Marcus Coleman has been named the NCAA Wrestler of the Week after a 2-1 performance at the Collegiate Duals in New Orleans last week, it was announced Tuesday morning.

Coleman responded to his first loss of the year by bumping up a weight class to 197 pounds to defeat a 2022 U23 World Silver Medalist and No. 23 Jacob Cardenas, and backed that up with a win over two-time defending national champion and top-ranked Aaron Brooks from Penn State.

It marked the highest-ranked win of Coleman’s career.

Coleman’s victory over Cardenas was crucial in an 18-13 Iowa State victory over No. 12 Cornell in which three Cyclones bumped up a weight class, and all won, to advance to the blue pool championship dual.

No. 4 Iowa State is back in action Jan. 1-2 at the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tenn.

(cyclones.com)

Drake men’s basketball guard Roman Penn was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday (Dec. 27).

Penn averaged 15.5 points per game in two wins over No. 15 Mississippi State and St. Ambrose on back-to-back days last week. He scored a team-high 19 points (7-for-12 from the field) with three rebounds, three assists and two steals in the 58-52 upset of Mississippi State on Dec. 20. The Calumet City, Ill., native contributed 12 points on a perfect 5-for-5 day from the field with four assists in the 124-48 victory over St. Ambrose the following day (Dec. 21).

The Bulldogs return to the hardwood on Thursday, Dec. 29 for an 8 p.m. tip-off at the Knapp Center against Valparaiso.

(godrakebulldogs.com)

(Greenfield, Iowa) — Thanks to the community and local businesses for their support, six Nodaway Valley High School cheerleaders raised enough money from the sale of donuts, allowing them to make a trip to Orlando, Florida on January 2nd, where they will cheer during the Citrus Bowl pre-game show.

In a Facebook post, the Nodaway Valley Community School District said the six cheerleaders sold over 150 dozen doughnuts to raise money for the trip.

In the event their Southwest flights get canceled, some of the cheerleaders’ moms have volunteered to drive them there. LSU will play Purdue in the Citrus Bowl, which will be televised on ABC. The game begins at noon CT. (Images shown are from the Nodaway Valley CSD Facebook page)

With two more receivers entering the transfer portal Iowa sophomore Diante Vines hopes to step up in the Music City Bowl against Kentucky. The native of Danbury, Connecticut, missed the first six games of the season after suffering a fractured wrist in fall camp and was limited to eight catches for 71 yards in the final six games of the season.

Vines says he is not using the wrist brace he had on during the season.

Four Iowa receivers have transferred in the last year but Vines is confident that Iowa remains the place for him.

Camellia Bowl – Buffalo 23, Georgia Southern 21

• Justin Marshall caught 11 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown and Tajay Ahmed rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown to lead Buffalo.  Former Buffalo QB Kyle Vantrease, was 28 of 45 for 352 yards and 2 touchdowns for Georgia Southern.  Buffalo finishes the season with a record of 7-6, Georgia Southern is 6-7.

First Responder Bowl – Memphis 38, Utah State 10

• Seth Henigan passed for 284 yards and three touchdowns — two of them to Eddie Lewis — and Jeyvon Ducker ran for two touchdowns to give Memphis a 38-10 win over Utah State in the First Responder Bowl on Tuesday.

Birmingham Bowl – East Carolina 53, Coastal Carolina 29

• Holton Ahlers threw a Birmingham Bowl-record five touchdown passes and accounted for a game-record six TDs to help East Carolina beat Coastal Carolina 53-29 in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl at Protective Stadium.  Ahlers, selected the game MVP, threw for 300 yards on 26-of-38 passing, rushed for 37 yards and a touchdown and caught a pass for 14 yards for the Pirates (8-5).

Guaranteed Rate Bowl – Wisconsin 24, Oklahoma State 17

• In the first game of the Luke Fickell regime, Wisconsin bullied Oklahoma State to a 24-17 victory on Tuesday night in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, dominating the line of scrimmage and time of possession to come away with a win at Chase Field.  Wisconsin rushed for 258 yards, with running backs Braelon Allen (116 yards) and Mellusi (77 yards) leading the way. Fifth-year senior Chase Wolf did just enough in his first career start at quarterback, completing 16 of 26 passes for 116 yards.

Iowa State head football coach Matt Campbell announced today the addition of transfer wide receiver Jayden Higgins.

