Sports

Alta-Aurelia wrestled four matches in the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Duals last Saturday and the Warriors broke even.

Alta-Aurelia lost to Westwood 40-28. Nick Gaes won his match by pin in 1 minute, 37 seconds at 182 pounds. Trenton Miller won by pin in 3:53 at 220.

Colten Larson prevailed by decision 11-4 at 132, while Chris Langner won by decision 3-2 at 145. Skylar Solko was a winner by major decision 8-0 at 145. Sam Scherkenbach was a winner by forfeit at 113.

Westwood won the final four bouts by either pin or forfeit to rally from a 28-16 deficit.

Lance Else won four of seven matches to place sixth at 126 pounds and highlight Ridge View’s performance in the OA-BCIG Invitational last Saturday.

Independence won the team title with 214 points. Ridge View was 17th with 43.

Kyle Schiernbeck placed seventh at 195 pounds for the Raptors. Ryan Cougill took eighth at 170, as did Evan Else at 220 pounds.

Buena Vista faced a pair of Top 25 teams in its half of the Iowa Conference Duals, which took place at Central College last Saturday.

The Beavers were matched against 23rd-ranked Central to start the day and dropped a 44-9 match. Nashid Barrow improved to 11-5 on the year with a narrow 10-8 decision at 141 pounds.

The Dutch then recorded three straight wins by pin and got a forfeit to pull away at 33-3. Gable Bonner picked up Buena Vista’s only other win with a pin late in the first period at 285 pounds.

The Buena Vista men’s track and field team was back in action as it took part in the annual Wartburg Open last Saturday.

Freshman Moussa Kuyateh continues to shine in the early going as he took fifth in the 60 meters with a personal best time of 7.06 seconds. Mark Eberly was ninth in the 400 meters at 52.59, but was less than a half second out of top-seven finish.

Ben Sampson had a near record-breaking day for BVU, taking second in the 600 meter run in 1:22.11 and finishing only 0.4 seconds off the school record time (1:21.90) set in 2013 by Seth Woodson.

No. 6-ranked Newell-Fonda outscored Storm Lake St. Mary’s 15-2 in the third quarter to pull away and hand the Panthers a 73-37 setback in a Twin Lakes Conference game on Tuesday night at Newell.

The Mustangs, now 11-4, held a 14-10 lead after the first quarter. It was 36-22 at halftime and 51-26 entering the fourth period of play.

Michael Demers scored a game-high 27 points, including six during an 8-2 stretch that allowed Storm Lake St. Mary’s to pull away in the third quarter as the Panthers beat Twin Lakes Conference rival Newell-Fonda 68-56 on Tuesday night at Newell.

The Panthers took the lead for good midway through the second quarter and led 35-26 at the half.

Reed Kruse made a 30-footer at the end of the third quarter to bring the Mustangs within six at 48-42. St. Mary’s would score the first five points of the fourth quarter to pull away for the double-digit win.

A team is tough to beat when all five players on the floor are scoring.

Estherville Lincoln Central found that out as Storm Lake had five players score in double figures while scoring a season high in points during an 83-69 Lakes Conference win on Tuesday at Estherville.

Storm Lake jumped out to a 21-13 lead after the first quarter before settling on a 32-26 lead at halftime.

The Tornadoes used a 27-16 surge in the third quarter to build a 59-42 lead after three periods. The Midgets outscored the Tornadoes 27-24 in a high-scoring final 8 minutes.

By Dolores Cullen

Look carefully and you will see little purple paw print stickers on the headgear of Lakes Conference wrestlers.

The stickers are a gesture of support to the Spencer community devised by the Storm Lake wrestling team in memory of Austin Roberts, the 220-pound Tigers wrestler who died suddenly and unexpectedly after a match during the Spencer Invitational on Dec. 19.

Storm Lake finished first in four events, but the Tornadoes came up short to Spencer in a boys dual swim meet on Tuesday night at the BVU Pool.

The Tigers outlasted the Tornadoes 96-88.

The 200 medley relay team of Cole Keenan, Blake Lamoureaux, Kristian Kelly and Dayne Crouch finished first with a time of 2 minutes, 3.16 seconds.

Kelly won the 50 freestyle in 24.82 seconds, while Lamoureaux took the 100 butterfly in a time of 1:00.06. Keenan won the 100 freestyle in a clocking of 58.7 seconds.

Raptors win, 56-48

Ridge View outscored Siouxland Christian 23-13 in the fourth quarter to rally from a nine-point deficit in the third quarter and keep its unbeaten Western Valley Conference record intact with a 56-48 win on Tuesday night at Sioux City.

The win clinched the regular season conference title for the Raptors, who are unbeaten at  8-0 in the league.