland Conference boys basketball Tuesday. “We were very pleased with our focus. Our guys came out ready to play and played well throughout the entire night,” said MOC-Floyd Valley coach Loren De Jong. “Our guards rebounded very well. Any time they rebound, it gives us a big lift and puts a lot of pressure on our opponents. Offensively we did a great job of getting the ball inside and controlling the paint.” The Dutch led 18-6 after one quarter and made it 39-14 at

the half. “We got off to a slow start on offense and made some mis-takes early on the defensive end. You can’t do that against MOC-Floyd Valley,” said Oko-boji coach Ryan Paulsen. “They proved why they are one of the best teams in all of Iowa regard-less of class. They are going to do a good job of representing our conference in the postsea-son.” Paulsen said the Pioneers had trouble matching up physically. “We struggled to defend and rebound. It was a tough matchup for us with their size and length,” he said. “We had a tough time getting good looks.” Daniel Jansen had 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists for the Dutch. Keegan Mulder and Justin Van Kalsbeek each scored 14 points. Jacob Conaway pulled down seven rebounds. Mitchell De Wit had three steals. Keith Oskvig had nine points for the Pioneers.

Coaches careful dueto potential rematchSHELdON 16 8 15 21 - 60WEST LYON 11 8 15 12 - 46

INWOOD—Nothing is guar-anteed at this point, but both coaches involved were look-ing at a potential postseason scenario as much as they were Tuesday’s game as Sheldon took down West Lyon 60-46 in Siouxland Conference boys basketball. “There is a good chance that we’re going to play them on Thursday in the tournament, so neither team was going to show a lot. It was a pretty bland game,” said Sheldon coach Claude Struve. “I’m sure West Lyon was saving some things.” West Lyon coach Aaron John-

son pointed out that the same thing happened to the two teams last season. “This isn’t anything new, but obviously we did things differ-ently than we would have just in case we see them again,” Johnson said. Sheldon led 16-11 after a quarter, 24-19 at halftime and 39-34 after three quarters. The Orabs slowly pulled away in the final stanza. “We played a decent game. Nick Oostra had a good night. Chris Balster had one of his better games. Matt Dykstra had a great night, and Joe Kuiper was good off the bench. Trevor Johnson hit a big three for us in the first half,” Struve said. “It was a team win. It took more than just the starting five.” Johnson noted West Lyon was down a man with a player out for disciplinary reasons. “The kids have to be able to step up. For the most part, we did a good job of playing within ourselves. We got some great looks. Those are the looks we want to work for,” Johnson said. “As has happened to us a few times this year, the shots didn’t go down. We worked for the good shots and didn’t get the reward by finishing. In the fourth quarter, we were still right there, but we missed our first few shots and never recov-ered.” Dykstra scored 17 points for the Orabs and Balster had 13. Kuiper had 12 points and six rebounds. Tom Brown also grabbed six rebounds. Oostra had seven assists and three steals. Brandon Snyder had 17 points, four steals and three assists for the Wildcats. Kacey Myrlie scored 10 points. Adam Teunissen tracked down six rebounds.

Generals turned away by fifth-ranked Comets

TUESDAY SIOUXLAND BOYS BASKETBALL

Sibley-Ocheyedan senior Harrison Feldkamp shoots over Rock Valley junior Brendan Harberts on Monday a 76-65 Generals’ win in Siouxland Conference play.

Senior Pat Alexander of Sibley-Ocheyedan dribbles away from Rock Valley sophomore Jerod Hansen as he attempts to cover him Monday on the Rockets’ court.

Harrison Feldkamp, a Sibley-Ocheyedan senior, swats a layup attempt by Rock Valley junior Nick Elgersma on Monday. The Generals defeated the host Rockets 76-65, but then struggled the next night at Boyden-Hull. (Photos by Josh Harrell)

COLLEGEcomeback bid falls shy MITCHELL, SD—Dordt College put a scare into its host, but Dakota Wesleyan University captured a key 54-50 Great Plains Athletic Confer-ence women’s basketball victory Feb. 8. The triumph puts the Tigers ahead of the Defenders in the race for the eighth and final spot in the GPAC tournament. Dakota Wesleyan also holds the tiebreaker over Dordt. The

Tigers scored the first 14 points of the contest and led 21-2 with just over 11 minutes left in the first half. Dakota Wesleyan was up 33-19 at halftime. Dordt went on a 23-4 run midway through the second half to tie the game at 50-50 with 1:51 left. Eliza-beth Lamb hit a three-pointer with 1:11 left for what was be the game-winner for the Tigers. The Defenders were led by Kayla Broekhuis, who

had 14 points. Jamie Kok and Jes-sica Jelsma each had nine points. Kara Van Dyke had seven rebounds. Dordt is 10-16 overall and 5-13 in the conference.

noRthwesteRn locks on YANKTON, SD—Northwestern College held one of NAIA’s best three-point shooting teams to just 16 percent accuracy from beyond the arc

and earned a 71-57 win over Mount Marty University on Feb. 8 in Great Plains Athletic Conference women’s basketball. The Red Raiders closed the first half on a 12-4 run to go up 35-27. The Lancers tied the game at 37-37 early in the second half. North-western answered, boosting the lead back up to 67-53. Kendra De Jong had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Red Raiders, who are ranked seventh

in NAIA Division II. Kami Kuhlmann had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Northwestern improved to 19-6 overall and 13-4 in the league.

chaRity woRk aids dc HASTINGS, NE—Dordt College drilled 12 of its last 14 free throws to overcome Hastings College for a 91-81 road win in Great Plains Athletic Conference men’s basketball

Feb. 6. Hastings led for nearly the entire first half, going into the locker room up 43-39. Dordt briefly went in front at 66-65 with just under eight minutes left, but did not take the lead for good until a Shawn Keizer trey made it 71-69. Cliff Warner had 23 points and six assists for the Defend-ers. Jordan Vogel had 21 points. Chris Seivers had 17 points. Trevor Wolter-storff had 16 points.


SPORTS

LAKES CONFERENCE GIRLS Conf All Home Away Off Def W L W L W L W L Ave Ave Streak

➤ Estherville LC 13 1 20 2 8 1 12 1 56.3 30.0 L 1➤ Western Christian 13 1 18 3 9 1 9 2 67.3 43.4 W 5 Spirit Lake 10 4 16 5 11 2 5 3 53.5 44.3 W 3 LeMars 6 8 10 12 4 7 6 5 41.4 44.0 W 2 Spencer 6 8 10 11 4 6 6 5 41.2 40.8 L 2 Cherokee 4 10 7 13 2 8 5 5 47.1 54.4 W 3 Emmetsburg 4 10 9 12 3 7 6 5 41.5 41.0 L 5 Storm Lake 0 14 0 19 0 10 0 9 19.7 61.1 L 19

SIOUXLAND CONFERENCE GIRLS Conf All Home Away Off Def W L W L W L W L Ave Ave Streak

➤ MOC-Floyd Valley 18 0 22 0 11 0 11 0 66.9 31.1 W 22 Central Lyon 15 3 18 3 9 2 9 1 53.7 41.2 W 2 Boyden-Hull 14 4 16 5 8 2 8 3 47.8 41.3 W 5 Sioux Center 12 6 13 8 7 3 6 5 48.4 44.8 W 5 George-Little Rock 9 9 12 10 7 3 5 7 46.0 44.4 L 1 Sibley-Ocheyedan 7 11 9 12 6 5 3 7 43.1 49.9 L 1 Sheldon 5 13 7 14 5 7 2 7 38.7 46.8 L 3 Okoboji 5 13 6 15 1 9 5 6 36.7 48.1 L 2 West Lyon 3 15 4 17 1 10 3 7 36.5 55.6 W 1 Rock Valley 2 16 2 18 0 9 2 9 40.0 57.8 L 11

