SW VB loses to tough Ed-Co team

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

The South Winneshiek volleyball team saw its season come to an end Monday evening in the second round of the playoffs.

The Warriors were defeated by a strong Edgewood-Colesburg team, 3-0. The Vikings picked up wins of 25-17, 25-22, and 25-13 to advance in the Class 1A Region 6 bracket. Ed-Co will take on Tripoli for a shot at the Regional championship against either Wapsie Valley or West Central.

West Central’s Marlee Squires (3) drives one across the net in Tuesday’s (Oct. 22) opening round playoff game against East Buchanan in Winthrop. The junior had a monster night with 14 kills, 20 assists, 13 digs, and one ace in the four-set victory. The Devils played round two on Monday, Oct. 28, against Don Bosco; results of that contest will be in next week’s Leader. (Mike Thomas photo, Oelwein Dailey Register).   

Marlee Squires leads WC over Pirates

By Jerry Wadian
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

The Class 1A Region 6 volleyball match between host East Buchanan and West Central turned into the Marlee Squires show as she helped the Devils to a 3-1 victory. With the win, the Blue Devils move on to play Don Bosco, 17-16, Monday Oct. 28, in Winthrop.

The Pirates had only won four games all season, but gave WC a tough match before the Devils won, 25-20, 15-25, 25-21, and 15-13.

Squires had a fantastic night, leading both squads in kills with 14, and assists with 20. The junior also tied teammates Carey Taylor and Bryleigh Rouse for the squad lead in digs with 13. Squires and Rouse combined for a 29-33-night serving with an ace apiece.

Early turnovers doom Devils

By Jerry Wadian
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

West Central knew playing at Easton Valley, home of the highest-scoring high school team in Iowa, was a tough assignment, but four first-quarter turnovers made the job impossible.

The River Hawks jumped on the Devils for six TDs in the first 12 minutes on their way to a 73-6 win.

According to head coach Steve Milder, “We played hard, but those turnovers made the score lopsided. We were able to generate some offense over the last three quarters.”

Alyssa Bohr serves one up Wednesday Oct. 23, in Jesup. The TigerHawk sophomore made eight kills and had 10 digs while going 10-10 for an ace in the Class 3A regional contest. (Mike Thomas, Oelwein Daily Register photo)

VB goes down in 5 sets

By Jerry Wadian
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

NFV volleyball was eliminated in round one of the Class 3A regional playoffs to Jesup, but the TigerHawks went down swinging taking the J-Hawks to five sets. 

Playing in Jesup, the hosts got off to a quick 2-0 start, winning, 25-20 and 25-18. 

Just when it looked like an easy night, NFV got hot, taking the next two sets, 25-20 and 25-18.

“We stepped up the passing and were able to run the offense more in those two sets,” explained head coach Jenny Lee. 

After finishing second at last Thursday’s State Qualifying Meet in West Union, the NFV boy’s cross country team is going run at the State Meet Saturday in Fort Dodge. Posing in front of the banner they won Thursday in West Union are (front, l-r) Leo Phan and Weller Clark (back) head coach Neal Bentley, Caleb Zurbriggen, Ben Miller, Peyton Halverson, Nathan Crooker, David Crooker, Korbin Yount, Nathan Jensen, and assistant coaches Rachael Strong and Jon Kullen. (Jerry Wadian photto)

Boys 2nd at SQM; Miller 15th

By Jerry Wadian
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

It was a good day for the NFV boys' cross country team as the TigerHawks jumped over two ranked teams to finish second and qualified to run at the State Cross country Meet Saturday in Fort Dodge.

In addition, Ben Miller put on a real burst over the final 150 yards to finish 15^th overall, so he will also compete Saturday as an individual.

Top-ranked Tipton dominated, finishing 1,4,6,7,8,9 for 26 team points.

NFV used its depth to advantage. Miller led the way, but Davan and Nathan Crooker and Peyton Halverson, as they’ve done all season, ran in a tight pack, finishing 18, 19, and 20, respectively. Weller Clark, running in his first race in over two weeks, finished 44^th despite significant back spasm pain, to give the TigerHawks 116 points.

