ARMSTRONG—North Union won their second straight Top of Iowa Conference volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 7, over the West Hancock Eagles in three straight sets.
 
See the full story in the Sept. 16 Advance.

ALGONA—Bishop Garrigan won their third Top of Iowa Conference match in four tries on Thursday, Sept. 9, in a closely contested four-set match win over the Garner-Hayfield/Ventura Cardinals.
 
See the full story in the Sept. 16 Advance.

   WEST BEND—A couple of decades ago, two of the strongest football programs in northwest Iowa were the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines and the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears. The two squads battled each other in some entertaining and exciting battles but have not played each other for a while since the Wolverines went to eight-man football.

   EMMETSBURG—North Union freshman Jacey Welbig placed fifth overall on Monday, Sept. 13, at the Emmetsburg Invitational to highlight the performances of three of the area girls’ cross-country squads. Bishop Garrigan had one runner with Veronica Capesius taking 14th. West Bend-Mallard had two runners  Lexi Welter and Kayla Welter.
 
See the full report in the Sept. 16 Advance. 

  EMMETSBURG—Quinn Swift was the individual runner-up while his Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear team finished second to highlight the performances of three area boys’ cross-country squad on Monday, Sept. 13, at the Emmetsburg Invitational.
The black-and-gold had a team score of 68, one point behind champion Estherville-Lincoln Central. Both North Union and West Bend-Mallard did not have enough runners for a team score.

ALGONA—Hosting the first of two Saturday tournaments this season, the Algona Bulldogs volleyball team hosted the six-team Algona Classic on Saturday, Sept. 4.
The red-and-black finished the day with an overall match record of 2-3. Sioux Center, ranked No. 13 in Class 3A, won the tourney with a perfect 5-0 mark.

FORT DODGE—West Bend-Mallard erupted for 26 first quarter points and never looked back in a 70-26 district opening eight-man football victory on Friday, Sept. 3, over the St. Edmond Gaels inside Dodger Stadium.
 
See the Sept. 9 Advance for the full report. 

ALGONA—Bishop Garrigan opened eight-man district play with a hard-fought, 20-16 victory on Friday, Sept. 3, over the North Iowa Bison.
The stat sheet for the evening was as close as the scoreboard was as the home team accumulated 236 total yards while the Bison had total yardage for the night of 237.
 
See the full report in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

CLEAR LAKE—Clear Lake came out of week number one contests with a hefty No. 8 ranking in Class 2A in the latest Radio Iowa football poll.
But the Lions most likely will not keep that spot this week in the rankings after the Algona Bulldogs handed them a convincing 47-23 non-district loss to the black-and-gold on Friday, Sept. 3.
 
See the full story in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

ARMSTRONG—In just the second week of the season and the opening night of Class A district play on Friday, Sept. 3, the North Union Warriors’ football team entertained the North Butler Bearcats in their homecoming contest.
But the Bearcats were rude visitors as they went home with a 34-14 victory. The game was deadlocked at 7-7 at the end of the first stanza and North Butler led 21-14 at intermission.
 
See the full story in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

ALGONA—It was an early season Top of Iowa Conference volleyball match between two of the top teams in the league on Thursday, Sept. 2, at Bishop Garrigan. 
Lake Mills made the plays late in each set as it won the match by the scores of 25-22, 26-24 and 25-20 over the home town Golden Bears.
 
See the full report in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

WEBSTER CITY—In their second meet of the 2021 season, the Algona Bulldog boys cross-country team finished in fourth place overall on Tuesday, Aug. 31 in the 17-team field at the Lynx Invitational with a team total of 163 points.
The top place winner for the red-and-black squad was Ryan Stundahl in fourth place overall with a time of 17:27.
 
See the full story in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

MASON CITY—A pair of area boys cross country teams competed on Tuesday, Aug. 31 in the Mason City Newman Invitational along with 15 other squads.
Bishop Garrigan finished in eighth place with a team score of 194 that was one place ahead of North Union that had a team total of 211.
Quinn Swift of the black-and-gold was the top area place winner in fifth place with a time of 18:05.6. 
 
See the full story in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

WEBSTER CITY—Algona’s Moriah Knapp was the individual runner-up and the Bulldogs placed fifth overall in 17-team field with 156 points on Tuesday, Aug. 31, in the Lynx Invitational.
 
Get the full story in the Sept. 9 Advance. 

MASON CITY—North Union freshman Jacey Welbig turned in her second top 10 showing of the season on Tuesday, Aug. 31, at the Mason City Newman Invitational.
Welbig crossed the finish line with her clocking of 22:01.2 while teammate Hanna Sandvig placed 21st in 24:02.8. 
 
See the full story in the Sept. 9 Advance.