WAR EAGLE CONFERENCE GIRLS Conf All Home Away Off Def W L W L W L W L Ave Ave Streak

➤ M-M-C 10 0 18 3 9 1 9 2 55.2 42.3 W 12 West Sioux 9 1 20 1 8 1 12 0 57.6 39.4 W 2 Hinton 8 2 14 7 5 4 9 3 62.7 42.5 W 1 Unity Christian 7 3 8 12 5 5 3 7 42.3 47.0 L 1 LeMars Gehlen 6 4 15 5 7 2 8 3 49.4 38.7 L 2 H-M-S 4 6 12 10 6 5 6 5 38.9 40.3 W 4 South O’Brien 4 6 7 14 6 5 1 9 44.0 51.6 L 3 Remsen-Union 3 7 6 16 5 8 1 8 42.7 53.2 L 2 Remsen St. Mary’s 2 8 7 13 5 4 2 9 38.6 45.8 W 1 Akron-Westfield 2 8 6 15 3 8 3 7 39.1 48.3 L 1 Spalding Catholic 0 10 3 19 2 10 1 9 40.5 56.0 L 6

No hiding anything ingame vs. tourney foes


GEORGE-LiTTLE ROCK 9 17 7 18 - 51CENTRAL LYON 20 15 14 16 - 65

ROCK RAPIDS—Central Lyon went on a 16-6 run in the middle of the opening quarter and continued to move forward from there, topping George-Little Rock 65-51 in Siouxland Conference girls basketball Tuesday. The Lions, ranked 11th in Class 1A, knew they would be running into the Mustangs again in the first round of the regional tournament, but they still emphasized the importance of the contest. “Our goal was to get a win. If we won, we got sole possession of second place in the conference. That was the goal, and we were able to accomplish it,” said Central Lyon co-coach Dan Kruse. The Lions led 20-9 after a quarter. It was 35-26 at halftime. The Lions then controlled the third quarter to pull away. “They were able to cut into it a little bit in the second quarter, but from there were able to keep the lead in double digits for the most part in the second half,” Kruse said. The lead hit as much as 18 points after intermission. “The first quarter and the third quar-ter were not our strong points. It was kind of the opposite of what you want to do,” said George-Little Rock coach Heather Grafing. “What you want to do is go out and set the tone, but instead we let them get a lead and had to battle our way back.” Grafing said the upcoming postsea-son matchup did change her thinking in the contest. “Definitely, in a situation like this, there is a little more strategy to it. You have to decide what you are willing to show and what you are not,” she said. “But there are still certain things, like taking care of the ball and rebound-ing, that need to be there regardless.” Kruse, on the other hand, didn’t see it the same way. “I don’t know if you change a lot really. We’re going to approach the tournament with the idea that these are our strengths, so we’re going to go out and do what we do best,” he said. Lexi Ackerman had 19 points, seven assists and three steals for the Lions. Kori Schulte wound up with 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Jenni-fer Johnson blocked four shots. Kelsey Ackerman had three steals. Keeley Kruse sank three treys on her way to 17 points for the Mustangs. She also had four steals. Taylor Carstensen led the team in rebounds with six and Dani Eben had five. Sarah Kruse and Jessica Sandbulte each had two assists.

Sioux Center busts box,scorches Rock ValleySiOux CENTER 19 19 21 14 - 73ROCK VALLEY 9 16 7 12 - 44

ROCK VALLEY—Sioux Center made a quick adjustment in the opening quarter, then put the game away with a strong third-quarter run in a 73-44 Siouxland Conference girls basketball win over Rock Valley on Tuesday. Rock Valley was first out of the gate, but it did not take Sioux Center long to reel the Rockets back in. The Warriors were up 19-9 after the first quarter. “I think they hit their first four shots,” said Sioux Center coach Doug Win-terfeld. “They made some plays early; then we got motivated and got going. Carri Cleveringa hit a big three to help us get going. They were going with a box-and-one on Jillian (Estes). We’ve been practicing for that a couple of weeks. The girls did a good job of step-ping up and executing. We were able to get them out of it.” Rock Valley coach Dave Vonk said 60 percent shooting by Sioux Center spoiled the Rockets’ Senior Night fun. “You come in with a game plan you think is going to work; then Sioux Center comes in and shoots the lights out. They were just on fire. It seemed like they didn’t really miss,” Vonk said. “When one team shoots well and the other does not, it generally does not work in favor of the team that doesn’t shoot well.” The Rockets were 14-of-65 from the field, including 0-for-13 from three-point land. Sioux Center led 38-25 at halftime, then put it away with a 21-7 run in the third quarter.

“Our emphasis in practice lately has been on our offense. That’s what we had been struggling with, and the girls responded,” Winterfeld said. “It is nice to have your highest-scoring game be the last one before the start of tourna-ments.” Estes scored 10 points for the War-riors. Morgan Rozeboom had 11 points and six rebounds. Paige Fore-man notched 11 points and dished out four assists. Malyn Hulstein scored 10 points. Jenn Buyert added nine. Josie Godfredsen had 21 points, eight rebounds and five steals for Rock Val-ley. Kensy Vande Hoef added 13 points and five steals. Courtney Vonk issued two assists.

Viereck shines duringWildcats’ Senior NightSHELdON 4 11 3 17 - 35WEST LYON 5 14 4 16 - 39

INWOOD—Denyelle Viereck did not suffer from the same malady that bothered pretty much everyone else on the floor for both sides, tickling the twine for 20 points to lead West Lyon to a 39-35 Siouxland Conference girls

basketball win over Sheldon on Tues-day. Viereck played a big role on Senior Night for West Lyon, drilling 4-of-7 three-point shots. She also contrib-uted four steals. “To get our first home win of the season in the last home game for our seniors was great,” said West Lyon coach Bryan Paulsen. “The girls were really excited.” West Lyon struggled from the field, making 8-of-39 shots. Viereck had five of those eight field goals. Sheldon also had a difficult time. The Orabs were 13-of-62 from the field. “We played very good defense,” said Sheldon coach Kris Groff. “Offensively, we struggled. We missed 25 shots inside the paint and went 1-for-20 from three-point range. We didn’t convert some easy baskets down the stretch.” West Lyon led 5-4 after one quarter. The offenses woke up a little in the second quarter, with the Wildcats building a 19-15 lead. The ball started to clank off the rim again in the third quarter, which ended with West Lyon ahead 23-18. “There were a lot of missed shots, but we also wanted to slow the game down. Defensively, we wanted to get out on (Crystal) Rodger and did a pretty good job of that,” Paulsen said.

“It was probably our best game of the year defensively. Offensively, we put in some new wrinkles on offense to get Nelly open, and she did a good job of scoring for us.” West Lyon did its job at the line to hold on for the win. Viereck made 6-of-6 free throws. Caty Grotewold was 5-of-8, with all of those attempts coming in the fourth quarter. Jamie Tracy pulled down 16 re -bounds for West Lyon and Tarah Meyer had nine rebounds. Marissa Childress offered four assists. Sheldon senior Michelle Fischer set a single-game school record with 21 rebounds. Nine of those were at the offensive end. The 21 caroms she col-lected broke the previous school mark of 19 set by Meredith Vos on Jan. 25, 2002, in a 63-53 win over Estherville Lincoln Central. Alesha Pulscher led the Orabs in scoring with 11. Rodger had nine points and four steals.

