Tuesday December 17th Local Sports
TONIGHT:
AM-1300 KGLO, kgloam.com — Newman vs. Rockford — girls 6:15, boys follow
AM-1490/96.7-FM KRIB, kribam.com — Clear Lake vs. Webster City — girls 6:15, boys follow
MASON CITY — The Mason City School Board Monday night approved making an application for membership in the Northeast Iowa Conference.
The district’s athletics and activities director Barry Andersen says one of the biggest considerations in possibly leaving the Central Iowa Metropolitan League is the amount of travel time currently logged by student-athletes. “Four schools are within an hour and 25 minutes of Mason City, and three are under an hour. When you look at what we’re currently driving, two hours, two hours plus every time we go down to Des Moines, that wears on kids and it lends itself to a much larger travel budget. By reducing that cost, it could be close to a 50% reduction in transportation costs, would definitely help out our budgets.”
Andersen says Mason City already plays a number of Northeast Iowa Conference schools in non-conference contests. “There’s some tough competition. That’s one thing when I was looking for what the best fit for Mason City would be, along with looking at the geographical area, the Northeast Iowa Conference made the most sense as far as a conference that’s already set and that has a long tradition of excellent athletic teams. I know several of the athletic directors, so that led me to have some unofficial conversations with them, and then I had met with all of the Northeast Iowa Conference ADs after our Northeast Iowa AD convention this past fall just to gauge where everyone was at and to let them know that we were interested.”
Andersen says all the conversations he’s had with the athletic directors in the Northeast Iowa Conference have been positive. “I know there’s some skepticism as far as Mason City would be the largest school in the conference. Mason City has changed, our demographics have changed over the last 10 years, we have become a smaller school. Not a lot of kids are out for athletics, and hopefully we’re trying to get those numbers to rise. But by and large, I think people need to stop and think, and if they haven’t followed Mason City athletics, or haven’t followed when we play some of these schools in sports, know that there is a competitive balance in the sports that we play.”
Andersen says just because Mason City would be the largest school in the NEIC if the application is approved wouldn’t mean the Mohawks would automatically be dominant in every sport. “The Northeast Iowa Conference has very good athletic teams, boys and girls, and just because Mason City has a lot of kids to choose from doesn’t mean that all those kids go out for sports. I think by adding Mason City to the to the Northeast Iowa Conference would create a competitive balance across the board in all of our activities.”
Five of the seven superintendents of the Northeast Iowa Conference schools would have to approve Mason City’s application. Andersen says if the application is NOT approved, they will look over different options. “I enjoy working with the other ADs within the CIML, they’re great guys, it is the best competition in the state bar none. But I also listen to the coaches that I work with, the families that I work with, the administrators I work with, and other constituents, because there are other factors that fall into play as well. When they say ‘why are we still here?’ and they give me their reasonings, I just can’t just dismiss all that stuff too. We will cross that bridge when we get to it and we’ll go from there, but I do have a Plan B, and when that happens, I will look at that Plan B and then we will move on.”
The NEIC’s current membership from largest to smallest schools includes Waverly-Shell Rock, Decorah, Charles City, Crestwood, Waukon, Oelwein and New Hampton. Andersen says he’ll submit Mason City’s application Tuesday, with the NEIC superintendents likely to act on it sometime in January.
You can hear our full conversation with Andersen about Mason City’s application to the NEIC by clicking on the audio player below.
URBANDALE — Urbandale outscored Mason City 18-6 in the third quarter on their way to a 68-60 win in girls basketball last night, as you heard on AM-1300 KGLO and kgloam.com. Anna Deets led the Mohawks with 23 points, Jada Williams added 13 while Jaeda Whinter had 10. Mason City drops to 5-2 on the season with the loss.
== The Urbandale boys broke away from a two point halftime lead, outscoring Mason City 43-22 in the second half for a 65-42 win, as you also heard on KGLO and kgloam.com. Brandon Shipman had 15 points off the bench to lead the Mohawks, with Avery Mellman and Austin Richardson each having nine. Mason City is 2-3 on the season. Both Mason City girls and boys teams will host Southeast Polk on Friday.
— other boys basketball from Monday
Northwood-Kensett 54, North Union 49 (OT)
Lake Mills 74, Central Springs 43
Nashua-Plainfield 66, St. Ansgar 63
— other girls basketball from Monday
#3/2A West Hancock 65, #15/2A Emmetsburg 53
#10/1A St. Ansgar 62, Nashua-Plainfield 34
Lake Mills 50, Central Springs 47
North Union 58, Northwood-Kensett 25
— AP Boys Basketball Poll
CLASS 4A Rec Pts
1. Waukee (4) 3-0 86
2. Ankeny Centennial (4) 4-0 84
3. Iowa City West (1) 3-0 81
4. Dubuque Hempstead 4-0 49
5. Sioux City East (1) 5-0 44
6. Waterloo West 3-1 38
7. West Des Moines Dowling 3-1 31
8. (tie) Cedar Falls 2-1 28
.. Cedar Rapids Prairie 3-0 28
10. Council Bluffs Lincoln 5-0 15
Others receiving votes: Iowa City Liberty 13. North Scott 11, Ankeny 8, Waterloo East 8, Dubuque Senior 7, Linn-Mar 6, Urbandale 5, Johnston 4, Council Bluffs Lewis Central 3, Des Moines Lincoln 1.
