GOLF

Girls
AHSTW 250, CAM 254, Exira-EHK NTS
Medalist: Ally Meyers, AHSTW (52)
Runner-Up: Isabel Luna, AHSTW (54)

Boys
CAM 218, AHSTW 219, Exira-EHK 223
Medalist: Tyler Petersen, Exira-EHK (45)
Runner-Up: Logan Lawrence, CAM (52)

TENNIS

Girls
St. Albert 5, CB Thomas Jefferson 4

Boys
CB Abraham Lincoln 9, Harlan 0

TRACK

Hawkeye Ten South Meet @ Clarinda

Glenwood won 10 events in the girls portion of the meet. Clarinda and Glenwood won 7 events apiece on the boys side.

2021 Hawkeye Ten South Meet

With Jim Field.

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(bearcatsports.com) The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced Monday that Ben McCollum of Northwest Missouri State University has been selected as the 2021 NABC Division II Coach of the Year presented by Wilson.

This is the fourth time in the last five years that McCollum has earned the award with three NCAA Division II championships during that period. The Bearcats topped West Texas A&M 80-54 in the NCAA Division II national championship game on Saturday in Evansville, Ind., finishing the season with a 28-2 won-lost record.

Northwest Missouri also won NCAA titles in 2016-17 and 2018-19 and may have garnered another last season with a 31-1 record before the abrupt end of play due to the pandemic.  Over the last three seasons, McCollum’s teams have a 97-3 won-lost record and a 159-8 mark over the last five seasons.

A seven-time MIAA coach of the year, McCollum earned the 2019 John McLendon National Coach of the Year award for all divisions. He will receive his award on Friday, April 2, during the virtual AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show, which begins at 6:30 pm (EDT).

McCollum surpassed Cal State Bakersfield’s Pat Douglass for the most NABC Division II Coach of the Year awards with four. Douglass captured his awards in 1993, 1994 and 1997. McCollum has been the NABC Coach of the Year in 2017, 2019,  2020 and 2021.

IRVING, Texas – David Carr, the 2021 Big 12 and NCAA champion at 157 pounds, has been named the Big 12 Wrestler of the Year, the conference announced on Tuesday. Carr is the first Iowa State wrestler to win this award since the Big 12 started awarding it in 2016.

The Canton, Ohio, native’s 2021 resume included a perfect 20-0 mark on the year, making him the only undefeated wrestler in the Big 12. He posted five wins by major decision, four by fall and four by technical fall for a bonus-rate of 65% on the season. Carr saw 11 of his wins come over opponents ranked in the top-20 nationally.

In accomplishing all of this, Carr was named a finalist for the Dan Hodge Trophy, presented annually to the nation’s most dominant wrestler.

Carr’s march to becoming the Big 12’s top wrestler culminated with a title performance at the NCAA Championships. The two-time All-American claimed the 157-pound crown with a 4-0 decision over Rider’s Jesse Dellavechia in the finals.

At the NCAA Championships, Carr went 5-0 and didn’t yield a single takedown. He outscored his opponents by a 40-10 margin.

With his championship performance, Carr became ISU’s 300th All-American in program history. He is the school’s 50th wrestler to win an individual NCAA Championship and the 70th overall individual champion in school history. He is Iowa State’s first undefeated champion since 2011 (John Reader).

In Tulsa, Carr successfully defended his Big 12 crown taking out Jared Franek in the Big 12 finals by 8-2 decision. Carr became Iowa State’s 57th wrestler in program history to win two or more conference championships.

(Iowa DNR News) – A new federal law goes into effect on April 1, that requires the operator of a boat with an installed Engine Cut-Off Switch (ECOS) to use the ECOS link while operating on all federally navigable waterways. In Iowa, that means the four flood control reservoirs: Coralville, Rathbun, Red Rock and Saylorville; and the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The link is usually a coiled bungee cord lanyard clipped onto the operator’s person, personal floatation device or clothing and the other end attached to the cut-off switch, but there are plenty of variations on the market, including electronic wireless devices.

When an operator is wearing a link while underway, the engine will cut-off if the operator is separated from the operating area, an occurrence that can happen if the operator is ejected from the vessel or falls within the vessel.  The shutdown of the engine is essential for safety reasons. If the operator is ejected from the vessel, the shutdown may prevent the operator from impacting the vessel’s spinning propeller, and may aid the operator in safely returning to the drifting vessel.

The intent of these new laws is to improve safety for all recreational boaters by reducing the potential for propeller injuries to recreational vessel operators, other users of the nation’s waterways, and marine law enforcement officers responsible for responding to runaway boats. Boats with motors less than 3 horsepower are excluded from the law.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has authority to enforce federal law on the federal reservoirs, the U.S. Coast Guard patrol has the authority to enforce federal law on the border rivers.

(Radio Iowa) – The budgets for Iowa high school sports, music and other activities that have taken a hit during the pandemic may get a boost. Many schools had dramatically fewer ticket sales for games, reduced student fees and cancelled fundraisers. A bill ready for debate in the Iowa Senate would let school boards shift money from a district’s general education budget to cover deficits in extracurricular programs or co-curricular activities like speech competitions. The options would be available for last year — when there were no springtime music concerts or track and golf meets — and for the current school year as well as the next.