MOC-Floyd Valley holdsOkoboji scoreless in firstMOC-FLOYd VALLEY 18 20 17 7 - 62OKOBOji 0 10 6 10 - 26

MILFORD—Class 3A third-ranked MOC-Floyd Valley pitched a shutout in the opening quarter and had it on cruise control by halftime in a 62-26 Siouxland Conference girls basketball

win over Okoboji on Tuesday. The Dutch led 18-0 after one period. It was 38-10 at halftime and 55-16 after three quarters. “We played a very tough team in MOC-Floyd Valley. We couldn’t get in any rhythm at all,” said Okoboji coach Abby Goodlaxson. “The girls played their hearts out. It just wasn’t enough to hang with the No. 1 team in the conference.” MOC-Floyd Valley had a 30-17 rebounding advantage over the Pio-neers. “One thing we were consistent with was our rebounding,” said MOC-Floyd Valley coach Mark Gunder-son. “We had four good quarters of rebounding.” Gunderson said it was far from per-fect, however. “We did a lot of good things in the first half, but we were not sharp at all in the second half,” he said. Alexis Conaway had 20 points, seven rebounds and six steals for the Dutch. Cailyn Van Es had 11 points. Lauren McDonald scored 10. Rylee Yaw passed out four assists. Skylar Hansen had seven points and four steals for Okoboji. Mikkinzie Peschong had five rebounds and four steals. Abby Taylor came up with five steals. Hannah Marsh issued two assists.

Ewoldt steps up in clutchto preserve Comets’ winSiBLEY-OCHEYEdAN 9 12 14 7 - 42BOYdEN-HuLL 18 6 10 13 - 47

HULL—Nicole Ewoldt drained two key free throws and a critical three-pointer to help break a late tie as Boy-den-Hull captured a 47-42 Siouxland Conference girls basketball victory over Sibley-Ocheyedan on Tuesday. The Comets, ranked 10th in Class 1A, led 18-9 after one quarter. “We started off moving the ball and knocking down shots. That makes the game a lot easier,” said Boyden-Hull coach Bruce Keizer. “We were finding open people and getting some things going in transition. After that, they did a better job of making it difficult for us. We were still getting decent looks, but we were also turning the ball over.” Whitney Vander Maten had 12 points in the first eight minutes. Sibley-Ocheyedan coach Jer-emy Leusink thought the Generals did a good job of absorbing the initial punch. “In the first quarter, it felt like every-one was making three-pointers for them. They had four of them. We were actually playing pretty good defense on Whitney, but she hit a couple with someone right in her face. If they would have kept that up, it would have been a long night,” Leusink said. “In the second quarter, it was like a switch got flipped for us. We started playing a lot more soundly on defense.” The Generals cut the lead to 24-21 at halftime and had a 35-34 lead after three quarters. “It is nice to see us playing well against some of the better teams in the conference at this time of the year,” Leusink said. “In the third quarter, we really ran our offense well and got the buckets we were looking for.” The game was tied at 40-40 with 1:20 left. Ewoldt made two free throws for the Comets, but the Generals quickly tied it again. Ewoldt responded by draining a three-pointer, and Boyden-Hull stayed in front the rest of the way. “We’re getting a little banged up right now, but we had some girls step up and make big shots. Sarah Rygaard made a nice shot earlier in the fourth quarter; then Ewoldt hit that big three,” Keizer said. Vander Maten injured an ankle and missed time late in the game. Court-ney Schafer hurt her ankle in the freshman game and did not play in the varsity game. Ewoldt has also been struggling with a sore ankle. “You go through the year hoping you will be healthy at tournament time,” Keizer said. “We’d been pretty lucky with injuries all year, but right now we’re not healthy. We’ll just have to take a look at where we are on Thursday and do what we can with the girls we have.” Vander Maten finished with 18 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals for the Comets. Ewoldt tallied 10 points. Kayla Ackerman led a balanced Generals scoring effort with 12 points. Alyssa Hibbing scored 11 points. Bridget Doeden had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Alyssa Stofferan offered four assists. Michaela Wolter took four steals.

Central Lyon decides to stay with its strengthsTUESDAY SIOUXLAND GIRLS BASKETBALL

George-Little Rock seniors Carly Klaassen and Sarah Kruse con-verge on Central Lyon senior Taylor Bork and block the shot during the first quarter Thursday in Rock Rapids. (Photo by Rylan Howe)

Central Lyon junior Kelsey Ackerman drives around George-Little Rock senior Sarah Kruse during the first quarter of the Lions’ 47-36 win in a Class 1A regional opener Thursday. The Lions also had beaten the Mustangs at home on Tuesday. (Photo by Rylan Howe)

Rock Valley junior Monserrat Figueroa tosses up a shot against Sibley-Ocheyedan on Monday. The Rockets lost to the Gener-als 49-44, then dropped a 73-44 decision to Sioux Center on Tuesday. (Photo by Josh Harrell)


SPORTS

MOC-Floyd Valleyshoots down Stars


MOC-FV 19 23 23 23 - 88SC NORTH 9 5 14 18 - 46

SIOUX CITY—MOC-Floyd Valley played against some large-school competition but the result was the same as the Dutch moved to 21-0 with an 88-46 blasting of Sioux City North last Saturday. The Class 3A third-ranked squad torched the struggling Stars, shooting 63 percent from the field in the contest and drilling eight three-pointers. “We had an excellent night shooting the ball,” said MOC-Floyd Val ley coach Mark

Gunderson. “Trisha De Jong and Emily McDonald had big nights for us.” MOC-Floyd Valley led 19-9 after one quarter and increased that to 42-14 by halftime. Gunderson thought the Dutch let up a bit after that. “ We defended ver y well for three quarters but didn’t defend as good as we should have in the fourth quarter,” he said. MOC-Floyd Valley forced 19 turnovers and scored 29 points off turnovers in the contest. The Dutch also had a 16-2 edge in second-chance points. De Jong had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Dutch. Emily McDonald tossed in 16 points. Alexis Conaway accounted for 12 points, three assists and four steals.

Sibley-Ocheyedanrewarded for effort


S-O 12 10 14 13 - 49ROCK VALLEY 10 5 11 18 - 44

RO C K VA L L E Y— Si b l e y-Ocheyedan wiped the glass clean for 21 offensive rebounds, helping the Generals overcome a tough shooting night in a 49-44 road win over Rock Valley in Siouxland Conference girls basketball Monday. “I think we had more offen-sive rebounds than they had total,” said Sibley-Ocheyedan coach Jeremy Leusink. “We didn’t shoot well. I guess that gave us more opportunities to get those rebounds.” Neither team saw much luck in getting the initial shots to drop. Sibley-Ocheyedan went 16-of-44 from the field, includ-ing 1-for-9 from three-point land. Rock Valley was 17-for-66, including 1-of-9 on treys. The Generals’ aggressiveness inside also was rewarded at the foul line, where Sibley-Ocheyedan went 17-for-27 and Rock Valley was 9-for-19. “The first half was a mat-ter of someone trying to get some made shots. It was pretty sloppy all the way around,” Leusink said. “I would say we made them miss. I think our defensive pressure made them rush on some makeable shots.” Sibley-Ocheyedan led 12-10 after a quarter and 22-15 at the break. It moved up to 36-26 after three quarters, but the Rockets made it interesting. Rock Valley had the lead down to 46-44 in the closing minutes. “Overall, we played great. The girls played really hard, especially in the fourth quarter. We made the plays when they needed to be made for us to be a threat,” said Rock Valley coach Dave Vonk. “With two minutes left, we were right there. We had to take some chances at that point, and they took advantage of it.” Vonk credited the Generals for pouncing on missed chances. “We knew Sibley was a great rebounding team. Give them credit. They got a ton of offen-sive boards, and that was the difference in the game,” Vonk said. Alyssa Hibbing had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Generals.

Nine of those rebounds were on the offensive end. Kayla Ackerman had 11 points and three assists. Michaela Wolter contributed four steals. Kensy Vande Hoef and Mon-serrat Figueroa each had 13 points and four steals for the Rockets. Josie Godfredsen had seven rebounds and four steals. Britney Van Veldhuizen also managed four steals.