  That was enough to edge sixth-ranked Camanche, who finished with 123. Waukon and Crestwood were also ranked, but finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Head coach Neal Bentley said afterwards, “A team qualifies only when every runner puts forth their top effort. Five of our seven runners set personal-best times, including the pack of the Crookers twins and Halverson.”

The girls faced a very tough field as they finished eighth as a team. Starmont won with Waukon and Tipton taking second and third, respectively.

“The girls battled hard and it was neat to see them finish the season on their home course,” Bentley stated. 

Lukas Lau (28) scores the first touchdown of the second half Friday as the junior wins the foot race for a 15-yard score. (Jerry Wadian photo)

Turnovers, missed tackles doom TigerHawks

By Jerry Wadian
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

Last week when NFV head football coach Justin Heins previewed Friday’s game against Waukon he observed, “We have to control the ball, force some turnovers and not turn the ball over ourselves.”

 None of that happened during a disastrous first half as the Indians blew out to a 50-8 halftime lead.  

To their credit, the TigerHawks came back in the final 24 minutes to make it interesting before falling, 56-36. 

In the process, NFV scored more points than the two teams who scored the most points  (Crestwood, 21 and Oelwein, 14) against Waukon put together. Of course, the TigerHawks did most of its damage after the Indians played second stringers over the final 24 minutes.

 The first half was a nightmare as the TigerHawks lost two fumbles and were intercepted once. In all, NFV had lost four of six fumbles to go with the pick.

South Winneshiek junior Madison Kriener goes up for a kill attempt during a recent Warrior volleyball game. The Warriors ended the 2019 regular season last week with a 2-25. (Zakary Kriener photo)

SW VB falls in final two games of season

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

South Winneshiek saw its 2019 volleyball regular season come to an end last week with a pair of Upper Iowa Conference losses.

The Warriors will end the season with a 2-25 mark after losing to Clayton Ridge and Postville.

South Winn junior Collin Wiltgen hauled in five passes, including this spectacular grab, during Friday night’s 66-14 rout of Central Springs. (Zakary Kriener photo)

SW puts up 66 unanswered points

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

Kicker – SW puts up 66 unanswered

Warriors start slow, finish strong against Panthers

By Zakary Kriener

It was a good thing the Warriors had their shovels on hand Friday night against Central Springs because they had quite the hole to dig themselves out of after the first several minutes of play.

“We put ourselves in a hole early with poor execution on offense and special teams,” said coach Jason Ohrt, referring to the 14-0 deficit that South Winn faced midway through the opening quarter.

Luckily, the Warriors got it straightened out to the tune of 66 unanswered points as they went on to pick up a big district win over the Panthers.

Warrior XC crowns two UIC champs

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

South Winneshiek was well represented at last week’s Upper Iowa Conference Meet in Guttenberg as a Warrior runner crossed the finish line first in both the boys’ and girls’ race.

In the girls’ race, freshman Billie Wagner picked up the win in a time of 19:21.2. This marks the first-ever UIC title for Wagner, who is currently ranked No. 4 among all class 1A runners.

As a team, the Warrior girls placed third with 79 points behind only Kee (32) and Central (49).

Megan Hageman placed 10th in a time of 22:03.6, followed by Emma Houdek in 20th (23.16), Ella Willey in 22nd (23:34.5), and Yarelli Varona in 26th (24:10.5).

Other Warrior runners to compete included Quinn Kruckman (27th, 24:12.5) and Jenna Sadler (29th, 28:16.2).

The Warrior boys claimed four of the top five individual spots on its way to a team UIC title with an impressive 22 points.

Emmett Schwartzhoff led the way with a first-place finish in 17:40.6.

Orioles jump on Devils early

By Jerry Wadian
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

Springville jumped on visiting West Central early Friday night, exploding for a 40-6 first quarter lead in a 59-22 win.

Blue Devil coach Steve Milder said, “We knew their QB was good, but he had a super night.”

In all, the Oriole QB went 5-8 passing for 63 yards and two scores. He also ran six times for 91 yards and four more touchdowns.

West Central’s only score of the first half came on a 13-yard pass from Hunter Kent-Thomas to Aiden Nelson.