(KMAland) -- We are moving on to the 32nd week of the 2023-24 sports calendar. And it’s time to open the week with Seven Points.
Point 1: Just in case you missed Week 31
There’s plenty of content you can find rather easily by doing a search of our KMA Sports pages. That includes 11 team previews/features that the KMA Sports staff put together in the last week. Here’s a rundown of those preview with links provided.
•Clarinda Girls Tennis — The top girls team in the area the last couple of years will have plenty of experience to replace, but they have to feel good about some of the depth they presented during that time. That depth will be tested with two of the top players and the best doubles team in KMAland graduating.
•Glenwood Boys Tennis — The top boys tennis team in the area last year brings back a strong group. They lost their No. 1 in Tyler Harger, but Kayden Anderson should slide into that perfectly while three others from last year’s lineup are coming back.
•Harlan Boys Track & Field — Coach Sam Brummer’s team brought home a big trophy last season, getting all kinds of high finishes and points from their sprints. Despite a couple of key losses, the Cyclones should still lean on their studs in the sprint events.
•Denison-Schleswig Boys Soccer — The Monarchs are coming off their first state tournament in 16 years, and they return A LOT. Get this: Coach Nate Desy says they have around 70 players out. Nuts.
•Kuemper Catholic Soccer — Ken Massey is the head coach for both the girls and boys teams at Kuemper Catholic. The girls are hopeful in trying to build off of last year’s strong finish while the boys had just two seniors on last year’s four-win team. They open later tonight.
•East Mills Track & Field: It’s a new era for East Mills track with Claude Lang stepping aside after the boys team won three straight Corner Conference championships. Trent Turney is co-coaching alongside Sarah Escritt and talked with KMA Sports, as they prepare to begin a new season and era.
•Sidney Golf: The reigning KMAland Golf Coach of the Year Janice Shanno is hopeful heading into another season. The Cowgirls qualified for state last year and return four of their six golfers, although Avery Dowling has graduated. The boys welcome back a couple outstanding seniors and a quartet of juniors that could be the next Sidney team to make a run at the state tournament.
•Southwest Valley Tennis — Steve McGrew’s teams have plenty of experience in their top four, led by Evan Timmerman, who hopes to return to state and bring home a medal this year. The question marks come at the end of their lineups, and they’re hoping to have those figured out by their opener against Glenwood on April 2nd.
•Abraham Girls Soccer — There’s a new leader on the Abraham Lincoln sideline with Kelsey Cheney taking over for highly-successful Robbie Miller. The Lynx have won 75 matches since 2018, but they will have a bit of a reshaped roster with UNI recruit Liberty Bates playing club this spring.
•Rock Port Baseball — Baseball season is here, and one of the first features of the season goes to Rock Port, where Coach Chris Millsap’s team was coming off a tight loss to Faith Christian Academy. The Blue Jays lost seven seniors from last year, although they do have some familiar names leading the way this year to go with several newcoming frosh.
•Conestoga Boys Soccer — Another team that went to the state tournament last year, and they are off to a fine start to the season with a 3-0 record that includes two shutout wins.
Point 2: A look at the top performers last week (tennis & golf version)
It was a bit of a quiet week in the world of tennis and golf, but it’s worth pointing out a few that were under Martin Morning Report Performance of the Day and JHRE KMAland Athlete of the Week consideration.
•Kaleb Dammast & Hudson Esmfhoff, Auburn: The two Bulldog golfers were medalists in their team’s opener. They both shot a 43.
•Kolton Dias, Stanberry: Another medalist from last week, Dias fired a 41 to lead the Bulldogs to a win.
•Cole Horton, Savannah: One of the top tennis players in the state of Missouri, Horton was a perfect 4-0 in No. 1 singles competition last week. Teammates Noah Gould and Brighton Kurre also went 4-0 at Nos. 2 and 3.
•Zach Merritt, Savannah: Merritt shot the low 9-hole score for a KMAlander during the week, finishing with a 38 in a triangular with Lawson and Cameron.
•Will Sheil, Kyler Skidmore, Brody Stagner, Maryville: The trio of Spoodfhounds tennis players all had two wins in the opening week of the season for the Maryville tennis team.
Point 3: A look at the top performers last week (baseball version)
There are plenty of baseball standouts from the past week. These are all going to be on the offensive side.
•Westyn Amthor, Rock Port: The first of four Rock Port names on this list. Amthor had a three-hit game and two other multi-hit games.
•Darwin Bowden, King City: Bowden is one of just three players this past week that hit multiple home runs.
•Chase Cline, Albany: Cline had a pair of multi-hit games and went deep in one of them.
•Noah Erickson, Auburn: Erickson had a strong week with three multi-hit games for the Bulldogs.
•Jadyn Geib, Rock Port: Geib had a four-hit game for a Rock Port offense that had plenty of multi-hit games during the course of the week.
•Boston Hageman, Maryville: When Hageman starting hitting, he didn’t stop in finishing the week with three multi-hit performances.
•Ozey Hurst, Rock Port: Hurst joined with Geib in putting together a big week, as he had two three-hit performances for the Blue Jays.