Hawks’ defense pullsplug from ChargersL-M 4 6 10 7 - 27H-M-S 9 17 11 11 - 48

HARTLEY—Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn forced Laurens-Mar-athon to cough it up 29 times, draining the life out of the Chargers in a 48-27 nonconfer-ence girls basketball victory Monday. Hartley-Melvin Sanborn held Laurens-Marathon to single-digit scoring in three of the four quarters. “Our defense was solid again,” said Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn coach Mark Japenga. “Our team defense has carried us a little bit. We did transition well, and we are going to need to continue to do that.” The Hawks led 9-4 after one quarter. It was 26-10 at halftime and 37-20 after three quarters. “Taylor Sweeney played well. She had a lot of steals and got most of her points in transition. Katie Mills shot the ball really well. She was getting her points out of our offense,” Japenga said. “I thought Dixie Lauesen played better. It was nice to see her developing a couple of moves to get to the rim.” Japenga said the Hawks were able to go to the reserves late. “We had a big second quarter and a decent third,” he said. “That allowed us to let lots of kids get significant playing time.” Mills finished with 17 points, three assists and three steals. Sweeney had 10 points and seven thefts. Lauesen and Erica Thorn each grabbed four rebounds. Jessica Stofferan had four steals.

Knights gain momentumin regular-season finale

d a n B r e e nS t a f f W r i t e r

M-M-C 21 17 9 9 - 56uNiTY CHRiSTiAN 14 12 19 16 - 61

ORANGE CITY—Unity Christian’s boys basketball team was desperately looking for some positive momentum to ride into the postseason, and it may have found it in the second half of a 61-56 victory over Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn War Eagle Conference boys basketball. It wasn’t easy, though. The Knights had to rally from a 12-point halftime deficit to break their five-game losing streak. Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn connected on seven of their first nine shots and went up 21-14 after the first quarter and 38-26 at the half. “They shot the ball extremely well,” said Unity Christian coach Ross Bouma. “I can’t say our defense was that poor. They hit some tough shots.” Unity Christian was able to turn the game around in the second half, partly due to switching the defense from a full-court zone press to a full court man-to-man press. The Knights went on 14-2 run to start the second half and tie the game 40-40. The Eagles went back out to a 47-42 lead after three periods. Blake Zomermaand hit three big three-pointers at crucial times in the second half, and Ross Groeneweg’s two-point bucket with about 2:30 left gave the Knights the lead for good. Unity Christian scored the final six points of the game and held Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn scoreless over the final three minutes. Groeneweg had 23 points on 11-of-13 shooting for the Knights. He also had nine rebounds and six assists. Zomermaand connected on 18 points, pulled down six rebounds, handed out five assists and made three steals. Jake Floen made three steals. Unity Christian takes an 11-10 record into the Class 2A district tournament at 7 p.m. Monday when it hosts Cherokee. The Braves are 3-18 on the season. “We’ll have to defend well. There’s been a couple games here where we haven’t done that,” Bouma said. “There will be nights where you don’t shoot well, and then you better defend well.”

Spartans beat horn once,not twice in loss to HawksSpALdiNG CATHOLiC 10 17 7 16 7 - 57REMSEN ST. MARY’S 10 12 12 16 9 - 59

REMSEN—Ryan Stoll bailed Spald-ing Catholic out once but could not do it twice Tuesday as Remsen St. Mary’s squeaked out a 59-57 overtime win in War Eagle Conference boys basketball. The game was played in a five-point win-dow the entire way. It was tied 10-10 after the first quarter before Spalding Catholic took a 27-22 lead at the half. The Hawks knotted it back up at 34-34 going to the final quarter. “It was a really even match,” said Spar-tan coach J.D. Hunt. “That’s one of those games that’s kind of a rivalry match-up. We seem to play them pretty evenly in whatever it is.” The Hawks were up by three points with time running down in regulation. Austin Schmit set a screen that got Stoll open on top of the key, and Stoll knocked down the game-tying shot as time expired in regula-tion. Nearly the same scenario played out in overtime. This time the Spartans trailed by two with time winding down. Stoll again rose up, but this time the ball didn’t want to go down. “I think it made it part of the way through,” Hunt said, admitting he didn’t know for sure if Stoll was behind the line

or if it would’ve been counted as a two-pointer. Michael Grady led the Spartans with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Brady Heying added 10 points and Stoll finished with nine. Schmit dished out three assists. The Spartans will take a 4-17 record into the Class 1A district tournament Monday when they travel to Sibley-Ocheyedan for a 7 p.m. tilt. “I think the biggest key we’ve got to have is simply to get in position so we don’t get outrebounded by too much,” Hunt said. “And, No. 2, we need to do a good job at the charity stripe.”

Wolverines’ scoring bingecontinues against HawksSOuTH O’BRiEN 17 22 22 11 - 72H-M-S 11 11 14 17 - 53

HARTLEY—For the second time in a week, South O’Brien handled Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn rather easily in a 72-53 win in War Eagle Conference boys basket-ball Tuesday. The Wolverines got another outstanding effort from Adam Paulsen, who scored 35 points on 11-of-12 from the field. He set the school single-game record with 42 points when the teams met on Jan. 31. South O’Brien wasn’t only a one-man show this time around. “Austin Wise was really aggressive going to the basket for us,” said Wolverine coach Kiley Yates. “Matt DeVos was really active around the goal. The other kids we put on the floor are all capable players. We got good contributions from a lot of kids.” The Wolverines opened up a 17-11 lead after one quarter and had breathing room the rest of the game after taking a 39-22 margin at the half, despite playing zone for most of the game due to foul trouble and an injury to Nate Struve. “South O’Brien is a good team. They do a lot of things well,” said Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn coach Steve Raymond. “Their role players stepped up. We just didn’t hit shots in the second quarter.” The Wolverines pushed the lead out to 61-36 after three quarters. South O’Brien hit on 55 percent of its shots.

Wise had 12 points for the Wolverines. DeVos added 10 points. Paulsen had sev-en rebounds, five assists and four steals. The Hawks got 20 points and seven rebounds from Blake Simons. Matt Queck added 13 points and six rebounds. Matt Akwa distributed seven assists. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn wrapped up its regular season 8-14 and will move on to Class 1A district tournament play at 7 p.m. Monday when it will play at George-Little Rock. “George-Little Rock’s got two great post players,” Raymond said. “We have to handle their press and defend their post players.”

Falcons compete with Jays,but points hard to come byWEST SiOux 6 4 10 9 - 29LEMARS GEHLEN CATHOLiC 14 14 10 7 - 45

LEMARS—West Sioux struggled through another difficult shooting night, but played well on defense in a respectable 45-29 loss at LeMars Gehlen Catholic in War Eagle Conference boys basketball. The Jays went undefeated in the confer-ence this year. LeMars Gehlen Catholic did most of its damage in the first half, jumping out to a 14-6 lead after one quarter and a 28-10 advantage at the half. The Falcons outscored the Jays in the second half despite LeMars Gehlen Cath-olic keeping its starters on the court most of the game. It was 38-20 going to the final period. “Probably of the 20 games we’ve played, this was a top-five effort,” said West Sioux coach Brad Klarenbeek. “This is the best team in the War Eagle. We left it out on the floor. That’s all we coaches can ask.” Klarenbeek said his team was probably outmatched from an athletic standpoint before the game tipped off. “Gehlen Catholic is just loaded with athletes. I think they have an excellent chance of getting out of the district,” Klar-enbeek said. Nathaniel Ericson had 11 points to pace West Sioux. Trevor Bouma led a balanced LeMars Gehlen Catholic offense with 11 points.

Unity Christian ends its slide with strong second-half push

Aggressive board work tips scales

Dutch stay perfect by blowing away Sioux City North

TELLING NUMBEROffensive rebounds by the Generals in a win over the Rockets.

