(Atlantic, Iowa) [updated w/audio comments] – Citing a lack of participants in the program, Atlantic School District Athletic Director Andy Mitchell recommended to the School Board, Wednesday evening, that the girls swimming be removed from the list of extra curricular activities in the 2023-24 School Year. The boys program would remain intact, barring any loss of participants.

Mitchell said as right now, they’re not expecting any new girls swimmers for Atlantic next year, they need at least two more, but even if there were three girls, it’s not a swim program. “You can’t offer relays…It just doesn’t help us out.” If the numbers for girls swimming increase, the program could be brought back at a later date. The boys swim program is faring better, Mitchell says.

The boys program will remain intact, barring any loss of participants. In his report also, Andy Mitchell suggested that the District add a Middle School (7th & 8th Grade) Girls Softball Program as an extracurricular activity. The program would be a partnership between the Little League and Atlantic School.

Mitchell said he has not worked on a schedule, yet, because he wants to work with other H-10 districts to begin the process of coordinating trips, etc.

He said right now, they’re looking at the possibility of 20 girls per team.

The Board approved the changes to extracurricular activities, as recommended. In other news, the Atlantic School Board approved an Out-of-State High School Track trip to Northwest Missouri State University, for participation in an indoor track meet.

(Des Moines, Iowa) –  The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hosting a series of town hall-style meetings where local staff will provide updates on recently completed hunting and trapping seasons, discuss possible changes, and address other topics as requested. “We want people to come out to these meetings, listen to the seasons reviews, ask questions and hear directly from our staff,” said Todd Bishop, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Wildlife Bureau. “Part of the meeting will be devoted to discussing potential rule changes and collecting feedback as we work through the rules process.”

The meetings are open to the public. Comments collected from these public meetings will be considered along with other related comments received by the Iowa DNR prior to proposing changes to hunting rules and regulations. Proposed rules will be presented to the Natural Resource Commission during a regular public meeting for consideration and additional public comment.

Meeting date, time and location (Locally):

• Creston, Feb. 21, 6 p.m., Multi-Purpose Room, Southern Prairie YMCA, 1201 West Townline Street
• Onawa, Feb. 22, 6 p.m., Lewis and Clark State Park visitor center, 21914 Park Loop
• Council Bluffs, Feb. 23, 6:30 p.m., Council Bluffs Fish and Game Club, 531 Comanche St.

Any person attending the public meeting that has special requirements, such as those related to mobility or hearing impairments, should contact the Iowa DNR or ADA Coordinator at 515-725-8200, Relay Iowa TTY Service 800-735-7942, or Webmaster@dnr.iowa.gov, and advise of specific needs.

The Atlantic girls basketball team built a big halftime lead and fought off a rally to beat Harlan 53-51 on Tuesday night in Atlantic. With the win the Trojans secured a share of the Hawkeye Ten Conference Title.

Paytn Harter had 12 points and Maddie Richter hit three 3-pointers in the first half to boost the Trojans to a 31-17 lead at the break. Harlan scored 21 points in the third quarter to climb back within five. The Cyclones would ultimately get within two points multiple times in the fourth and had a chance to tie it at the buzzer but came up short on a layup try.

Harter led the Trojans with 15 points on a balanced scoring night for the Trojans. Jada Jensen had 10, Maddie Huddleson and Maddie Richter had 9 each, and Aubrey Guyer chipped in 8 points.

The Trojans finish the regular season at 17-4 overall and 8-2 in Hawkeye Ten play. Four teams finished the conference season with two losses: Atlantic, Harlan, Lewis Central, and Glenwood.

The Trojans will now prep for their Regional Quarterfinal game at home against Clarinda on Saturday. We’ll have that game on KJAN with pregame at 6:45 p.m. and tipoff at 7:00 p.m.

Harlan was led by 25 points from Aubrey Schwieso, who sat part of the game in foul trouble. The Cyclones move to 12-7 overall and 7-2 in the conference. They’ll host Red Oak in the Regional Quarters on Saturday.

The Griswold Tigers got one in the win column in their regular season finale 58-51 over Essex on Tuesday night. The Tigers made senior night a happy one by jumping out to a 9-0 lead at the outset and holding the lead throughout.

The Tigers led 20-6 at the end of the first and 26-17 at halftime. It was a nine-point lead for the Tigers heading into the fourth, but the Trojans made them sweat it out a bit. A 14-5 spurt midway through the fourth brought Essex within 4 points but that’s as close as they would get. Bode Wyman knocked down four big free throws late to help seal the win.

Wyman finished with 18 points, including four three-pointers. Kamron Brownlee also knocked in four from downtown and led the Tigers with 20 points. Brownlee said it was a great feeling to get a win.

Aiden Kennedy added 14 points and was strong on the boards for the Tigers. Griswold head coach Matthew Spunaugle was proud of the team sticking together.

The Tigers take a 1-19 mark into a Class 1A play-in game on Friday night at Logan-Magnolia.

Essex was led by 24 points from Qwintyn Vanatta and they fell to 3-16 on the year. The Trojans open up the playoffs on Monday at Bedford.

The Essex Trojanettes used a 12-5 advantage in the third quarter to build a lead strong enough to get past the Griswold Tigers on Tuesday night. Griswold would get within five points at the end of the game but the Trojanettes held firm there and got the 33-28 win.

