SIOUX RAPIDS — Spirit Lake, anchored by. 6-foot-4 Jordyn Hamm in the middle and boasting four players 5-foot-10 or taller, gave Sioux Central fits on the inside during the season opener for both squads Monday night at Sioux Central High School. The Rebels, who top out at 5-foot-8 this season, were forced to resort to the long ball on offense and struggled to defend the paint, falling 50-30 to drop to 0-1 on the year...

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes women’s basketball team held on to defeat the Grand View JV 72-64 at home Saturday. The Lakers benefitted from a balanced attack with four players in double figures. Shareece Smith had a game-high 20 points, Samantha Hagedorn had 14, including four 3-pointers, and Shanice Vaughn finished with 13 points...

MARSHALLTOWN — The Iowa Lakes men's Basketball team moved to 5-1 on the season with a 96-88 win over William Penn's JV Saturday. The win came after the team’s first loss of the year Friday — a 90-89 defeat at the hands of Highland Community College out of Illinois in Marshalltown...

Wrestling is a hotbed in the state of Iowa. Every winter gyms are packed with fans who want to cheer on their children, friends, family or classmates. For new Buena Vista wrestling coach Mark Rial, he was born into a wrestling family and saw it blossom into a way to go to college and eventually become a career...

Iowa Lakes women’s basketball player Breanna Wendland was named the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference player of the week for the Lakers. Wendland was one assist shy of a triple-double against the Dordt JV with 27 points, 10 rebounds and nine dimes...

ESTHERVILLE — After dropping the season opener, the Iowa Lakes women’s basketball team has reeled off four straight victories with the latest coming Wednesday night at home against Minnesota West Community and Technical College 69-52. The Lakers were led by 20 points from Breanna Wendland. Samantha Hagedorn added 15 points, and Shanice Vaughn added 10...

The courtesy dock is removed for the season. --- About 1,600 rainbow trout were stocked on Nov. 7. Use small tube and twister jigs, in-line spinners, casting spoons, and live minnows or crawlers fished under a bobber. --- As of Nov. 15, the lake was covered with skim ice. ...

File photo Three Spencer Tigers picked up All-Lakes Conference nods for this past season with senior Julia Feldman, pictured above, leading the way as a second team all-conference player for the second year in a row. Fellow seniors Leah Heikens and Marissa Salton picked up honorable mention honors from the league.

NORFOLK, Neb. — The Iowa Lakes men’s basketball team kept its record spotless over the weekend, winning two games at the Hawk Classic hosted by Northeast Community College. The Lakers moved to 3-0 on the year with a 98-77 win over Central Columbus Friday...

NORFOLK, Neb. — The Iowa Lakes women’s basketball team picked up a pair of wins over the weekend at the Hawk Classic hosted by Northeast Community College. After holding on for an exciting 83-80 win over the Mount Mary College JV Friday in a game that saw freshman Breann Wendland pour in 31 points, the Lakers added another hard fought win Saturday, taking down Northeast 78-72 behind 20 points each from Shareece Smith and Wendland...

DES MOINES — During the Laker wrestling program’s second open tournament of the season, they had a number of individual wrestlers place. Head coach Cody Alesch was pleased with his team's improvement from last weekend when he said, "I'm happier with this week's performances than I was last week. ...

SIOUX CITY — The Laker swimmers had many impressive individual performances at Saturday’s Morningside Invitational. “Our small team has a difficult time keeping up in the team scores when we go up against teams of 20 or more members,” Laker swim coach Todd Peters said. “ We consistently placed our swimmers in the top eight in most events and almost took a couple of wins.”...

Spencer’s 8-3 state quarterfinal run this season unsurprisingly yielded plenty of postseason district honors for individual Tigers. A total of 16 Tigers picked up nods from the district as an all district player, all district honorable mention or all district academic player. Above, the Tigers’ all district players are (front, from left): Gage Garnatz, Griffin Garnatz (honorable mention), Chase Hough, Jacob Doran (honorable mention), Ryan VerMulm (honorable mention). Back row: Isaiah Spencer, Isaac Pingel, Michael Storey, Drew Thompson (district offensive line MVP), Cale Salton (district kicker), Brady Schlaeger and Liam McCreary (honorable mention). Below are the academic all district honorees (front, from left): Chase Hough, Jacob Doran, Travis Grover. Back row: Ryan VerMulm, Sam Baker (honorable mention), Michael Storey, Joseph Schendel and Drew Thompson. Additional team awards were given out at the team’s banquet this past Sunday with Tyler Conrad being named the scout team player of the year, Darrious Green winning hammer player of the year, Cale Salton claiming special teams player of the year, Drew Thompson taking honey badger player of the year and Isaiah Spencer being named the team’s MVP after leading class 3A in rushing yards with 1,533 yards and 20 touchdowns on 267 attempts (5.7 yards per carry).

