Iowa Wesleyan College Sports Information Director Tad Hulst provides a short look at the day's Tiger athletics news. And maybe some non-IWC related news as well.

Originally started to keep the college's faculty, staff and students updated on Tiger sports happenings, these updates are now made available on the Web.
**Previous months' archive

Good morning all...recovering from a busy three days at the MCC Baseball Tournament

Final report from Peosta...Tigers were knocked out of the tourney yesterday by Grand View, 7-4. This came after defeating Mount Mercy 6-5 earlier in the day to fight off elimination and get another shot at GVU. Finished two wins shy of the conference title and one win short of a final winner-take-all game with Grand View today. GV was just the better team in the tourney, had our chances in both games against them, just didn't take advantage. Took a 3-0 lead in the 1st inning yesterday but had chances to make it a lot more. Eventually the offense petered out and they slowly worked back into the game. Before that we won a wild game against Mount Mercy, scored on an error in the top of the 9th to win. Long week for our guys, we played in five of the tourney's eight games, tough being a 4 or 5 seed in a five-team double-elimination. Season ends with a 24-31 record. Solid year for the guys, just short of a second straight MCC title.

Thanks to everyone who was listening and following along with the games this week, think the left arm nerves are little jangled from holding a cell phone to ear for 5 1/2 hours broadcasting yesterday, pinky a bit numb yet but will be fine. Nice tournament in Peosta, weather forecasts were sketchy but we got them all in with minimal interruptions, yesterday turned out warm and very nice.

Up next: the track & field teams are at the MCC Championships in Clinton today and tomorrow. Also, the softball team will be in the MCC Final 4 this weekend in Ames, first game Saturday at 12:30 against William Penn. Broadcast info: all of the softball tourney games except the first one will be broadcast on the William Penn web site. Link for that will be athttp://cvp.telvue.com/player?s=wpenn, Wade from WPU can't get there in time for the first game tomorrow between Grand View & Mount Mercy but all of our games will be broadcast.

Have a great weekend. Seniors congratulations on your graduation, good luck as you go on from IWC and stop by to see us all once in awhile.

(10:19 a.m.) Sorry, keep forgetting to note. If you can't listen to the game, we do have live stats online for all the games here at the tourney, link for that is http://live.clarkecrusaders.com/volleyball/xlive.htm. Thanks to Jerry at Clarke for letting us use a computer for these (and don't mind the 'volleyball' in the link, the stats at that link really are for baseball). We also are even 'tweeting' updates on the IWC SID Twitter page at http://twitter.com/iwctigers. That's if you like that social media stuff. I don't, but I use it anyway for my job. :)
(9:18 a.m.)Good morning from Peosta, where so far we are dodging the storms...though radar doesn't look great right now (but that's ok, because when it rained last night for an hour the radar never showed a thing)

IWC baseball yesterday at the MCC Tournament lost to Grand View 9-6. Scored in each of the first four innings and led by two runs a couple times, we were hitting the ball well...then just went silent the rest of the way. Now a lot of work to do to win this thing, need to win three more games starting with game today at noon against Mount Mercy, then would have to beat Grand View twice. One game at a time. Ryan Doeppel had three hits, Drew Koeppel had a long, LONG two-run homer.

Tournament is still on schedule. Rained for an hour right at the end of our game yesterday, got started an hour late with the final game but so far we're ok. Hopefully we can get this done on schedule.

Also yesterday made a mistake, the softball game Saturday at the MCC Final 4 against William Penn starts at 12:30 p.m., not 2:30.

Have a great day...continued success with finals week :)

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
Good morning from the AmericInn in tiny-but-growing Peosta, Iowa, just west of Dubuque...

Lot of good news for IWC sports teams the past couple days:

Baseball: Tigers are making a run after winning first two games at the MCC Tournament. Defeated #5 seed William Penn 13-10 in ten innings yesterday. Crazy game, led 10-4 going into the bottom of the ninth but gave up six runs as Penn tied it. But then scored in the 10th as Corey Amerson hit a three-run homer. Then faced the #1 seed St. Ambrose and defeated the buzzing Bees 7-6, scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth to win it. Corey was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie it, then Marco Prieto singled with the bases still loaded to win it. Now we face Grand View at 3:30 p.m. today (will be broadcasting the game online if anyone is wondering), and it seems like every year we face GV in this game, winner is in the driver's seat in the tourney, advances to the championship game or games and will need just one more win to advance to the NAIA national tourney. Lot of drama here but the results have been golden so far. If done with finals come on up here, nice little park, hopefully the weather holds off for us, one game today and at least one game tomorrow as well.
Softball: Did not play yesterday but still received good news. Penn defeated St. Ambrose 1-0 in 10 innings, and when Penn won so did we because that means we qualify for the MCC Final 4 this weekend in Ames, we make it as the highest seeded team left that did not win a 'pod' tournament. Now we will face #1 seed William Penn on Saturday at 12:30. The season continues.
Awards: Tigers also had a good day in the MCC Athlete of the Week awards on Monday as well. Elliot Armstrong was named MCC Baseball Player of the Week and Jacob Sanchez was named Pitcher of the Week. Also, Blake Mitchell was named MCC Men's Golf Athlete of the Week.

Have a great day, and go Tigers!

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Good morning...

 
Sports items from last night:

Softball: Split doubleheader against Ashford. Lost first game in 8 innings by 8-6 score, won second game 7-6 in 11 innings. Pretty dramatic, suspenseful night, couple of long games, both extra innings. Needed to at least split though and did it, now have a pretty good chance to finish 4th in MCC in regular season. Sonja Holmes hit game-winning double in bottom of 11th to win second game, also pitched 5 1/3 innings in relief and allowed just one hit to get the win. Senior Night for Sierrah Garcia, Jill Ginder, Sarah McCleary and Molly Ward. Sierrah also set school single season record for strikeouts, broke Ashlee Winner's record from 2009.

Baseball: Steamrolled St. Ambrose 15-3. Not much suspense in this one, led 15-0 in the 6th inning, had total of 21 hits. Elliot Armstrong had five hits including four doubles plus 6 RBIs just by himself. Ryan Doeppel also had four hits and 4 RBIs. Blew out the team in first place in the MCC, big win, back tied for fourth in conference but season and whether we qualify for conference tournament is going to come down to final weekend.

Up next: not much for rest of the week. Some JV softball games tomorrow night in Muscatine and Thursday night at 4:30 p.m. at Mapleleaf against SCC. Otherwise next event is Friday with baseball up at Viterbo in always beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Have a great day. Need some warmth, tired of swapping our April for March and March for April now...

Good morning all...final week of regular classes for the semester, enjoy it...

Sports results from the weekend:
Golf: Both the men and women finished ninth at their respectiveMCC Championships Friday & Saturday at Blue Top Ridge. Men were led by Blake Mitchell, finished 14th individually and actually was tied for second after first of the three rounds for the men. Women paced by Kayla Bishop, finished 36th.
Softball: Busy three days. Lost two varsity games at the St. Francis Spring Fling in Minooka, Ill., losing to Robert Morris and St. Francis (Ill.). JV split pair of games at the tourney as well. Then traveled across Illinois and lot of Iowa Saturday night to play doubleheader Sunday at Waldorf. Won first game 8-2, lost second 2-0. Cari Smith hit two homers in first game, Ashley Mysliwiec andSierrah Garcia also hit homers.
Track & Field: Competed at the Grinnell Dick Young Classic. Men finished fifth in team standings, Aaron Brown won the shot put and Michael Klostermann won the 110 hurdles. Women finished eighth, LaStacy Freeman won the 100-meter dash.

This week:

Today: Softball team has its Senior Night with a doubleheader against Ashford starting at 5 p.m. Final home game for four seniors, and also the final home game of the entire school year. So be there, or our friend Dick (at left) from the old Miller Time commercials from when I was in college may be knocking on your door. Also tonight, baseball team is in Davenport for a nine-inning game against St. Ambrose.
Rest of the week: Nothing until Friday. Couple junior varsity softball doubleheaders, otherwise will be silent until baseball team begins three-game series at Viterbo with a single nine-inning game Friday. Oh, Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, and NFL Draft starts Thursday.

Have a great week


Thursday, April 19th, 2012
Good morning...Tiger sports last night, one team in action:
Baseball: Split doubleheader with William Penn, losing first game 2-1, then winning second game 5-1. Scored five runs in top of seventh to win second game, big comeback. Teams 4-6 in MCC standings now separated by total of 1/2 game, IWC is tied with Waldorf for fourth.

Next events are golf teams beginning the MCC Championships tomorrow in Riverside at Blue Top Ridge. Also to add to the coming events calendar...football spring game will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. Location will be Central Lee High School down in Donnellson, short drive down 218.

More:

NHL Playoffs update: The chase for the Stanley Cup is on. America's Team, the Pittsburgh Penguins stay alive, avoid an embarrassing sweep with a 10-3 win over the Flyers. If you don't know, ten goals in hockey is a lot.

Have a great day


Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
Good early afternoon...quick sports report, including this past weekend, which was a very good one…

Track & Field: Teams competed at the Cornell Spring Classic in Mount Vernon. Men finished sixth, women placed eighth. Keith Brown set another school record in the 110 hurdles and is pretty much qualified for nationals already, LaStacy Freeman was second in the women's 100 meters and William Stephenson was second in the long jump. Lot of good finishes, total of 15 top 10 finishes.
Baseball: Swept a three-game series from Waldorf. Much needed, moved back into the all-important top 5 in the MCC (only top five teams make conference tournament) and closed gap a bunch on a team that was quite a bit ahead of us in standings, now just one game behind Waldorf for fourth.
Softball: Has been very busy. Swept four games this weekend at the MCC Challenge event, set up and knocked down four different conference opponents. Then team was swept by William Penn Monday night (Penn is already the conference regular season champs) and split a home doubleheader last night against Clarke. Thanks to all who came out last night, especially the faculty/staff guests.

Remainder of this week:

Today: More big baseball games, doubleheader at William Penn this afternoon starting at 4 p.m. over in Oskaloosa. Penn is just behind us in conference standings.
Friday: Softball team will be over in Joliet, Illinois, for the USF Spring Fling tourney. Also the golf teams, men and women, begin the first of two days at the MCC Championships up at Blue Top Ridge in Riverside.
Saturday: Copy and paste with minor edit. Softball team will be over in Joliet, Illinois, for the USF Spring Fling tourney. Also the golf teams, men and women, play the second of two days at the MCC Championships up at Blue Top Ridge in Riverside.

Have a great rest of the week. Only eight shopping days left until the start of the NFL Draft.


Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Good afternoon…been a couple days, hope everyone had a very nice Easter…

Been a lot of sports going on of late, few of the highlights:

Softball: IWC finished 4-0 in the Sammons Classic last weekend, excellent, including a 26-0 five inning win over Harris-Stowe. Team also swept Purdue North Central last Thursday and split two games with Viterbo two days ago. Even more, Sierrah Garcia was named MCC Pitcher of the Week on Monday and NAIA National Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday. Last week Sierrah was incredible, pitched 25 scoreless innings, allowed just eight hits and struck out 39, finishing with a 4-0 record and a save in five games. Dominant numbers, well deserved award.
Baseball: Defeated Clarke 7-0 on Tuesday. Jacob Sanchez pitched seven shutout innings, Marcus Ledbetter and Michael Rosa finished off the shutout. Also had 13 hits, good game.
Track & Field: Men finished fifth and women finished sixth at the Ashford Spring Classic last weekend. Keith Brown set a school record in the 110 hurdles in his first time competing in the event.
Golf: Men finished ninth, women were unable to finish enough golfers to post a team score at the Ashford Invitational at Blue Top Ridge. Blake Mitchell played well again for guys, finished fifth individually.

Events coming up:

Today: The golfers are probably finishing up right now at the Clarke Invitational in Galena.
Saturday: Believe it or not, the last home baseball games of the season are this weekend. Start of a three-game series against Waldorf, doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. at Mapleleaf. Also the softball team is at the MCC Challenge over in Morrison, Ill., nice softball complex there. Track teams are at Cornell Invitational in Mount Vernon.
Sunday: Second day of MCC Challenge for softball, and final home game of the season for baseball team, nine-inning game against Waldorf begins at 1 p.m.

More:

Beisbol: Brewers are giving the Cubs a sympathy game today after winning first three games of their series this week.

Have a great rest of the week…


Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Good early afternoon and Holy Week,

Tiger sports results from this weekend
Men's Golf: Team finished ninth of 13 teams at the Knox Prairie Fire Classic at Weaver Ridge G.C. in Peoria. Big news from the tourney, Blake Mitchell was individual champion, coming from all the way back into a tie for 24th on the first day to win medalist honors. Quite impressive, was 11 shots behind the leader after the first day, passed him and 20+ others in front of him by shooting 70 on the second day to win.
Track & Field: Teams began their outdoor season at the Augustana Viking Olympics. Both finished seventh in their respective team standings.
Baseball: Won two of three in a series up at Mount Mercy. Won 5-3 on Saturday in eight innings, then lost 1-0 on Saturday, then won 9-3 on Sunday. Drew Koeppel had seven hits on the weekend, started hitting the ball better on Sunday, 15 hits in that game.
Softball: Rough weekend, lost all four at the MCC Challenge in Oskaloosa. Three of the losses were by one run (2-1 to both William Penn and Mount Mercy, 7-6 to St. Ambrose), also lost 6-3 to Viterbo. Yuck. Sierrah Garcia pitched a two-hitter Saturday vs. Penn, struck out 11-and lost. Cari Smith also hit couple more homers.

This week: Going to be a busy second half of the week, so would like for the weather to be as nice then as it is today.

Wednesday: Home baseball and softball. Baseball doubleheader against Grand View starts at 2 p.m., and softball DH against Mount Mercy begins at 5 p.m.
Maundy Thursday: Softball home again for our annual non-conference/pre-Sammons Classic friendly against Purdue North Central at 5 p.m. Also the baseball boys will be in Des Moines for a nine-inning game against Grand View, wrapping up that three-game series.

Good Friday: Sammons Classic, softball all day out at East Lake Park. Games start at 10 a.m, IWC's first game is at 11:45 a.m. against Harris-Stowe. Baseball team also will play a non-conference game at McKendree in Lebanon, Ill. Golf teams both are at first day of the Ashford Invitational up at Blue Top Ridge in Riverside, and track teams are at the Ashford Invitational track meet in Clinton.
Saturday: Final day of the Sammons Classic, games start at 9 a.m., Tigers start at 10:45 a.m. against Benedictine-Springfield. Also baseball team has a doubleheader at McKendree. Golfers also finish up final day in Riverside.

More:

NCAA Tournament: Kentucky-Kansas in the final tonight. After watching the Ohio State/Kansas pillow fight on Saturday, would seem the result of this one is kind of inevitable. Could be a snoozer end to a snoozer tourney.

Have a great week


Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Good morning...

Tiger scores from last night

Softball: Won a doubleheader against St. Ambrose, defeating the Bees 6-1 and 7-5. Very nice sweep, SAU is not a bad team. Cari Smith had a huge two games, three homers and seven RBIs total, and may be as many as 10 RBIs if we can get a scoring change on a bases-loaded hit she had in first game that was scored an error (to our dispute). Sierrah Garcia also pitched a gem in first game, allowed just three hits and struck out 13.
Baseball: News not as good, lost to William Penn 5-2. In the words of Pedro Cerrano in the movie Major League, "have to wake up bats." Had just six hits in the game, trailed the whole way. Mike Mendoza had a home run.

Also some baseball news from Monday, Ryan Doeppel was named the MCC Baseball Player of the Week after hitting .600 last week. Good honor for him.

Up next: nothing until Friday, when track & field teams open their outdoor season at the Augustana Viking Olympics. Baseball and softball this weekend too.

Have a nice day


Monday, March 26th, 2012
Good morning…

Tiger sports scores and results from this past weekend:

Softball: Split four games, losing twice to Grand View (scores of 5-3 and 3-2) on Friday and then sweeping two from Knox on Saturday by scores of 10-1 and 5-0. Kristine Becks and Cari Smith hit the ball well over the games, Jill Leutscher and Sonja Holmes pitched to wins on Saturday.
Baseball: Won two of three in weekend series against Ashford. Pair of shutouts on Saturday by scores of 1-0 and 8-0, then lost yesterday in the nine-inning game 13-2. Jacob Sanchez and Erik Allen both threw shutouts on Saturday, nice. Thanks to all who came out to the baseball and softball games this weekend, nice crowds and nice weather, hope it continues.
Golf: Is back. Both teams competed in Moravia at The Preserve G.C. on Saturday and Sunday. Men finished fourth, women finished fifth. Blake Mitchell finished fourth individually of the men, two-over par over two days, solid. Kayla Bishop led women's team finishing 13th while Alyssa McClain posted best single round for the women.

This week: Light week, this would be the week for it to rain if it were going to. Except for Tuesday.

Tuesday: Baseball game at home against William Penn, single nine-inning game starts at 4 p.m. over at Mapleleaf. Also the softball team will be on the road for a doubleheader at St. Ambrose beginning at 3 p.m. in Davenport.

More:

Final Four: It's Louisville, Ohio State, Kentucky and Kansas. Bad as my bracket of picks was (only seven of the final 16, four of the final 8), somehow predicted three of the final four teams. Kind of a snoozer of a tourney this year, lot of ok games, not a lot of great ones.

Have a great week


Monday, March 19th, 2012
Good afternoon…

Sports results from this weekend:

Softball: Split a doubleheader on Saturday against Hannibal-LaGrange, winning 4-1 and then losing 6-4. Cari Smith had a great two games, five hits including four doubles. Sierrah Garcia also pitched well in the first game.
Baseball: Also split a doubleheader on Sunday at St. Ambrose. Lost 2-0, then won 8-1. Marco Prieto had two hits and three RBIs and Erik Allen got the win in the second game. MCC opener.

This week:

Wednesday: Baseball games here at home against Clarke, 3 p.m. doubleheader over at Mapleleaf. Hopefully the weather continues to hold out nicely.
Friday: We have our softball home opener, 2 p.m. doubleheader against Grand View, also the team's MCC opener.
Saturday: Busy weekend continues with both baseball and softball doubleheaders. Softball team has two against Knox starting at 1 p.m. Baseball double is against Ashford starting at 2 p.m.

More:
NCAA Tournament: Has been fairly dull other than the Norfolk State and Lehigh upsets on Friday. Ohio U. in the Sweet 16 is kind of fun. Need some buzzer-beaters or overtime games or something, only buzzer-beater so far was in the women's tourney yesterday.

Have a great week, continued warm weather hopefully…


Thursday, March 15th, 2012
Good late morning…

IWC baseball result from yesterday…Tigers split a doubleheader against Graceland. Lost first game 3-1, won second game 4-0. Couple pitchers' duels, both games got done very quick. Brad Pollock pitched shutout in the second game, Mike Mendoza had three hits on the day including a homer in the first game.

Other news from the day: Anna Jones has been named a First Team NAIA Division II All-American for this season. What a great award and cap for a career for a great senior, one of the best players in school history and a great student-athlete. So excited to get that news yesterday, much deserved honor, just the second player for us ever to receive first team NAIA honors (Jessi Beachey was the first two years ago). Jennifer Jorgensen of MCC school Grand View was named the national Player of the Year, and it was debatable whether or not Anna should've been the MCC Player of the Year, to give an idea how good her season was. Great news.

NCAA Tournament update: Tourney has officially begun today, lot of great games on the schedule today.

Have a great hoops-filled day!


Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
Good early afternoon…

IWC diamond scores from yesterday:

Baseball: Defeated Hannibal-LaGrange by scores of 7-1 and 7-0. Jacob Sanchez ("filthy" in the words of Mike Mendoza) and Erik Allen both dominated on the mound. Drew Koeppel and Ryan Doeppel both hit homers in the first game. Good confidence boost after a long, tough spring break trip with a lot of excellent teams.
Softball: Split doubleheader with Culver-Stockton, losing 4-2 and winning 4-3. Sonja Holmes got the win in the second game and also led the team with two hits in the game. Third win of the season for the team.

Up next:

Baseball today again here at Mapleleaf against Graceland, doubleheader starts at 3 p.m. Come on out, allegedly it's warm outside (haven't been out yet since the early a.m.)
Also a few schedule notes: Friday's softball doubleheader against Avila has been cancelled due to a ‘schedule malfunction' for them. And Saturday's baseball game against St. Ambrose has been postponed due to a wedding at the ballpark where SAU plays at, Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport. Not kidding. :) IWC and SAU now will play a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 1 p.m. and will reschedule the third game of the series for a later date.

More:

NCAA Tournament: Belated thanks to several faculty & staff who emailed about Western Kentucky, sorry didn't respond, been a busy week but was fun reading those. Apparently IWC has a number of WKU alums. Sure enough, Big Red's team came back from 16 down late last night to win. And Iona coughed up a 25-point lead against BYU and is now out. Today's games pick Lamar because their coach is Pat Knight, son of former Indiana coach Bob Knight (though Vermont's nickname Catamounts is much cooler than ‘Cardinals') and South Florida because the last time they were in the tournament in 1992, their star player's name was Radenko Dobras. Fun name.

Have a great afternoon


Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
Good afternoon…very brief sports update, a reminder we have home baseball games today and tomorrow out at Mapleleaf. Taking on Hannibal-LaGrange today at 3 p.m., Graceland tomorrow at 3 p.m. Both games doubleheader, break on the shorts and come on out today, then slip on the sandals tomorrow because it'll be even nicer. P.S. no broadcast today, may broadcast tomorrow's games online, will keep working on this.

