Sports

MARSHALLTOWN — The Iowa Lakes Community College softball team brought their bats Sunday in their sweep over NJCAA D-1 Marshalltown Community College. The Lakers put up a combined 31 runs in their two games. Yasmine Nix and Annjelica Moreno-Englebrecht each picked up a win for the Lakers. They are now 6-10 on the season and 3-1...

STORM LAKE — The Storm Lake Albatross rugby club continues to move on despite low numbers this season. Albatross player-coach Daniel Bern stated the numbers are a repeat of what they saw last year, only having five to six guys say they will show up for the first practice...

The Laker golf women began their spring season at a tournament in Texas over spring break. The trip allowed them to get a head start on the season. “It was a great experience for our team,” ILCC women's golf head coach Jarvis Weber said. “The girls were very anxious to get outside and play.”...

Sioux Central senior Ben Hargens, pictured laying in a bucket during the Rebels’ trip to the Iowa High School State Basketball Tournament, received a 2019 Iowa Bankers Association Student Athlete Achievement Award during the event in Des Moines. One student from each class (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A) received a $1,000 scholarship to the school of their choice. Scholarship recipients were selected based on their academic performance, athletic participation, leadership skills and community involvement. Winning the award for Class 2A was Spencer Lamb, of Van Meter; Class 3A’s winner was Kegan Odden, of Ballard; and Class 4A recipient was Cole Mabry, of Iowa City West. Hargens received the Class 1A award.

SHS again named NATA Safe Sports School After being one of the first schools in the state of Iowa to be named a Safe Sports School by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association in 2015, Spencer High School has again earned the designation for the next three years, showing the institution’s preparedness in case of a sports related emergency...

HUMBOLDT — On the blue oval inside the Humboldt Community Recreation Center opened just a few months ago on Dec. 3, Spencer closed out its indoor track and field season Thursday night, racing against Forest City, Southeast Valley and the hosting Wildcats...

The Spencer Family YMCA Tigersharks continued to make some waves at the state level this past Saturday, sending 59 swimmers to the Greater Iowa Swim League State Meet hosted by Grinnell college. Forty-five Tigersharks earned medals for placing first, second or third while competing against 12 other teams from across the state.

DES MOINES — The tracks jumped out from the old, crusty snow — they were big — likely from a trophy — and some of the largest Jeff Glaw has seen. “That’s a pretty good sized tom turkey that left these tracks,” said the long-time wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Glaw was visiting the 780-acre Soap Creek Wildlife Area with district forester and co-worker Ray Lehn to check on an area that had its tree make up manipulated as part of their forest stewardship plan...

DES MOINES — Once a well-known resident of Iowa’s grasslands, the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) calls Iowa home in much lower numbers today due to loss of habitat. However, they still remain one of Iowa’s most interesting mammals! Life in the fast lane...

DES MOINES — Enjoy those easy-to-see large flocks of turkeys feeding in the fields while you can. In the next few weeks, the winter flocks will break up, and where you saw them last weekend is not where they’ll be when spring turkey season opens in April...

The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer. In my part of the world, this year March came in like a very serious lion. If the “In like a Lion, out like a Lamb” adage holds true, we’ve got a very nice end of the month coming up. Longer days and warmer temps this time of year mean that some really good ice fishing is soon to come. Here are some ideas for late season ice fishing...

Wow! Has this last month ever dragged out, but we are finally seeing above freezing temperatures, and with them comes the itch for open water fishing. If you are interested in learning more about muskie fishing, here is your opportunity. The Upper Great Plains Chapter 29 of Muskies Inc. ...

For those of you still working full time, you will have to forgive me for saying that being retired from a full-time job is awesome. My freelance writing allows me to work on my own time when and how much I want to work. With this type of flexibility, over the past 15 years, my wife and I have enjoyed taking a week or two trip every winter to a warmer climate somewhere in the United States (South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Maui) These trips have always been a wonderful break from northwest Iowa’s winter weather. ...

Boy oh boy what a change: When the new year started a couple of months ago we were looking at a very mild winter. The ice wasn’t as thick as it usually is at that time of year, and there wasn’t much snow around either. Flash forward to early March and there’s plenty of ice and too much snow. ...

DES MOINES — Once a well-known resident of Iowa’s grasslands, the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) calls Iowa home in much lower numbers today due to loss of habitat. However, they still remain one of Iowa’s most interesting mammals! Life in the fast lane...