Jackson County Central graduate Ben Caven will have three wrestlers representing his West Lyon team in the Class 2A portion of the traditional Iowa state wrestling tournament Wednesday-Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
The dual state tournament will held Feb. 4 at Xtream Arena in Coralville.
Two teams Jackson County Central wrestled back-to-back at The Clash in LaCrosse won state dual titles.
Osage won the Class 2A dual title and Waverly-Shell Rock won the Class 3A crown.
Competing for Caven’s Wildcats this week in Des Moines will be Evan Erpenbach (42-6) at 106 pounds, Ryan Bahnson (43-6) at 113 and Emmitt Fleshman (36-8) at 195.
Erpenbach placed sixth at the JCC Pizza Ranch tournament in December, Bahnson was third and Fleshman did not wrestle.
Coaches suit up
A pair of former Martin County wrestlers are coaching the wrestling team at Lennox, S.D. Blake Crosby is the head coach and Nathan Simmonds is an assistant coach.
The coaches and Oriole wrestlers had some fun at a practice last week as they prepared for the start of their postseason this week.
Lennox will wrestle in the Region 2A tournament Friday at Brandon Valley High School. The state tourney will be held the following week in Rapid City.
Regular season champs
JCC graduate Pat Garvin is the head coach of the Bethany Lutheran College men’s basketball team that has clinched at least a share of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference regular season title.
The Vikings clinched the tie Saturday with a 74-72 win at Minnesota-Morris. Bethany is 19-4 overall and 10-2 in the UMAC.
BLC has a two-game lead over Northwestern and Wisconsin-Superior with two games remaining. The Vikings host Northwestern at 5:30 p.m. Friday and North Central University at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The coach is happy with what has happened so far this season but knows there’s more ahead:
The UMAC Playoffs start on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
Bethany is fourth in the country in scoring among NCAA Division III teams, averaging 92.1 points per game.
College athlete news
JCC grad Keegan Moore, a senior at Oklahoma, won one match and lost one this past weekend.
On Sunday, Moore was a 10-6 winner over No. 17 Cade King of South Dakota State in the team’s dual in Brookings. The Sooners upended the No. 16 Jackrabbits 18-13. Moore had lost his match Friday in OU’s 21-12 loss to North Dakota State in Brookings.
And Keegan also sent out a special Valentine’s Day greeting on the Oklahoma Twitter account:
Two local products wrestled Saturday when Augsburg defeated Concordia College 40-12 in a wrestling dual between the MIAC schools.
JCC graduate Kie Anderson, a freshman at Concordia, lost his 118-pound match to Augsburg’s Derek Steele, who wrestled at Sibley East High School.
Martin County West grad Lucas Jagodzinske, a freshman at Augsburg, won 7-2 over Worthington graduate Jacob Prunty at 149. Jagodzinske is 30-8 on the season.
The NCAA Division III Upper Midwest Regional will be held Feb. 24-25 in Mequon, Wis.
It was Senior Night for the Augustana University wrestling team Thursday.
JCC graduate Jacob Tvinnereim shared his thoughts of his career with the Vikings:
Two Martin County West grads lost decisions for the Vikings that night in a 23-9 loss to Northern State, Connor Simmonds at 149 and Miles Fitzgerald at 157.
The NCAA Division II Super Region V tournament will be held Saturday, Feb. 25 in Aberdeen.
Former Martin County Red Bull Jacob Rahn has qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association Wrestling Championships.
A sophomore at Iowa Lakes Community College, Rahn went 3-1 to place third at 285 pounds in North Central District regional qualifier in Iowa Falls Sunday. He won his quarterfinal match by fall, lost a decision in the semifinals, and then won two more matches by falls.
Rahn will wrestle in the national tournament March 3-4 in Council Bluffs.
Martin County West graduate Katie Lange, a sophomore with the Augsburg women’s wrestling team, won by fall in 1:00 at 143 pounds in the Auggies 28-19 win over Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Lange has a 25-6 record and has collected bonus points in 20 of those wins as she has eight falls and 12 technical falls).
MCW grad Alyssa Williamson, a 5-6 senior guard with the Hamline women’s basketball team, played a big role in a pair of wins for the Pipers.
On Senior Day Saturday at Hutton Arena, she hit a huge three-pointer with 44 seconds left that gave Hamline a 67-65 lead it wouldn't give up in a 71-70 win over Augsburg. Williamson scored six points and also had five assists and three rebounds.
Last Wednesday Alyssa led the Pipers in scoring with 18 points in a 74-61 win over St. Scholastica. She also posted five rebounds and two steals in that game.
Two former Windom Area boys hockey players are member of the Dordt University club hockey team that had its season end with a 3-2 loss to Nebraska in the semifinals of the Mid American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament in Chesterfield, Mo.
Freshman defenseman Zach Espenson scored one of the goals for the Defeneders. Alex Espenson was a sophomore forward.
Jackson County Central grad Olivia Anderson, a freshman with the Minnesota State women’s track and field team, placed fourth in the mile at a meet in Mankato Friday with a time of 5:43.44.
The Mavericks won the team title in the meet, which had athletes from 21 schools compete.
MSU is first in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division II Women's Indoor Track & Field National Rankings for the fourth consecutive week.
Fairmont graduate Allison Lardy, a senior at North Dakota, traveled to New Mexico and fared well in a large and talented field at the Don Kirby Elite Indoor at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
She finished fifth in the weight throw with a distance of 56-4 and sixth in the shot put with a toss of 45-2 1/4.
Three area graduates participated in the SDSU Indoor Classic track and field meet in Brookings.
Two were entered in the 800 meters, with Fairmont grad Andrew Moeller of SDSU 13th out of 56 runners in a time of 1:53.67 and JCC grad Andrew Boyum, a freshman at Iowa Central, 51st in 2:05.4.
Also, Martin County West graduate Jake Lewis, a sophomore at Iowa Central, placed 26th of 33 runners in the 1000 meters in 2:42.91.
Fairmont grad Wyatt Quiring, a senior at Gustavus, placed second in the 400 meters Saturday at the CSB/SJU Invitational in Collegeville with a time of 50.24 seconds.
He also ran the second leg of the Gusties’ 4×200-meter relay team that was first with a season-best time of 1:31.20.
Jackson County Central grad Hailey Handevidt, a senior at Augustana University, was a member of the Vikings team that won the NSIC Championship Meet last weekend in West Fargo. Augustana totaled 979.5 points to win the title, 10.5 points ahead of second-place Minnesota State.
Handevidt was 14th in one-meter diving with 290.9 points and also 14th in three-meter diving with 279.05 points.
This is way good.
It appears to be Michael McDonald and Take Six randomly singing The Beach Boys a capella.
If it’s not that, I don’t want to know. Click to listen.