Also a reminder that the NCAA Tournament starts tonight. Pick Mississippi Valley State over Western Kentucky because you can't beat the nickname Delta Devils, though WKU's Big Red mascot (at left) is awesome. And pick Iona over BYU because Iona has a cool nickname too (the Gaels) and has maybe the best point guard in the country, highly entertaining team.

Have a great day!

Good morning…

Recap of a few of the sports happenings from the past couple days

Women's Basketball: Season came to an end Thursday in quarterfinals of MCC Tournament to St. Ambrose. Anna Jones had another terrific game, 25 points and 13 rebounds, but team just couldn't shoot straight on this night, 22%, not good. Final game for Anna and Nene Villalobos, seniors, as well as Caitlyn Jones and Megan McVey, was a whole lot of fun to watch Anna the last four years. Grand View ended up winning the women's tournament, St. Ambrose won the men's tourney.
Baseball: Not a happy weekend down in Kentucky, lost four games to Lindsey Wilson. Saturday lost by scores of 5-1 and 6-1, Sunday lost both games by identical 5-4 scores, the last one in extra innings. Both games Sunday lost in final at bat. Mike Mendoza had a good weekend hitting, six hits over the four games including a homer.

This week: Very light week as the winter season has all but wrapped up and not quite full into spring sports yet.

Friday-Saturday: Keith Brown will be competing in the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships in Geneva, Ohio. 60-meter hurdles will open with heats on Friday and the finals on Saturday. Doesn't look like any video for this unfortunately, we'll try to keep updated on how he does, he comes in highly ranked in the event. Also on Friday and Saturday the baseball team will be in St. Louis to play twin doubleheaders both days against both Missouri Baptist and St. Francis (Ind.).

More:

Daytona 500: This is the part where we brag that Wisconsin's own Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500, which finally concluded past midnight this morning. Unlike Juan Pablo Montoya, Matt didn't lose control of his car and crash into a jet engine dryer to spark a monster fire that required Tide laundry soap to help clean the track off from all the spilled and burning jet fuel.

Have a great week. Spring break only a few days away, March Madness just one day away!


Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Result from last night: Men's basketball played a quarterfinal game at St. Ambrose and lost 86-79. They struggled with rebounds as SAU out-rebounded us 42-30. Bruce Brooks and Davis Warner led the Tigers with 15 points each. Donnie Osborne had 14 points off the bench. The Tigers finished the season with a record of 12-14 and 7-11 in MCC play for an eighth place finish.

TONIGHT:

Women's basketball will be HOME at 7pm for a quarterfinal game as the #3 seed vs. #6 St. Ambrose. At halftime men's track runner Keith Brown will be introduced as he has qualified for nationals next weekend in the 60-meter hurdles. Come cheer on the Tiger women!

Have a nice rainy day!


Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Good afternoon

IWC sports news…

Awards: Won a number of the Midwest Collegiate Conference Athlete of the Week awards on Monday. Anna Jones again won the women's basketball Player of the Week award (fourth time this year, seventh time in career), Keith Brown won the men's indoor track honor for the second time this year, and Joseph Neilson won the Baseball Pitcher of the Week award for the first time. Congrats to all of them, think it's the first time in at least my five years that can remember us winning three awards in one week.

Coming up…

Basketball: It's tournament time. MCC men's basketball tourney starts tonight, quarterfinals, men travel to Davenport to take on #1 seed St. Ambrose. 7 p.m. start time. Time to pull off the upset and get on a roll. We'll be broadcasting online, www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia, they'll have a broadcast as well.

And tomorrow, MCC women's hoops tourney starts. Tiger women are playing HERE against St. Ambrose, can't get away from the Bees this last week. 7 p.m. at Ruble Arena. May be the last home game of the year, maybe last chance to see Anna Jones play at home, so need to make it good and loud. Baseball players not traveling yet Thursday so now you can be at the game.

Have a great Ash Wednesday. Go Tigers.


Monday, February 20th, 2012

Good morning!

Results from the weekend:
Women's Basketball: Beat St. Ambrose at home on senior day 69-62. Adilene Villalobos scored a career high 20 points. Samantha Hodge had 12 points, six rebounds, and a game high eight assists. Anna Jones had another double-double with 12 points and ten rebounds. The women are now 17-10 overall and 13-5 in MCC play and finished third in conference in the regular season.
Men's Basketball: Lost on senior day to #16 St. Ambrose 70-61. The game was close most of the way until the Bees pulled away down the stretch. Kyle Warner led with 15 points and six rebounds. Derrick Nillissen had 12 points. The men finished the regular season at 12-13 overall and 7-11 in MCC play.
Men's Track: The men competed in the final indoor meet of the season. Keith Brown again won the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 6.67 seconds. He also finished second in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.68. Brown will be the lone Tiger at the NAIA Indoor National Championships in the 60-meter hurdles in Geneva, Ohio, March 1-3.
Baseball: Won 3 out of 4 in Kentucky on Friday and Saturday. Beat #12 Union College twice with scores of 5-4 and 3-1. They split with Shawnee State University winning the first game 2-1 and dropping the second game 5-2. Jacob Sanchez, Erik Allen, and Joseph Neilson pitched for the Tigers. Christian Arrendondo led with six hits and three runs batted in. Corey Amerson added three hits including a home run and four RBIs.

Wednesday: Men's basketball will be at #1 St. Ambrose as the #6 seed in the quarterfinals of the MCC conference tournament. Game time is 7 p.m. and a live broadcast will be at www.iwctigers.com/onlinemedia
Thursday: The women's basketball team will be HOME as the #3 seed in the quaterfinals of the MCC tournament. They will host #6 seed St. Ambrose. Game time is 7 p.m. and live video and broadcast will be at www.iwctigers.com/onlinemedia
Friday: Baseball will be at Lindsey Wilson for a double header starting at 1 p.m.

Saturday: Baseball again will be at Lindsey Wilson for a double header starting at noon.

MCC Men's and Women's Basketball Brackets:

http://www.midwestcollegiateconference.com/d/Basketball/2012_MBB_Bracket.pdf
http://www.midwestcollegiateconference.com/d/Basketball/2012_WBB_Bracket.pdf

Have a good week!


Friday, February 17th, 2012
Good afternoon…

Quick update on sports happenings today and coming up this weekend:

Baseball: Opened its season with a pair of wins today in Kentucky. First defeated #12 ranked Union (Ky.) 5-4, then beat Shawnee State (Ohio) 2-1. Great start for the guys. Jacob Sanchez and Erik Allen pitched us to wins, Corey Amerson had two-run single in first inning of second game that proved to be the winner. Team plays Shawnee State at 9 a.m. tomorrow and then Union again at 11:30 a.m., pair of seven-inning games, some schedule changes there as they brace for weather tomorrow.
Basketball: Home tomorrow, Senior Day for both the women and men. Women face St. Ambrose Queen Bees at 1 p.m., men play SAU Fighting Bees at 3 p.m. Some might say you should "bee" there. Come out and support the seniors, Anna Jones and Nene Villalobos as well as Jeremy Simmons, Davis Warner and Matt Schackow.

Track & Field: At University of Dubuque Open tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!


Monday, February 13th, 2012
Happy Monday!

Results from the weekend:

Women's Basketball: Beat Ashford at home 67-40. Started off the game with a 21-0 run-impressive. Ashley Kruse had 20 points and seven rebounds. Anna Jones earned 16 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and seven assists. The ladies secured at least a third place finish in conference and a first round home game in the MCC Tournament with the win. They are 16-9 overall and 12-4 MCC and currently sit in third place in conference.
Men's Basketball: Lost to Ashford in a close one, 69-68. The loss dropped the Tigers to 11-12 overall and 6-10 MCC. Kyle Warner led with 29 points and seven rebounds. Jeremy Simmons had 12 points. Donnie Osborne led off the bench with seven points.
Track: Both teams were in Sterling, Ill. for the MCC Indoor Championships. Keith Brown won the MCC championship in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.63 seconds. He broke the meet record, also broke his own school record that he set earlier this year.Brown also took fifth in the 55 and 200 meters. LaStacy Freeman led the women with a fourth place finish in the 55-meters with a time of 7.48 and took ninth in the 200 with a time of 27.20. Aaron Brown finished fourth in the men's shot put with a throw of 47-7 1/4. The men's 4x400 relay team took sixth with a time of 3:43.77. The members of that team were Michael Klostermann, Duane Lee, Jacob Ayers, and Raul Beccerril.

This Week:

Wednesday: Basketball will be HOME against Mount Mercy with start times of 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Very important games, so be there, don't want MMU to have more people here than us.
Friday: Baseball season begins in Kentucky. Tigers open at #12 ranked Union (Ky.) and also play Shawnee State (Ohio) at 3 p.m.
Saturday: Basketball teams will have their final game of the regular season HOME for Senior Day against St. Ambrose, 1 & 3 p.m.. Baseball will be at Union College again at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Track will be at the University of Dubuque.

Have a great week!


Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Happy Thursday!

Results from last night:

Women's Basketball: The women took a clean sweep of Clarke last night for the season with a win on the road, 70-53. The game remained close for most of the game until the Tigers pulled away in the second half. Anna Jones led with 21 points, six rebounds, six assists, and six steals. Danielle Des Jardins scored 14 points and Adilene Villalobos had seven points and seven rebounds off the bench for the Tigers. Samantha Hodge earned eight points for the night. The women have a record of 15-9 overall, 11-4 MCC which places them currently in third.
Men's Basketball: The men lost a tough one to Clarke, 92-79, never leading in the game. Kyle Warner and Shakka Eke led the Tigers with 17 points. Davis Warner added 13 points and Derrick Nillissen added 11 points off the bench. The men are 11-11 overall, 6-9 MCC sitting in eighth in conference.

Men's and women's basketball will be at HOME vs Ashford University. The women will play at 1 p.m. with the men to follow at 3 p.m. Track teams will be in Sterling, Illinois at the MCC Indoor Champtionships.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Monday, February 6th, 2012
Sports update today courtesy of Asst. SID Sara Williamson…

Good Morning!

Results from the weekend:
Women's Basketball: The Tigers beat William Penn with a score of 69-54. Second time this season the women beat Penn and without Coach Williamson, who was out due to a mandatory one-game suspension after two technicals on Wednesday at Waldorf. (By the way, not that this behavior is condoned, but should be noted, Woody is not even the first Williamson to be disqualified from an IWC game this season. That would be assistant soccer coach Mike Williamson-Sara's husband-who received a red card in a game this fall.) Anna Jones had 19 points and nine rebounds. Samantha Hodge and Ashley Kruse both had 15 points. Danielle Des Jardins had 13 points and five assists. The Tigers are in third place in conference with an overall record of 14-9 and 10-4 in MCC play.
Men's Basketball: Great team effort by the men gave them a win over William Penn 91-83. Davis Warner led the team with 16 points, ten rebounds, and nine assists. Bruce Brooksadded 14 points and six rebounds. Shakka Eke earned 12 points and 14 rebounds while Kyle Warner and Dan Missey both had 11 points. The men are eighth in conference with a record of 11-10 overall and 6-8 in MCC.
Track: The track teams were in Mount Vernon at the Cornell Hilltop Invitational. LaStacy Freeman and Keith Brown both finished third in the 60-meter dash. Freeman had a time of 8.07 seconds and Brown with a time of 7.06. Aaron Brown finished fourth in the men's shot put with a throw of 46-9 1/2. Ashley Reeves finished eighth in the women's long jump with a jump of 14-7 1/4.

