Plenty of highlights in a short year on the sports beat

My last five months as a full-time sportswriter seemed to be jam-packed with some historic events and milestones in the News Advertiser coverage area.

Scott Vicker and I both left the sports desk at the start of June as Ryan Kronberg and Kaleb Carter assumed those full-time roles. I’ll just touch on the stories I got to cover in splitting duties with Scott, who now directs our newsroom.

January

• The 11th-ranked Southwestern men coached by Todd Lorensen rallied to defeat No. 3-ranked Kirkwood, 85-74, for one of the biggest home wins in program history. The win put the Spartans alone in first place in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Division II race at 3-0. Freshman KeShawn Wilson scored 24 points and sophomore Terrance Smith had 22 to lead the Spartans.

• The Creston/O-M wrestling team captured its fifth straight Hawkeye 10 dual meet crown with a sweep of Shenandoah and Red Oak, 58-9 and 67-12, respectively. The only teams with one defeat — Glenwood and Harlan — each lost head-to-head to the Panthers so the title was locked up with one meet to go against St. Albert.

• Longtime Southwestern volleyball coach Rita Schroeder was inducted into the SWCC Athletic Hall of Fame. She joined Ron “Fox” Clinton, who hired her at Southwestern in 1985, and longtime SWCC baseball coach and athletic director Bill Krejci. (Former basketball All-American Dave Kragel of Corning, now a women’s basketball coach with more than 900 wins at Walters State in Tennessee, was inducted in the fall.)

Schroeder, overcame cancer late in her coaching career and compiled 705 victories between 1986 and 2009.

• It was fun to see a former middle school player of mine, Jenna Taylor, surpass the greatest five-player shooter in Creston girls basketball history, Katie McKim, as the program’s all-time leading scorer when Taylor reached 860 points in a victory at Essex. McKim had 856 career points and Leanne Owens had 761 as the previous five-player leaders.

February

• Lenox boys defeated Mount Ayr, 60-48 to clinch the outright championship of the Pride of Iowa Conference for the first time. Karl Peterson had coached the school’s previous conference championship team that won the Tall Corn in 1990. One night after a historic 40-40 performance in points and rebounds, senior Spencer Brown led Lenox with 24 points, 17 rebounds and two blocked shots.

• It was fun to see former state tournament guard G.G. Harris return to the Panther gym as head coach of the AHSTW boys. His Vikings team included his brother, RJ, who had a team-high 19 points in a 62-59 loss to the Panthers. Senior Cooper McDermott led Creston with 16 points.

• The Panthers were Union County’s version of the Splash Brothers in a 67-52 home win over Clarinda. Creston made a school-record 14 3-pointers, surpassing the 13 made at Harlan the previous December when Cody Crawford set an individual game record with nine triples.

In this game, McDermott, Evan Jacobson and Kylan Smallwood each made three 3-pointers, while Crawford and Ryan Kucera each made two from behind the arc.

• Seven seniors I had the privilege of coaching over two middle school seasons saw their high school careers end in a 47-41 regional loss to Glenwood, which was also Brent Douma’s final game as Creston girls basketball coach.

Seniors on the 13-9 Creston team were Taylor, Camryn Somers, Taylor Briley, Caitlin McIlravy, Alli Thomsen, Becca Ross and Jessica Beatty.

• Mount Ayr held off CAM in a girls regional semifinal I covered at Corning. It was fun to see coach Thad Streit leading his team in another journey to the state tournament. They would go on to defeat 22-0 Grand View Christian in the regional final.

• Sophomore guard Andrew Blum sank three of his team’s eight 3-pointers in scoring 25 points as Glenwood beat Creston, 76-38, in a district opener. It marked the end of Cooper McDermott’s career as the only senior Panther starter. Ryan Kucera, Nick Walsh and Curtis Palmer were other seniors on the squad.

• Creston/O-M wrestlers were honored in a trophy ceremony at Creston High School after winning the Class 2A state championship in the individual tournament. It was their southwest Iowa-leading 20th state trophy, passing Lewis Central’s 19. There were stars like Chase Shiltz, Seth Maitlen and Wyatt Thompson, along with a group of blue collar workers who just grinded out matches. Such a fun team to watch.

• The Southwestern men held off Iowa Central to clinch a share of the ICCAC Division II championship with Kirkwood. The Spartans matched the 1976-77 and 1996-97 Southwestern teams with 25 victories, ending at 25-6 in a 66-62 regional loss to NIACC at home.

• The Nodaway Valley boys reached their fifth straight substate game with a 60-57 victory over Central Decatur. Seventh-ranked IKM denied the Wolverines another trip to the state tournament as all-stater Jackson Lamb ended his Nodaway Valley career.