21

SATURDAY GIRLS BASKETBALL

Sibley-Ocheyedan senior Alyssa Hibbing and Rock Val-ley sophomore Kensey Vande Hoef reach for a loose ball on Monday. The Generals beat the host Rockets 49-44 in Siouxland Conference play. (Photo by Josh Harrell)

MONDAY GIRLS BASKETBALL

TUESDAY WAR EAGLE BOYS BASKETBALL

Unity Christian junior Trevor Kauk cradles a rebound Tuesday against Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn in Orange City. The Knights beat the Eagles 61-56 in a War Conference contest. (Photos by Josh Harrell)

Unity Christian senior Ross Groeneweg flicks a putback toward the basket Tuesday evening against Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn in Orange City.


SPORTS

De Zeeuw says allgoals within reach


ROCK VALLEY—Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley wrestling coach Stan De Zeeuw was as fired up as he was disappointed after last Saturday’s Class 2A sectional in Rock Valley. The Nighthawks missed out on the sectional title by just half a point, finishing second to Spirit Lake Park. However, that result had both teams advanc-ing on to the regional duals on Tuesday. “All week we’ve talked about how a big part of reaching our goals is believing we can do it. Every match counts,” De Zeeuw said. “Half a point is nothing. Do I think this chang-es our goals? It shouldn’t. Are the guys are any less confident because we were second by half a point? I don’t think so. We can still get to our goals. We’re just going to have to take a little different route to get there.” The team race went back and forth all day. Spirit Lake Park, which is ranked sixth as a tournament team, had a 10-point lead after the cham-pionship round, but the Night-hawks almost caught up in wrestlebacks. “You can’t pin it all on the last match. If we win one more match or even get one more bonus point during the day, we win. We knew it would be close,” De Zeeuw said. “This is just motivation for Tuesday.” One area where the Night-hawks did better than the Indians was in district quali-fiers. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley had seven advance, which was the most in the sectional. The Nighthawks did have a tough time in the finals, with only two champions and five runners-up, but De Zeeuw said it was not as if they underperformed. “We pretty much performed

to seed. In some of those matches, we were clearly the underdogs,” he said. “It’s not like we were beating those kids throughout the year and then lost.” Preston Hoebelheinrich won the 126-pound class. He is ranked ninth in the state. Ty Koldenhoven took the title at 182. “Ty had a great day. He got a little dinged in the finals, but he kept going and looked good,” De Zeeuw said. “Preston had a goal to win by more in the finals, but it’s tough when you have wrestled a guy that many times and he’s just wrestling not to give up points.” Dallas Rozeboom, ranked

third at 160, dominated his first two foes but was upset by Rick Maris of Spirit Lake Park 3-1 in the final. Taylor Zeutenhorst, ranked seventh at 170, lost to sixth-ranked Tanner Matthews of Sheldon-South O’Brien 8-4 in the final. Sheldon-South O’Brien fin-ished third in the sectional. “We were able to surpass MOC-Floyd Valley, who had f inished above us in the conference tournament, so that was good. We had some good performances from our young kids, but we’re not quite there yet with them,” said Orab coach Kent De Zeeuw. “I thought we could get five wres-tlers through on a good day and

three on a bad day, so we were right in between.” Tanner Matthews won the crown at 170, and Bruce McWilliams, who is ranked eighth, won the 195 grouping. Matthews and Zeutenhorst have seen each other frequent-ly this year and did again in the finals. “The match in the finals was the third time we’ve seen him this year. That makes it tough to score,” Kent De Zeeuw said. “The score ended up closer, but the match was really not. Tan-ner was in control.” McWilliams has been impres-sive since returning from a knee injury suffered while wrestling this summer. He improved to 20-2 on the season with three pins to win a title. “Bruce is wrestling with a lot of confidence. I don’t think he’s given what happened this summer a second thought,” his coach said. “He looked really good.” Austin Bainbridge, who is ranked 10th at 106, and Toby Maggert at 182 also moved on for the Orabs. Central Lyon/George-Little Rock finished fourth but put five wrestlers into the district grouping. “It was a good day for us. Any-time you get to the postseason, you are going to see some good kids. Everyone generally has all their kids back and in the lineup. This is one of the tough-est sectionals we’ve been to recently,” said Lion coach Cur-tis Eben. “We wrestled above where we have been all year.” Eben noted his squad only had three wrestlers seeded in the top two. “The way I look at it, the seeds are there for a reason. Anytime you get more through than what you had seeded, that’s a bonus,” he said. Terron Geerdes, who is ranked second at 220, and Colby McIntire at 113 won titles for the Lions. David Grave, Brent Klingenberg and Alex Postma

also advanced. “Brent had lost to Hunter Berkenpas of Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley a couple of times this year. He had never beaten him, so that was a big win,” Eben said. “I thought 220 was one of the best classes there. You had a kid (Bryce Kelleher of Sheldon-South O’Brien) who has been ranked most of the year that didn’t get out. At 160, there was a guy that placed at state last year (Collin Ascherl of MOC-Floyd Valley) that didn’t get out.” MOC-Floyd Valley placed fifth and advanced four wres-tlers. Elijah Dahl pinned three straight opponents to win the title at 132 for the Dutch. Brett Stofferan, Kyle Anderson and Drew Rupp each finished as runner-up in his respective class. “Anytime you have guys mov-ing on, it’s a positive. Eli had a really good day, and we like his chances at districts,” said MOC-Floyd Valley coach Lyle Lundgren. “Brett Stofferan had a really big win against Sam Bosma of Spirit Lake. He had lost to him 15-5 earlier and pinned him, so that was huge. Kyle Anderson wrestled well. He had a tough match in the finals. Drew Rupp got down 1-0 and had just tied it when he got out of position, and Bruce (McWilliams) is good enough that if you get sloppy with your hips, he is going to take advan-tage of that.” Lundgren said he was hoping for two or three more district qualifiers. “We were hoping Josh Wilson would get in. He had beaten (Dillon) Schamber 11-5 in the conference tournament, but he just never really looked like himself,” Lundgren said. “We were hoping Collin (Ascherl) would have a shot, but those were his first matches back. We were hoping to get him a bye to save him a bit, but that didn’t work out. After he lost a close decision in the semifinals, we

decided it wasn’t worth the risk to have him go again. He is fully cleared. His arm is healed, but he isn’t really in match condi-tion.” Ascherl placed fifth at state last season but missed much of this season due to injury. Sioux Center’s two wrestlers that advanced to districts both did so as sectional champions. Dylon Van’t Hof needed over-time to win a decision over Dil-lon Schamber of Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley at 152. Alejandro Jara also faced a challenge in the final at 285, winning a 3-2 decision over Alex Postma of Central Lyon/George-Little Rock.

