Clay County Fair Speedway — Wednesday, July 20

IMCA MODIFIED BY KICD

GILLETTE, Wyo. — Fifteen-year-old Spencer High School freshman Connor Essick earned the opportunity to compete in the National High School Rodeo in Wyoming last week. Essick qualified in the top four of his events to get the invitation to compete.

SPENCER — Sunday was the beginning of the American Legion State Tournament, taking place at Cardinal Field in Spencer. The Iowa Lakes Okoboji’s which features players from the Tigers and Sioux Central Rebels got it started against Moville.

The winner of the tournament advances to multi-state regional tournament in Rapid City, South Dakota.

DES MOINES — Mediacom Communications will provide live-action television coverage of the 50th Iowa Shrine Bowl on Saturday, July 23, at 4 p.m. Local Shrine Bowl participants, with Abu Bekr representative Dean Jacobsen, include cheerleaders Aneli Hicks and MacKenzie Manwarren, lineman Andrew Hough and Spencer coach Jim Tighe, who will serve as an assistant coach. The game will be played at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with exclusive statewide television coverage on Mediacom’s MC22.

DES MOINES — When you hear the term Ironman, most think of Robert Downey Jr. or maybe in sports, you think of Cal Ripken Jr.

Ironman Triathlon competitions that are held throughout the United States. Miles Fletcher, a Spencer High School graduate recently completed a triathlon, finishing 24th in his division of men, ages 25-29; 206th overall among men, and 254th in the field with a time of 12:29:53.

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes softball team had a tremendous year both on the field and in the classroom. The Lakers were recognized by the National Junior College Athletic Association as one of the top 25 softball teams for highest cumulative team GPA.

The Spencer Tigers 13U baseball team recently competed at a tournament in Worthington, Minnesota. Is batter Bode Finkbeiner balancing a ball on his helmet? No he is trying to unsuccessfully duck under a high pitch. Finkbeiner, who was hit by the pitch, and his Tigers teammates went 3-1 on the weekend, losing 1-0 to a team from Montevideo, Minnesota, in the championship. The Tigers competed at the USSSA state tournament over weekend to end the season. (Photo by Scott Ten Kley)

SERGENT BLUFF — The stands were jam packed with orange and purple, when Spencer traveled two hours to Sergent Bluff Wednesday for a Substate Final clash with the Warriors. SB-L came into the game the fourth-ranked team in 3A on the season. Spencer would lose the contest 8-3.

ORANGE CITY — Monday night was the second round of the Class 3A Substate tournament. After Spencer defeated Storm Lake Friday, they had to travel to face the No. 1 seeded MOC-Floyd Valley Dutchmen. The two teams split a pair of meetings in the regular season, setting up the high stakes rubber match.

SIOUX CITY — Olivia Huckfelt’s three-run blast in the top of the seventh inning provided a spark of hope for the Spencer Tigers in the Class 4A Regional semifinal softball matchup against Sioux City Heelan Saturday night; but the rally proved too little, too late, falling to the 30-11 Crusaders, 8-4.

SPENCER — After jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the Class 4A Region 1 quarterfinal matchup Thursday night against Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley, the Tigers saw the momentum slip away temporarily when the Nighthawks rallied with three runs of its own in the top of the third to close the gap. Leading of the bottom of the third inning, senior Izzy Pingel delighted the home crowd when she lined a blast over the right field fence to steal the momentum back and ignite a 13-3 victory in 5 2/3 innings.

STORM LAKE — After dropping a pair of contested Lakes Conference battles to Storm Lake this season, Spencer would have to get past the Tornadoes to move on to the Class 3A Substate semifinal Monday night. The two team would battle on Storm Lake’s field for seven innings Friday, coming down to the final inning.

HINTON — After claiming a two-run advantage in the top of the first, Sioux Central would see their lead cut in half in the bottom half of the frame. The Rebels and Blackhawks would battle back-and-fourth in the see-saw matchup before Hinton put together a five-run, fifth to claim the 9-4 win in Wednesday’s Regional quarterfinal.

After scoring a 3-1 Class 2A Substate quarterfinal win against Southeast Valley at Pocahontas Tuesday, the Rebels would come up a run short against Pocahontas Area Saturday night on the Indians home field, 3-2, to end the season, 15-10.

No additional information was available from Sioux Central Coach Alan Vasher.

The Rebels’ Gibson Olson, Dakota Deuschle, Ethan Johnson and Landon Olson played in their final games.

STORM LAKE — Friday marks the postseason opener for the Spencer Tigers baseball team. The boys will travel to Storm Lake to face the Tornadoes in a Lakes Conference rivalry to open substate play. The winner will face the victor between Sioux Center or MOC-Floyd Valley.

Spencer and the Storm Lake have had two contested games this season, the Tigers falling short in both of them. Storm Lake has had an impressive 19-10 season, but have lost five in a row coming into this game.