March 29, 2024

Area athletes seek top marks this winter

As the winter seasons kick off around the state, several area athletes are working their way toward key milestones.

In basketball, the milestone for individual players is 1,000 points. In wrestling, 100 wins is the benchmark.

As the boys basketball seasons got underway earlier this week, three area athletes will likely get to 1,000 points this season.

Newton’s Garrett Sturtz, one of the best players in the entire state, hit that mark in the opening game with a big night against Boone.

The next two area athletes to hit this mark should be, barring injury, Colfax-Mingo’s Jarod Nichols and Lynnville-Sully’s Jesse Van Wyk.

Nichols started the season with 737 points but a 22-point effort in the season opener against HLV on Tuesday bumps him up to 759. He should get to the magic number after the holiday break.

Van Wyk was a few points behind Nichols to begin the season with 706. He had 20 in the season-opening win over Montezuma to bring his career total to 726.

Baxter’s Will Clapper is more than halfway to the key mark after two seasons. He now has 559 career points just one game into his junior season.

Wrestling will see a few more milestone marks this season.

The first area athlete to reach 100 career wins could be Colfax-Mingo’s Colton Lourens. He now has 90 victories after beginning the season with three wins Tuesday night.

Three Prairie City-Monroe juniors will hit the 100-win mark this season. Jarron Trausch is 82-14 in his first two seasons, while Lucas Roland has gone 79-8 and Wes Cummings is 69-7 in his career. All three grapplers begin the season ranked in their respective weight classes.

Lourens won’t be the only Colfax-Mingo wrestler to hit the 100-win mark. Senior Chance Rice now has 76 wins after his three victories on Tuesday night. Junior Cauy Fitch will need the most wins in a season that he’s ever had, but Fitch is 63-6 to start his career.

The other two wrestlers who may get to 100 wins this season is Newton’s Ross Hull and Lynnville-Sully’s Josh Dunsbergen. Hull begins the season with 61 career wins, and Dunsbergen has 74 victories.

I get to see my first wrestling matches of the season Thursday in Colfax. The Tigerhawks have another quadrangular, this time hosting Iowa Valley, Pella and Pleasantville.

Colfax-Mingo and Iowa Valley should be the top two teams in the South Iowa Cedar League this season, so that head-to-head matchup should be fun.

In college football, it’s silly season time.

The Cyclones ended the silly portion of their season when they locked up football coach Matt Campbell for six more years. Big move by ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard to do what he can to keep a good coach in town.

Tennessee hasn’t been as fortunate. What a train wreck in Knoxville. So many coaches have said no to the storied program, and the one guy so far who wanted the job was railroaded by a national media member who didn’t think he was good enough to lead the program.

The Volunteers will get a coach eventually. They hope.

Nebraska will likely hire Scott Frost. A media member in the Lincoln area is already reporting that the school will hire Frost this weekend even though the former Cornhusker is coaching his UCF team in its conference title game on Saturday.

UCLA made a good hire in Chip Kelly. He’s already gotten a commitment from a running back who runs the 40 in 4.3 seconds. Kelly is also in the mix for Dowling Catholic standout John Waggoner, who got an in home visit from Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz this week.

College football is a 24-7, 365-day sport. Lots to talk about every day. And the bowl season is close. We’ll know where Iowa State and Iowa are headed on Sunday evening.

Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com