This Week:

Wednesday: Basketball teams will be at Clarke in Dubuque. The women will play at 5:30 p.m. with the men to follow at 7:30 p.m. You can listen live at www.iwc.tigers.edu/onlinemedia.
Saturday: The basketball teams will be HOME against Ashford at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The track teams will travel to Sterling, Ill., for the MCC Indoor Championships.

Have a great week!


Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Good afternoon…

Some good news to pass on about IWC student-athletes…pair of Tigers won MCC Player of the Week honors yesterday. Anna Jones was named the MCC Women's Basketball Player of the Week, winning the award for the third time this year. Also, Keith Brown was named the MCC Men's Indoor Track Athlete of the Week, winning that honor for his first time ever. Both set school records last week (Anna in points in a single game, Keith in the 55-meter hurdles), good honors for both. Keith has chance to blow up a whole lot of school records this year, currently the #2 ranked hurdler in the NAIA.

Up next:

Basketball games tomorrow night right here at Ruble Arena against Waldorf College. Women's game at 5:30, men's at 7:30. Going to be taking part in the cancer awareness initiatives tomorrow night, women will be wearing their pink uniforms for the WBCA (Women's Basketball Coaches Association) Pink Zone/Play4Kay cause, men will feature the coaches wearing their sneakers on the sideline as part of the NABC Coaches vs. Cancer ‘Suits and Sneakers' promotion. Be there, wear pink, sneakers, or even pink sneakers. If you can't be there games will be on KILJ 105.5 FM, we'll also have the live video synched with the audio online at www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia.

Have a peachy afternoon.


Monday, January 30th, 2012

Good Monday Morning!

Results from this weekend:
Women's Basketball: Defeated Viterbo on Saturday 64-58. The win put the Tigers in third in the MCC standings. Anna Jones was a key factor once again with 21 points and nine rebounds. Jones hit a three-pointer down the stretch with 1:09 left to play. Ashley Kruse had 16 points and Michelle Price was hot with all seven of her points coming in the first half. The Tigers are now 12-9 overall and 8-4 in MCC.

Men's Basketball: Lost to Viterbo 71-56. Too many turnovers hurt the Tigers and they could not recover. Shakka Eke led the Tigers with 18 points and nine rebounds. Davis Warner added 17 points and Kyle Warner added seven rebounds.

Women's Track: The track teams were at the University of Dubuque for the Spartan Invite. LaStacy Freeman led the women with a third place finish in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.62 seconds. She also placed third in the 200 meters with a time of 27.57. Freeman finished the day with a fourth place finish in the 400 with a time of 1:09.28. Kristen Lutz finished fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:12.04. Ashley Reeves took seventh in the long jump with 14-8 and Cienna Strother finished eighth in the shot put with a throw of 27-8. Overall, the women finished six out of seven teams.

Men's Track: Keith Brown led the Tigers finishing second in the 55 hurdles with a time of 7.65 and placing third in the 200-meter dash at 22.74. His hurdles time was a facility record and set a new school record breaking his time earlier this season. He is also second in school history in the 200-meter dash. Brown's time in the hurdles is the second best in NAIA this year and he has met the NAIA 'A" standard to qualify for the Indoor Champtionships. Jacob Ayers finished ninth in the mile with a time of 4:50.99. The men finished eighth out of nine teams.

This Week:
Wednesday: Basketball teams will be HOME with the women starting at 5:30 p.m. and the men at 7:30 p.m. The game will feature Coaches Vs. Cancer so wear sneakers and Pink! The games will be against Waldorf College.

Saturday: Basketball will be at William Penn at 1 and 3 p.m.Short ride if you want to get out of Mt. Pleasant. The Track teams will be at the Cornell Hilltop Invitational at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon.

Have a great week!


Friday, January 27th, 2012
Good afternoon.......

Results from last night:

Women's Basketball: Lost a tough close game to #10 Grand View University 66-61. The ladies struggled in the second half to score and came up short. Samantha Hodge kept the Tigers in the game in the first half with 13 points. Hodge and Ashley Kruse both had 16 points on the night. Anna Jones had 15 points, 13 rebounds, and three steals. The women are tied for 3rd place with Viterbo.

Men's Basketball: Won an exciting back and forth game with Grand View to win 65-62. Jeremy Simmons three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left was huge for the team. Kyle Warner led with 19 points. Shakka Eke had 14 points and led with nine rebounds. Bruce Brooks was hot off the bench with ten points. The win put the men in a four way tie for fifth with Clarke, Grand View, and Waldorf.

Tomorrow: Basketball squads make the trip to beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin, to take on Viterbo. Games at 1 & 3 p.m.You can listen online at www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia. Also track teams will be up at the Dubuque Spartan Invitational.

Have a great day…


Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Good late morning

Forgot to send out an update after Monday night's games. For those who haven't heard…

Women's Basketball: Defeated AIB of Des Moines 61-55. Anna Jones had 37 points, 15 rebounds and nine steals, setting career highs in points and steals, tying her high in rebounds. The 37 points are a new school single game record (at least in the modern 5-on-5 era, not sure if we had anyone score more than that in a game in the 6-on-6 era), and kind of like a ‘soft' 17 in blackjack, we'll call her point total a ‘soft' 37, because she could've easily had close to 50 if hadn't missed some contested layups that she usually makes.
Men's Basketball: Defeated AIB 76-73. Bruce Brooks and Davis Warner both had 18 points, Jon Umoren played really well down the stretch. Snapped a losing skid, tough win, AIB was missing its leading player but battled very hard, pesky team.

Coming up:

Today: Basketball teams will be leaving in a while to head to Des Moines to play Grand View. Women will take on the #10 ranked Vikings at 5:30, men will take on GVU at 7:30. Jamarco and I will be broadcasting online, www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia.
Saturday: Basketball squads make the trip to beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin, to take on Viterbo. Games at 1 & 3 p.m. Will be up there broadcasting again. Also track teams will be up at the Dubuque Spartan Invitational.

Have a great day…


Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Good Morning....

Tiger sports results from this weekend, courtesy of Asst. SID/women's soccer coach Sara Williamson:

Women's Basketball: Lost at Saint Ambrose 79-61. The Bees were too strong inside and off rebounds for the Tigers. Danielle Des Jardins led the Tigers with 18 points. Anna Jones had 17 points and led with eight rebounds. The Tigers are now 10-8 overall, 6-3 in the MCC.
Men's Basketball: Lost as well at Saint Ambrose 87-67. The Bees had a lead of 31 points that the Tigers were unable to come back from. Shakka Eke led with 16 points and six rebounds. Kyle Warner had 11 points and five rebounds. The Tigers are now 8-8 overall and 3-6 in the MCC.
Men's Track: Finished 11th of 12 teams at the Illinois College Snow Bird Open in Jacksonville, Ill. Jacob Ayers finished 7th in the 400 yard dash with a time of 54.91. Keith Brown finished 2nd in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.60.
Women's Track: Finished 9th of 12 also at the Illinois College Snow Bird Open. LaStacy Freeman finished sixth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.26 seconds. She also finished 3rd in the 400 yard dash with a time of 1:05.30.

This Week:
Tonight: Basketball will be home vs. AIB. Women will play at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men at 7:30 p.m. The games will be broadcast by KILJ. Wear White!
Thursday: Basketball will be at Grand View University. Start times of 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. It will be online at www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia

Saturday: Basketball teams will be at Viterbo with game times at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. It will also be broadcast online at www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia. The track teams will be at the Spartan invite in Dubuque.

Have a good week!


Friday, January 20, 2012
Good afternoon…

Sorry, fell off a bit in past few months with these, getting busy with a number of things and just not getting back to them. Thanks to those who have reminded me, will try to get back to doing them consistently. Shoot, I have an assistant and an intern this semester, worst case I'll pass the chore on to them. :) Delegation…

Couple sports items from this week, mainly Wednesday:

Women's Basketball: Defeated #8 ranked team in NAIA D-II Mount Mercy Wednesday night 67-51. Went on the road and took it to them. Danielle Des Jardins (DJ!) scored career high 21 points. Anna Jones was awesome as usual, 20 points & 11 rebounds, Ashley Kruse also had 15 points. Great win, snapped MMU's 10-game win streak and our women's win streak is up to seven games now. Also, Anna was named MCC Player of the Week back on Monday, second time this season.
Men's Basketball: Lost to Mount Mercy 73-65. Were in it right to the final minutes, just few plays here & there again. Played real well in first half. Jeremy Simmons had 14 points, Kyle Warner had 13 points and seven rebounds.

This weekend:
Tomorrow: Basketball teams are up at St. Ambrose to take on the Bees. Women's game at 1 p.m., men's at 3 p.m. Jamarco and I will be broadcasting online, www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia. Good easy road trip if you want to head up there, then can do some shopping or dine-out in the QC. Also, the indoor track & field season has started, teams are over at the Illinois College Snow Bird Invitational in Jacksonville, Ill. Just found this out today, freshman Keith Brown set a school indoor record in the 55 hurdles in his first meet last week. That's speed. Of course, Keith is from the great state of Wisconsin.

Monday: Also an early heads-up, we have a rare Monday night home game coming up. We'll be hosting the MCC's newest member, AIB, women's game at 5:30 and men's at 7:30. Request is for a white-out.

Have a great weekend


Monday, September 26th, 2011

Good morning...the Homecoming weekend sports update

Cross Country: Competed in the Clarke Invite Friday. Jacob Ayers finished high for the men, Breanna Derynck led the women's team.

Football: Lost to #19 ranked St. Francis (Ill.) 50-28. Made it interesting, was just an eight-point game in fourth quarter before USF put it away. Offense finally got rolling, Kevin McConnell had 3 TD passes, Ridge Hobbs had 2 TD catches. Not that far off from a team that is ranked, just need to put it all together to get over the hump with a win this year.
Women's Soccer: Defeated Cornell 2-0. Kelly Wetherald and Erin Lucido traded scoring goals and assisting each other's goals. Cara Arnold gets the shutout. Good win to get back on track, team has a chance for a special season and to break whole bunch of school records, just need to keep playing our game. Liked having soccer games featured separately on Homecoming weekend rather than at same time as football game, even if it resulted in missing most of NFL Sunday...

