GRAETTINGER—West Bend-Mallard won four of five matches at the Graettinger volleyball tournament played on Saturday, Sept. 21.

The purple-and-gold defeated Harris-Lake Park 20-22, 21-12 and 15-11, Sioux Central by the scores of 21-13 and 21-7 and Pocahontas Area 21-17 and 21-19.

The Wolverines also topped North Union 21-14 and 21-18 in a battle of two area teams and their only loss of the day came to the Emmetsburg E-Hawks by the score of 16-21 and 17-21.

WEST BEND—Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire erupted for 32 points in the second quarter and went onto a 62-12, eight-man district football victory over the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines on Friday, Sept. 20.

G-T/R-A broke open a tight 8-0 contest after the first 12 minutes by scoring four touchdowns and conversions to take a 40-6 advantage to the locker room at intermission.

STORM LAKE—Running without their top runner, Gavin Weber, out with an illness, the Algona Bulldog boys’ cross-country team finished in sixth place with 160 points at the Storm Lake Invitational held on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Ryley Riggert was the top place winner for the red-and-black in 27^th place in 19:04.83, two places ahead of teammate Brooks Morgan in 29^th place with his clocking of 19:13.27.

HUMBOLDT—Tyra Schupbach of West Bend-Mallard crossed the finish line first followed by Julia Swift of Bishop Garrigan as the runner-up to highlight the performances of the four area girls’ cross-country squads at the Humboldt Invitational on Monday, Sept. 23.

Schupbach cruised to another individual win as the second-ranked runner in Class 1A won the event with a time of 20:07.0 as Swift took second place with a clocking of 20:59.9.

WEST BEND—West Bend-Mallard split a key Twin Lakes Conference volleyball triangular on Thursday, Sept. 19 against South Central Calhoun and Emmetsburg.

The purple-and-gold fell to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in conference matches while South Central Calhoun is 18-6 and 4-1 and Emmetsburg now has records of 8-2 and 6-1.

The Wolverines opened the evening with a hard-fought 16-25, 25-14, 16-25, 25-21 and 15-13 victory over South Central Calhoun.

STORM LAKE—Battling some sickness running though the team, a short-handed Algona Bulldog girls’ cross-country squad competed at the Storm Lake Invitational held at the Sunrise Point Golf Course on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

The red-and-black took 10^th place in the team standings with a team score of 251 points as Bishop Heelan won the team title with 52 points.

ARMSTRONG—Defending Class A state champion West Hancock used their powerful rushing attack on Friday, Sept. 20 to hand the North Union Warriors a 46-7 district defeat.

The red-and-white rushed the football 32 times for 264 yards and ran for six touchdowns and used a pick six for another score as they improved to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in district play.

FOREST CITY—The Algona Bulldog volleyball squad took two of three matches on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Forest City Tournament.

The red-and-black defeated conference rival Clarion-Goldfield/Dows by identical scores of 22-20, fell to Central Springs by the scores of 14-21 and 15-21 and defeated Forest City 16-21, 21-17 and 15-9.

STORM LAKE—Stepping outside of North Central Conference play, the Algona Bulldogs volleyball squad fell to the Storm Lake Tornadoes in five hard-fought sets on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

The red-and-black took the opening game by the final score of 25-21 before the home team won a tight 23-25 win in game number two.

FORT DODGE—The Algona swim team finished in fourth place with 171 team points in the five-team Fort Dodge Gary Winkler Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 21.

Reese Taylor was the lone gold medal winner in the meet as she won the one-meter diving event with a total of 440.75 to top the field.

ALGONA—The Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears’ volleyball squad hosted five other Catholic schools in the annual CYO tournament on Saturday, Sept. 21.

The black-and-gold had a tough day going 0-5 in matches against some very tough competition. The Golden Bears started the day with a 22-24 and 16-21 loss to Remsen St. Mary’s and fell to fifth-ranked (Class 4A) Bishop Heelan 7-21 and 2-21.

Technology woes and an epilogue to my Ireland trip

Thursday, Sept. 19

VB – Algona vs. Clear Lake

VB – West Bend-Mallard vs. Emmetsburg,

South Central Calhoun

Friday, Sept. 20

FB – Algona vs. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley    

(Homecoming)

FB – Bishop Garrigan @ Northwood-Kensett

FB – North Union vs. West Hancock

FB – West Bend-Mallard vs. G-T/R-A

Saturday, Sept. 21

EMMETSBURG—Tyra Schupbach of West Bend-Mallard cruised to the individual title to highlight the performances of three area girls’ cross-country squads at the E-Hawk Invitational ran at the Emmetsburg Golf & Country Club on Monday, Sept. 16.

Schupbach, ranked third in Class 1A in the latest ranking, won the race by just under a minute with her winning clocking of 21:36.4. Teammate Maddie Fehr was 19^th overall in 23:36.9 for the Wolverines.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Third-ranked Algona won their home opener on Sept. 13 over the Estherville-Lincoln Central Midgets in a non-district football contest played at Bulldog Stadium by the final score of 34-12.

The red-and-black overcame some sickness filtering throughout the squad as a couple of starters off their defense missed the game, and it showed early.