2024 in review: Sports

Editor’s Note: This is the final in a five-part year in review.

From all-conference to state champions, 2024 brought a plethora of success to CNA area teams.

Winter sports

The 2023-24 Creston wrestling team won the state duals on a thrilling final tie-breaking match.

On their way to the gold, Creston won 24 matches, had 13 pins and five undefeated wrestlers — Jagger Luther, Max Chapman, Lincoln Keeler, Quinten Fuller and Christian Ahrens.

The day at the Xtream Arena in Coralville featured three duals — each one significant for a different reason. In the morning dual, the Panthers looked to set the tone for the day. They looked to rebound from last year where they fell flat in the morning and had to wrestle for fifth. With a morning win against Independence, they would guarantee a better place than last year.

In the semifinals, they faced Mount Vernon. This was a redemption match for the Panthers as the Mustangs won their last dual by more than 30 points. Eight of the returning wrestlers were looking for wins after losing the previous year to their Mount Vernon opponents.

Then in the finals, the Panthers would look for something really special — Creston’s second ever team title at the state duals, the first being in 2007.

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The Panthers sent 11 wrestlers to the individual state wrestling tournament, a program record. Qualifying were Lane Travis (106), Christian Ahrens (120), Brodrick Phelps (126), Lincoln Keeler (132), Brandon Briley (138), Austin Evans (144), Milo Staver (157), Will Bolinger (165), Jagger Luther (190), Quinten Fuller (215) and Max Chapman (285).

Four of them medaled. Ahrens, a senior, placed fourth; Chapman, a senior, earned fifth; Evans, a senior, took seventh and Travis, a sophomore, placed eighth.

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Highway 34 sent four wrestlers to state, none of the medaling. Junior Evy Marlin was the regionals champion, qualifying at 130. At 125, junior Zoey Vandevender qualified. Quynn Foster of East Union made the cut at 105 and senior Savannah Sistad qualified at heavyweight.

S.W.A.T. senior Grace Britten of Nodaway Valley medaled at the state meet, placing eighth. Also representing S.W.A.T. from Nodaway Valley was Jazz Christensen. Southwest Valley sent Maddie McCoy and Kenzie Maeder.

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Three Creston boys basketball players earned all-conference honors — seniors Cael Turner and Tony Davidson and junior Jake Hoyt.

The girls basketball team set a new record for highest team GPA with a cumulative 3.921.

Spring Sports

The Panthers track team qualified for state in six events — boys and girls 4x800m relay; boys distance medley relay; boys 4x400m relay; Avery Staver in the girls 200m dash; Tom Mikkelsen in the shot put and Brandon Briley in the 800m run.

Staver, a sophomore, got things started for Creston with the 200. She ran a 26.88, placing 24th in her first appearance at state.

The girls 4x800m relay took the track next after a season-best qualifying race in 10:01.06, earning the 16th spot at state. Sophomore Maylee Riley got the race started for the Panthers coming to the exchange zone third and landing a 2:29 split. Riley handed the baton off to freshman Hope Henderson. Henderson held onto third through most of the first lap, but lost several spots through the final lap, running a 2:35.

Staver had the baton third. By her second lap, Clear Creek-Amana had a significant lead, a pack of six runners fighting for second. Algona split from the pack for second as Staver gained on the group throughout her leg. She came in at the back of the pack as she exchanged to junior Payton Davis for the anchor leg. Staver ran a 2:34 split.

Davis lost one position on the anchor leg, running a 2:37 to place the Panthers ninth in the first heat, 21st overall with a 10:15.98. Despite finishing lower than they had hoped, all four girls return this year.

The boys 4x800 also had a bit of a disappointing race, but their two seniors — Austin Evans and Briley, had strong races.

As usual, Evans put the Panthers in a good position. He ran a fast first lap, keeping the lead spot. In the second lap, he fell a few positions, running a 2:01 split to put the Panthers in fifth.