Men's Soccer: Defeated Cornell 3-2. Caio Costa, Jesus Soto and Chris Matthews all scored goals, Kris Dolinsky and Walton Ponce had assists. Guys are starting to win some of the close games, two straight wins and now have surpassed last year's season win total. Both soccer teams much improved this year. Head Coach Brock Chatman and student assistant Reinaldo Hall both sport solid business attire on sideline, dress shirts, slacks & ties, cleaned up for Homecoming.
Volleyball: Must be reported, the faculty/staff teams defeated the student teams in a pair of matchups Thursday night, both in straight sets. Also had some solid Alumni play Saturday morning, good quality play.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Homecoming events last week, athletics-related and otherwise. Fun week, and had some great crowds at events. Great atmosphere at the football game too with the marching band and everything else going on there.

This week:

Tuesday: Women's golf at the Shootout at Springbrook in DeWitt, Iowa, hosted by Ashford. Also, volleyball team has an important MCC match against Waldorf out in Forest City.
Wednesday: Another soccer doubleheader at home...we've had a lot of soccer here lately. Conference matches against Clarke, women's match at 1 p.m., men's match at 3 p.m., both out at East Lake Park per usual.

Thursday: Volleyball team has a non-conference match just down the road at Culver-Stockton, 7 p.m. in Canton, Mo.
Friday: Cross country meet, men's and women's teams head to Des Moines for the Grand View Invite.

Saturday: Home football, Tigers will take on the club team from Wright State (Ohio) University at 1 p.m. out at Mapleleaf.Soccer teams also take to the road, long trip to Forest City to take on Waldorf in MCC play.

Have a great week...


Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
Good afternoon…sorry, these come a little later in the day after three home events the day before…

Results from yesterday
Women's Soccer: Defeated Harris-Stowe (Mo.) 8-0. Brittney Moss scored three goals (before leaving with an injury-boo), Fanny Koloko-Green had three assists. Both tied single-game school records in those categories-nice! Erin Lucido scored two goals, Jacki Isham, Ashley Kendrick and Fanny all scored goals as well. Great job, exactly how to play against an opponent when have chance to beat them convincingly.
Men's Soccer: Beat Harris-Stowe 2-1. Jason Gonzalez scored the winning goal early in the second half with the hockey-style double assist from Max Tefo and Jesus Soto. Chris Madigan also scored on a penalty kick in first half. Entertaining game especially in first half. First win for Coach Brock Chatman, congrats to him & the team.
Volleyball: Lost to Viterbo 3-0. Viterbo is ranked 18th in NAIA, really good team, lot of weapons, going to be tough for anyone in conference to beat this year. Team did receive an honor earlier in the week as Megan McVey was named MCC VB Hitter of the Week, well-deserved honor after some big games over weekend.

Today: Nothing

Tomorrow: Nothing
Friday: Nothing

Thankfully. Need time to rest.

Have a good afternoon

Monday, September 12th, 2011
Good morning…

IWC sports results from this weekend, hitting the busy season where the events are many and the sleep is little.

Volleyball: Played at Grinnell Tournament and won one of three matches.

W 3-2 over Westminster (Mo.)
L 3-0 to Cornell

L 3-2 to Grinnell
Megan McVey had some huge matches. 31 kills against Westminster, tied for second-most in a match in school history. Also 26 kills against Grinnell…Meggo is playing her tail off, great effort and leadership on the court by the senior.
Cross Country: Competed at the Grinnell Les Duke Invitational. Men were led by Jacob Ayers, women's best finish came by Breanna Derynck.

Football: Lost 35-22 to Taylor (Ind.). Got far behind early, down 26-3 in second quarter, almost came all the way back. Touchdown at end of first half, Thomas Barkei flashed his breakaway speed on 67-yard reception, then Kevin McConnell ran for 30-yard TD on next play. Duane Lee had an interception return for a TD, then Ridge Hobbs caught a 56-yard TD bomb to make it 29-22. But Taylor returned favor with interception for a touchdown later in quarter. Team is 0-3 overall but not that far away right now.
Men's Soccer: Lost to William Woods 5-0 out at East Lake Park in home opener. Owls are pretty good team, big goal for them at end of first half and another early in second half broke it open.

Men's Golf: Finished 21st at Mount Mercy Cropper Classic this weekend at Hunter's Ridge G.C. in Marion. Kyle Emerson had best finish, two-day score of 160 to tie for 89th individually.

This week:
Tuesday: Soccer matches here out at East Lake Park, doubleheader against Harris-Stowe (Mo.). Women's match at 2 p.m., men's match at 4 p.m. Should be gorgeous weather, temperature about 70 degrees, sunny, so come on out. Also…volleyball here Tuesday night, 7 p.m., MCC match against the nationally ranked Viterbo V-Hawks. Viterbo is ranked 21st in the NAIA, really good team. Plenty of sporting events for your enjoyment Tuesday.

Saturday: And then we don't have anything until the end of the week. No football Saturday, but futbol. More soccer at home, open MCC play with a doubleheader against the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees/Queen Bees. Women play at 1 p.m., men at 3 p.m. Teams will be playing in honor of Teen Suicide Awareness, there will be items auctioned off and proceeds will go to the Women's Crisis Center in Mt. P. In honor of a cause very important to the team, so come on out and support them. Football team is idle Saturday, so this is only event going on, be there.

More:

NFL: Season opened this weekend-hooray! Much better than watching lousy college games like Iowa against cupcakes like Tennessee Tech over Labor Day weekend. Though Iowa-Iowa State sounds like it was pretty good. (where's the UNI-Iowa game to complete the series trilogy this year?) Packers for most part looked like the world champions that they are, Bears must admit started pretty good. Chiefs did not-how does anyone lose 41-7 at home to Buffalo??? Cowboys blew another one. Also on selfish note, fantasy football team co-owned by me and my sister (the Mount Pleasant/Madison Gremlins) off to a good start.
MLB: Brewers are just giving the Cardinals a little false hope, will pull back away now that not playing the best team in baseball.

Goodness, it's almost noon already. Have a great day and a great start to the week. Enjoy what may be one of the last really warm days of the summer!


Monday, August 29th, 2011
Good afternoon…

IWC sports results from the weekend
Volleyball: Finished 0-4 at the Mount Mercy Zio Johno's Mustang Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Lost in three sets to York (Neb.) and Missouri Valley, in four to Mayville State (N.D.) and in five in tough one to Avila (Mo.). Just received stats, Megan McVey led team with 47 kills over the four matches.
Women's Soccer: Defeated Calumet-St. Joseph (Ind.) 3-1 on Saturday. Fanny Koloko-Green, Jillian Sulcer and Hannah McElroy all scored goals. Good start to the year, going to put last year far in the past.

Football: Lost 42-7 to William Penn. Not as bad as that sounds, had lots of chances in second and third quarters to make it a one-score game, Penn added its last three touchdowns at end of third quarter/fourth quarter. Ridge Hobbs had 69-yard TD pass from Kevin McConnell, Charles Thomas had a nice interception and Aaron Wagoner recovered a fumble.

This week: It is Old Threshers Time. This year's feature tractor is the 1945 International Harvester A (at left). Nice. Grandpa always has had nice red IH tractors. Those who have never been there, this is the busiest week for Mount Pleasant of the entire year. Check it out, as busy as it is and as old school as it is, it's still a slice of this area's history. Lot of good food, sweet old cars, steam engines, and tractors.
Thursday: A pair of home events. Women's soccer at 5 p.m. out at East Lake against Monmouth. Then swing back here for volleyball at 7 p.m. against Knox. Busy day. Hoping to show video of the game online on our Web site, www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia, started that last year and hope to continue it more this year.
Saturday: The fall seasons officially get busy. Men's & women's soccer teams are out in Sioux City to take on Morningside, season opener for the men. Cross country teams have the Mustang Gallop up at Mount Mercy and the women's golf team is at Mount Mercy too. And football will be over in Quincy for a 7 p.m. game against the Hawks. New stadium this year, now playing at Flinn Stadium there, not the old dungeon with the stone walls. Looking to broadcast the game online, still finalizing that but we'll be there. Last year's game against Quincy was a 62-50 IWC win.

Brewers' magic number in the NL Central: 18. Can knock six games off of that with a sweep of Cardinals this week.

Have a great week


Friday, August 19th, 2011
Good morning…welcome to the 2011-12 school year!

Before getting to IWC stuff, first things first: how about those Milwaukee Brewers? :) In the words of the old wrestler Ric Flair: Wooooo! Can smell the playoffs from Iowa like a good Miller Park tailgate…

New people, welcome to IWC. For those not knowing who I am, I'm Adam, I'm the Sports Information Director here, and one of my jobs is to try to keep people up to date on what's going on with our sports teams. (This year I'm also helping some with the Tiger women's soccer team as an assistant, overseeing some of the team's morning workouts and able to help out as long as I follow Coach's strict instructions that I do not kick a soccer ball).

Our fall sports teams do not start in-season competition until next week, but we do start things off with a few ‘light' events this weekend:
Friday: Men's soccer team will be hosting a scrimmage against Heartland (Ill.) Community College. Game time is 5 p.m. over at East Lake Park, come on over and see new coach Brocklon Chatman's team.
Saturday: Football team will be doing its picture/media day on the square at 9 a.m. Team photo will be in front of the courthouse, then individual & other photos in the center of the square. If you'd like to come hang out with the team for a while stop on by, public is welcome.

Have a great weekend, would love to be here at events but will be at the Green Bay Packer preseason game tonight. Last fun before the school year. Enjoy!


Friday, May 13th, 2011
Good morning from Tennessee...keep thinking of old Ronnie Milsap country music songs out here, "Smokey Mountain Rain" especially, although "Prisoner of the Highway" was probably more appropriate while driving over Tuesday. Very pretty area out here though with the mountains around us, much prettier-looking when not looking at them on a bus ride.

The report from yesterday, as several nicely kept updated, Tigers went 1-1 here in Kingsport at NAIA national tournament opening round. Won first game 7-5 over Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio), then lost last night 9-4 to Union (Ky.). Amazing win in first game, trailed 5-2, nobody on and one out in top of 9th inning when we rallied for five runs. Mix of big hits by us and errors by MVNU, but we scored five times to win our 15th straight game. Guys just wouldn't let the streak end, great win, did not give up.

Unfortunately couldn't keep it going against Union. Got off to a good start, led 2-0 in 1st inning and were tied going into the 5th. Scored twice in the bottom of the 7th to get within 6-4 but last couple innings were long. Didn't field the ball well in the second game, generous scorekeeping only gave us two errors, probably should've been at least four or five. Drew Koeppel and Josh Sturges had nice doubles to score two runs. Union is good, ranked #8 in the country and top seed in our bracket, but we're capable of playing better.

