A year in review - sports

Dec. 27—In 2023, local athletes made history, bringing the community together in a rally of support. While success was a theme this year, sometimes defeat is a part of the journey.

Here's a look at the interesting moments, historical teams and champions of 2023.

January

Spencer Brown of Lenox, an offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills, recounts the scary moment Damar Hamlin tackled Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins and fell into cardiac arrest.

"I was sitting down with the other line guys and we were watching on the big (overhead) screen," Brown said. "Ryan Bates, our right guard, said 'I think Damar's down.' I looked over. I had seen guys go down before. Then he said, 'Whoa, they're bringing a stretcher out.' That's when all of the players started walking over there."

The on-field treatment for nearly 20 minutes included administering CPR, applying portable defibrillator paddles (AED) and giving him oxygen.

Buffalo Bills lineman Spencer Brown reacts as teammate Damar Hamlin receives medical attention after collapsing during the first half against the Cincinnati Bengals, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, in Cincinnati.

"I'd never seen the controlled chaos of the whole medical staff working together, going through the steps to evaluate and make split-second decisions. Everyone had their own job," said Brown, the Bills starting offensive right tackle. "I didn't know they had a medical team on standby for everything like that — CPR, the airway and AED. There was so much preparation that came straight to the forefront that we didn't even know was a thing. Big shoutout to the medical team. I was just trying to hold myself together and saying prayers."

Hamlin has since been cleared to play.

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The Highway 34 girls wrestling team competed in the first Iowa girls regional wrestling tournament at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Three of the wrestlers took top-six spots in the historic tournament.

Savannah Sistad took the top berth, winning the 235-pound weight class and clinching a ticket to the state tournament. Zoey Vandevender and Grace Keeler battled back from the consolation bracket, doing enough to secure fifth and sixth place, respectively, but coming just short of a state qualification.

The six wrestlers logged 11 pins in 24 matches — Sistad going a perfect three-for-three.

February

The Panthers boys wrestling team cap off successful season with fifth-place finish at state duals, eight individual state qualifiers and two individual state medalists.

The month started with winning the Hawkeye 10 tournament for the third time in four years and the 13th time in school history. They finished with 243 points with three champions, four in second place and medaled all 14 wrestlers.

At the regional duals, an electric win over Glenwood advanced the Panthers to the state duals. "That may be the loudest I've ever heard our gym, and I've heard it pretty loud," coach Cody Downing said. "This is my 17th regional duals as either a wrestler, coach or assistant coach and that was pretty loud. That was a huge win. If you look at the final score, that was a huge win for us."

The 36-33 battle was a test for the difficult matches that would await at state duals.

A morning loss against Mount Vernon was a low point in the duals, the Mustangs winning the first five bouts. The score was 25-0 with all the energy coming from the Mustangs' bench. "We had no energy against Mount Vernon which is uncharacteristic of us,"Downing said. "I've never seen that of us."

Though they would lose the dual 51-19, they were sent to fight for fifth place in the consolations.

After the loss against the Mustangs, the Panthers were ready for a change of pace. Facing eighth-ranked Williamsburg brought that shift. As they took the mat, Downing told the team to 'get jacked up.' "We've got to get back in this," he said. "We win as a team, lose as a team."

The Panthers won the match 51-18 and advanced to wrestle Webster City for fifth. The Lynx proved the closest battle for the Panthers in a rollercoaster dual. The Panthers eked out a 33-29 win to take fifth.

As wrestling transitioned to a individual game, the Panthers competed at Districts where eight advanced to the state tournament.

Though only three wrestlers came in as the favorite in their weight class, six finished at the top of the podium.

"I think that just shows our growth all season and how tough our schedule is," Downing said. "We might not have as good of a record as some of the other guys. Strength of schedule really matters. To have those two-seed guys get titles shows a lot."

Winning their weight classes were Christian Ahrens (120), Lincoln Keeler (126), Trey Chesnut (132), Will Bolinger (160), Kaden Street (170) and Max Chapman (285). Placing second were Austin Evans (138) and Chris Aragon (145).

The Panthers doubled last year's four state competitors, all three varsity seniors advancing. After four days of wrestling at state, juniors Ahrens (120) and Evans (138) landed on the podium at eighth and seventh place, respectively.

Senior Street and juniors Chapman and Bolinger were all one match away from placing while seniors Chesnut and Aragon and junior Keeler were eliminated after two days of wrestling.

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At girls state wrestling, junior Savannah Sistad continued her success, pinning four opponents in six bouts to take fifth-place.

With a first-day attendance of more than 5,000 fans, the event proved the support behind the new sport.

