ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Forward Cameron Lard is back in Iowa State’s good graces and coach Steve Prohm is hopeful things will stay that way. Prohm said Thursday that Lard, who enrolled at a wellness center in early June instead of joining his teammates for summer workouts, rejoined the Cyclones earlier this month.

Lard, who will be a sophomore this season, had a drug paraphernalia charge dismissed during a pretrial hearing in April. He was stopped by Ames police on Feb. 4 for speeding, and an officer smelled marijuana coming from the car. Lard pleaded guilty to speeding.

Lard, 20, was also cited for being underage at an Ames bar this offseason. Prohm said all the issues pushed Lard to spend time at a wellness center and away from Ames in an effort to make better decisions. Prohm met with Lard on Wednesday and said he was in “really good spirits.”

“He’s done some things that he doesn’t need to be doing. We handled that internally,” said Prohm, who met with reporters before a charity golf event outside of Des Moines. “My goal, and my prayer, is that he continues to grow and get better.”

The 6-foot-9, 225-pound Lard didn’t arrive at Iowa State until midway through his freshman season, but he was considered so talented that there was talk that Lard might immediately join a team that went on to win the Big 12 Tournament. Prohm instead redshirted him. Last year, Lard showed in his first season that he has the potential to be one of the better big men in America.

Lard averaged 12.6 points and was fourth in the Big 12 with 8.1 rebounds per game in 2017-18, even though he made just 16 starts. Lard also ranked second in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage at .601 and third in blocks per game at 2.2.

Lard was inconsistent as a freshman, but he also took games over more than once. He scored 22 points against Texas Tech on 10 of 11 shooting, had 21 points and 16 rebounds against Texas and scored 19 points with 17 boards in a win over Oklahoma. Lard has not spoken to the media since last season.

“If we can get (his habits) lined up with his abilities, I think he’s got a chance to be a terrific frontcourt player in (the Big 12),” Prohm said. “He really runs the floor well, really chases down on the offensive glass…and hopefully we can continue to develop his offensive, low-post game. But it’s about habits for him. And he knows that, and I think he took a big step this summer.”

The Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released the State Qualifying Cross Country Meet sites for the upcoming season on Thursday.

Locally in Class 1A AC/GC will host, in Class 2A Panorama will host, in 3A Glenwood is a host site, and in 4A Lewis Central will host.

Take a look at the full list here: 2018-SQM-Cross-Country-Sites

A coaching change may have come at as good of a time as any for Atlantic volleyball with seven seniors gone from last year’s squad. Michelle Blake takes over the head coaching reigns from Emma Bireline who stepped down to spend more time with her young family. Blake has been an assistant coach for numerous Atlantic sports previously, including as an assistant with Coach Bireline during her first season. Coach Blake said that has helped in the transition for her.

Atlantic is coming off a 16-22 campaign last year, which showed continued improvement from a 4-28 season in 2016. For that improvement as a program to continue the Trojans will need to fill the void of losing their top players to graduation. The two leaders in kills from last year Cheyenne Elliot and Riley Seufert are gone, as is setter and assist leader Sidney Svoboda. Coach Blake said the team feels like this is a great opportunity to build a confident mindset with a lot of young players.

Atlantic opens up the season on Saturday at the AHSTW Tournament in Avoca. They will then play in a triangular with AC/GC at CAM next Tuesday. Coach Blake said she is looking to see the girls compete hard in these early matches.

You can hear the full interview with Coach Blake this Saturday morning at 8:30am on our Saturday Morning Coaches Show on KJAN.

The 2018 High School Football season is upon us and we are gearing up for another year of full Friday night coverage for you on KJAN. We will have a packed schedule of high school football coverage for you each Friday night throughout the season.

Every Friday at 4:45pm you can tune in to Trojan Preview, our weekly discussion with Atlantic Head Football Coach Mike McDermott. We’ll talk with coach about the upcoming match-up and once we are into the season take a look back briefly at last week’s contest. That program will also be available in podcast form on our programs page and then Trojan Preview/Who’s Gonna Win? page after it airs at 4:45pm.

We will then start our evening coverage at 6:00pm with another season of our high school football pick ’em show Who’s Gonna Win?. Doug Leonard, Matt Mullenix, Jim Field, and Chris Parks discuss and pick 8 high school football games each week. Each program will also be available in podcast form once it airs live also on the Trojan Preview/Who’s Gonna Win? page at kjan.com. We will also post running record tallies for our picks on those posts.

