Decorah’s Chloe Sheffield opened Friday with a pin to reach the 100-pound finals of the IGHSAU state wrestling tournament at Xtream Arena in Coralville. Naomi Simon reached her fourth final and was one of five medalists for the Vikings, who clinched the team title after the third session.
The Iowa high School Athletic Association State Duals are Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville. Five Gazette area teams are in the field.
West Liberty’s Silvia Garcia-Vasquez placed third at state last year with her lone loss coming to Sioux City North’s runner-up Molly Sek. She got revenge Thursday, pinning the top seed in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union 115-pound state quarterfinals. Garcia-Vasquez was joined in the quarterfinals by sisters, Dionni and Bricsia.
It’s one of the busiest weeks of the Iowa high school wrestling season and the Pinning Combination podcast with Hall of Fame coach Dick Briggs breaks it all down. We recap last Saturday’s boys’ conference tournaments and Tuesday’s regional duals, then preview the state duals and girls’ state tournament.
No. 1-ranked teams in Iowa high school basketball picked up some big wins last week: Class 1A’s top-ranked North Linn girls beat 3A No. 1 Mount Vernon, while the 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy boys handled West Des Moines Valley. And there’s another big boys’ game on Friday, when 1A No. 1 Bellevue Marquette hosts No. 3 North Linn. The Call It Both Ways podcast discusses those games on this week’s episode, plus more notable performances.
Despite an overtime loss at West Des Moines Valley, Cedar Rapids Prairie continues to climb in The Gazette’s area high school girls’ basketball Super Ten rankings.
Class 2A’s second-ranked Mustangs were strong in a 46-15 regional duals victory over No. 14 Solon Tuesday night. The Mustangs head to the state duals tournament Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville for the second straight year.
Mount Vernon’s Klayten Perreault recorded a pin for the 106-pound title Saturday at Williamsburg and helped propel the Mustangs to their first Wamac Conference tournament team title since joining the league in 2009.
See photos from the 2024 Wamac Conference boys’ wrestling tournament at Williamsburg High School. Mount Vernon claimed its first team title.
Vinton-Shellsburg received regional titles from Bree Swenson and Chloe Sanders and advanced seven to next week’s IGHSAU state wrestling tournament in Coralville. Vinton-Shellsburg finished second to Bettendorf in the Region 6 team race Friday at Alliant Energy PowerHouse.
Girls’ basketball: Class 1A top-ranked North Linn hit 13 3-point shots, committed only three turnovers and upended 3A No. 1 Mount Vernon, 60-48.
Alburnett has climbed to the top of the Class 1A boys’ wrestling dual rankings. The Pirates were fourth at the 2023 state duals and will host regional duals again this season. The Wamac Conference has seven teams in the field with No. 2 Mount Vernon, West Delaware and Indpendence hosting 2A regional duals. Linn-Mar is the lone Gazette-area host in 3A.
Jase and Jackson Jaspers are in their second season as Mount Vernon wrestling teammates, but they have wrestled together for a long time.
Sophomore Kiersten Swart and junior Libby Dix wrestle on opposite sides of the lineup for the Mount Vernon Mustangs. This season, the dynamic duo is quite similar. Their records are nearly identical — Swart’s is 29-3, while Dix 29-1.
The Call It Both Ways podcast is back with weekly high school basketball topics, including the Mount Vernon girls' rise from a one-win season to a No. 1 ranking, schedule changes, participation numbers, Eric Dettbarn's 500-win career and more.
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