Senator Tim Goodwin of Burlington, a former teacher and coach, explains the details.

The proposal has already won unanimous approval in the Iowa House. Representative Ras Smith of Waterloo says school activities outside of the classroom are an important part of a student’s experience.

Some of Iowa’s largest schools lost tens of thousands of dollars in ticket sales as attendance at football and basketball games was often limited to parents and siblings of the players. Governor Reynolds set statewide restrictions on fans in the stands in mid-November as Covid cases surged in Iowa, but lifted those limits in December.

(Radio Iowa) – The statewide bicycle ride that was initially designed to compete with RAGBRAI is finding it can’t compete with COVID-19. Iowa’s Ride is being modified and this year will be Iowa’s Ride Weekender. Organizers had hoped to go from Iowa’s eastern border to the west, the opposite direction of RAGBRAI, but several overnight stops have pulled out due to the pandemic.

A post on the Iowa’s Ride Facebook page says it’ll now just be July 16th through the 18th in Eldora. There will be a designated 40 to 50-mile bike route on Saturday and several riding options on Friday and Sunday. RAGBRAI will start the following weekend and runs July 25th through the 31st, pedaling 454 miles from Le Mars to Clinton.

Atlantic native Ryan Hawkins is soaking up the joy of a third NCAA Division II National Championship with the Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team. The Bearcats finished off an incredible season this past Saturday with an emphatic 80-54 win over West Texas A&M in the title game. The Bearcats stormed through three wins during four days at the Elite Eight in Evansville, Indiana. Hawkins said he enjoys the quick turnaround format of the Elite Eight setup.

Hawkins has always had a strong support system behind him and he loves seeing all the familiar faces that come to his games. That aspect was especially tough this year with COVID restrictions in place for the team.

Hawkins is very grateful they got the chance to get the season in and finish out unlike last year but he did miss the atmosphere that larger fan capacity brings to the game.

Ryan was named Most Outstanding Player at the Elite Eight. He scored a game-high 31 points and pulled down 18 rebounds in the championship game. He has now accumulated 2,098 points and 948 rebounds for his career. He intends to return next season and take advantage of his added year of eligibility. We’ll have more on that next week on KJAN.

JR Blount

AMES, Iowa – JR Blount, widely recognized as one of the top assistant coaches in the Mountain West Conference, has been named an assistant coach by Iowa State head men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger.

Blount brings 12 years of coaching experience to Iowa State. Last summer, Stadium named Blount one of the top-five assistant coaches in the MWC thanks to his success at Colorado State.

“JR is one of the bright young minds in all of college basketball,” Otzelberger said. “A very gifted coach in guard development, he also impacts young men in a positive way off the court. JR is well respected across the country as a recruiter, building genuine and long-lasting relationships. He has had success at each of his stops and I know he’ll be a valuable member of our program.”

“I’m so excited to join T.J. and the entire staff,” Blount said. “T.J. has been a mentor of mine since I was in high school in Milwaukee. My family and I are grateful for this amazing opportunity to join Cyclone Nation and bring the magic back to Hilton Coliseum and this prestigious program.

“We are excited to be back in the Midwest and come back home to an opportunity that was too good to overlook. With the guidance of T.J. and the rest of the staff I look forward to getting back to the winning ways at ISU and promoting the development of great young men both on and off the court.”

Blount has steadily risen through the college coaching ranks since starting his career as graduate assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2009, where the team won the 2010 Division III national championship.

After spending three seasons at Saint Leo University as an assistant and associate head coach, Blount moved to Des Moines and served as director of basketball operations and assistant coach for four seasons at Drake.

Most recently, Blount spent the last three seasons at Colorado State as an assistant coach. In his time in Fort Collins, the Rams signed the highest-rated class in school history.

Blount worked closely and was instrumental in the development of two-time All-Mountain West player Nico Carvacho. In 2020-21, three Rams earned All-MWC honors as CSU ranked among the top-three in the league in scoring and scoring defense.

The Rams made marked improvements as a team as well, improving by eight wins after his first season at the school and winning 20 games before the season was ended due to COVID-19. This season, Colorado State went 20-8 and advanced to the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament.

Blount was an integral leader of the TOGETHER INITIATIVE at Colorado State that promoted social justice and racial equality on campus.

Blount played collegiately at Loyola Chicago from 2005-09 where he was three-year team captain and was twice named the team’s most valuable player. He was twice honored as the school’s athlete of the year as well.

After his college playing career was over, Blount played professionally for the Leicester Riders of the British Basketball League during the 2010-11 season.

He earned degrees in psychology and sociology from Loyola in 2009 and later received his master’s degree in education from UW-Stevens Point in 2012.

A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Blount was a standout high school player at Dominican High School, earning all-state honors in 2004 and 2005. He was named Wisconsin Sports Player of the Year in 2005.

The Audubon Boys Early Bird track meet set for tonight has been cancelled. Audubon Activities Director Sean Birks said the meet was called off due to cold temps and high winds. The meet has simply been cancelled and will not be made up.