•Corbyn Jakub, Rock Port: One more Rock Port Blue Jay to highlight from the week. Jakub is one of just three players in KMAland that hit a pair of home runs during the week.
•Tristan Kingery, Nebraska City: Kingery had two multi-hit games in the past week, including one of three KMAlanders to tally four hits in a single game.
•Justin Miller, Platte Valley: Miller was one of just a handful of players in KMAland that put together three multi-hit games this past week.
•Landon Noland, Savannah: Noland was one of two Savages with three multi-hit games, and he added a home run while doing it.
•Ryder Sample, King City: Sample is the third of the three that had four-hit games. He also led the area with two home runs during the course of the week.
•Zayden Snapp, Savannah: Snapp had three games this past week with at least two hits.
•Daulton Worrell, Albany: Worrell is one of two players in KMAland last week that had two three-hit games.
Others that had at least one three-hit game:
•Tylynn Prussman & Garrett Guyer, South Holt
•Mason Schultz & Jackson Warner, Auburn
•Sutton Snipes, Savannah
Others with multiple multi-hit games:
•Jederick Brito-Diaz, Louisville/Weeping Water
•Christian Gage, Auburn
•Brandon McQueen, Platte Valley
•Sloan Pelican, Nebraska City
Point 4: A look at the top performers last week (soccer version)
Maryville’s Jalea Price became the second high-scoring soccer player in a row to earn the JHRE KMAland Athlete of the Week. There were five other players in KMAland this past week that had multi-goal games:
•Dominic Hobbs, The Platte
•Dylan Kayhanfar, Conestoga
•Hailey Sanchez, Plattsmouth
•Ryesen Stiens, Maryville
•Ella Tiegels, Conestoga
Point 5: A look at the top performers last week (track & field version)
Mound City’s August Meadows earned the Jim Hughes Real Estate KMAland Athlete of the Week award this morning. Here’s a look at some others that received consideration from the world of track:
•Brylee Acklin, Maryville: Acklin put together a three-win day at her home time trials in winning the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the triple jump.
•Vivian Barton, Savannah: Barton posted a 12.89 in the 100 and a 26.81 in the 200 to grab two golds at the Maryville time trials.
•Rylie Beethe, Johnson-Brock: Beethe won both the 60 hurdles and the 60 meters at the Pioneer Conference Indoor Meet this past week.
•Harrison Boyte, Palmyra: At his home meet last week, Boyte won both the 400 and the triple jump.
•Ridge Bredthauer, Sterling: At the Palmyra triangular, Bredthauer had the top showing for the Jets with wins in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles.
•Bo Collins, Worth County: The freshman had a pretty good start to his varsity track career with wins in the shot put and the discus at his home meet.
•Lili Denton, St. Albert: Frankly, she may have won if we didn’t just interview her last week. Denton won the 400 and the 800 (twice) this past week.
•Owen Dierenfeldt, Savannah: The Savages standout had a two-win showing in Maryville, taking the 300 hurdles and the high jump.
•Ava Graham, Nodaway Valley (MO): Graham is good at everything, and she picked up wins this past week in the discus and in the shot put.
•Lauren Harms, Sterling: Harms had two tries at winning the shot put this past week, and she went ahead and did just that.
•Elliana Harris, Sioux City East: It didn’t matter the distance, Harris won it. She had wins this past week in the 60 (twice), the 100 and the 200.
•Wanding Hosnyang, LeMars: Hosnyang won the high jump twice last week, going over at 6-05.00 and 6-06.00. Our town.
•Eli Johnson, Bedford: How about a six-win week? Johnson won twice each in the 100 and 200 wheelchair races and took the 400 and shot put once each.
•Tommi Martin, East Atchison: Martin rolled to wins in her two favorite events at the Worth County Early Bird, winning the 800 and the javelin throw.
•Justin Miller, Platte Valley: This was some week. Already mentioned in the baseball section, Miller won both the long jump and the triple jump at Worth County last week.
•Kenzie Niehus, LeMars: LeMars AKA Our Town. Niehus tied a school record in her first ever competition, winning the long jump with a leap of 17-05.25.
•Clare Staley, King City: Another sprinter that picked up the sprint double. Staley won both the 100 and the 200 at the Worth County Early Bird.
•Alex Wilson, Sergeant Bluff-Luton: Wilson was a two-time winner last week, too, picking up a pair of wins in the shot put.
•Riley Wilson, Elmwood-Murdock: Wilson won the 60 hurdles and the 400 this past week at an indoor competition.
Point 6: The KMA Sports Western Iowa Conference Cup Standings
Starting last week with the Corner Conference, I am taking a weekly look at the other area conferences in KMAland Iowa that KMA Sports covers and doing what I’ve done with the Hawkeye Ten Conference over the last 12 years. Today, we look at the KMA Sports Western Iowa Conference Cup Standings through the winter season.
For those that need an explainer, I just go through each sport and assign 8 or 9 points to the champion and then work down while assigning more points. Football is made difficult here due to their high variance in enrollment with Audubon playing 8-Player and others playing between Class A and 1A. You know what would make sense? Ahhh, nevermind. Just ask my guy Cole Corson.