Class 2A sectional Team results: 1. Spirit Lake Park 209; 2. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 208.5; 3. Sheldon-South O’Brien 156; 4. Central Lyon/George-Little Rock 155; 5. MOC-Floyd Valley 137; 6. Sioux Center 125. N’West Iowa individual results: 106: 2. Austin Bainbridge (S-SOS) 30-7, 3. Sam Klarenbeek (BHRV), 4. Cristian Lopez (SC); 113: 1. Colby McIntire (CLGLR) 25-1, 2. Max Klarenbeek (BHRV) 27-13, 3. Mark Baker (S-SOS); 120: 2. David Grave (CLGLR) 21-2, 3. Austin Gregg (BHRV), 4. Austin Van Holland (SC); 126: 1. Preston Hoebelheinrich (BHRV) 36-4, 2. Brett Stofferan (MOC-FV) 19-14, 4. Colin Schelling (SC), 5. Dustin Freeman (S-SOS), 6. Andrew Kruger (CLGLR) 132: 1. Elijah Dahl (MOC-FV) 27-5, 3. Chaz De Rocher (S-SOS), 4. Seth Hoogendoorn (BHRV), 5. Josh Olvera (SC), 6. Bodie Osborn (CLGLR); 138: 2. Kyle Anderson (MOC-FV) 25-9, 3. Gunnar Klinker (S-SOS), 4. Austin Renes (SC), 5. Zack Konz (BHRV), 6. Zach Fugitt (CLGLR); 145: 2. Brent Klingenberg (CLGLR) 23-9, 3. Hunter Berkenpas (BHRV), 4. Ethan Achterhoff (MOC-FV), 5. Derek Hooyer (SC), 6. Jack Beahler (S-SOS); 152: 1. Dylon Van’t Hof (SC) 30-8, 2. Dillon Schamber (BHRV) 13-6, 3. Josh Wilson (MOC-FV), 5. Andrew McCarty (CLGLR), 6. Tyler Fischer (S-SOS); 160: 2. Dallas Rozeboom (BHRV) 22-4, 3. Austin Sandbulte (SC), 4. Collin Ascherl (MOC-FV), 5. Darin Greenfield (S-SOS), 6. Ben Friedrichsen (CLGLR); 170: 1. Tanner Matthews (S-SOS) 37-1, 2. Taylor Zeutenhorst (BHRV) 32-6, 3. Mitchell Sandbulte (SC), 4. Nedd Knobloch (CLGLR), 6. Spencer Kelly (MOC-FV); 182: Ty Koldenhoven (BHRV) 30-9, 2. Toby Maggert (S-SOS) 29-14, 3. Ben Starr (CLGLR), 5. Stefan Kinsinger (MOC-FV); 195: 1. Bruce McWilliams (S-SOS) 20-2, 2. Drew Rupp (MOC-FV) 23-5, 4. Travis Vander Streek (CLGLR), 5. Logan Gaalswyk (BHRV); 220: 1. Terron Geerdes (CLGLR) 30-1, 2. Tyler Dolieslager (BHRV) 25-9, 3. Bryce Kelleher (S-SOS), 4. Lawton De Jong (MOC-FV), 6. Colten Smolders (SC); 285: 1. Alejandro Jara (SC) 20-8, 2. Alex Postma (CLGLR) 20-11, 3. Gregory Palma (BHRV).

Defense picks upin third quarter


S-O 17 23 16 20 - 76ROCK VALLEY 27 14 6 18 - 65

RO C K VA L L E Y— Si b l e y-Ocheyedan picked it up at the defensive end after a tough start and converted at a rapid rate consistently on the offen-sive side in a 76-65 Siouxland Conference boys basketball win over Rock Valley on Mon-day. Sibley-Ocheyedan had no trouble getting shots to fall at any point in the contest. The Generals made 19-of-30 two-point shots and 11-of-22 treys in the contest. “We kind of picked our poison and packed it in, and Sibley hit their shots,” said Rock Valley coach Brad Beyke. “Sibley had a lot of momentum and con-fidence coming in. They had just picked up some nice wins against some very solid teams. We knew that they would play well, and they did.” It was the Rockets that came out of the gates with a burst of energy, though, leading 27-17 after a quarter. “We had trouble finding their shooters. They run some really nice sets to free them up,” said Sibley-Ocheyedan coach Rick Braby. “We did a nice job of coming back from that. By halftime, we had worked some of that stuff out, and the kids had a good feeling about where we were, but we still had a lot of work to do.” The Generals trimmed the difference to 41-40 by halftime. Sibley-Ocheyedan then tight-ened the screws defensively after the intermission, taking a 56-47 lead after three quarters. “The guys came out with a little more fire in their belly,” Braby said. “They played with some attitude. What it came down to was our kids wanted it more. They worked their tails off. It got pretty wild at the end. It was physical. There were bodies flying all over. But our guys kept their composure. Once they had that lead, they weren’t about to give it up.” Beyke said when the game

turned physical, it worked in favor of the Generals. “It seemed like we kind of wore out in the second half. They are big and physical, and I believe that had something to do with it, but we just didn’t have the same energy down the stretch,” he said. “They did a nice job of picking up their intensity. We just didn’t respond very well at times and forced some possessions.” Rock Valley shot almost as well as Sibley-Ocheyedan from inside the arc, going 19-for-31, but went 7-of-19 from three-point range. The Generals also outrebounded the Rockets by nine. Caleb Hartwig scored 26 points for Sibley-Ocheyedan. Pat Alexander put together a solid floor game with 17 points, nine assists and four steals. Grant Greenfield scored 10 points and Jacob Seivert added nine. Harrison Feldkamp grabbed eight rebounds. Andrew Van Ginkel had 16 points and five assists for the Rockets. Jarod Hansen also tossed in 16 points. Blake Bakker netted 10 points and three steals. Brendan Harberts hauled in seven rebounds.

Sergeant Bluff-Lutonsets pace too quickTRiNiTY CHRiSTiAN 15 6 9 19 - 49SGT. BLuFF-LuTON 17 22 12 24 - 75

SERGEANT BLUFF—Trin-ity Christian’s fast start was upstaged by an impressive Sergeant Bluff-Luton run that helped the Warriors to a 75-49 win in nonconference boys basketball Monday. Trinity Christian opened the

first five minutes of the contest with a 13-2 lead. Soon after, it went sour. Sergeant Bluff-Luton went on a 37-8 run the rest of the half, building leads of 17-15 after one quarter and 39-21 at the half. “They were a good team,” said Trinity Christian coach Jason Westra. “They beat us in tran-sition. If we could’ve played a half-court game, it might have been a better outcome. We’re not used to playing against teams that run like that.” Beside running, the Warriors also were shooting, especially Thomas Wisecup, who hit six three-pointers and led all scor-ers with 26 points. Sergeant Bluff-Luton led 51-30 after three quarters. Free-throw shooting has been the Achilles heel for Trin-ity Christian at times this year. The team went 10-for-22 at the stripe against the Warriors and shot 35 percent from the field overall. Brad Gritters had 14 points to lead Trinity Christian. Greg Gritters had 13 points and three steals. Derk Burgers had seven rebounds. Alex Van Ginkel had five rebounds and four steals. Trinity Christian wrapped up its regular season at 11-5 after going 1-6 in its first year of var-sity basketball last year. The record is good enough for a bye and to host a tourna-ment game, but because Trinity Christian does not have locker rooms yet, the game will be played on a neutral site. Trinity Christian will play the winner of Hartley-Melvin-San-born and George-Little Rock on the loser’s court at 7 p.m.

Feb. 16, after a 10-day layoff between games. “We’re going to need solid play out of everyone,” Westra said. “There’s a whole bunch of Siouxland Conference teams in our brackets, so there’s not going to be a whole lot they haven’t seen before. We need to play a good, clean game with no lapses in concentration.”

Chargers bolt pastHawks in first halfL-M 10 12 15 14 - 51H-M-S 9 5 16 14 - 44

HARTLEY—Laurens-Mara-thon played with the lead for most of the game Monday, although it needed a strong push down the stretch to drop

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 51-44 in nonconference boys basket-ball. The game was tight in the first quarter with the Chargers tak-ing a 10-9 lead. They grabbed their biggest lead of the contest, 22-14, at the half. “It was one of those situations where offensively we weren’t putting the ball in good posi-tions to score,” said Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn coach Steve Raymond. Laurens-Marathon still had a fairly comfortable 37-30 lead heading to the fourth quarter, but the Hawks put on a run and got the margin down to one point with three minutes to go. From there, the Chargers answered with a big three-

pointer, and the Hawks weren’t able to climb back out of the hole. “It wasn’t the amount of the mistakes as much as the timing of them,” Raymond said. The teams matched up well, as both prefer a slower tempo to the game. Raymond said the Chargers are well-coached, and they executed their game plan slightly better than the Hawks. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn shot 49 percent from the field and made 11 turnovers. Blake Simons had 16 points and five rebounds for the Hawks. Matt Benz and Matt Akwa each scored seven points. Akwa netted five rebounds and four assists. Matt Queck grabbed six rebounds.

