Sioux Central handed West Bend-Mallard a Twin Lakes Conference season-opening volleyball loss in three straight sets in the contest played Aug. 29.
The home team won the opening game by the score of 25-16 before taking the second and third contests by identical scores of 25-11 in the league win.
Read the complete story in the Sept. 5 Kossuth County Advance.

Bishop Garrigan opened the 2019 Top of Iowa Conferece volleyball season with a three-set victory over the Belmond-Klemme Broncos by the scores of 25-15, 25-17 and 25-16 on Aug. 29.
The black and gold was successful on 58 of 67 serving attempts for 86.6 percent with 12 serving aces. Top servers were Emma Fogarty at 11 of 11 with one ace and Katie Noonan with nine of 12 with a pair of serving aces.
Read the complete story in the Sept. 5 Kossuth County Advance.

Carley Mullins of Algona placed seventh overall to highlight some nice performances from three area girls cross-country squads at the Spencer Invitational held at the Spencer Municipal Golf Course Aug. 29.
The Bulldogs had the top finish in the team race with fifth place with 112 points as Bishop Garrigan took 10th with a total of 218, and North Union had just three runners and no team score.
Read more about the meet in the Sept. 5 Kossuth County Advance.

An impressive debut for Algona freshman Ryan Stundahl in his first high school cross-country meet highlighted the performances of three area boys cross-country squads at the Spencer Invitational on Aug. 29.
Algona finished in eighth place in the team standings with 162 team points as Bishop Garrigan took 10th with 198 points, and North Union only had three runners and no team score.
Read more about the meet in the Sept. 5 Kossuth County Advance.

Junior Julia Fehr finished in 12th place to highlight the performances of the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines cross-country squads in the Southeast Valley Invitational meet at the Gowrie Country Club on Aug. 29.
The purple and gold junior crossed the finish line in 23:25.92 for her team while teammate Crystal Fehr took 34th place with her clocking of 26:42.58.
Read more about the meet in the Sept. 5 Kossuth County Advance.

A combination of 12 penalties, two lost fumbles and a pair of interceptions were too much for the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines to overcome in a 34-30, eight-man football, season-opening loss to the North Iowa Bison on Friday, Aug. 23.

An Algona High School graduate is slated to be the starting right guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team as the squad opens its 2019 campaign on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Kinnick Stadium against Miami (Ohio) University.
Cole Banwart, a 2016 graduate of Algona High School, returns for his second year as the team's starting left guard. the 6-foot-4, 296-pound Bulldog all-stater is listed as a redshirt junior and enters his fourth year in the Hawkeye program.

When the University of Northern Iowa Panthers football team heads to Ames on Saturday to open the 2019 season, 2016 Bishop Garrigan graduate Zac Kibby will handle the punting duties for the squad. He will also see action in other special teams and will be the number two strong safety or rover position.

An entertaining summer of dirt track racing concluded at the Kossuth County Speedway in Algona on Thursday, Aug. 22, with the season champions determined at the end of the evening.
A total of 67 cars signed into the pits for the final time in 2019. The hobby stock had the biggest car count with 16, followed by the sport mods with 14 and the stock cars with 13.
Get all the action in the Aug. 29 Kossuth County Advance.

Algona Bulldog Football: Making huge strides during the 2018 campaign, the 2019 Algona Bulldogs football team continues to move forward for more success on the field. A large group of 18 lettermen provide experience as 16 seniors will provide the squad with valuable leadership. The team numbers 67 strong, including 14 juniors, 16 sophomores and 21 freshmen.

Seven players return for the 14th annual Kossuth County Advance All-Area Baseball first team, led by West Bend-Mallard's Cole Hoskins and Bishop Garrigan's Luke Bormann, who are members of the unit for the third consecutive season.
The 16-member squad is made up of eight seniors, five juniors and a trio of talented sophomores this summer. The second team has two seniors, one junior and a freshman.
Read about the players in the Aug. 22 Kossuth County Advance.

For the last month, Garner's Jeremy Mills has been chasing his elusive 100th career victory. Thursday evening at the Kossuth County Speedway in Algona, the veteran driver finally achieved the milestone with his third feature win of the summer at the track.
Mills, who also captured modified feature wins in Algona on May 2 and June 13, came from the inside of row number four to top the 15-car field on Thursday.
Get all the action in the Aug. 22 Kossuth County Advance.

Ben Kern captured first place in the 26th annual Randy Buscher Memorial Algona Amateur golf tournament at the Algona Country Club over the past weekend.
Kern fired a three-under par 33 in the final nine holes to rally from a seven stroke deficit heading into the final round. Kern carded birdies on numbers 1, 7 and 9 in the final round, as the four-time champ was the only one of 20 players in the finals to go under par.
Get all the details in the Aug. 15 Advance.

In a school that has produced many great distance runners, recently graduated senior Trey Engen may have placed himself at the top of the podium after his performance at the Class 3A state track meet in Des Moines this spring.

Add another chapter to the long list of accomplishments achieved at the Bancroft Memorial baseball field.
The Bancroft Bandits used strong pitching from a trio of hurlers and a couple of breaks in the eighth inning to rally from deficits of 2-0 and 5-2 to defeat the Carroll Merchants 7-5 in the championship game of the Pioneer Collegiate Baseball League.
Get all the action in the Aug. 8 Advance.