Drake plays Missouri Thursday night in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Wichita. After a successful run at Northwest Missouri State Ben McCollum has led Drake to a 30-3 record and the 11-seed in the West Region.

It is a game of contrasting styles. Drake is the nation’s top defensive team by giving up less than 59 points per game while Missouri is ninth in scoring at 84 and-a-half points per game. McCollum says the Bulldogs will look to be patient on offense.

McCollum says it is difficult to prepare for the variety of defenses the Tigers will throw at them.

Drake has played one other SEC team and beat Vanderbilt at a tournament in Charleston, South Carolina.

McCollum says he is focused on this team despite rumors about his future. His named has been linked to several openings, including the recent one at Iowa.

Junior guard Bennett Stirtz followed McCollum from Northwest Missouri State to Drake and led the Bulldog’s to the Missouri Valley regular season and tournament titles in being named the Valley Player of the Year.

Stirtz says the Bulldogs want the game played at their pace.

Senior forward Mitch Mascari  says the Bulldogs have overcome a size disadvantage all season and they will need to do so again.

Mascari also began his career at Northwest Missouri State.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Junior Tereza Dejnozkova has been named the Co-Big Ten Tennis Player of the Week, it was announced Wednesday by the league office.  It is Dejnozkova’s first career honor.

She shares the honor with Michigan’s Julia Fliegner.

The Prague, Czech Republic, native earned the distinction after posting a 4-0 combined singles and doubles record last weekend in road victories over No. 46 Illinois (4-1) and No. 38 Northwestern (4-3).

She opened the weekend by posting dominating victories against the Illini.  She teamed with Nikita Vishwase in doubles to down Megan Heuser and Kida Ferrari, 6-1, at the No. 1 doubles line.  The followed with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Mckenna Schaefbauer at No. 1 singles.

In the road win in Evanston, Dejnozkova again partnered with Vishwase in doubles in a 6-2 triumph over Erica Jessel and Mika Dagan Fruchtman at the one line.  In singles, Dejnozkova clinched Iowa’s ninth team win, downing Jessel, 7-5, 1-6, 6-2.

Iowa’s victory was its first win over Northwestern since 1992 and it was just the third Hawkeye victory over the Wildcats all-time.

Dejnozkova is the first Hawkeye to earn the accolade this season and the first Big Ten Player of the Week honoree since Marisa Schmidt was honored on March 27 last season.

The Hawkeyes are currently ranked 32nd in the March 18 ITA team rankings.  The No. 32 ranking is the highest for the program in 15 years.

Iowa (9-4, 3-1) returns to Iowa City to host No. 72 Minnesota on Friday on the outdoor courts at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center at 5 p.m. (CT).

IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa track and field freshmen Pauline Bikembo and Abraham Vogelsang were named Big Ten Indoor Freshmen of the Year, it was announced Wednesday by the conference.

Bikembo, a native of Saint Lue La Foret, France, is Iowa’s first indoor women’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year since Erica Broomfield claimed the honor in 1998. She is the second Hawkeye woman to win the award in conference history.

In her first year of collegiate competition, Bikembo earned first-team All-American honors after placing fourth in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a school-record 4,331 points. She was the Big Ten champion in the event with a then-program best of 4,330 points and claimed first-team all-Big Ten honors. Bikembo was Iowa’s first pentathlon conference champion since Tria Simmons in 2019.

Bikembo holds three marks inside Iowa’s top ten list, including the pentathlon school record. She ranks third in the long jump at 6.33 meters and is tied for fourth in the high jump at 1.79 meters.

Vogelsang, a freshman from Oslo, Norway, is the Hawkeyes’ first men’s Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year since Jeremy Allen in 1998. It is the third time a Hawkeye has been named the men’s Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year in league history.

In his rookie campaign, Vogelsang placed sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the heptathlon with 5,810 points. On the Big Ten stage, Vogelsang was the league’s highest-ranked freshman in the heptathlon.

Vogelsang’s 5,882 points at the Dr. Rick McGuire Invite in Columbia, Missouri, on Feb. 1 earned the event title and elevated him to third all-time in school history. Along with his heptathlon point total, Vogelsang enters Iowa’s top ten at third in the pole vault at 5.15 meters.

The Hawkeyes start the outdoor season on Friday at the UCF Black and Gold Invitational in Orlando, Florida.

DES MOINES, Iowa. – Drake guard Katie Dinnebier was named an All-America Honorable Mention by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Associated Press today. She is the 11th player in Drake women’s basketball history to receive All-America status.

Dinnebier was named First Team All-MVC, an All-MVC Defensive Team selection, and won her second straight Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year. She was listed on the All-MVC Tournament Team, First Team MVC Scholar-Athlete, and earned eight MVC Player of the Week honors this season. The senior guard is a Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year finalist for second straight year and was included as a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year.

Statistically, Dinnebier is the top distributor in the country with the most total assists and assists per game while scoring upwards of 23 points per game. She has recorded 12 30-plus point games this season, the most in the NCAA, and is the first player since NCAA tracked assists as official state (1985) to average at least 22 points, seven assists, and 2.5 steals in a single season. Dinnebier had the third all-time 40+ point MVC Tournament game in Drake’s semifinal loss to Murray State.

She currently ranks highly in Drake records for career steals (3rd), assists (2nd), points (7th) free throw pct. (4th), 3pt. pct. (5th), made 3-pointers (5th), minutes played (3rd), and scoring average (8th). Dinnebier recently surpassed 2000 career points and hit the 700 career assists mark earlier this season. She is just 11 dishes from becoming Drake’s all-time leading distributor.

