Class 4A Championship
2:30 p.m. – Dallas Center-Grimes (22-3) vs. North Polk (23-2)
Class 2A State Championship
4:45 p.m. – Dike-New Hartford (25-1) vs. Central Lyon (24-0)
Class 1A Championship
7:00 p.m. – Algona Bishop Garrigan (25-1) vs. Newell-Fonda (24-2)
Class 2A Semifinals
Dike-New Hartford 61, Sibley-Ocheyedan 56
Box Score | Game Summary
Central Lyon 65, Pocahontas Area 44
Box Score | Game Summary
Class 1A Semifinals
Algona Bishop Garrigan 73, Remsen-St. Mary’s 39
Box Score | Game Summary
Newell-Fonda 66 North Linn 48
Box Score Summary
Class 5A Championship
Pleasant Valley 59, Johnston 56
Box Score | Game Summary
Pleasant Valley’s defense rose to the occasion again and this time, it carried the Spartans to a state championship.
Thriving on its 2-3 zone defense all season, Pleasant Valley held Johnston scoreless for the first 6 minutes of the fourth quarter and opened a lead just big enough to hold on for a 59-56 victory over the defending champions and claim the Class 5A title.
Jessie Clemons scored 18 points to lead the Spartans, who until last year had never won a state tournament game and lost to Johnston in the semifinals a year ago. All-tournament captain Halle Vice added 14 points, Reagan Pagniano scored 13, including four key free throws at the end, and Addy Maurer finished with 12 as Pleasant Valley put the finishing touches on a 26-0 season.
Johnston’s Aili Tanke drained seven 3-pointers to tie a 5A tournament record and finished with 23 points, a figure matched by teammate Aaliyah Riley. Emma Hampton added seven for the Dragons, who played in the championship game for the fourth straight year. They won in 2020 and finished second to Waukee in 2021.
It was a game worthy of a championship contest. The lead changed hands 13 times in the first half before ending in a tie at 30. Pleasant Valley never trailed after Clemons and Vice hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 42-38 lead midway through the third quarter, though the Spartans had to work to stay ahead.
Class 5A All-Tournament Team
Alli Tanke, Johnston
Jessie Clemens, Pleasant Valley
Ava Zediker, Dowling Catholic
Jaeden Pratt, Ankeny Centennial
Aaliyah Riley, Johnston
Halle Vice, Pleasant Valley (Captain)
Iowa Pork Producers Top Producer of the Game
Jessie Clemens, Pleasant Valley
Class 3A Championship
Sioux Center 62, Benton Community 47
Box Score | Game Summary
Sioux Center dominated around the basket, cashed in at the free throw line and is taking home a state championship as its reward.
The Warriors got 17 points from Willow Bleeker and 16 from Tatum Schmalbeck in defeating Benton Community 62-47 to claim the Class 3A title. It’s the first championship for the Warriors and veteran coach Doug Winterfeld, who guided them runner-up finishes in 3A in 2017 and 2018.
Sioux Center used its size advantage to keep Benton away from the basket and built a 27-10 edge in points in the paint. The Warriors also got themselves to the free throw line, making 20 of 30, mostly because of Bleeker and Schmalbeck.
Sioux Center closes its memorable season with a 21-5 record. Four of those losses were to tournament qualifiers. Benton, which had been winless in four state tournament games before this year, closes with a 23-4 record.
Class 3A All-Tournament Team
Tatum Schmalbeck, Sioux Center
McKenna Kramer, Benton Community
Hailey Miller, Solon
Alyssa Griffith, Vinton-Shellsburg
Jenna Twedt, Benton Community
Willow Bleeker, Sioux Center (captain)
Iowa Pork Producers Top Producer of the Game
Willow Bleeker, Sioux Center
(Hastings, Iowa) – A woman from Lincoln, Nebraska, suffered serious injuries during a single-vehicle rollover accident Thursday afternoon, in Mills County. The accident happened northwest of Hastings at around 4:08-p.m.
The Mills County Sheriff’s Office said a 2003 Acura driven by 79-year-old Kay Geis rolled over near 350th Street and Highway 34. Geis was extricated from her vehicle and flown to a hospital by LifeNet helicopter.
In other news, the Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 22-year-old Austin Joseph Marsh, of Omaha, was arrested at around 12:40-a.m. Friday (Today), in Cass County, Nebraska. Marsh was wanted on a Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation. His bond was set at $2,000.
(Radio Iowa) – Luther College is being recognized as one of the most sustainable campuses in the country, having cut its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 72% in the past 20 years. Jon Jensen, director of Luther‘s Center for Sustainable Communities, says they’re on target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
“We’ve got a wind turbine right off the edge of our campus,” Jensen says. “We’ve got almost two megawatts of solar, but really sometimes it’s the little unseen things that make a big difference. Switching out to LED lights, making changes within our HVAC system, lots of little conservation behaviors as well.”
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education has named the Decorah college the fourth best baccalaureate institution in the nation for its efforts in sustainability. Jensen says every college and university, private and public, needs to show leadership.
Solar panels at Luther’s Baker Village (Luther College photo)
“All of us need to take steps to reduce our use of fossil fuels, to address climate change. That’s important for human health, it’s important for reducing some of the risks to Iowa, and really, to the world,” Jensen says. “But ultimately, I think as educational institutions, we have a role to play in educating the next generation.”
The college is setting an example in the classrooms, in labs, and across the campus, he says, demonstrating how vital it is to plan for a sustainable future. Jensen says Iowa homeowners can do their part, too.
“Looking at ways that you heat and cool your home, and heat pumps, or looking at geothermal,” Jensen says, “and just being mindful of our own actions, turning off the lights when we leave the room, being aware of only conditioning our spaces when we’re there. It’s that mindfulness and being open and exploring alternatives that I think is the most important thing.”