March

• St. Malachy seventh-grader Rylie Driskell won the State Elks Hoop Shoot competition in Grinnell by making 21 of 25 shots. She went on to qualify for national competition. It was fun to follow the progress of one of my seventh-grade team members.

• It was a treat to write about longtime wrestling official Tim Baier of Greenfield working his final state tournament. He was one of the most respected wrestling officials around the state for years. He’ll still work a few local meets, but retired from the state tourney after 30 years.

• Longtime Newell-Fonda coach Paul Loos cited his Creston roots in being inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Basketball Hall of Fame. He had a 434-193 coaching record with nine state tournament appearance and four state titles.

• Former Creston player Colby Taylor was one of the principle players as Central College won the Iowa Conference men’s basketball tournament and qualified for the national tournament. He’s averaging 23.6 points and 9.4 rebounds this season as a senior.

April

• Former Creston star catcher Natalie Mostek was part of DMACC’s run to the junior college national softball tournament, placing seventh with a final 52-8 record. She now plays at University of Nebraska-Omaha.

May

• Three Murray athletic icons had facilities named in their honor in a ceremony at Murray High School. The softball field was named for longtime coach Danny Jensen (748-447 in 36 seasons); the football field was named for Keith Shields (95-52 with five playoff appearances including two trips to the UNI-Dome and a runner-up finish in 2011); and the middle school gym was named for athletic director and girls basketball coach Jerry Shields (308-134 in 20 seasons), who was also named Junior High Athletic Director of the Year. The high school was already named for longtime boys coach Jerry Brown.

• It’s hard to believe Madison Frain’s softball career is over, but I was fortunate to see it in its final stages in a University of South Daktoa Senior Day appearance against Summit League champion North Dakota State. The former Creston all-stater pitched 12 of the team’s 15 victories as a senior and ended with a 41-47 record and 4.32 ERA for the Division I Coyotes. She had 322 career strikeouts. Frain had 15 strikeouts in a victory over LaSalle in 2013.

• I had the chance to write about Creston High School Outstanding Male Athlete Seth Maitlen, the school’s all-time leader in tackles as a linebacker and one of the toughest third-period wrestlers to ever wear a Panther singlet. Now a football player at Morningside College, he was state runner-up at 195 pounds.

• Nodaway Valley showed its depth in scoring 308 to earn a trip to the state golf tournament. Coach Steve Shantz saw four Wolverines shoot 80 or better at Anita’s Crestwood Hills to run away with the district crown.

• Ryan Kucera became one of the best tennis players in Creston history with his second straight appearance at the state tournament, going 1-2 in Class 1A singles as a senior. He now plays at Luther College.

June

• After two decades of working together, I had one last interview with longtime Lenox football coach Allen Dukes, who retired after 21 seasons as head coach. Under his direction the Tigers went to the playoffs 13 times, including four appearances in the state title game and a state championship in 2008.

Dukes, 158-67 over those 21 seasons, was succeeded by Matt Malausky.

• One of the highlights of my 36 years in daily newspaper work occurred in my final full-time assignment — chronicling the amazing run to a state runner-up finish by the all-senior Creston/O-M girls tennis team.

It started with their first Hawkeye 10 Conference tennis title in mid-May. Then, pushed to the limit, the Panthers earned a 5-4 regional win over Shenandoah at Atlantic. The doubles team of Jenna Taylor and Alli Thomsen won a tiebreaker to clinch the narrow victory.

Creston/O-M then bounced Ballard 5-3 in the state quarterfinals at Norwalk, avenging a 5-4 loss to the Bombers earlier in the season. It was a tense finish after a 4-2 advantage in singles. Taylor and Thomsen won 6-3, 7-5 to clinch it as one of the other Panther doubles teams was involved in a super tiebreaker match and Creston/O-M had already lost at No. 2 doubles.

In the state semifinals at Waterloo, Creston/O-M knocked off Decorah 5-4. Waterloo Columbus then earned its 18th state championship with a 5-0 victory over the Panthers. The state team included Taylor, Thomsen, Sydney Dunphy, Caitlin McIlravy, Gracie Russell and Ann Waigand, along with freshman alternate Megan Haley. Head coach Kevin Cooper was assisted by Amanda Plymale and Anthony Donahoo.

One day earlier, the doubles team of Taylor and Thomsen placed fourth in the state and the McIlravy-Dunphy team placed fifth in the singles and doubles tournament, also in Waterloo.

On the way home from that event, Doug North was helping me keep up on the incredible charge by former Creston state champion Carson Whittington in placing second in a playoff in the junior college national golf finals as a member of the Kirkwood Community College team.

Thanks for the great memories!

Contact the writer:

Twitter: @larrypeterson

Email: lpeterson@crestonnews.com