Off the court, Dinnebier received the 2025 MVC State Farm Good Neighbor award as well as her previously mentioned academic honors. She has been a standout member of the Drake and Des Moines community as a participant in community service events like Books with Bulldogs, Miracle League, the John Stoddard Cancer Center, the Katie Dinnebier Youth Basketball Camp, and the Boys & Girls Club of Central Iowa.

Katie is the first Bulldog All-American since Becca Hittner was an honorable mention for WBCA in 2019 and 2020. Also, she is the first to receive an AP All-America honor since Lizzy Wendell earned an honorable mention in 2017.

Dinnebier and the Bulldogs will tip off their postseason play tomorrow afternoon in the first round of the WBIT. Drake is set to host Marquette at 2 p.m. in the Knapp Center.

The UNI women are at Florida Thursday night in the opening round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament. The Panthers are 17-16 and this is the second year for the W-B-I-T.

That’s Panther coach Tanya Warren. Florida enters the game with a record of 16-17.

Warren says the Panthers are excited by the opportunity.

UNI is one of four Missouri Valley teams in the field.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa baseball team defeated UIC, 4-1, on Tuesday night at Duane Banks Field.

The Hawkeyes were out hit by the Flames, 6-5. Despite issuing eight walks the Hawkeyes stranded 13 UIC baserunners.

“I am happy we found a way to get it done,” said head coach Rick Heller. “We had some pitchers really step up in tough situations, that allowed us to hang on and win that game. I just thought it was low energy and low focus especially on a really nice day with a big crowd. I was really disappointed, especially with our hitters.”

Iowa saw 10 different pitchers take the mound in the contest with Ganon Archer earning the win throwing a scoreless inning of work.  Ben DeTaeye threw two innings and struck out four to close out the ball game and earn his second save of the season.

Four Hawkeyes recorded hits on the day with Reese Moore being the only Iowa batter to record a multi-hit performance. Moore hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first to tie the game after UIC plated a run in the top half.

Ben Swails and Miles each plated runs for the Hawks in the second and third innings respectively and Connor Hennings scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to give Iowa some insurance.

“Reese had a good day,” said Heller. “Answered back from the run we gave them in the first inning and that was kind of how it was all day. We bring Whitlock in, and he does a good job getting a double play ball and we throw it away give them a run. Could have been more, but he got the next out.”

Iowa hit .300 (3-for-10) with runners on base compared to UIC’s .071 (1-for-14). Iowa stole three bases while the Flames were caught stealing on their lone attempt.

Up Next

The Hawkeyes host Ohio State for a three-game series starting on Friday at 4:02 p.m. The game will be available on B1G+ and the Hawkeye Radio Network.

The Indiana Hoosiers have hired Darian DeVries as their new head coach of the men’s basketball program. The news was first reported Tuesday afternoon and then confirmed by Indiana shortly after.

DeVries, who spent the past season at West Virginia, is a grinder. He has won 71% of the games he has coached in, taking Drake to three of the last four NCAA Tournaments before spending just one year at West Virginia, where he exceeded expectations.

The Mountaineers finished 19-13 overall and 10-10 in Big 12 play this past season under DeVries.

DeVries was a long-time Creighton assistant before landing his first head coaching job with Drake.  He spent just one year at West Virginia.  His Drake and West Virginia teams went a combined 169-68 (71.3%) overall and 89-43 (67.4%) in conference play, and won three conference championships (one regular season, two postseason) along the way.

Devries, an Aplington, Iowa native, was rumored to be considered for the open at Iowa job.

GILRS

Atlantic

4. Lila Wiederstein – 60 hurdles (9.88)

6. Jayci Reed – 60m hurdles (10.30)

6. 1600m sprint medley – 4:50.49 (Hailey Huffman, Morgon Botos, Lila Wiederstein, Katrina Williams)

5. 4x400m – 4:46.42 (Morgan Botos, Jayci Reed, Emerie Jones, Lila Wiederstein)

6. 4x400m – 4:54.40 (Katrina Williams, Emerson Meyer, Allison Middents, Hailey Huffman)

10. Olivia Olson, shot put – (32-09.00)

Logan-Magnolia

3. Allysen Johnsen – 1600 meters (5:51.29)

Treynor

1. Madeline Knispel – 1600 meters (5:47.34)

2. Rylee Hemmingsen – 60 hurdles (9.52)

2. 4×400 meter relay – 4:27.59

3. Delaney Mathews, shot put (37-01.75)

3. Anne Miller – 3200 meters (12:35.79)

3. Ava Saar – 400 hurdles (1:04.91)

BOYS

Logan-Magnolia

1. William Anderson – 60 meters (6.97)

3. Adam Roden – 60 hurdles (8.73)

3. Brodie Davis – 400 meters (53.02)

The CAM Girls track & field team are gearing up for another spring on the track this year as they are led by a three-member senior class. The Cougars will participate in nearly 20 meets this season which began Friday, March 14th on Iowa State’s campus. CAM’s first few meets will be indoor as the weather warms up. The first outdoor meet of the year will be on March 31st at Audubon.

The roster is sophomore heavy as nine of the 16 members are in that class. The team also consists of three seniors, two juniors and two freshmen. Head Coach Luke Symonds says this has been a great group to coach so far.

Basketball standout, Maddie Richter joined the team this season alongside two-four-year members in Lyndsey Chaney and Gracie Venteicher. Symonds will look to that group as leaders with a fairly young roster.

The sophomores are big in numbers but also experienced at the State Meet level.

The CAM Cougars have found a good combination between experienced senior leadership to plenty of underclassmen talent. The Cougars continue their season at the Central College Girls Invitational on Thursday, March 21st.