Tuesday May 7th Local Sports
MASON CITY — Clear Lake had three of the top four golfers to win the North Central Conference boys golf tournament Monday at the Mason City Country Club. The Lions took home the team trophy with a 322, nine shots ahead of Webster City and 19 shots ahead of third-place Humboldt. Nathan Ferrell of Webster City was the medalist with a 72. Tyler Eaton of Clear Lake was the runner-up with a 75, followed by his teammates Jack Barragy with a 78 and Tate Storbeck with an 80. St. Edmond was fourth a shot behind Humboldt, with Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Iowa Falls-Alden, Algona and Hampton-Dumont/CAL rounding out the team standings. The Lions will host a tournament at Veterans Memorial Golf Course this afternoon with Algona, Decorah, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura, Lake Mills and Webster City. They’ll travel to the regional tournament in Charles City on Friday.
FORT DODGE — Clear Lake’s Ashley DeLong was the medalist while Humboldt had four finish in the top six to win the team title at the North Central Conference girls golf championship at the Fort Dodge Country Club on Monday. DeLong shot an 83 to win the individual honors, two strokes better than Humboldt’s Frances Carlson and St. Edmond’s Rylee Kinney. The Wildcats finished with a 350 to take home the team honors, 18 shots ahead of Clear Lake. Hampton-Dumont/CAL was third, followed by Algona, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Iowa Falls-Alden, St. Edmond and Webster City.
ST. ANSGAR — Osage ran away with the Top of Iowa Conference East boys golf title in St. Ansgar on Monday. The Green Devils shot a 356, 28 shots better than runner-up Central Springs. Carter Pals of Central Springs won a playoff over Jared Scharper of Osage for the medalist honors, as both shot an 80 in regulation.
NORA SPRINGS — St. Ansgar won the Top of Iowa Conference East girls golf tournament in Nora Springs on Monday. The Saints had a 410, three shots better than runner-up Osage. Dani Johnson of Osage was the medalist with an 88, ending five shots better than Keagan Betsinger of Nashua-Plainfield.
AMES – NIACC sophomore Ben Boerjan is headed back to the national tournament.
Boerjan, who was a member of the NIACC men’s golf team that qualified for nationals, earned a trip as an individual on Monday by placing second at the Region XI tournament at the Veenker Memorial Golf Course on the Iowa State University campus.
Boerjan shot a 148 and placed one shot behind Kirkwood’s Jame Morgan, who shot 147. The 148 is the lowest two-round total at a men’s regional tournament in the Chris Frenz era, which began in 2007.
The previous low total at a regional total by a Frenz coached team was 151 by Jacob Urdahl in 2013 and Boerjan and Josh Schaefer at the 2018 regional tournament.
NIACC placed fifth in the team standings with a 644. Kirkwood was the regional champion with a 603. DMACC was second with a 623 and Southwestern was third with a 625.
The top three teams qualify for the national tournament.
Also for NIACC, Austin Eckenrod shot a 160, Jackson Hamlin shot a 166, Matthew Heinemann shot a 171 and Zach Martin shot a 172.
TORONTO (AP) — Martin Perez and two relievers combined on a three-hitter, Eddie Rosario hit his AL-leading 12th home run, and the Minnesota Twins blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 8-0. Jason Castro and Jorge Polanco also homered for the Twins.
MASON CITY — The NIACC baseball team wrapped up the regular season with an 11-0, seven-inning win over the Luther College JV on Autism Awareness Night at Roosevelt Field on Monday. Fox Leum socked a two-run homer to end the game and now is tied with Robbie Glendinning as NIACC’s all-time career home run leader. NIACC ends the regular season with a 31-24 record and will face Southeastern in the opening round of the Region XI tournament on Thursday in Clinton
IOWA CITY — On the strength of its six straight series wins, including taking two of three games from No. 18 UC Irvine last weekend at Duane Banks Field, the University of Iowa baseball team has made its debut in the top 25 rankings.
The Hawkeyes come in at No. 24 by D1Baseball.com — the program’s first ranking by D1Baseball.com since the 2015 season when Iowa climbed as high as 14th.
Iowa is 29-17 overall and 11-7 in Big Ten play, sitting in a tie for third in the league standings, with two weekends remaining in the regular season. The Hawkeyes close out their home schedule May 10-12, hosting Michigan State at Duane Banks Field.
“There is not shot at a regional if we don’t play well”, said Iowa coach Rick Heller. “I am just being realistic about it and we have to play well against anybody to have a chance to win.”
The Hawkeyes are one of two Big Ten teams in the rankings. Illinois is ranked 25th after taking two of three games from Indiana to knock the Hoosiers out of the top 25.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Gersson Rosas had first-hand experience with success from unconventional strategy during a 17-year run with the Houston Rockets. An outside-the-box approach might be necessary, if the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to catch up in the cutthroat Western Conference. The new president of basketball operations in Minnesota, a native of Colombia who will be the first Latino to lead an NBA front office, sold Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor on his collaborative vision for the team.
AMES — It could be running back by committee for Iowa State next season. David Montgomery is now a Chicago Bear after finishing third in the Big 12 in rushing at just over 101 yards per game. Senior Sheldon Croney is the most veteran member of the running back corps after seeing limited action a year ago.
Croney says it is a close group.
Offensive coordinator Tom Manning likes the potential of the running backs.
Junior Kene Nwangu is another veteran at running back. He was an All Big 12 kick returner a year ago.
Manning says they are exploring different ways to get Nwangu the ball.
Iowa State opens the football season on August 31st hosting Northern Iowa.