Central Lyon/George-Little Rock senior Terron Geerdes works a headlock for a pin over MOC-Floyd Valley senior Lawton De Jong last Saturday during the Class 2A sectional in Rock Valley. Geerdes took top spot for the 220-pound weight class. (Photo by Josh Harrell)

Nighthawks second by narrowest of margins to Indians on matSATURDAY WRESTLING: CLASS 2A SECTIONAL

Sibley-Ocheyedan’s late rise continues vs. Rockets

BOYS BASKETBALL STATE RANKINGS

Source: Radio Iowa

Class 3A 1. MOC-Floyd Valley 2. Waverly-Shell Rock 3. Mount Pleasant 4. Western Dubuque 5. Webster City 6. Davenport Assumption 7. Iowa Falls-Alden 8. Dallas Center-Grimes 9. Atlantic 10. Sioux City Heelan

Class 2A 1. West Marshall 2. West Fork (Sheffield) 3. Des Moines Christian 4. Denver 5. Monticello 6. PCM (Monroe) 7. MFL MarMac (Monona) 8. Clarinda 9. Ogden 10. North Cedar (Stanwood)

Class 1A 1. Danville 2. Storm Lake St. Mary’s 3. Northeast Hamilton 4. Keota 5. Boyden-Hull 6. Harris-Lake Park 7. North Iowa 8. Nodaway Valley 9. Treynor 10. North Linn (Troy Mills)

MONDAY BOYS BASKETBALL

Sibley-Ocheyedan senior Caleb Hartwig fakes a shot to set up a pass to senior Grant Greenfield as Rock Valley junior Brendan Harberts bites Monday in Rock Valley. The Generals beat the Rockets 76-65. (Photo by Josh Harrell)


SPORTS

Western Christian hastrouble with turnovers


WESTERN CHRiSTiAN 7 9 16 7 - 39SOuTHWEST CHRiSTiAN 12 11 15 19 - 57

SIOUX FALLS, SD—Southwest Min-nesota Christian swarmed Western Christian with an athletic defense and

answered a Wolfpack burst in the sec-ond half with one of its own. The powerhouse from Edgerton then rolled to a 57-39 nonconference boys basketball win at the Dakota School-ers/Sanford Power Border Classic on the campus of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, last Saturday. “They are one of the best teams, if not the best, we’ve seen this year. Their 6-9 post, Zach Huisken, is a definite DI talent,” said Western Christian coach

Jim Eekhoff. “Their guards can really shoot it and are very physical and quick. They just play great defense. Their guards have the luxury of really being able to take chances and pres-sure you because Huisken will clean up anything that goes inside. I’m pretty sure you will see another state championship banner hanging in their gym at the end of the season.” The Wolfpack trailed 12-7 after one quarter and 23-16 at the half to the

second-ranked squad in Minnesota’s Class 1A. Western Christian had 11 turnovers in the first 16 minutes. “We played as poor a first half as we have all year offensively,” Eekhoff said. The Wolfpack still was in the game at that point and took off on a 14-4 run to open the second half and cut the lead to 30-27. Southwest Christian stopped that momentum with two three-pointers and a traditional three-point

play. The Eagles hit two more treys to start the fourth quarter and went up 44-32. “We were forced to try to play catch up with pressing, and that just wasn’t going to work against this team,” Eek-hoff said. Mading Thok had 17 points and 14 rebounds for Western Christian. Tay-lor Feenstra scored nine points. J.D. Boer had three assists. Michael Den Herder had three steals.

Three champs helpsecure second spot


MILFORD—The day did not start the way Okoboji had hoped, but in the end, the Pio-neers still were making plans for the regional duals after tak-ing second at the Class 1A sec-tional wrestling tournament on their home mats last Saturday. The Pioneers took second in the team standings behind Emmetsburg. The E’Hawks scored 206 points. Okoboji fin-ished at 161, 9.5 points ahead of Graettinger-Terril, to earn the second ticket to regionals. “When we came out of the seeding, we were kind of on the bottom end of that. Not many people had any criteria on Emmetsburg, and that threw everything for a loop,” said Okoboji coach Nate Dau. “When it came to a draw, it wasn’t going our way. It was frustrating, especially when we lost at least three really close matches in that first round. After that, I thought we might be done as far as regionals, but the guys bounced back hard. When we got four pins right away at the start of the third round, I started thinking we were going to be OK.” Being at home did not hurt as the Pioneers climbed the standings round by round. “We came together as a team. The guys were really pumping each other up,” Dau said. “And being at home is obviously a big advantage. It was a big accom-plishment for our guys.” Okoboji advanced three wrestlers to the district round individually, with all three going as sectional champions. Kaleb Vanderpool won the 120-pound class, seventh-ranked Zach Jones won at 160 and second-ranked Tanner Taylor won at 182. “Kaleb was awesome. He pinned (Austin) Thompson from Graettinger in the finals, and that kid was at state last year. I expect we’re going to have to beat him again this week to get there. It will be exciting,” Dau said. “Zach was a No. 2 seed. (Nick) Schany from Emmetsburg hadn’t wrestled much this year and stayed right with him. We’re going to have to be good again there this week-end because we have Jacob Meehan from Marcus on the other side. We’re going to have to show up ready to scrap.” Taylor will face one of the toughest district brackets in the state. He pinned fifth-ranked Austin McCartan of Emmets-burg in the sectional final. The other side of the district includes top-ranked Jared McCoy of Woodbury Central and Taylor James of Akron-Westfield. “Everyone has been asking about McCoy already, but we’ve got to get past the Akron kid first, and he’s no slouch,” Dau said. “He won the Battle Creek-Ida Grove tournament. We’ve got to win that to set up the match everyone wants to see.” Sibley-Ocheyedan finished in the middle of the pack, but unfortunately for the Generals, a lot of those points were piled up in the consolation rounds. “We had a really good first round. We only had one loss. At that point, we were thinking maybe we could sneak into sec-ond,” said Sibley-Ocheyedan co-coach Ben Strandberg. “The next round didn’t go as well. We ended up finishing right around where we’ve been with these teams in the duals.”

Brent Reed won a sectional title for the Generals at 113. Pat Coleman was second at 285. “Brent had a good day. You never know who you are going to see at sectionals and if you have faced them before. Brent put together three good match-es. He pinned two guys, and even though the final was a full match, he pretty much domi-nated that,” Strandberg said. “He is a senior who is wrestling with confidence right now.” The 285 district bracket will be one of the toughest in the state, and the Generals’ Coleman will be in that field. He placed

second in the sectional, fall-ing to seventh-ranked Logen Bonnema of West Sioux in the final. “Pat is the only guy in the district that hasn’t been ranked at some point this year. (Logan) Schafer (of Ridge View) and (Dillon) Mugge (of Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn) made it out of the other sectional. Pat can compete at that level with those guys; he just hasn’t been recognized this year,” Strand-berg said. “The rankings don’t matter at this point anyway when you are down to four guys and two get to move on.”