In the second leg, junior Tyler Riley ran a 2:15. Briley got the baton in third, and was able to make up a position, putting the Panthers in 11th in the first heat. He ran a 2:00. Freshman Davin Wallace was on the anchor leg for the Panthers. He ran a 2:14 to finish in 12th in the heat and 24th overall.

It was junior Casen Dryden on the opening 200 in the second of three heats. Dryden ran on the state team in 2022, but didn’t go out for track last season. Seth Gordon ran the second leg. At the cut in mark on the back stretch of the third leg, Evans landed in second place. After some shuffling on the front stretch, Evans gave the baton to Briley in fourth after running a 53 second split, Glenwood in the lead.

Briley had a host of talented anchor runners to compete with, but he ran a 1:56.1, a personal best. The final time of 3:34.64 was a new school record. In the fast heat, Gilbert finished .68 seconds faster than Creston to take the final medal spot.

Creston freshman Tom Mikkelsen, a Hawkeye 10 shot put champion and the gold medalist at the state qualifying meet threw 51-06 to finish 11th.

The 4x400m team of Evans, Wallace, Gordon and Briley placed 20th.

With the eighth-fastest time coming in, Briley was in the main wave of runners in the boys 800m, but starting in the furthest lane.

While Briley was able to cut in right away, he was boxed in on the backstretch, not able to make a move until the front stretch on the first lap when he advanced to the front of the pack. He came through the first lap in 56 seconds, moving up to sixth place. On the backstretch, he pulled up for a spot in fourth. On the final stretch, he was issued a challenge, as runners came up next to him, all vying for a coveted spot in the top-eight.

While Michael Yeomans of Solon and Isaac Sorensen of Clear Creek-Amana were able to get past him, Briley finished sixth, only .27 seconds ahead of the ninth-place finisher. His time of 1:56.5 was a PR in the open 800.

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Out of nearly 50 area events that qualified, 22 came home with medals around their necks, 13 landed on the podium and five events were champions.

All five winning events featured either Ryce Reynolds of Mount Ayr or Gabe Funk of Lenox. The Lenox shuttle hurdle team of Donald Bashor, Dawson Evans, JJ Martin-England and Funk took the gold followed by Funk winning the 110m high hurdles.

In the 400m hurdles, Reynolds placed first with Funk taking second. In the boys sprint medley, Mount Ayr got gold with Lenox taking silver.

Reynolds had two more races to run without his rival — the 400m and 200m. He took gold in the first and silver in the second.

Senior Leksi Gannon a 100m and 200m medalist in 2023, placed in three events for Murray. She placed second in the 100 and 200m dashes and fifth in the 400.

Three other area athletes ended on the podium with top-three finishes. East Union sophomore Morgan Cooley threw a 52-05 in shot put, not his new personal best, but enough to earn him a silver medal.

Two more field events earned silver — Aubree Shields of Mount Ayr in high jump and Emma Cooper of Southwest Valley in the long jump.

The Nodaway Valley girls 4x100m relay team of Annika Nelson, Maddie Weston, Grace Britten and Emma Lundy finished the prelims in 50.56, giving them the third seed headed into the finals. On that blistering hot Saturday, they ran a 50.81, bumping them to fourth place.

Weston went on to run the open 100, running a PR of 12.72 in the preliminaries, the eighth-fastest time and the last qualifying spot for Saturday’s finals. In the finals, she placed eighth, running 13.24.

Also placing in the 100m dash was Bashor of Lenox, who ran a PR of 11:05 in the prelims and an 11:42 in finals to place seventh.

Trenton Warner of Nodaway Valley competed in the boys shot put, coming in with the second-best qualifying mark of 53-01.5, his personal best. He threw 50-03.5 in his final throw to qualify for finals. His threw two identical marks of 50-10.25 in the finals to place fifth.

Tory Henry earned fourth in the Class 3A 100m hurdles for Clarke. Her preliminary time was 15.72, but she shaved some off in the finals, running a 15.69.