We now have to work our way through to keep playing. Double-elimination so we're not done yet. Play an elimination game tonight at 5 p.m. (your Iowa time) against the winner of this morning's game between Mt. Vernon Nazarene and Indiana-Southeast, which starts shortly. Tough chore, big advantage to the teams that win early in these tournaments, but we'll give it a shot. Also thanks to everyone back home for their support of the team, it is appreciated by them. Even had a few parents at our game last night, as well as Erin (The Hammer) Karlsgodt, former IWC women's basketball player, who is attending grad school at Union (team we played) and also is a grad assistant coach there on the WBB team.

More notes...weather was hot and humid. Long day for the team having to play two games in the heat. Press box not much AC, but after the spring in Iowa will gladly take it. Lots of friendly southern misses serving us at the restaurants where we go eat. :) Also, let it be known that our guys have received compliments on more than one occasion already by people at the establishments where we eat at, saying that of all the teams that come through their places, ours is one of the most well-behaved they have seen.

More news...softball team now has its draw for the NAIA National Championships in Alabama. Tournament begins with pool play, groups of four and each team plays each other. We are matched with William Carey (Miss.), Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) and the William Woods (Mo.) Owls. William Carey is the #3 ranked team in country-tough one! Olivet was at our Sammons Classic in April, really good team but if play well a team we can be competitive with. And William Woods was an upset winner in their conference tourney pretty similar to us, better overall record but another team we can be competitive with. Sounds like not bad at all for us.

That's enough for now, forecast is a chance of rain this afternoon here in Tennessee unfortunately, if not we'll be broadcasting at about 4:50 tonight. Enjoy the Friday, and go Tigers

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
Good morning from Tennessee and the Appalachian Mountains. Tennessee...'Take me to another place, take me to another land, make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand Your plan...' - Arrested Development, music from when I was in high school...:)

The school year is over, but due to the excellence of some of our teams and athletes, the sports year is not. Some of the recent news (apologize for this being a few days late, had this typed yesterday on the bus and computer briefly crashed on me...unbelievable)

Believe it or not…the IWC softball team is headed to the NAIA National Tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala., after winning the MCC Tournament Championship over at Drake in Des Moines. Tigers finished 3-0 this past weekend and on Sunday defeated the conference regular season champion William Penn 7-3 to wrap up the tournament title. Incredible. That means we now have two teams heading to national tourneys-baseball and softball. One team is 33-18; the other is 18-33. One team finished first of the nine MCC teams in the regular season; the other finished seventh. Both did what they had to do-won their conference tournaments-and both are headed to nationals.

What a weekend-what a week. As if the baseball tourney wasn't enough, this weekend…run out of verbs to describe it, just a great story. Won the first game on Saturday 3-0 over Clarke. Brooke Iversen pitched six shutout innings, then her and Kali Hills hopped on a small plane flown by a friend of Kali's father and got to Mount Pleasant to walk in the graduation ceremony here. Then both of them flew back in time for us to face Penn, a team we lost to twice in regular season by combined score of 22-1. Got down 4-0 in the second inning…and then battled back. Finally took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and won 6-5, game ended on a double play when with bases loaded Jill Ginder fielded a ground ball, tagged runner going to second and threw to first in time.

Sunday we got William Penn again, needed to beat them just once of a possible two games, but knew that would be tough. Sure enough, got down 2-0 in the first inning on a home run. But we loaded the bases in the bottom of the third and Leigha Strong came up to bat and-first pitch-hit a grand slam, way out of the park to straight away center field. Penn got as close as 4-3, but we scored three times in sixth and Ayla Serrano finished it off in seventh for her second win pitching of the weekend.

At one point this year the team was 9-31 overall-we've had to win 9 of 11 just to get to 18-33. Say this about our softball team, and it's somewhat clichéd, but they've continued to play hard and did not give up on the year when it would've been easy to and when a lot of teams would have. The ladies' resilience has been special, even during the season they often followed up ugly losses with some of their best games. To achieve something as a team, to bounce back when things aren't going the best, these are some of the reasons we love sports, and for the rest of their lives everyone on the team will be able to say they were conference champions. Very happy for the team and especially the seniors Kali, Brooke & Leigha. National championships are May 19-25 in Alabama.

Also this past weekend…track & Field. Tigers competed at the MCC Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, just across Des Moines from the softball games. Unfortunately didn't have a chance to get over there between softball games & graduation. Women's team finished sixth, men were seventh. We did have one champion, Ridge Hobbs is the MCC men's champ in the long jump, set a new school record and just missed qualifying for nationals, going to try one more time this week. Melanie McCreight was also second in the 400 hurdles, and we had a lot of solid finishes in 6-7-8-9 range, not bad for our very small teams.

More:

MCC Player of the Week: After winning conference tourney titles the Tigers swept the MCC awards this week. Leigha Strong was named Softball Player of the Week and Ayla Serrano was Pitcher of the Week-both well deserved. For baseball it was Neil Yemm named Player of the Week and J.J. Encarnacion Pitcher of the Week. Had a ton of good candidates for baseball team, conference tourney was a total shared effort.

And…

Why am I in Tennessee? IWC baseball team received its assignment Sunday for the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round. We are in Kingsport, Tenn., as the #4 seed of five teams in our double-elimination regional. More than a 12-hour bus ride, including about three hours winding through the mountains…not easy on a bus. Not far from the Bristol Motor Speedway, also not far from Virginia and North Carolina…we are in FAR eastern Tennessee. Open play tomorrow at 10 a.m. (your Central time) against Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio). Will be broadcasting the games here online, www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia. Time to blow up a bracket, we've already played the #1 seed here Union (Ky.), beat them once and lost to them twice in close games early in season. (Union also is the current school for Erin Karlsgodt, IWC grad/former basketball player/track athlete here, and she says she's making the drive over here from 2 hours away).

Have a great week, congrats again to all graduates this past weekend and go Tigers!


Friday, May 6th, 2011
Good early afternoon…what a gorgeous day, great day to be a Tiger. Final Friday of the school year, couple finals to finish up today…

Passed it on already when I sent out to media the stats last night, IWC baseball team is MCC Tournament champions after beating Grand View 5-3 yesterday and is headed to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time. Jay Olson had a homer and three runs batted in, Neil Yemm and Mike Mendoza had big hits, and J.J. Encarnacion pitched out of a number of jams. Justin Peterson finished it off pitching, and Todd Christensen made a fantastic play defensively on the final play of the game. Guys have done it. What a season, 14 straight wins now, MCC regular season and tournament champions.

Great tournament, our team played terrific. Enjoyed three days in Peosta, just west of Dubuque. Weather was not in our favor, really would've liked at least, oh, maybe temps in the 60s, but like much of the spring we got the games in and made the best of it. (Seemed fitting that as soon as the game ended yesterday, sure enough, the sun came out in full force really for the first time in what seemed like weeks…)

Program has been building to this for five years, now we'll get a shot at some biggies. We've already played quite a few of them earlier this year too and got some wins against them, got a chance to do some damage. A real credit to this year's team and to Coach Monaghan's program, has built our baseball team into one that is consistently strong and is gaining respect nationally at our level. And the success has been throughout all aspects of the program; team's GPA has risen 3/4 of a point from the year before he arrived to this year. The most successful five-year stretch in the school's baseball history.

Still some events this weekend too:

Track & Field: MCC Championships are taking place today and tomorrow in Des Moines at Williams Stadium. Several of our athletes over there competing, some probably even right now.
Softball: MCC Final 4 also in Des Moines, over at Drake. If you're able to go to our first game at 9:30 a.m. against Clarke and stay in the area, head over to track and watch some of our athletes there for awhile. Our second game will be at 5:30 p.m. against either William Penn or Grand View, we know the starting time again because of the class of the league coaches, letting us play at fixed times because of our graduation. Myself and Mike Mendoza will be broadcasting the games Saturday if you can't get there, www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia. Likely won't be there Sunday, any Sunday games will be covered by William Penn's announcers, thanks to them for picking up the ‘extra' games in the tourney for other schools, their site is http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wpu.portal. Happy to announce that all of the MCC Final 4 games will be broadcast online, check the MCC site (http://www.midwestcollegiateconference.com/) for listings on that.

Congratulations to all of the seniors graduating this weekend. Will miss all of you, and don't be a stranger, stop by and see us in the future, we'll want to know how you are doing. Even if you're not here you're not forgotten by us, want to see you come back to visit. A special final brag of graduating senior SID work study students Katie Jammer and B.J. Wagy, in addition to their already being model student-athletes here for four years both have been a fantastic help this year and a blast to work with, will miss them both in our office.

Have a great weekend. Go Tigers!


Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Good morning:

The report from Peosta yesterday...Tiger baseball team defeated Grand View 7-6 and is now one win away from our first-ever trip to the NAIA National Tournament. Whata way to win. Tying and winning runs scored in the bottom of the ninth with two outs on a dropped fly ball by GV's left fielder. Incredible. Everyone there thought the game was over...and then the ball bounced out of his glove and rolled away from him. Adam DuBuque scored the tying run, Jay Olson scored the winner. Wow. Was a shocking finish, in matter of seconds went from thinking we had lot of work to do to now being in a good position in the tournament. Winner of today's Grand View/Ashford game will need to beat us twice to win the championship. Weather permitting, IWC will now play at 3:30 today against the winner of that game. If we win, we wrap up the tourney; lose and it goes to a deciding game tomorrow at 1 p.m. We'll be broadcasting all of the rest of the games, IWC or not, live online off of our Web site. Crazy, but exciting for us!

Have a great day

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Good morning from sunny (and hopefully warming up) Peosta

IWC sports items from yesterday:

Baseball: Won our MCC Brrrrr-aseball Tournament opener last night, defeated Waldorf 10-5. Roderick Barcelo ripped a two-run homer, Todd Christensen had 3 RBIs, and just about everybody hit. Good start to the tourney, now we face #2 seed Grand View today at 3:30 p.m. The winner of that game will be in a significantly better position than the other teams in the tourney, only needing one more win to wrap up the double-elimination tournament. We'll have the broadcast on our Web site, http://www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia, and pretty sure I can say that with confidence now. Thank you to Dr. Price for getting the audio issues figured out, he put a lot of time into working with that yesterday and putting up with my continued 'this isn't working' messages. If somehow we can't get it to work, the game will be on Clarke's Web site at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/clarke.portal.

First day: cold.Didn't get much higher than 45 degrees during the day, and colder at night. Also windy during the day. Today is supposed to be better, as is tomorrow. Chance of rain tomorrow, but we should get this finished no later than Friday, hopefully on schedule. Nice little park they have here, and pretty good attendance especially considering the weather.