Love for sports, in general or a specific one, can be ingrained from an early age. Basketball was the sport that new BVU men’s basketball head coach Todd Lorensen grew up with, saw first hand from when he was a young boy and continues to see his professional life revolve around...

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes women’s basketball team blew out Dordt’s JV Monday night 100-58. The Lakers were led by Breanna Wendland’s 27 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Sam Hagedorn added 20 points, Shareece Smith 11 and Shanice Vaughn 10. “So proud of our team tonight,” Laker coach Ashley Martin said. “It was a team effort from everyone. I thought we played really hard and shared the ball. We were able to get out in transition and run. We are showing signs of improvement each day.”...

Last season the Buena Vista women’s basketball team finished with a 13-13 record under the direction of legendary coach Janet Berry. Berry has moved on to coach golf for the Beavers as Dana Christen steps into the role of head women’s basketball coach for the first time at the collegiate level...

Photos submitted Ryan Bauermeister (Top) and Miranda Buettner (bottom) won the men’s and women’s divisions of the Thunderbridge Road Race this past weekend. The 5K race annually hosted by the Spencer Family YMCA saw 37 runners participate in the event. Full results are below...

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes men's basketball team defeated Dordt's JV 108-75 Monday night. The Lakers were led by Kevin Jennings with 20 points. Also scoring in double figures for the Lakers was Brandun Robinson with 18 points, Boston Grimes with 16, and Solomon Clayton and Lamontae Lewis with 13 each...

STORM LAKE — A season ago the Buena Vista men’s basketball team finished with a 17-9 record but faltered down the stretch, losing four of the last five. To compound the end of the season frustration, long time head coach Brian Van Haaften announced he was stepping down to pursue the same position at a different college...

Iowa Lakes men’s soccer head coach Ben MacRae was awarded Region XI Co-Coach of the Year honors for the 2018 season, making this the second time MacRae has earned this honor in the last five years. He shares this year's award with Marshalltown head coach Rafael Martinez...

There is a new coach in town for the Buena Vista University wrestling program as Mark Rial takes over this season on the mats. With a new coach always comes new ideas and a fresh perspective on how to lift the program back up. “Things are going pretty good. The transition has been easier than I anticipated,” Rial said. “I give credit to the seniors we have and returners we have for buying into the change. Been going really good, working hard and focusing on getting better every day.”...

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes men's basketball team moved to 1-0 on the season with a 92-76 win over Northwestern College's JV Thursday. Equan Ards, Solomon Clayton and Kevin Jennings each had 19 points for the Lakers, and Boston Grimes added 14. Clayton led the team in rebounds with nine...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Iowa Lakes wrestling team opened its season at the Yellow Jacket Open hosted by Ridgewater College Saturday. Against a strong field of competition including NJCAA, NCAA D-II and D-III teams, many Lakers were successful. Kevin Saravia Merlos placed fifth at 125 pounds, winning four straight after losing his first match to the eventual champion...

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes women’s basketball team dropped its season and home opener Thursday night by a score of 78-70 to Northwestern’s JV. The Lakers were led by Breanna Wendland’s 22 points, Beth Rehse’s 14, Shareece Smith’s 12 and Tejah Hayden’s 11...

MARSHALLTOWN — Two of the Spencer girls swim team’s three state qualifying events improved on their seeding Friday and Saturday during the IGHSAU State Swimming and Diving Meet held at the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA. Emma VerSteeg got things started for the Tigers, swimming in Friday night’s preliminary individual events...

SERGEANT BLUFF — Spencer’s most impressive football campaign since 2013, if not longer, saw its final snap Friday night in the 3A state quarterfinals with the Sergeant Bluff-Luton Warriors beating the Tigers for the second time this season by a score of 27-0...

The most recent dustup between the Tigers and Warriors should still be pretty fresh in the memory banks. Spencer won the turnover battle against Sergeant Bluff-Luton 3-1, but the purple and gold defense struggled mightily getting off the field on third down as SB-L phenom tailback Britton Delperdang repeatedly made magic happen when it seemed the Warriors were cornered. ...

Spencer High School golf standout Ezra Meyer (center) with parents Dr. Nate and Susan Meyer at his side as well as Northwestern golf coach Aaron Aberson and Spencer golf coach Steve Bomgaars behind him signed his letter of intent to continue swinging the sticks as a Red Raider next year Wednesday at SHS. Meyer was named an all state and all state tournament performer as a junior, placing sixth individually in 3A while leading the Tigers to a fourth-place finish as a team at this past spring’s state tournament in Fort Dodge.