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In boys soccer, Creston seniors Dillon Starlin and Brennan Hayes won second-team all conference honors.

In girls soccer, Lea Stonebraker, Olivia Burwell and Zoe Ralston earned all-conference honorable mention honors.

Summer

The Creston baseball team had a successful season, tying for second in the conference with a 15-5 record. The Panthers were 24-11 overall.

Seniors Cael Turner and Dylan Hoepker were unanimous first team all-conference selections. Also on the first team was Parker Varner. Sam Henry earned second team while Tom Mikkelsen was honorable mention. All five also earned all-district honors. Turner and Varner were all-state selections.

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Four East Union players earned Pride of Iowa all-conference honors. Austin Lack and Seth Hudson earned first-team honors while Fisher Buffington was second team and Terrian Islas was honorable mention.

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Lenox had five athletes on the POI list, sophomore Dawson Evans one of three athletes unanimously selected for first-team recognition.

Senior Carter Reed, junior Gabe Funk and sophomore Laramie Stoaks all also earned first-team honors on the all-conference and all-district teams.

Eighth-grader Jack Reed was the fifth Lenox player earning all-conference honors as he was placed on the honorable mention team.

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Mount Ayr’s senior Preston Fleharty and eighth-grader Adler Reed both earned first-team honors while freshman Hayes Stogdill earned honorable mention.

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Southwest Valley had three athletes earn all-conference honors and two earn all-district recognition.

Seniors Brayden Maeder and Owen Paul earned second-team POI honors for pitching and utility, respectively. Maeder also earned a second-team all-district spot for pitching.

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The Panthers softball team finished second in the Hawkeye 10 with a 17-3 record. In the postseason, they were knocked out in round one by Indianola.

Jersey Foote’s 12 homers is the second most in a single season, and she is also second in career home runs with 24. Jersey’s 36 RBIs is sixth best and her three triples are good for ninth best in Panther history.

Five Panthers earned all-conference honors. Ava Adamson (first team), Taryn Fredrickson (first team), Sophie Hagle (second team), Foote (second team) and Avery Staver (second team).

Adamson and Foote earned all-state honors.

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Murray placed two athletes on all-state teams, junior Presley Van Winkle earning first-team honors and sophomore Kiersten Klein landing on the third team.

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Orient-Macksburg also placed two girls on all-state teams, sophomore Emma Boswell earning second-team recognition and Kasyn Shinn earning honorable mention.

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Lenox junior Sadie Cox earned third-team honors for her performance this season.

Fall

After a 4-5 season to tie a district win, the Panthers placed 14 on all-district teams.

Weston Trapp (running back), Brayden Schoon (offensive line), Tom Mikkelsen (defensive line) and Lucas Travis (linebacker) were first-team players.

Six Panthers earned second-team honors: Xander Drake (wide receiver), Gunner Martwick (offensive line), Tanner Ray (offensive utility), Mattias Schultes (defensive line), Davin Wallace (defensive back) and Jackson Pettegrew (defensive utility).

Four Panthers earned spots on the honorable mention roster: Casen Dryden (wide receiver), Josh Schaefer (wide receiver), Jayden Myers (defensive line) and Tyson Looney (linebacker).

Trapp was named to the all-state second team for his performance.

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The Lenox football team reached the state playoffs for the second time in three years, but fell in the semifinals. Three players were given all-state honors. The Iowa Football Coaches Association named Gabe Funk to their 8-Player first team as an offensive utility player, JJ Martin-England to their second team as a running back/fullback and Brody Brokaw to the second team as an offensive lineman.

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Freshman Cora Smith, sophomore Reese Strunk and senior Payton Davis all earned Hawkeye 10 all-conference cross country honors for the Panthers after their stellar races at the conference meet. Creston placed fourth in the H10.

Strunk was a state qualifier after placing 15th at the state qualifying meet.

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Jaycee Hanson earned volleyball all-conference honors for the second year in a row.

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Sadie Cox of Lenox earned all-state volleyball honors for her performance this season.