By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

HUMBOLDT—Despite losing three-time all-stater Alex Manske early in the third quarter, top-ranked Algona continued to battle hard and narrowly dropped a 21-20 contest to second-ranked Humboldt on Friday, Oct. 11.

EAGLE GROVE—Bishop Garrigan’s Julia Swift finished in second place overall with her clocking of 20:12.93 to highlight the performances of a pair of area girls’ cross-country squads at the annual Dick Bell Invitational held on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

She was the only runner for the black-and-gold as they did not have a team score while the Algona Bulldogs ended up in fourth place in the team standings of 14 squads with a team score of 137 points.

LAKE CITY—Junior Tyra Schupbach was the runner-up at the Brian Knapp Invitational held on Tuesday, Oct. 8 to highlight the performances of the West Bend-Mallard boys and girls cross-country squads.

Schupbach came across the finish line with her clocking of 18:48.25 to help lead the purple-and-gold to end up fifth in the team standings with 104 points in the 12-team field.

ALGONA—Bishop Garrigan concluded Top of Iowa Conference volleyball on the right foot with a league victory on Tuesday, Oct. 8 over the West Hancock E-Gals in three straight sets.

The black-and-gold concluded league play with a mark of 2-6 to end in a seventh place tie with Eagle Grove and went 10-20 in games played in those eight conference matches.

FOREST CITY—Julia Swift of Bishop Garrigan was third overall to highlight the performances of a pair of area girls cross-country squads at the Forest City Invitational held at the Bear Creek Golf Course on Monday, Oct. 14.

Swift crossed the finish line in 20:32.5 as she was the only runner for the Golden Bears. North Union also competed as the green-black-and-silver had four runners compete.

EAGLE GROVE—A third place finish by Algona’s Gavin Weber highlighted the performances of a pair of area boys cross-country teams at the annual Dick Bell Invitational held on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

Weber stopped the watches as he came across the finish line in 17:15.34 to earn his third place showing. Algona ended up in third place in the team standings in the 15-team field with 97 points as Bishop Garrigan had just one runner and no team score.

GOWRIE—West Bend-Mallard went on the road on Thursday, Oct. 10 in Twin Lakes Conference volleyball action, but fell to the Southeast Valley Jaguars in four sets.

The Wolverines won the opening game by the score of 25-16 before the Jaguars roared back to take the next three sets by the scores of 19-25, 9-25 and 15-25.

Allie Fehr led the purple-and-gold in kills with 11 closely followed by Claire Gerber with 10 and Addie Montag added six more.

ARMSTRONG—In their final Top of Iowa Conference volleyball match of the season, the North Union Warriors fell in three straight sets to Belmond-Klemme on their home court on Thursday, Oct. 10.

The visitors rallied from an early deficit in the opening game to earn a hard-fought 25-21 victory. Belmond-Klemme then took the next two sets by the scores of 25-14 and 25-15.

FOREST CITY—Both the Bishop Garrigan and North Union boys cross-country teams competed at the Forest City Invitational held on Monday, Oct. 14 at the Bear Creek Golf Course, but neither had enough runners for a team score.

North Union’s Aiden Bauer was the top place winner in 35^th place overall with a clocking of 19:35.3 as teammate Landon Manwarren ended up in 47^th place in 20:50.6.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

DES MOINES—The post-season regional volleyball pairings for the four area volleyball squads were released last week by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union as they now know the teams that stand in their way for a state tournament trip.

Bishop Garrigan, North Union and West Bend-Mallard were all assigned to Class 1A Region 3 and will be the first area teams to be in action for the area squads on Monday, Oct. 21.

ARMSTRONG—Trailing 2-1 in games, the North Union Warrior volleyball squad rallied to win the final two sets and the match over the Garner-Hayfield/Ventura Cardinals in a Top of Iowa Conference match on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

The Cardinals took the opening game by the score of 13-25 before the home team fought back to win the second set by the count of 25-22.

JOHNSTON—The Algona swim team had just one competitor at the Johnston Invitational held on Saturday, Oct. 12 at the Summit Middle School in Johnston.

Reese Taylor of the red-and-black competed against 14 other young ladies in the one-meter diving event and after all 11 dives were completed, she ended up in third place overall with her total score of 386.95.

ALGONA—With their Top of Iowa Conference schedule completed, the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears’ volleyball squad took on Newell-Fonda on Thursday, Oct. 10 in a non-conference match won by the Mustangs in three games.

The visitors prevailed in a tight opening set by the score of 25-22 before taking the second game 25-15 and ended the match with a 25-16 victory in game number three.

BUFFALO CENTER—Both the North Union and West Bend-Mallard volleyball squads competed at the North Iowa tournament on Saturday, Oct. 12.

The purple-and-gold went 2-2 during the day in the five-team tournament as the Warriors were winless on the day and North Iowa won their own tourney with a perfect 4-0 mark.

WEST BEND—Having big nights from both Austin Schmidt and Cole Fehr, the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines football team rolled to a 69-26 homecoming victory over the North Iowa Bison on Friday, Oct. 4.

Each of the Wolverines rushed for 100 yards on the evening as Fehr scored four touchdowns and Schmidt also reached the end zone on four different occasions.