Softball: Schedule for the MCC tourney Final 4 is now set. IWC will open at 9:30 a.m. Saturday against Clarke. Win or lose,Tigers will then play their second game at 5:30 p.m. This is being done so our two graduating seniors Kali Hills and Brooke Iversen are able to attend the graduation ceremony Saturday. MCC and the coaches of the other three schools participating in the Final 4 have been very gracious about this, and they've done it in the past too,done all they can to ensure athletes still playing on their graduation day are able to attend their graduation ceremony if possible. Very nice of them.

Have a great day, time to get some breakfast

Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Good morning. Happy Finals Week. :)

The Tiger sports update from the weekend:
Baseball: Wrapped up the regular season with a 5-4 win over Mount Mercy Friday night. Came back in the late innings, three runs in the seventh, Marco Prieto had what ended up being the game-winning two-RBI hit. J.J. gets the win, Justin Peterson the save. Finished the year 18-6 in MCC, 30-18 overall, one of the best seasons in school history already and there's room for more.
Also on Sunday, IWC's Jorge Martinez had the honor of throwing out the first pitch before the Burlington Bees' game vs. Peoria. The Bees recognized IWC's baseball team and our winning the MCC regular season championship on their field. Nice honor for our guys.

Softball: Pulled some upsets and won our three-team double-elimination ‘pod' in Forest City as part of the first round of the MCC Tournament. Surprise surprise! As the #7 seed and paired with the #3 seed Waldorf and #4 seed Mount Mercy, the Tigers came out on top. Defeated Mount Mercy 3-2 in 8 innings in first game, then beat Waldorf 8-3 to get through Saturday unbeaten. Moved on to Sunday needing just one win; lost first game to Waldorf 5-3 but won the second against Waldorf 4-3. Leigha Strong hit a three-run homer to bring us back from 3-1 down in the last game. Impressive weekend, entire team played well, Ayla Serrano and Brooke Iversen pitched really well, young team pulled it together at the right time. IWC now moves on to the MCC Final 4 this coming weekend in Des Moines at Drake University, and we get to open against #9 seed Clarke-another surprise team in the Final 4.

This week:

Baseball: MCC Tournament begins Tuesday up in Peosta, which is just southwest of Dubuque. Tigers will be the top seed, and we open at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Opponent yet to be determined, it will be the winner of the #4 Waldorf/#5 Ashford game that opens the day Tuesday. If you don't have finals that day/the next morning, come on up, if not we'll be broadcasting all of the MCC tourney games on either IWC, Ashford or Clarke Web sites. We've created our own first-ever little MCC Network, basically it's a small press box and Clarke & Ashford's broadcasters will be there, we'll (I'll) be picking up IWC games or whichever games don't involve those two teams. Broadcast links will be on the MCC site (http://www.midwestcollegiateconference.com/), we'll try to keep updated on our site as well.
Track & Field: MCC Championships also take place this week, Friday and Saturday in Des Moines at Williams Stadium. Info starting to trickle in on these. We'll have some athletes over there competing for individual titles.
Softball: MCC Tournament Final Four will be played Saturday and Sunday at Drake. Double-elimination tourney, still working on start times, looking like it'll be 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning to start first game, then will try to run Kali & Brooke back here for the graduation ceremony, then back to Des Moines.

More:
NFL Draft: Not the same since they moved it to mostly prime time, feel it has deprived us men of the satisfaction of sitting around for six hours on a Saturday afternoon watching the first round, it's similar to the enjoyment we get watching golf. But the Packers loaded up on even more offense, while the Bears drafted Jay Cutler's fiancée in the second round as their QB of the future. No not really, but they probably thought about it.

Have a great final week of the school year. Go Tigers


Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Good morning. It's rainy, but at least it's warm rain I guess

Sports news items from yesterday:
Baseball: We did get in both games yesterday in Burlington…kind of. Completed the first game (in just one hour, eight minutes-that's FAST), then got through five innings of the second game before the Bees' field was finally too wet. IWC wins both, scores of 2-0 and 1-0, and with it clinches the MCC regular season championship. First outright conference title in school history, this one we don't have to share like last year. Very impressive, great season by the team, clinched the top seed in next week's MCC Tournament and now will be shooting for first ever NAIA national tourney berth. Jorge Martinez pitched another shutout in the first game, his fourth straight, and he now has a streak of 30 consecutive scoreless innings. Drew Koeppel had the big hit, a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the sixth to score the runs in the first game. Jacob Sanchez pitched the second game and also gets a shutout, struck out 10 in just five innings. Ten straight wins now, on a roll heading into the postseason.

Also yesterday, Jay Olson was named the MCC Baseball Player of the Week. He had two big games last week, and first time I believe that he has won that award.

Men's Golf: Team finished its season at the Mount Mercy Invite yesterday, finishing fifth. Zach Hale led us with a round of 79, tying for eighth. Also, Emery McGraw was named the MCC Men's Golf Athlete of the Week yesterday after a solid tourney at Wartburg over the weekend. Good honor for him in his final season, yesterday Emery tied for 12th in his final collegiate meet. I start to feel old when kids like Emery, B.J., etc. start graduating, they were freshmen when I came here. :)

Have to run, have a great day. Go Tigers


Monday, April 25th, 2011
Good morning. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with lots of malted milk ball eggs

Few of our athletes were in action over the weekend…
Men's Golf: Three golfers competed at the Wartburg Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Emery McGraw finished eighth individually, was tied for first after the first round, top 10 is still good finish.
Track & Field: Competed at Grinnell's Dick Young Classic. Women finished sixth, men took seventh. Lot of good results. LaStacy Freeman won the 100 & 200 meters and helped us also win the 4 x 100 relay with Ashley Reeves, Melanie McCreight and Anna Jones (didn't even know Anna ran track…). Mel also set a school record in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (not the equestrian event). Men's best finish was Xavier Shields taking second in the 100.

This week:

Today: If the weather allows us, we have baseball today. Doubleheader against Waldorf College, we're going to try to start at 1 p.m., try best we can to beat the weather. Special event, the games are taking place over in Burlington at Community Field, home of the Burlington Bees. Radar not looking good right now, the rain is pushing up from Missouri. Hoping we can at least get one game in, nice opportunity to play there and a good excuse to eat at the new Buffalo Wild Wings in Burlington.
Tuesday: Softball at Ashford at 3 p.m., baseball at Mount Mercy at 6 p.m.

More on the rest of the week later, have to run for now. Have a good Monday


Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Good morning

For those who weren't there last night, IWC softball team picked up a nice doubleheader sweep over Viterbo. Won first game 2-0, then won second game 6-5 in 10 innings. Good quality games, Ayla Serrano pitched a shutout in the opener, out-pitched Viterbo's #1 pitcher and the MCC Pitcher of the Week last week. Second game we trailed 4-0 at one point until Leigha Strong unloaded a three-run blast. Still trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh but scored twice to tie it up, Cari Smith had two-out single to tie the game. Jill Leutscher drove in the winning run in the 10th with a slap single that dropped just inside the left field line. Exciting games. Brooke Iversen pitched terrific in the second game, five shutout innings in relief. Good wins, Viterbo came in second in the MCC standings. Not anymore.

Also, Melanie McCreight is competing for IWC at the MCC Multi-Event Championships in Clinton. She's in the heptathlon, and after the first day was seventh individually. Finishes up today with the final three events.

Today:

More softball, 5:30 p.m. we host William Penn for a doubleheader over at Mapleleaf. Also the baseball team is on its way north now to play Clarke at 3 p.m. over in Peosta. Unfortunately looks like no broadcast for that one, Clarke is playing softball at the same time and looks like they're broadcasting that instead.

Have a good Maundy Thursday


Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Good morning…can't wait to go home to Wisconsin for Easter. Home is under a Winter Storm Watch, possibility of eight inches of snow today. And this is not even week and a half after there were tornadoes just north of hometown. Unreal spring. Bring on summer. Please.

IWC baseball result yesterday…Tigers defeated Waldorf 16-8. Mike Mendoza threw a couple touchdown passes and Jay Olson ran in the two-point conversions…no. Kind of bizarre game, Waldorf walked 13 of our hitters, our leadoff hitter reached base in every single inning, and the score might've been a lot worse if we hadn't hit into four double plays. Can't even get into all the stats, whole bunch of guys had hits and/or were on base a lot. Big thing is we're now 1 1/2 games up on Waldorf and Grand View for first in the MCC, with four games to play for us.
Other news yesterday: Josh Sturges was named the MCC Baseball Player of the Week yesterday, after hitting .563 and helping us go 4-0 last week. Second straight week IWC picks up a baseball award, nice.

Quick results from the weekend, since missed these yesterday:

Baseball: Swept two from Mount Mercy on Sunday, scores of 8-0 and 7-1. Jorge Martinez followed up his one-hitter last time out with a two-hit shutout on Sunday. One hit to two-slacker. No, Jorge now has thrown three straight shutouts, 25 straight scoreless innings, dominant.
Softball: Lost two games at the MCC Challenge over in Morrison, Ill., on Sunday. Nice complex over in Morrison, though, hope the conference goes back there again.
Golf: MCC Championships concluded Saturday at Blue Top Ridge in Riverside. Tiger men were seventh, women were eighth. Emery McGraw had best finish for the men, Kayla Bishop was tops for the ladies. Grand View won men's title, Ashford edged three other teams for the women's championship. Very long two days up there, weather was awful and forced some reductions in the number of holes played but our coaches, especially Mr. Kurt Moon, did a lot of work hosting and did a great job, put on the best championship we could have under the circumstances.
Track & Field: Few of our athletes competed at the Jim Duncan Invitational over at Drake. Haven't even had a chance to hash through the results yet, looks like a very large meet with high schools and colleges and the results are not separated out very well for reading.

This week
Today has been washed out, no baseball or golf up at Clarke. Next events will be softball games at home tomorrow and Thursday. Wednesday against Viterbo at 3 p.m., Thursday against William Penn at 6 p.m. Final two home dates of the season for the team.

More:

Mascot walks man down aisle: How much fun is this? At a wedding Sunday in South Carolina, the groom was given away by Big Stuff, the Winthrop University Eagles mascot. (Another story on it is here, video link to their entrance is here…this just doesn't get old) And the wife actually suggested this…what a lucky guy.

Have a great day


Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Good morning

Diamond scores from yesterday:

Baseball: Swept doubleheader from St. Ambrose by scores of 4-1 and 8-2. J.J. Encarnacion and Derek Zander both pitched excellent games. Josh Sturges also hit the ball well. This puts us back in a tie for the top spot in the MCC, we are percentage points ahead of Ashford (which has played three less conference games). Top six teams in the conference are separated by 1 1/2 games, pretty crazy, only top five teams advance to conference tournament so there's no room to slip up!
Softball: Lost both games of a doubleheader at Mount Mercy. Lost first game 4-3 in eight innings, lost second game 5-1. Quiet night, led first game late. Second game Tigers led 1-0 but MMU scored all their runs in fourth and fifth innings.