But hey, let’s give it a go anyway…
Football: Underwood (9), Audubon (8), Treynor (7), AHSTW (6), Logan-Magnolia (5), IKM-Manning (4), Riverside (3), Tri-Center (2), Missouri Valley (1)
**I used BCMoore overall strength scores, head-to-head and score comparisons to reach this. Yes, there are probably some disagreements.**
Volleyball: Treynor (9), Tri-Center (8), Riverside (7), Audubon (6), Underwood (5), Missouri Valley (4), AHSTW (3), IKM-Manning (2), Logan-Magnolia (1)
Girls XC: Treynor (9), AHSTW (8), Riverside (7), Tri-Center (6), IKM-Manning (5), Logan-Magnolia (4), Audubon (3), Underwood (2), Missouri Valley (1)
**The top four had team scores. I used 39 points (there were 38 runners) for every un-filled spot for the other teams.**
Boys XC: Tri-Center (9), Riverside (8), Missouri Valley (7), IKM-Manning (6), Logan-Magnolia (5), Underwood (4), Treynor (3), AHSTW (2), Audubon (1)
**The remaining teams that could not score had two each, so I just added those two scores up for the final three spots.**
Girls Basketball: Treynor (8), Tri-Center (7), Underwood (6), AHSTW (5), Logan-Magnolia (4), Riverside (3), IKM-Manning (2), Missouri Valley (1)
**The Tri-Center/Underwood/AHSTW tie and Logan-Magnolia/Riverside tie were both decided by point differential in those matchups.**
Boys Basketball: Underwood (9), Treynor (8), Riverside (7), IKM-Manning (6), Tri-Center (5), Audubon (4), Logan-Magnolia (3), Missouri Valley (2), AHSTW (1)
**the IKM-Manning/Tri-Center tie was decided by head-to-head while Logan-Magnolia/Audubon tiebreaker was decided by point differential in their split**
Boys Wrestling: Logan-Magnolia (8), Underwood (7), Missouri Valley (6), Riverside (5), Treynor (4), AHSTW (3), Tri-Center (2), Audubon (1)
Standings:
1. Treynor (48 points/6.86 PPS - 7 sports)
2. Underwood (42 points/6.00 PPS - 7 sports)
3. Riverside (40 points/5.71 PPS - 7 sports)
4. Tri-Center (39 points/5.57 PPS - 7 sports)
5. Logan-Magnolia (30 points/4.29 PPS - 7 sports)
6. IKM-Manning (25 points/4.17 PPS - 6 sports)
7. AHSTW (28 points/4.00 PPS - 7 sports)
8. Audubon (23 points/3.83 PPS - 6 sports)
9. Missouri Valley (22 points/3.14 PPS - 7 sports)
Note: PPS = Points Per Sport. Audubon did not compete in the girls basketball conference while IKM-Manning does not have wrestling team.
Extra Point: Quick thoughts on the weekend of hoops
•The Iowa State/Stanford women’s game finished the weekend, and it may have been the best game of them all. Big shot after big shot, two teams beating the crap out of each other and an overtime bonus for our troubles.
•All of the 1s and all of the 2s are still alive in the men’s tournament. The first four days of the tournament were a little bit uneventful, but maybe that means we’re going to get some of the best basketball we’ve ever seen in the coming weeks.
•Connecticut still looks downright scary. Last year, they won their tournament games by 24, 15, 23, 18, 13 and 17. This year, they’ve already won by 39 and 15. Could we be in store for another UConn Invitational?
•Purdue also looked like the one seed that they are in handling business with Grambling (by 28) and Utah State (by 39). Nice little reversal of course from last season.
•The only double digit seed remaining in the tournament is NC State — a team that was not going to be in the NCAA Tournament until they won the ACC Tournament. Naturally.
•Ranking the best matchups of the Sweet Sixteen…
8. Marquette/NC State — Hey, no offense to the big fella from NC State, but there are some dynamic matchups in this round.
7. Clemson/Arizona — Is the ACC the best thing since sliced bread after all?
6. UConn/San Diego State — A rematch from the national championship game last year, UConn could very well make this a snoozer by halftime again.
5. North Carolina/Alabama — Again, this is a really fun matchup, but the rest of them are better in my opinion.
4. Purdue/Gonzaga — Gonzaga is in a ninth straight Sweet 16. Pretty, pretty impressive. Can they hand the ultimate tournament underachiever another loss that some would constitute as too soon?
3. Creighton/Tennessee — Please, Dalton. Put a stop to this.
2. Iowa State/Illinois — The No. 1 offense (Illinois) vs. the No. 1 defense (Iowa State)? Yes, please!
1. Duke/Houston — Two of the top six teams in the country, according to the KenPom rankings, with another elite offense (Duke is No. 5) vs. elite defense (Houston is No. 2).
Hey, the weekend was kind of boring. Let’s hope it pays off.
Send any questions, comments and/or concerns to dmartin@kmamail.com.