Luther’s wind turbine generates one-third of the college’s electricity, while several large solar arrays also impact the carbon footprint. Jensen says 53% of Luther’s electricity comes from renewable power sources — wind and solar — generated on campus.
The college also has a program called “Caf to Community,” keeping excess cafeteria food out of the landfill and putting it onto the tables of those who need it.
(Radio Iowa) – Fourteen Iowans have been honored today for their actions in life-threatening situations.
Two groups received the Sullivan Brothers Award of Valor for rescuing people from burning or submerged vehicles involved in traffic accidents. Two state troopers based in Oelwein were recognized for rescuing two people from a burning car in rural Black Hawk County on July 1, 2021. On the last day of 2021, an off-duty Marshall County Deputy Sheriff, his wife who is a former Marshalltown police sergeant and another driver saw two cars slide off Highway 330, strike a cement culvert and overturn into an icy creek.
“Please join me in a big round of applause for these heroic Iowans,” Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephen Bayens said during a ceremony in the Iowa Capitol rotunda. “Their efforts not only impacted the lives they saved, but will have an indelible mark on their families for years to come. Thank you.”
A series of other state awards were given to a handful of other Iowans, including a central Iowa utility worker who alerted a sleeping family their home was on fire and a man who rescued a deer hunter critically injured after falling out of a tree stand in rural Guthrie County. An employee at a Fort Dodge retirement community received a Lifesaving Award for performing the Heimlich Maneuver on a resident who was choking. Governor Kim Reynolds praised the 14 Iowans for springing into action.
“Their calmness in crisis and spirit of self-sacrifice represents the very best of our great state,” she said.
Here’s the list of today’s award recipients.
Three people were honored for their efforts at the scene of an accident near Bloomfield. And a man who suffered burns as he pulled a driver and a passenger from a burning vehicle near Council Bluffs received the Governor’s Lifesaving with Valor Award.
Pictured at left is the group involved in Highway 330 rescue effort, along with state officials and a granddaughter of one of the Sullivan Brothers.
(Radio Iowa) – Walgreens has announced it will not distribute abortion pills in 20 U.S. states, including Iowa.
The move comes after Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and other Republican attorneys general around the country threatened to sue Walgreens if the company sold abortion pills in their states. Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all U.S. abortions.
According to a Politico story, Walgreens has notified Bird and other attorneys general that it will not sell abortion pills from its stores in their states or mail them into Iowa and those states either.
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would allow pharmacies to apply to fill prescriptions for abortion pills.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa fifth-year Monika Czinano has been named a 2023 Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Finalist, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and WBCA announced on Friday. Czinano was a semifinalist for the award in 2022.
The list is comprised of five student-athletes who are still in the running for the sixth annual Lisa Leslie Award that recognizes the best center in women’s basketball.
This season, Czinano was an All-Big Ten First Team selection by the coaches and media. She is averaging 17.2 ppg and 6.5 rpg. Czinano has been top five in field goal percentage the last four seasons and is third all-time leading scorer in Iowa women’s basketball history.
Fans can support their favorite player by participating in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, starting today on hoophallawards.com. The Fan Vote will count as one committee vote during the finalist selection process.
This month, the finalists will be presented to Leslie and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The Selection Committee for the Lisa Leslie Award is composed of top women’s college basketball personnel including media members, head coaches, sports information directors and Hall of Famers.
The winner of the 2023 Lisa Leslie Award will be presented on a to be determined date, along with the other four members of the Women’s Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Nancy Lieberman Award (Point Guard), Ann Meyers Drysdale Award (Shooting Guard), Cheryl Miller Award (Small Forward) and the Katrina McClain Award (Power Forward), in addition to the Men’s Starting Five.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – A Forest City man was sentenced in Council Bluffs U-S District Court, Monday (February 28, 2023), on charges related to the possession of child pornography. A judge sentenced 53-year-old Gerald Lawrence Von Ruden to 120 months (10-years) in prison, following his plea of guilty to possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, on April 28, 2021, an Iowa State Trooper pulled Von Ruden over during a traffic stop. Von Ruden had an outstanding arrest warrant. Based on the nature of the warrant, the Trooper seized Van Ruden’s electronic devices. A forensic analysis of those devices revealed that Von Ruden received and possessed numerous images and videos of child pornography.
United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Iowa State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.
This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.
For more information about Internet safety education, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa high school girls’ basketball tournament isn’t the ONLY tournament underway in Des Moines this weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday, the Iowa State Fairgrounds is the setting for the state archery tournament. It’s gathering some 22-hundred students from more than 125 schools across Iowa. It’s the largest youth archery tournament in the state. Participation in the program has bounded since its start in 2006, drawing more than 45-hundred students this year.
Students with the Atlantic Middle-and High Schools will be competing.
Organizers say archery is a great youth sport because there are no limitations and students of all physical and athletic abilities can take part — and succeed. Students will be aiming for thousands of dollars in college scholarships, as well as thousands of dollars in archery equipment for their schools.
LINDA MAY (Peters) PALMER, 83, of Griswold, died Thursday, March 2, 2023, at the Griswold Care Center. A private graveside service for LINDA PALMER will be held in the Griswold Cemetery at a later date. Rieken-Duhn Funeral Home in Griswold is in charge of the arrangements.
LINDA PALMER is survived:
Her daughters – Donna (Steve) Forsyth, of Griswold, and Angie Boyd, of Des Moines.
Her sons – Rick (Mary) Palmer, of Chariton, and Greg (Kim) Palmer, of Griswold.
Her brother – Bruce (Arlene) Peters, of Corning.
7 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, many other relatives and friends.
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