CLASS 3A Rec Pts
1. Winterset (3) 4-0 87
2. Davenport Assumption (3) 5-0 73
3. Sergeant Bluff-Luton (3) 3-0 59
4. Norwalk 3-1 55
5. Carroll 4-0 52
6. Dallas Center-Grimes 4-0 50
7. Mount Vernon 4-0 37
8. Harlan 4-0 33
9. (tie) Algona 4-0 24
.. Glenwood (1) 4-1 24
Others receiving votes: DeWitt Central 23, Gilbert 9, Marion 6, Mount Pleasant 6, Clear Lake 6, Grinnell 3, Webster City 2, Denison-Schleswig 1.
CLASS 2A Rec Pts
1. Dyersville Beckman 5-0 80
2. Treynor (5) 5-0 73
3. North Linn (2) 4-0 64
4. Camanche (2) 4-0 59
5. West Sioux 5-0 54
6. Aplington-Parkersburg (1) 5-0 36
7. Pella Christian 4-1 34
8. Iowa City Regina 3-1 20
9. (tie) Osage 5-0 18
.. Northeast 5-0 18
Others receiving votes: East Sac County 16, Boyden-Hull 12. Dike-New Hartford 11, Des Moines Christian 9, Panorama 9, Van Meter 9, Monticello 8, South Central Calhoun 7, Tri-Center 5, Orange City Unity Christian 5, Albia 3.
CLASS 1A Rec Pts
1. Remsen St. Mary’s (7) 4-0 86
2. Algona Garrigan (2) 5-1 63
3. Montezuma 4-0 58
4. (tie) West Fork 5-0 52
.. Easton Valley 5-0 52
6. (tie) WACO (1) 5-0 38
.. Avoca AHSTW 6-0 38
8. Lake Mills 2-1 19
9. Janesville 4-0 16
10. Mount Ayr 4-0 13
Others receiving votes: Siouxland Community Christian 12, Gladbrook-Reinbeck 11, East Mills 10, CAM 8, Madrid 8, Bedford 8, Burlington Notre Dame 8, Alburnett 8, Newell-Fonda 8, South O’Brien 7, Don Bosco 6, MFL Mar-Mac 6, Nodaway Valley 3, River Valley 3, Wapsie Valley 2, South Winneshiek 2, Martensdale-St. Mary’s 2, Grand View Christian 2, Edgewood-Colesburg 1.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa senior Makenzie Meyer was named to the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Player of the Week Honor Roll, the conference announced Monday.
Meyer earned the Hawkeyes’ second honor of the year and her first Big Ten Weekly honor. Senior Kathleen Doyle earned the Hawkeyes first honor on Nov. 25.
The Mason City, Iowa, native averaged 18.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game with a .632 field-goal percentage last week in the Hawkeyes’ wins over in-state rival Iowa State and North Carolina Central.
Meyer and the Hawkeyes host Drake on Sat., Dec. 21 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Mediacom Court. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa senior guard Jordan Bohannon will undergo season-ending hip surgery (left) Thursday at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Recovery from this procedure is typically 6-9 months.
Bohannon had the same procedure successfully performed on his right hip this past May and played in 10 games this season. During the course of the last couple months, pain developed in his left hip that ultimately resulted in the decision for additional surgery. Bohannon (6-foot-1, 185 pounds) played in 10 games, averaging 8.8 points and 3.3 assists per game.
MASON CITY — The NIACC men dropped to fourth in the latest junior college Division II poll. NIACC split their two games at the Johnson County Community College Classic over the weekend, falling to 7th-ranked Johnson County but beating formerly 19th-ranked Highland of Kansas. North Central Missouri is the new #1 team in the men’s poll, followed by Niagara County, Milwaukee Area Tech, NIACC and DMACC in the top five. Kirkwood out of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference is ranked 12th. The NIACC women stayed at #2 in the Division II poll released on Monday. Conference foe Kirkwood remains #1. Kansas City Kansas is ranked third, Lincoln Land of Illinois is ranked fourth while Johnson County is ranked fifth. NIACC is off until December 28th when they face 13th-ranked Bryant and Stratton of Wisconsin in the first round of the Illinois Central Holiday Tournament.
IOWA CITY — Iowa’s December 27th Holiday Bowl game against USC will conclude one of the best five year runs in program history. Ranked 16th in the College Football Playoff Poll the Hawkeyes take a 9-3 record against the 22nd ranked Trojans.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. A win in the Holiday Bowl would be their 19th over the last two seasons.
It was the 2014 season that finished 7-6 after a blowout loss to Tennessee in the Gator Bowl that served as a reboot for the program. Since then the Hawkeyes have averaged more than nine wins.
Kickoff of the Holiday Bowl game on Friday December 27th is scheduled for 7 o’clock Iowa time, with the pre-game starting at 5 o’clock on that day on AM-1300 KGLO. A special bowl-game edition of Hawk Talk will take place at 6:30 on Thursday December 26th on KGLO.