Then our High School Football Game of the Week coverage will begin each Friday with pregame at 6:30pm and the majority of kickoffs at 7:00pm throughout the season. Chris Parks and Mike Smith will have the call of our games again this season. You can listen to games on-air at AM 1220, FM 101.1, online at kjan.com, and on the KJAN mobile app. To listen online click the listen live icon in the top right corner of any kjan.com webpage. Find out details about the mobile app on our homepage at kjan.com. We are happy again to provide live video streaming of every game we cover as well. This season that video feed will be through our facebook page KJAN AM 1220 via Facebook Live. A link will be available on our traditional KJANTV page to find the game as well.  We hope this will make the game easy to access for all our listeners.

Here is a look at our schedule for the upcoming season. We hope you join us.

2018 KJAN High School Football Schedule
Friday, August 24th: Atlantic @ Saydel
Friday, August 31st: Audubon @ Fremont-Mills
Friday, September 7th: Griswold @ East Mills
Friday, September 14th: Atlantic @ Harlan
Friday, September 21st: Exira-EHK @ CAM
Friday, September 28th: AHSTW @ Earlham
Friday, October 5th: Atlantic @ Greene County
Friday, October 12th: Atlantic @ Shenandoah
Friday, October 19th: TBD
Friday, October 26th: First Round Playoffs
Friday, November 2nd: Second Round Playoffs

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the second straight game, the St. Louis Cardinals rallied to win. And for the second time in the series, they did it on a ninth-inning homer off All-Star closer Kenley Jansen.

“It’s definitely redundant,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Same thing we’ve seen.”

The Cardinals clearly love a rerun.

Paul DeJong hit the go-ahead, two-run homer Wednesday night for a 3-1 victory and the Cardinals’ first sweep at Dodger Stadium since 2006.

The Cardinals’ eighth straight road win helped them improve to 17-4 this month, the most wins in the majors. They’ve homered in 15 straight games, one off the current season mark of 16 in a row by Philadelphia.

“It’s been a snowball effect for us,” DeJong said. “We can win every game.”

St. Louis remained 2½ games behind the NL Central-leading Cubs.

“It shows the resilience of our team. Everyone steps up on a nightly basis,” DeJong said. “It’s always someone new coming through.”

For Jansen, it was the same old story.

The Dodgers closer, who became a father for the third time earlier in the day, gave up consecutive homers to Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter in the series opener Monday. That was Jansen’s first game back after missing time because of an irregular heartbeat.

This time, Gyorko got a broken-bat single off Jansen (0-5), and DeJong followed with his 14th homer to left-center, giving the Cardinals their first lead of the game.

“Very frustrating,” Jansen said. “Got to figure out how to get back out of this mess.”

The Dodgers went quietly in the ninth, with Jordan Hicks striking out Cody Bellinger, Brian Dozier and Chris Taylor to earn his fifth save.

“Hicks was filthy,” Cardinals interim manager Mike Shildt said. “That was elite stuff right there.”

Dakota Hudson (4-0) got the win with one inning of relief.

Los Angeles loaded the bases in the eighth, but Manny Machado grounded out to end the inning. The Dodgers stranded 30 runners while getting swept for the third time this season.

They dropped to 32-33 at home, falling below .500 at Dodger Stadium for the first time since June 30.

Rookie Tyler O’Neill launched his first career pinch-hit homer in the top of the eighth off Scott Alexander, tying it 1-all.

Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler dueled in a stellar matchup of rookie pitchers, although neither figured in the decision.

Flaherty held the Dodgers hitless through 5 1/3 innings. Joc Pederson broke through after Buehler struck out leading off the sixth, slugging his 19th homer to right field for a 1-0 lead.

Flaherty gave up just that one hit in six innings. The 22-year-old right-hander from nearby Burbank struck out 10 and walked two on 101 pitches.

“It was special,” Flaherty said. “I wanted to make sure to take in the moment and enjoy it.”

Buehler scattered three hits over seven innings, struck out a career-high nine and walked two on 104 pitches.

The Dodgers have lost three in a row and they dropped four games behind NL West-leading Arizona in pursuit of a sixth straight division title.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: After getting Thursday off in Denver, RHP Miles Mikolas (13-3, 2.80 ERA) starts the series opener against the Rockies. His victories are the most by a first-year St. Louis pitcher since Kyle Lohse in 2008.

The NCAA is ditching the RPI for its own evaluation tool to select teams for the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool will rely on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency and quality of wins and losses. NET will be used for the 2018-19 season by the committee that selects schools and seeds the tournament.

NET rankings will be released in late November or early December and updated through Selection Sunday, with a final ranking following the tournament.

“What has been developed is a contemporary method of looking at teams analytically, using results-based and predictive metrics that will assist the Men’s Basketball Committee as it reviews games throughout the season,” NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement on Wednesday. “While no perfect rankings exist, using the results of past tournaments will help ensure that the rankings are built on an objective source of truth.”

The NCAA has used the RPI since 1981 to help the NCAA Tournament selection committee pick at-large teams, seeding and bracketing teams each March.