Next:

Today: Nothing. A slight break.
Tomorrow: What is planned to be may not actually come to fruition, weather forecast is not good. But events going on…baseball game at home tomorrow night at 6 p.m. against Waldorf. Nine-inning game, important game. Track teams are at Jim Duncan Invitational in Des Moines. Also, both golf teams are at the MCC Men's & Women's Golf Championships. IWC is serving as the host school, event is at Blue Top Ridge in Riverside.

Bonne journee…


Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Good sunny morning

IWC softball scores from yesterday…split with Hannibal-LaGrange in non-conference friendly. Lost first game 10-1, won second game 3-2. Kali Hills and Jill Ginder drove in runs in the second game, Leigha Strong had another homer. Ayla Serrano got the win. Five doubleheaders played this year so far, and five splits of said doubleheaders.

Today: Baseball team heads to Davenport for doubleheader against St. Ambrose. No broadcast, was going to head over for it but they're preparing for flooding around the stadium and sounds like the press box may become the relocation area for the River Bandits team offices. Also, softball games up at Mount Mercy tonight, doubleheader starts at 6 p.m.

Friday: Football spring game location has been finalized, going to be at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon down at Central Lee High School. Weather permitting, forecast sounds awful for Friday right now, but that's the plan. Also, Saturday is the annual IWC Football Alumni & Friends Golf Outing over at Mt. P. Golf & Country Club. Still accepting registrations for that, if you're interested in participating you can call Coach Anderson, straight line to the big man's office phone, X6380.

More:

NHL: Playoffs start tonight-exciting. America's Team (says I), the Pittsburgh Penguins, begin quest for the Stanley Cup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Penguins should have all the advantages, including better nickname and playing in a city that is much better suited for ice hockey than Tampa, but Pens are missing their two best players w/injuries. Disappointing.

Have a super day


Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Good morning

IWC softball from yesterday: Tigers split with Clarke. Won first game 6-1, lost second 1-0. Scored five times in top of seventh to win the first game, then lost in seventh inning of second game. Great pitching from Ayla Serrano and Ashley Mysliwiec

More news: Jorge Martinez was named the Midwest Collegiate Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week yesterday. Well-deserved award coming after throwing a one-hitter Sunday.

Today: More softball, home games at Mapleleaf against Hannibal-LaGrange at 2:30. Doubleheader. Great day to be outside, come on out-when done with classes, of course. :)

More:

Penn: William Penn is currently trying to decide on a new mascot. You can vote on their Web site http://www.statesmenathletics.com/ for either the Quaker…or Eagle. I voted Quaker.

Have a great day, enjoy the beautiful weather


Monday, April 11th, 2011

Good afternoon

Recap of the sports happenings this weekend, for those who don't know already

Softball: What a mess for weather to start it off but we eventually got the Sammons Classic off the ground. Played the gracious hosts Friday, allowed the other teams to get some games in at Mapleleaf and on one diamond at East Lake. Played a more complete schedule Saturday, when the weather was gorgeous. IWC lost all three of its games Saturday, scores of 7-2 vs. Purdue North Central (Ind.), 14-4 to St. Francis (Ill.) and 8-7 to Trinity Christian (Ill.). Leigha Strong, Jill Ginder and Hannah Milligan all had inside-the-park homers on the big fields. Had to do a lot of rearranging of the tourney schedule w/the rain Thursday night. Lot of fun hosting though, lot of teams and people there, and a lot of the teams enjoy coming back to this event, which says something about us at IWC.

Baseball: Hosted William Penn for three-game series, won two of three. Lost first game Saturday 3-0 in nine innings, only scheduled for seven innings, game was 0-0 entering ninth, great pitcher's duel. Won second game Saturday 10-2, then won yesterday's nine-inning game 9-0. Jorge Martinez pitched a one-hitter, struck out 13 hitters, absolutely dominated. Game flew by because of it, not even two hours for a nine-inning game.

Track & Field: Competed at Cornell Invitational. Women finished ninth of 11 teams, men were 10th of 13 teams. Melanie McCreight, Xavier Shields and Aaron Brown all had third-place finishes. Mel just missed the school record in the 400 hurdles, plenty of time yet left to break that 31-year old record.

Women's Golf: Finished fifth at the Clarke Invitational. Gabby Combs had top score on the first day, Melissa Petersen was best on the second day and had our top score overall.

Thanks to all for coming out to the events this weekend. Good turnout of people at the softball tourney, lot of teams were here, lot of restaurants/motel rooms filled this weekend. :) Weather was great for baseball too. Thanks to all for putting up w/all the weather-induced changes to the schedules. Special thanks to Katie Jammer for all her work/entertainment this weekend, she put in a lot of hours helping Friday & Saturday, well on her way to the mythical SID Work-Study Student of the Year award.

This week:

Today: Softball team is at Clarke, doubleheader starts at 3 p.m. Looks like they'll have a broadcast for that at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/clarke.portal.
Tomorrow: Softball at home against Hannibal-LaGrange, 2:30 p.m. the festivities start at Mapleleaf. HLG back up here again just a few days after playing in our tourney.
Wednesday: Baseball time, doubleheader at St. Ambrose. May try to go up there to broadcast if they allow us to, since we haven't been able to broadcast at home w/our gutted press box.
Friday: Baseball game (singular) at home against Waldorf, night game, 6 p.m. here at Mapleleaf. Also it's the first day of the MCC Golf Championships for both men & women, we are serving as the host up at Riverside.

More:

NASCAR: Wisconsin's own Matt Kenseth wins the race at Texas Saturday night. As like to brag, used to watch him race when he was a young guy on the short tracks back home known as ‘Matt the Brat'.
Masters: Maybe the most exciting finish ever for The Masters, or that's what I woke up just in time to hear Jim Nantz say as he signed off. Dozed off on the couch for the final 45 minutes. Oops. Long weekend.

Have a great week


Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Good late morning

All who like to play games on their touch phones take note, the Angry Birds plush toys are now here…

Quick recap of the sports from last night

Softball: Split doubleheader against St. Ambrose. Lost first game 2-0, won second game 9-8. All the people who left after the first game missed the much more entertaining game, slugged out 14 hits in the second one. Molly Ward, all approximately 5 feet, 1 inches of her, hit a home run and later smashed a double as well (it's ok, I'm allowed to tease her). Thanks to all who came out to the games, good crowd of people there until it started getting chilly, and thanks to the Greeks for the hot dogs. Tasty!

Baseball: Split doubleheader with Grand View. Won first game 4-1, lost second 9-0. J.J. Encarnacion pitched excellent first game, struck out a bunch of guys and allowed just an unearned run. Lino Sampson also hit a home run.

Today:

Beisbol, or baseball. We'll be playing Grand View again, this time game is here, nine-inning game starts at 3 p.m. Weather should be good.
Tomorrow: Softball at home, our yearly visit from Purdue-North Central at 5 p.m., weather permitting. Forecast doesn't look great, but weather people have been wrong a lot this spring too.

Have a good day. Go Tigers


Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Good morning

Golf results from yesterday, men finished ninth of 11 teams and women placed sixth of six at the Grand View Classic in Ankeny. Emery McGraw tied for sixth individually on the men's side, nice. Women were led by Melissa Petersen and Kayla Bishop tying for 14th.

More news: Forgot to include this item yesterday, men's basketball Head Coach Alan Magnani was recently named one of 17 finalists for the Don Meyer NAIA National Coach of the Year award presented by CollegeInsider.com.Nice honor tobe a finalist among all NAIA Div. I & II coaches, about 300 teams. Award was won by Andy Sharpe of Martin Methodist College of Tennessee.

NCAA Tournament: Connecticut wins in what turned into an incredibly awful, ugly championship game. UConn probably didn't win as much as Butler lost; Butler shoots 18.8%, if you don't watch basketball then to put that into perspective, just know that Connecticut's shooting percentage when winning (34.5%) would normally be considered bad.

Today: Baseball team is at Grand View in Des Moines for a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Also we have home softball tonight at 6 p.m. against St. Ambrose.

Have a great day


Monday, April 4th, 2011
Good late morning

IWC sports results from this weekend

Baseball: Big three-game series sweep of Ashford. Won by scores of 3-2, 7-6 and 12-0. First two wins were in come-from-behind fashion, first game scored twice in sixth, second game scored three times in seventh after trailing by two. Last game we dominated, everyone hit, Jorge Martinez pitched a shutout. Ashford came into the weekend undefeated in conference play, comes out of the weekend tied for first with us at 6-3 in MCC. Great series.

Softball: Went 1-3 at the first MCC Challenge event over in Oskaloosa (each conference team plays all of the other conference teams once over the two ‘Challenge' events). Defeated Ashford 3-2, then lost to Grand View, Viterbo and Penn. Leigha Strong still hitting the stuffing out of the ball, had eight hits over the four games, batting .474 on the season, leading the conference.

Track & Field: Scored some points over at the Central Invitational on Saturday. Men finished ninth, women were 11th. Xavier Shields (400 meters) and Ridge Hobbs (long jump) both won individual events. Women's team had no finish higher than fifth but whole bunch of finishes in 5th-8th range, good job.

Golf: Both men's and women's teams are currently on the second and final round at the Grand View Viking Classic in Ankeny. Men were 11th after first day, women were in sixth. Emery McGraw was tied for 14th with a round of 76. Melissa Petersen and Kayla Bishop were also tied for 14th (on women's side) with rounds of 93.

This week: Lots of baseball and softball if the weather holds
Tuesday: Softball at home against St. Ambrose at 6 p.m. Late start, no class missed. Enjoy. Weather supposed to be much better than today too. Also baseball team is at Grand View for a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m., important games.
Wednesday: Take a turn for baseball at home, single nine-inning game here against Grand View at 3 p.m.
Thursday: Softball, 5 p.m. here against Purdue-North Central, our annual friendly non-conference doubleheader against them before the…

Friday: …Sammons Classic, which begins Friday and continues Saturday over at East Lake Park. Lot of softball will be going on there, total of 13 teams will be here, lots of schools coming to Mount Pleasant for the weekend. Plan accordingly if you go out for supper Friday night.

More:

NCAA Men's Tournament: Championship game tonight between Butler and Connecticut. Root for Butler, because they actually play like a team, play great defense, and are much, much less likely to have to vacate the title in coming years for recruiting violations.
NCAA Women's Tournament: Notre Dame and Texas A&M in the final. Suprising, most thought it would be Stanford and Connecticut.
How To Minimize A Great Accomplishment In A Press Release: Ted Peetz checked in last week from Las Vegas, sent us a pretty funny press release from George Washington University about a recent college baseball game. Story is at http://www.gwsports.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/032911aaa.html. A pretty outstanding accomplishment happened in the game this story is about. If you actually read all the way down to the next-to-last paragraph of the story, you might even find out about it. Granted the accomplishment happened against GW (George Washington, not the GW from the tasty George Webb greasy spoon restaurants in Milwaukee, at left), but…seventh paragraph??? :)

Have a great week, hope to see all outside at some games.