It was a game filled with fouls, 47 of them called throughout the contest. The two teams shot a combined 54 free throws.

Essex was led by 9 points each from Cindy Swain and Brooke Burns. Brianne Johnson had 4 points but was a big rebounding factor, keeping the ball alive for many multi-chance possessions for Essex.

The Trojanettes improved to 4-16 on the season and will now get ready to face Fremont-Mills in their first round playoff game on Thursday.

Griswold was led by 11 points from McKenna Weichman who had to sit much of the game with foul trouble. The Tigers fall to 2-20 on the season and will now travel to Riverside on Thursday for their first round 1A playoff game.

(Radio Iowa) – D-N-R state deer biologist, Jace Elliott, says hunters reported taking more deer this year. “We saw about 109-thousand-600 deer harvested across the state throughout all of our regular seasons, which represents about a seven percent increase to the harvest that we saw in the prior year,” Elliott says. That included 25-hundred deer taken in the new January season that allowed hunters to use any leftover antlerless tags. “We had 20 counties eligible for this hunt this year in Iowa, and 14 of them sold out completely. by the end of that season,” he says, “many of which sold out during the first day.” Elliott says the traditional hunting hotspots held true this year.

“You know, it was pretty typical to what we see, in most years, the southeast and northeast corners of the state were sort of leading the pack in terms of harvest numbers,” Elliott says. “I believe Clayton County — which is always kind of our number one harvest county in the state — maintained that position. But we did see a lot of harvest come out of south-central and southeastern Iowa as well.” Elliott says numbers were lower in western Iowa as they continue to build back from the E-H-D outbreak and floods in the Missouri River valley.

“Twenty-nineteen was a pretty bad year for E-H-D in that part of the state. And there were some other factors that go into the declines they’re seeing — such as river flooding during the fawn season, and, and so on. But E-H-D is certainly part of the puzzle. Fortunately, this year was a very mild year for E-H-D in Iowa,” according to Elliott. There were around seven-thousand deer licenses sold and hunters tagged deer at a rate of 30-35 percent — which is similar to previous years.

“Our deer population model indicates that we’re still on a fairly stable to slightly increasing trend statewide,” Elliott says. “And we’re well within our management objective, which is basically to manage the statewide deer population at the level that it was in the mid-1990s. And we’re more or less there and have been for years.” Elliott says the weather was favorable across the state for most of the deer season, which helped with hunter success.

Drake ripped past Murray State 92-68 on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 10-1 lead to start the game and poured in 55 points in the first half.

Tucker DeVries led the way with 32 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Roman Penn added 18 points and 5 boards. The Bulldogs picked up their 6th straight win and improved to 20-6 on the season.

Next up for Drake is a home game on Saturday against Southern Illinois.

@ Shenandoah

Creston 54, Shenandoah 15
Creston 62, Denison-Schleswig 15
Shenandoah 40, Denison-Schleswig 24
(Creston finishes Hawkeye Ten Dual Season Undefeated)

@ CAM

Coon Rapids-Bayard 36, CAM 24
Coon Rapids-Bayard 63, West Harrison 0
Coon Rapids-Bayard 57, Woodbine 18
CAM 36, West Harrison 18
West Harrison 30, Woodbine 24

@ Martensdale-St. Marys

Carlisle 68, Martensdale-St. Marys 12
Knoxville 60, Martensdale-St. Marys 12

@ CB Thomas Jefferson

Omaha Benson 42, CB Thomas Jefferson 30

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Hawkeye Ten Conference

Atlantic 53, Harlan 51 (Atlantic clinches share of Hawkeye Ten Conference Title)
Lewis Central 49, Glenwood 34

Western Iowa Conference

IKM-Manning 54, Audubon 35
Logan-Magnolia 33, Riverside 30
Treynor 59, Underwood 25
Tri-Center 40, AHSTW 35
West monona 76, Missouri Valley 35

Rolling Valley Conference

River Valley 78, West Harrison 49
Westwood 66, Woodbine 57

Corner Conference

East Mills 55, Sidney 45
Essex 33, Griswold 28
Fremont-Mills 67, Southwest Valley 35

Other Scores

ACGC 63, Madrid 12
Carroll 61, Carlisle 54

BOYS BASKETBALL

Hawkeye Ten Conference

Harlan 70, Atlantic 46
Denison-Schleswig 60, Ballard 43
Red Oak 65, Exira-EHK 61 (RO: Max DeVries 35pts)

Western Iowa Conference

AHSTW 62, Tri-Center 56 (AHSTW wins outright WIC title for third straight season. Brayden Lund 18pts and becomes Vikings’ all-time scoring leader. Kyle Sternberg 18pts)
Audubon 64, IKM-Manning 58 (A: Edward Miller 21pts)
Missouri Valley 68, West Monona 58
Riverside 62, Logan-Magnolia 51 (R: Grady Jeppesen 24pts)
Treynor 63, Underwood 56

Rolling Valley Conference

West Harrison 76, St. Albert 54

Corner Conference

East Mills 60, Sidney 44
Griswold 58, Essex 51

Pride of Iowa Conference

Chariton 86, Southeast Warren 62
Lenox 84, East Union 42
Southwest Valley 55, Fremont-Mills 48

Other Scores

Madrid 79, ACGC 64 (A: Brock Littler 38pts, school record)