Western Christian finished one spot behind the Generals but has four wrestlers moving on to districts. Three won sectional titles. All three, Jon Grevengoed at 138, Sam Van Ginkel at 195 and Trevor Van Den Top at 220, started the season in the state rankings. Van Ginkel and Van Den Top still are there, ranked eighth in their respective class-es. “All three of them knew what they wanted, and that was to get to districts with a first-place finish,” said Western Christian coach Barney Drenth. “Jon

and Sam were never really in trouble all day. Trevor was down 3-0 in his championship match. He ended up winning 5-3. Sometimes you have to be able to come from behind like that, so that was good for him.” Matt Henning placed second at 113. For a long time, it was uncertain if Henning would wrestle at 106 or 113 in the postseason. “We looked at it, and we thought 113 was his best chance. It’s a big pull for him to get down to 106,” Drenth said. “He wrestled three full matches and looked strong.” Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn got three wrestlers through. Its two ranked wrestlers, seventh-ranked Nick Drenth at 126 and sixth-ranked Brett Flynn at 152, won sectional titles. Heath Nagel advanced in the 132

bracket. “Brett did a really good job in the finals against a good kid. We controlled the match in that we kept it at our pace. Drenth was solid all day,” said Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn coach Jason Freudenburg. “Nagel got through, but he was a little timid in the final. He needs to open up for the entire match.” Freudenburg said the Hawks were hoping for more as a team. “We thought with our lineup we could get anywhere from three to six in. Dakota Drenth, Dakota Goodvin and Hank Voss didn’t make it. Two of those guys are freshmen, and we’re expecting big things the rest of their careers,” Freudenburg said. “Hank Voss ended a very good career here. It’s sad to see him not make it to districts or even state as a senior, but that’s the way it goes in wrestling.” West Sioux’s level of success depended on how one looked at it. The Falcons finished sev-enth as a team but advanced four wrestlers into the district meet. Two of them, Isidro Topete and David Hernandez, had to win a wrestleback to get it done. “As far as the team finish, you just want the guys to wrestle well. What it is really all about at this point is survive and advance,” said West Sioux coach Gabe Tardive. “We had a decent day. All of our seniors got through, so that was good.” The Falcons had one champi-on, Logen Bonnema, seventh-ranked at 285. Tardive said the path to success for some of the other West Sioux wrestlers were hindered by the result of the seeding meeting. Alonso Flores joined Topete and Hernandez in placing second. “We got put in some tough spots. We hadn’t seen anyone other than West Lyon and Western Christian, so we didn’t have any criteria over them,” Tardive said. “Because of that, it seemed like some of our other guys didn’t really get much of a chance. We knew the team scoring would be tough, but that’s just one of those things.” West Lyon finished eighth and had only one wrestler advance. James Dubbelde, who came into the tournament with the lowest number of wins of any-one in the 126 field, earned a huge pin over 24-match winner Connor Tonderum of Graettinger-Terril in the semi-finals and wound up finishing second.

Class 1A sectional Team results: 1. Emmetsburg 206; 2. Okoboji 161; 3. Graettinger-Terril 151.5; 4. Sibley-Ocheyedan 130; 5. Western Christian 124; 6. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 120; 7. West Sioux 100; 8. West Lyon 82.5. N’West Iowa individual results: 106: 3. Ryan Bolster (Oko), 4. Dan Elgersma (H-M-S), 5. Brett Van Beek (WL); 113: 1. Brent Reed (S-O) 27-14, 2. Matt Henning (WC) 24-15, 3. Kyle Viereck (WL), 4. Joseph Rivera (H-M-S), 5. Alex Montes (WS); 120: 1. Kaleb Vanderpool (Oko) 16-7, 4. Dakota Goodvin (H-M-S), 5. Cody Chester (WS); 126: 1. Nick Drenth (H-M-S) 38-5, 2. James Dubbelde (WL) 6-9, 4. Zach De Jager (WC), 5. Cameron Arnold (Oko); 132: 2. Heath Nagel (H-M-S) 25-10, 4. Cole Hieronimus (S-O), 5. Brody Linn (Oko), 6. Zach Sauers (WL); 138: 1. Jon Grevengoed (WC) 30-2, 3. Taylor Cody (Oko), 4. Hank Voss (H-M-S), 5. Taeric Ezzel (WL), 6. Luis Pleitez (WS); 145: 2. Isidro Topete (WS) 19-9, 3. Tyler Reck (S-O), 5. Dakota Drenth (H-M-S), 6. Jordan Hanna (Oko); 152: 1. Brett Flynn (H-M-S) 34-4, 3. Jacob Van Ginkel (WC), 4. Taylor Block (S-O), 5. Cody Louscher (Oko), 6. Jed Van’t Hof (WL); 160: 1. Zach Jones (Oko) 36-4, 4. Tyler O’Connor (S-O), 5. Augustin Jiminez (WS), 6. Joseph Bootsma (WC); 170: 2. David Hernandez (WS) 24-7, 3. Dylan Brockshus (S-O), 4. Justin Richardson (Oko), 6. Sam Anderson (WC); 182: 1. Tanner Taylor (Oko) 37-0, 3. Jordan Schemmel (WL), 4. Andrew Brockshus (S-O), 5. Jesse Eppinga (WC); 195: 1. Sam Van Ginkel (WC) 38-1, 3. Marshall Eddy (S-O), 4. Jacob Sauter (Oko), 6. Cody Doherty (WL); 220: 1. Trevor Van Den Top (WC) 36-3, 2. Alonso Flores (WS) 31-11, 5. Mike Renken (S-O), 6. Marty Pottebaum (WL); 285: 1. Logen Bonnema (WS) 37-2, 2. Pat Coleman (S-O) 27-7, 4. Blake Manwarren (Oko), 5. Evan Thorn (H-M-S), 6. Tanner Van Middendorp (WL).

COLLEGE

Sioux Falls Christian’s active defense baffles Wolfpack

Okoboji rallies in late rounds to reach regional duals

SATURDAY BOYS BASKETBALL

SATURDAY WRESTLING: CLASS 1A SECTIONAL

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn senior Brett Flynn gets a hand to the face as he tries to pin Western Christian sophomore Jacob Van Ginkel during a Class 1A sectional semifinal match. Flynn won by fall going on to claim the champion-ship at 152 pounds last Saturday in Milford. (Photos by Rylan Howe)

Junior Heath Nagel of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn tries to get his foot out of the grasp of Graettinger-Terril sopho-more Ty Gibson during the championship match at 132 pounds at the Class 1A sectional last Saturday in Mil-ford. Nagel lost 4-3 to finish as runner-up.

Western Christian senior Jon Grevengoed attempts to pin Okoboji junior Taylor Cody at 138 pounds in the Class 1A sectional last Saturday in Milford. Grevengoed won the semifinal match by fall and went on to claim his weight class title to advance to the district meet.

‘‘All three of themknew what they

wanted, and that was to get to districts with

a first-place finish.

Barney DrenthWESTERN CHRISTIANWRESTLING COACH

Sibley-Ocheyedan senior Brent Reed keeps his grip on Western Christian junior Matt Henning during the championship match at 113 pounds last Saturday at the Class 1A sectional tournament in Milford. Reed won an 8-2 decision against Henning.

midland contRols mat ORANGE CITY—Midland University was in complete command of a dual between nationally-ranked wrestling squads Feb. 9, topping Northwestern College 42-4.

The eighth-ranked Warriors won nine of the 10 weight classes, includ-ing four by pin. Josiah Simburger notched the only win for the 18th-ranked Red Raids, taking a 14-4 major decision at 141 pounds.

impRessiVe Rally by dc MITCHELL, SD—Dordt College went on a 12-1 run over the final 4 minutes, 30 seconds to avoid an upset and beat Dakota Wesleyan Uni-versity 61-58 in Great Plains Athletic

Conference men’s basketball Feb. 8. The Defenders, ranked fourth in NAIA Division II, claimed their first win in the Corn Palace in nine sea-sons. Dordt improved to 24-3 overall and 15-3 in the GPAC with the win.

Dakota Wesleyan led a physical contest 26-25 at halftime. The Tigers were ahead 57-49 when Dordt turned it on. Chris Sievers had five points in the crucial Defender outburst. Dakota Wesleyan had the ball last, but

missed a desperation trey. Sievers led the Dordt with 15 points and had seven rebounds. Trevor Wolterstorff had 14 points and nine rebounds. Jordan Vogel had eight points and 10 rebounds.

rv 02-11-12

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