ALGONA—Bishop Garrigan grabbed a share of the Top of Iowa Conference boys basketball title on Tuesday, Feb. 11 with a 56-44 win over the North Iowa Bison.

The victory allowed the black-and-gold to share the 2024-2025 conference title with Forest City with identical 14-2 records, and the Golden Bears finished the regular season with an overall mark of 18-3.

STORM LAKE—Hailey Stalzer scored her 1,000^th point of her career as the West Bend-Mallard Wolverine girls basketball squad defeated the Storm Lake St. Mary’s Panthers 60-34 in Twin Lakes Conference play on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

The purple-and-gold finished the regular season with an overall record of 16-6 and went 7-5 in Twin Lakes Conference contests as Storm Lake St. Mary’s ended the regular season winless at 0-22 and went 0-12 in the league.

LAKE MILLS—Lake Mills edged North Union 42-38 in a Top of Iowa Conference girls basketball contest played on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

North Union led 14-13 before Lake Mills rallied to take a 28-20 advantage to the locker room at intermission and led 34-31 heading into the final quarter of action.

Shallie Walders led the green-black-and-silver in scoring with 12 points and was joined in double figures by Alexis Cummins with 11 points.

LAKE MILLS—North Union led in the fourth quarter before Lake Mills rallied for a 58-51 Top of Iowa Conference boys basketball victory over the green-black-and-silver on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

The Warriors led 43-40 with five minutes remaining in the game when the home team went on an 18-8 run to finish the contest and pick up the league victory.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

CORALVILLE—Tradition has always been a part of a strong Algona Bulldog boys wrestling team as the program has a long history of success.

But on Saturday, Feb. 8, for the first time in the school’s history, the Algona Bulldogs are the Class 2A state team dual champions as the top-ranked red-and-black won three matches to make history.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—It has been a banner year for the area girls basketball squads and as of this story, all four of them have garnered at least a total of 14 wins this winter.

Last week the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released their post-season pairings for the four area schools with Algona and Bishop Garrigan both earning number one seeds.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—One thing is for sure for the 2024-2025 edition of the Algona Bulldog girls basketball squad. They like to keep their fans on the edge of their seats by playing in close games.

For the seventh straight game, the red-and-black earned a win by single digits as the eighth-ranked Bulldogs earned a hard-fought 36-32 North Central Conference triumph over No. 11 Hampton-Dumont on Friday, Feb. 7.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Algona built a big first half lead and went onto a 70-58 North Central Conference boys basketball victory on Friday, Feb. 7 over Hampton-Dumont.

Three players reached double figures for the winners with two of those players netting at least 20 points while the visitors had one player go over the 20-point plateau.

CORALVILLE—The Algona Bulldog girls wrestling squad sent three young ladies to the Class 1A state tournament on Feb. 6-7, and all three wrestlers returned home with a medal around their neck for placing in the top eight of their respective weight classes.

ALGONA—Ninth-ranked Bishop Garrigan got all they could handle from the West Hancock Eagles on Friday, Feb. 7 in Top of Iowa Conference boys basketball play before holding off the red-and-white by the final score of 48-43.

The black-and-gold let a 13-point lead get away and still trailed 29-28 with 4:31 to play in third quarter before holding on for the hard-fought league win.

ARMSTRONG—Trailing 52-47 with 4:10 to play in the game, the North Union Warrior boys basketball team finished the contest on a 13-3 run to pull out a 60-55 Top of Iowa Conference victory over the Eagle Grove Eagles on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

Three Warriors found double digits in the win led by Drew Henderson with 17 points as Caden Walders contributed 14 and Khael Jones added 11 more.

ALGONA—Fourth-ranked Bishop Garrigan built a nice first period lead and never looked back as they cruised to a 58-21 Top of Iowa Conference girls basketball victory over the West Hancock Eagles on Friday, Feb. 7.

The black-and-gold led 22-9 after the first quarter and never trailed in the win as they improved to 18-3 overall and are now 13-2 in the conference while West Hancock fell to 9-11 and 7-9 in the league.

ARMSTRONG—North Union’s defense forced 25 turnovers in a 64-25 Top of Iowa Conference girls basketball victory on Tuesday, Feb. 4 over the Eagle Grove Eagles to earn their 13^th win of the season.

Ainsley Ulrich led three green-black-and-silver players in double figures with 22 points while teammate Maisey Bierstedt added 16 points and Shallie Walders chipped in with 12 more.

MANSON—West Bend-Mallard notched win number 15 of the season on Tuesday, Feb. 4 with a hard-fought 50-45 Twin Lakes Conference girls basketball win over Manson Northwest Webster. The purple-and-gold outscored the home team 19-9 in the final period to rally for the win.

Hailey Stalzer was one of a pair of Wolverine players to reach double figures with 14 points in the contest while teammate Chloe Dickey added a career-high 11 points.

MASON CITY—The first year of competition for the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear boys swim team came to an end at the district swim meet held on Saturday, Feb. 8.

The Golden Bears finished in eighth place in the team standings with a team score of 78 points. All three black-and-gold relays ended up in eighth place as the top place winners for the day.