Higgins, a 6-4, 215-pound play-making receiver from Eastern Kentucky, joins the Cyclones as a junior after compiling 87 receptions for 1,151 yards and 13 touchdown receptions in two seasons for the Colonels.

The South Miami, Florida, native, had a breakout sophomore season in 2022, catching 58 balls for 757 yards and 10 touchdowns. The 10 receiving touchdowns tied for 15th nationally in FCS as EKU finished 7-5 and ranked third nationally in passing offense.

Higgins had three multi-TD games and two 100-yard receiving games as a sophomore.

He earned All-Atlantic Sun Second-Team honors from Phil Steele.

(cyclones.com)

(Radio Iowa) – Licenses for a chance to snag one of the state’s most unique fish are now on sale. The D-N-R’s Missouri River fisheries supervisor, Chris Larson, says paddlefishing licenses are on sale through January 7th.”It’s one fish per license that you can purchase two licenses of there’s some available after January one,” he says. The season starts February 1st and runs through April 30th on the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers. The paddlefish season returned in 2015 and Larson says there are still many who like to participate. “It’s kind of remained pretty steady the last few years, it’s been around 300 to 400 licenses sold per year. Most of the non residents only sell out — there are 50 non-resident licenses — but we have plenty of resident licenses available,” he says.

Paddlefishing stopped in 1986 to protect fish numbers, and Larson says they have done okay since things restarted. “They’ve remained stable over our sampling. We did some sampling back in the middle 2000s and Nebraska and Missouri also look at their populations,” Larson says. “They’re all pretty steady as far as the numbers go, and paddlefish move all up and down the river. They go from Gavin’s Point Dam up north of Sioux City, all the way down to Tennessee and back.”

Paddlefish are snagged on the bottom of the river with heavy duty rods and 50 to 100 pound test line. Larson says you need to physically be ready because snagging involves more work than simply dropping a line in the water and waiting — but he says it’s also not that difficult to do. The drought has left water levels lower in the Missouri — which Larson says may be a good thing for those seeking the paddlefish.

Paddlefish catch(DNR-photo)

“It should probably help concentrate the fish into the deeper pools. So yes, it could be an advantage advantageous season depending on what Mother Nature does with snowfall and snow melt and stuff,” he says. I know in the past I’ve heard from different paddlefish anglers that they do better earlier in the season before the fish start moving up river. And sometimes they do better later in the season because it’s been too cold and the fish aren’t moving yet. So it kind of varies from year to year.”

A resident paddlefish license costs 25-50 and a nonresident license is 49 dollars. You must also have a valid Iowa fishing license. For more information about Iowa’s special paddlefish season, visit www.iowadnr.gov/paddlefish.

Iowa safety Kaevon Merriweather is opting out of the Music City Bowl but tight end Sam LaPorta says he is all in. The Hawkeyes play Kentucky in Nashville on New Year’s Eve.

LaPorta says they discussed the rising number of players opting out of bowl games at a team meeting before leaving for Nashville.

LaPorta had his knee scoped after tearing a meniscus in a win at Minnesota. He missed the season finale against Nebraska.

Senior corner Riley Moss says opting out was not an option for him.

Moss says after a loss to Nebraska the Hawkeyes are looking forward to the opportunity to end with a victory.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa hunters will get a second chance to bring home a deer with a new season. The D-N-R’s, Tyler Harms, says they’re calling it the excess tag January season. “That season will be implemented in counties that have unsold county antlerless licenses available on January 10th,” Harms says. He says the season will help them achieve the goal of the antlerless season. “Every county in the state has a county antlerless license quota, and it’s those licenses that that we allocate primarily for population management of deer in those counties,” he says. Harms says it can be a good extra chance for hunters to get a deer.

“I encourage hunters to take advantage of that opportunity if they were interested,” Harms says. “It is a limited method of take season — so only centerfire rifles, calibers to 223 to 500 are allowed for use during that season. So that is something to consider.” Harms says you can easily find out online where you can hunt. “We do have information on our website as well on as on the go outdoors Iowa app where hunters can monitor the remaining licenses available on January 10th. So, come that day, they should be able to go online and see which counties have licenses remaining and whether or not they want to try to obtain any of those licenses,” according to Harms.

The second regular shotgun deer season wrapped up on December 18th.

The Iowa Hawkeye women return to practice tonight. The Hawkeyes have three days to get ready for their Big Ten home opener against Purdue.

That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder who says it is the young players who need to adjust to returning from break.

Despite having a veteran team Bluder does not think the Hawkeyes have come close to their potential.