The RPI has been criticized in recent years for not being analytical enough. The RPI is calculated on winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponent’s strength of schedule, but more accurate tools for evaluating performance have developed.

NET will give equal importance to early and late-season games, and caps wins at 10 points to prevent teams from running up the score.

NET was approved in July following months of consultation with the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, the National Association Basketball Coaches, top basketball analytics experts and Google Cloud Professional Services.

Last season, the NCAA introduced a quadrant system to put greater emphasis on wins away from home. The quadrant system will remain in place for evaluating teams.

The NCAA said the RPI will still be used in other Division I sports, including women’s basketball.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.

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Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul DeJong hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning, lifting the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-1 victory and a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cardinals’ eighth straight road win helped them improve to 17-4 this month, the most wins in the majors.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Lowe and Mallex Smith drove in two runs each, and the Tampa Bay Rays moved five games over .500 for the first time this season with a 6-3 win over the Kansas City Royals. Lowe, who drove in the first two runs with a second-inning single off Jakob Junis, and Smith were among six Rays who had two hits each. Tampa Bay has won four straight, including the first three of a four-game seat against Kansas City.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II set social media ablaze last weekend with a 69-yard touchdown toss to Tyreek Hill. It was an impressive show of arm strength by Kansas City’s new starter. Though coach Andy Reid warned there’s more to playing the position that being able to get the ball downfield in a hurry.

NEW YORK (AP) — Major league baseball will return to Monterrey, Mexico, for six games in 2019, starting with spring training games between Colorado and Arizona on March 9 and March 10. Cincinnati will host St. Louis in the regular season on April 13 and April 14, and the Los Angeles Angels will play the Houston Astros on May 4 and May 5. All games will be played at Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey, the home of the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League.

ST. LOUIS, Mo., September 22, 2018 – The St. Louis Cardinals, in conjunction with Major League Baseball’s league-wide release, today announced their 2019 regular season schedule.  The home opener for the Redbirds is set for Thursday, April 4 against the San Diego Padres as part of a seven-game home stand with San Diego (April 4, 6-7) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (April 8-11).

The Cardinals will open their 2019 season on the road with a four-game series at Milwaukee against the division rival Brewers beginning on Thursday, March 28, followed by a two-game series at Pittsburgh (April 1 & 3).

The 2019 season will feature 26 home series and 26 road series, including 14 weekend series at Busch Stadium: April 4, 6-7 vs San Diego, April 19-21 vs New York Mets, April 26-28 vs Cincinnati, May 10-12 vs Pittsburgh, May 24-26 vs Atlanta, May 31-June 2 vs. Chicago Cubs, June 21-23 vs. Los Angeles Angels, July 12-14 vs Arizona, July 26-27 vs Houston, August 9-11 vs Pittsburgh, August 23-25 vs Colorado, August 30-September 1 vs Cincinnati, September 13-15 vs Milwaukee and September 27-29 vs Chicago Cubs.

The Cardinals will host the Chicago Cubs for two weekend series (May 31-June 2 & September 27-29), including the final series of the 2019 regular season, and one mid-week series (July 30-August 1) at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals 20-game interleague schedule will feature a pair of two-game home-and-home series with in-state rival Kansas City (May 21-22 at Busch Stadium & August 13-14 at Kansas City) and with the Oakland Athletics (June 25-26 at Busch Stadium & August 3-4 at Oakland).  In addition, the Cardinals will host three-game home series against the Los Angeles Angels (June 21-23) and Houston Astros (July 26-28), and will play three-game road series at Texas (May 17-19) and at Seattle (July 2-4).

The Cardinals are scheduled to play 43 of their 81 home games before the July 8-11 All-Star Break, playing 16 home games in April, 13 in May, 14 in June, 11 in July, 13 in August and 14 in September.  The Cardinals are scheduled to play home games on Easter Sunday (April 21 vs. Mets), Mother’s Day (May 12 vs. Pirates), Memorial Day weekend (May 24-26 vs. Braves) and Labor Day weekend (Aug. 31-Sept. 1 vs. Reds & Labor Day, Sept. 2 vs. Giants).

The Cardinals longest home stands of the 2019 season consist of two nine-game stands (April 19-28 & June 17-26).  Their longest road trip is 10 games (June 7-16). The Cardinals will play 20 consecutive games without a day off from June 4-23 (10 home games & 10 road games).

The season opener on March 28 against the Brewers represents the first time in franchise history that the Cardinals will begin the season at Milwaukee.  The two teams have faced each other three times previously on Opening Day (2004, 2003 & 1999), all in St. Louis.  The March 28 season opener will also be the earliest in franchise history.

The Cardinals will make future announcements regarding game times, ticket pricing and ticket availability for the 2019 season.  To view the full 2019 regular season schedule, visit cardinals.com.