Tri-County Times Top Peformers of the Week
Last week saw the Ballard boys basketball team sweep Bondurant-Farrar (66-63) and Boone (60-45) and the No. 4 (Class 3A) Bomber girls suffer a 34-26 loss to No. 15 (4A) Bondurant-Farrar and earn a 59-15 victory over Boone.
The Ballard boys improved to 11-4 overall and 8-3 in the Raccoon River Conference. The girls moved their season record to 13-3 overall and 9-2 in the RRC.
The Collins-Maxwell girls defeated Grand View Christian (54-47) and Valley Lutheran (95-12) and lost to Meskwaki (46-41). That put their season record at 9-5 overall and 6-3 in the Iowa Star Conference South Division.
The Spartan boys topped Woodward Academy (71-59), Valley Lutheran (73-27) and Meskwaki to run their season record to 7-6 overall and 5-5 in the ISC South.
On the wrestling mat Ballard's Claire Scheibe, Noelle Boettger and Liberty Boettger were joined by Collins-Maxwell's Gracie Leslie in competing at the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials (IWCOA) girls state wrestling tournament held last Friday and Saturday at the at the Xtream Arena in Coralville. It was announced that girls wrestling will become a sanctioned sport in Iowa next season.
The Ballard wrestling team defeated Ogden (68-9) and Gilbert (58-15) and lost to Boone (41-27) during a home quadrangular dual Jan. 20 in Huxley. That evened Ballard's dual record on the season at 9-9.
The Bombers also placed second at the Rich Gray Invitational in Truro Saturday with 181.5 points. Albia just edged Ballard out for the team title with 183.5 points.
The Collins-Maxwell wrestling team fell to Earlham (41-18), Martensdale St. Marys (48-24) and West Central Valley (57-18) at Martensdale Jan. 20. The Spartans also went 0-4 at the East Marshall/GMG Duals in Le Grand Saturday, falling to Union (72-6), South Tama (72-12), Gilbert (63-6) and Forest City (78-6) to drop to 1-23 on the season.
Here are 10 standout performers from this week's competition:
Claire Scheibe
Scheibe went 3-2 at 155 pounds at the girls state wrestling meet for Ballard with pins over Waukon's Reagan Lubahn and Osage's Ericka Power in the first two consolation rounds to go along with the victory over Harswick. Scheibe lost by fall to North Scott's Madelyn Rose in the championship first round and Decorah's Mairi Sessions in the consolation fourth round.
Noelle Boettger
Noelle Boettger went 3-2 at 130 during girls state wrestling for Ballard.
Boettger won by technical fall over Humboldt's Adalynn Lawman (17-2) then lost by fall to Mid-Prairie's Bronwyn Brenneman. She came back to pull off a 7-6 win over Decorah's Madison Heim and a 3-0 victory over Denver's Chloe Bloker before losing by a 6-5 decision to Southeast Polk's Cecilia Scarff in the consolation fourth round.
Gracie Leslie
Leslie went 3-2 at 130 for Collins-Maxwell at girls state wrestling.
Leslie lost by major decision (14-3) to Ottumwa's Emma Strayer then pinned Council Bluffs-Lincoln's Bella Hirsch-Rollins and pulled off a 4-3 victory over Osage's Annaliese Arciniega before defeating Hamers. In the consolation fourth round Leslie lost by fall to Indianola's Summer Wolff.
Ashton Hermann
Hermann averaged 22.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists for the Ballard boys in their two victories.
Hermann put up 28 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists to help Ballard avenge an earlier loss to Bondurant-Farrar. He had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists against Boone.
Kale Krogh
Krogh put up 10 points 7 rebounds and 2 blocks for Ballard against Bondurant-Farrar. He had 21 points and 13 rebounds in the victory over Boone.
On the wrestling mat Krogh placed third at 285 pounds with a 3-1 record during the Rich Gray Invitational.
Gabe Christensen
Christensen, ranked third at 182 pounds in Class 2A by IAWrestle.com, rebounded from a loss to second-ranked Fernando Villaescusa of Gilbert during Ballard's home quad dual wrestling meet to take first at 182 during the Rich Gray Invite.
Christensen won all three of his matches at Truro by fall to improve to 27-1 on the season.
Henry Christensen
Gabe's younger brother also took first at the Rich Gray Invitational.
Henry was 4-0 with one pin, one victory by major decision and two wins by decision at 195. He edged Newman Catholic's Holden Hensley by a 5-4 decision in the championship match to improve to 23-7 on the season.
Meg Rietz
Rietz averaged 9.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.0 steals for the Ballard girls against Bondurant-Farrar and Boone.
The all-RRC forward finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals against Bondurant-Farrar. She had 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals versus Boone.
Luke Huntrods
Huntrods averaged 13.7 points and 9.7 rebounds in the three games for the Collins-Maxwell boys.
Huntrods tallied 12 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists against Meskwaki, 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists versus Valley Lutheran and 18 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists against Woodward Academy.
Erica Houge
Houge averaged 18.7 points and 5.7 rebounds for the Collins-Maxwell girls in their games against Meskwaki, Valley Lutheran and Grand View Christian.
Houge had 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists against Meskwaki. She delivered 17 points, 7 steals, 4 assists and 3 rebounds against Valley Lutheran and 19 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals against Grand View Christian.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Peformers of the Week for the Tri-County Times area