ESTHERVILLE — The 2018-19 Iowa Lakes men’s basketball team is led by head coach Troy Larson with returning assistant coach Jason McKinney and graduate assistant coach David Kong. Larson begins his 12th season as the head coach of the Lakers with an overall record of 231-117 losses for a 66 percent winning percentage, averaging 21 wins per season...

Spencer elementary students took part in the Kids Heart Challenge, formerly known as Jump Rope for Heart, Tuesday night at the Spencer High School field house, raising money for the American Heart Association. (Above)Adara Peterson participates in some double dutch during the challenge Tuesday night. (DRAKE SPAANS DIRECTION), Drake Spaans puts in some extra focus while getting in some jumps near the center of the floor. In total the students raised $13,714 with Kaitlin Sirovy from Lincoln leading the way with $1,126 raised. Taylor Kastning led Fairview with $322 raised, and Keely Stephenson was tops at Sacred Heart with $300 raised.

FORT DODGE — Despite heavy concerns about moisture from prior days turning the 5-kilometer cross-country course on Lakeside Municipal Golf Course into a muddy mess during Saturday’s Iowa High School Cross-Country Championships, a beautiful 60 degree day with little wind saw a perfectly serviceable course play host to just shy of 1,100 runners...

FORT DODGE — Spencer’s girls took on regional competition at Fort Dodge High School Saturday, swimming with the opportunity to take part in this coming weekend’s state meet in Marshalltown. The Tigers had three events qualify for a trip to Marshalltown with Emma VerSteeg making it individually in the 100-yard backstroke as well as on relay teams with Brooke Moser, NancyLynn Maris and Haley Harms, qualifying in the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay...

NORWALK - The season continues for the Spencer Tigers after they did just enough, including an enormous goal line stand and a reverse that caught the world by surprise, to knock off Norwalk 24-20 in the first round of 3A playoff action Friday night on the road, making the 3 ½ hour ride back to Spencer a joyous one...

Lakeside Municipal Golf Course inside of Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge will once again play host to some Spencer Tigers during Saturday’s Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships. The Tiger girls qualified as a team for a fourth straight year after placing third in the 3A district meet held at Spencer Municipal Golf Course...

Considering they’re over three hours away from each other, Spencer and Norwalk unsurprisingly haven’t mixed up in recent history. However, both teams finished 6-3 a year ago and ended up on the outside looking in come playoff time. Current Norwalk quarterback Max Sutcliffe was the main man behind the center last season as a junior as well, but he was much more efficient in the air in 2017, throwing for 18 touchdowns to just three picks with a 61.1 completion percentage. ...

Postseason play started Tuesday afternoon for the Iowa Lakes men’s soccer team against an Indian Hills team that played the Lakers to a 1-1 tie in Spencer early in the season and fell to the Lakers 3-2 in mid-September in Ottumwa. The Warriors finished Tuesday’s game with an 8-7 advantage in shots on goal but came away empty handed against ILCC goalkeeper Joshua Wilson, fresh off being named the NJCAA Player of the Week last week, as the Lakers advanced to Saturday’s regional final in Marshalltown by a score of 2-0.. ...

EMMETSBURG — For the second time this season Sioux Central and Emmetsburg slugged it out for five sets Monday night, but the latest rendition came with a trip to the 2A regional semifinals on the line. Just like the first meeting between the teams this year, the E-Hawks had more in the tank for the decisive set, claiming their spot in Thursday’s semifinals at Western Christian against the No. 3-ranked Wolfpack...

Iowa Lakes freshman goalkeeperr Joshua Wilson was named the NJCAA National Goalkeeper of the Week for his play last week. The kid from the land down under had an amazing game as he and the Lakers shut out No. 17-ranked Iowa Central 4-0. Wilson made seven crucial saves in the game, including a blocked penalty kick. He has an .800 save percentage, six wins and a goals against average of 1.08...

The Iowa Lakes men’s soccer has finished the regular season as the ICCAC co-champions. After tying for the regular season conference championship, the Lakers earned the No. 2 seed for regional tournament play. They will host Indian Hills Tuesday at 3 p.m...

AURELIA — After their week eight domination of IKM-Manning, Sioux Central appeared as well positioned as possible for a playoff bid. If the Rebels won their week nine contest as Alta-Aurelia, they would earn an outright district crown. If they lost and IKM beat two-win Ridge View, Sioux Central, A-A and IKM would have tied for the district title and all automatically qualified for the postseason...