By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

CEDAR FALLS—It was a crazy end to a very physical football game between the eight-man state champions the past two years as fourth-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s scored a late touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game off a tipped pass in the end zone.

The late score gave the Hawks a 22-20 win in a hard-hitting football game on Wednesday, Nov. 13 in the UNI Dome over No. 2 Bishop Garrigan in the eight-man semi-final contest.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

LAKE MILLS—The Algona Bulldog girls wrestling squad opened the 2024-2025 campaign in impressive fashion with a pair of victories in a quadrangular held on Monday, Nov. 18.

The red-and-black pounded the Janesville Wildcats by the score of 75-3 in their first match of the night and ended the evening with a 54-24 win over the Lake Mills Bulldogs.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

DES MOINES—A pair of area volleyball players were recently named to the Class 1A all-district teams by the Iowa Girls’ Coaches Association. Allie Fehr of West Bend-Mallard was chosen to the 1A Northwest team while Graclyn Eastman of Bishop Garrigan was selected to the 1A North Central squad.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

JOHNSTON—Algona junior diver, Reese Taylor, qualified for the state diving meet for third straight season with her performance at the regional diving meet at Johnston on Thursday, Nov. 7.

Taylor placed third overall and is ranked seventh of the 32 state qualifiers in the in one-meter diving event after she completed her 11 dives on Thursday with a total score of 427.95.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

MASON CITY—Sophomore Ella Welp became the first Algona swim team member in the school’s history to qualify for the state swim meet as she earned a spot in the 100-yard breaststroke event at Mason City on Saturday, Nov. 9 in the regional swim meet.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

BISHOP GARRIGAN—The leading rusher in the entire state came to town on Thursday, Nov. 7, but the second-ranked Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear football team showed it takes more than one great player to beat a great team.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Algona trailed for just 3:06 in the entire game, but the final 1:38 came at the wrong time as No. 5 Mount Vernon rallied to edge the Bulldogs 31-28 in the Class 3A quarterfinal round contest played on Friday, Nov. 8 inside Bulldog Stadium.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Bishop Garrigan jumped out to an early 21-0 advantage and never looked back in a 47-12, eight-man playoff victory at Conway Field over the Riceville Wildcats on Friday, Nov. 1.

The second-ranked and defending state champions scored once in the opening frame and added two early scores in the second period to lead 21-0 with 9:37 left in the second quarter.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Fourth-ranked Algona came out ready to play in the opening round of the Class 3A football playoffs by scoring 35 points in the first 13 minutes of the game to get the continuous clock in effect, and cruised to a 49-6 win over the Harlan Cyclones on Friday, Nov. 1.

FORT DODGE—A pair of area girls finished in the top 16 runners out of the 100 competitors at the Class 1A girls state cross-country meet held at the Lakeside Golf Course just north of Fort Dodge on Saturday, Nov. 2.

West Bend-Mallard’s junior Tyra Schupbach came across the stripe in 11^th place overall while freshman Julia Swift of Bishop Garrigan was 16^th.

FORT DODGE—Algona junior, Gavin Weber, came across the finish line in 40^th place overall on Friday, Nov. 1 at the Class 3A state cross-country meet held at the Lakeside Golf Course just north of Fort Dodge.

“I got out really hard at the start as I just tried to stay up toward the front for as long as I could to get positioning,” said Weber of his race. “I kind of faded a little bit after the first mile, but I tried to stay strong throughout the race.

CARROLL—The Algona swim team concluded the 2024 regular season on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at Carroll against the Tigers and Perry Bluejays.

Perry won the meet with a final team score of 66 points as Algona finished in second place with a score of 48 and Carroll ended up in third place 27 points.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

DES MOINES—The Iowa Girls Coaches Association (IGCA) announced that former Algona High School volleyball coach, Shelly TerHark, will be inducted into the IGCA Volleyball Coaches and Officials Hall of Fame on Nov. 16 at Johnston during the 2024 Senior All-Star weekend.

TerHark coached for 33 years at two schools, Algona and Clarion-Goldfield. During her career, Shelly compiled a career record of 874-319.

Twin Lakes

First Team

Amanda Davis, Pocahontas Area, 12, OH

Addisen Ehler, East Sac County, 12, OH

Kinzee Hinders, Newell-Fonda, 12, MH

Calista Joyce, Emmetsburg, 11, OH

Breanna McAlister, South Central Calhoun, 12, OH

Nora Peterson, Alta-Aurelia, 12, OH

Norah Riedesel, South Central Calhoun, 12, S

Rachel Schany, Emmetsburg, 11, MH

DES MOINES—The Algona area was well represented by the Iowa Girls Coaches Association as a total of nine area volleyball players were named members of the 2024 Academic All-State team.

Area players named were Paige Schmitt, Lainey Ventiecher and Casey VanOtterloo of Algona; Alaina Bormann and Molly Peterson of Bishop Garrigan; Ava Steinberger of North Union along with Hailey Stalzer, Claire Gerber and Tiffany Fehr of West Bend-Mallard.