Each weight featured 32 wrestlers from eight regional tournaments. Sistad came into the first day ranked second in the 235-pound bracket.

With a vocal crowd including all of her Highway 34 teammates cheering her on, Sistad would pin rival Jocelyn Buffum of Missouri Valley in the final period to claim fifth place at the first sanctioned state tournament.

"It felt really nice, especially with a crowd. I'm not used to such a big crowd cheering for me; it was awesome," Sistad said. "It's been a whole new experience having a team. It's like having a mini family."

March

Southwestern Community College sophomore Molly Venteicher finished sixth in the women's weight throw competition at the NJCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, earning All-America honors.

Venteicher, a 2021 graduate of CAM High School, became SWCC track & field's third women's All-American in program history. She joins Elenani Tinai (heptathlon, 2019) and Fane Sauvakacolo (pentathlon, 2021; heptathlon, 2021) as the only women's track & field athletes to achieve a top-8 finish at the NJCAA National Championships.

Venteicher qualified to finals of the weight throw in eighth place. The final thrower of the competition in prelims, Venteicher's first throw went 15.01 meters. After surviving the final two throwers who had a chance to knock her out of finals, Venteicher improved on her final throw of prelims with a throw of 15.30 meters. Her first throw of finals went 15.80 meters, which ended up as her best throw of the competition, and vaulted her into sixth place.

As one of the most consistent throwers in the nation all season long, Venteicher was one of only two competitors in the field to get all six of her throws in bounds, and was the only thrower to go over 15 meters on five of six attempts. She came into Saturday's competition ranked sixth nationally in the event and held her place.

April

SWCC's Conrad Schroeder claimed school records in throwing events at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He had a big day for the Spartans, posting new PR marks in all four throwing events. Already the owner of the school record in the javelin, Schroeder surpassed his previous mark on the final attempt of the competition with a throw of 46.63 meters (153 feet). He finished the javelin competition with the three best marks of the day.

Schroeder also vaulted into the top spot in school history in the hammer throw with his throw of 34.78 meters (114 feet, 1 inch) on his final attempt of finals. The previous record was 32.17 meters, set by Keegan Longabaugh in 2016. Schroeder moved up to No. 2 on the program's all-time list in the shot put with his new PR of 12.12 meters (39-9.25) and also in the discus with his throw of 33.57 meters (110-2

May

At the Drake Relays, local athletes shattered records.

A photo-finish in the boys 400 meter dash declared junior Ryce Reynolds of Mount Ayr the winner in a time of :48.46, a new personal best for Reynolds and a new school record for Mount Ayr. With the finish as close as it was, Reynolds didn't know if he'd won or not until the scoreboard displayed his name in first.

His second-place finish in the 400m hurdles came in a time of :52.57, a new personal-best and school record despite the rain that started coming down just before the race began.

Gabe Funk of Lenox ran a :55.21, earning him fourth in his heat, 10th overall, a new personal best and a new school record.

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Five Spartans qualified for track and field nationals in May.

Freshman Chase Oates and sophomore Molly Venteicher each hit national qualifying marks in their respective events first for the team, at the Kip Janvrin Open, hosted by Simpson College.

Oates kicked off the busy weekend with a PR and school record in the 1,500 meters during Thursday evening's distance carnival. Oates, who entered the meet less than 1 second away from the national qualifying standard of 4:02.10, posted a 2-second PR of 4:01.07 to break Phil Selmer's 2019 school record set at the same meet.

Venteicher started Friday's events with a big PR in the hammer throw to qualify for nationals in that event. She came into the weekend with a PR of 39.88 meters, but launched a throw of 43.56 meters (142 feet, 11 inches) to surpass the qualifying mark of 42.88 meters. Later in the day, she threw 1 cm farther than the national qualifying mark in the javelin, posting a win in the event at 36.23 meters.

At the Region 11 Championships hosted by Iowa Western Community College, three more Spartans met the nationals-qualifying mark.

Jonathon Hackett in the decathlon, Brianna Osterson in the javelin, and Robert Norton in the 400 hurdles all qualified for the following weekend's NJCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Hobbs, New Mexico, bringing Southwestern's total to seven events qualifying for the championships.

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At the Iowa High School State Track and Field Competition, area athletes saw abundant success.

Reigning state champion and Drake Relays champion in the 400 meter dash, Ryce Reynolds of Mount Ayr, continued his dominance with not only another title, but a Class 1A state meet record in the 400.

Senior Taylor Lumbard of Diagonal placed seventh in shot put, finding redemption from last year when she placed 19th after being seeded 14th.

Aleksys Gannon hoped to make history as Murray's first female state champion Saturday as she came in with the fastest preliminary time in both the 100 and 200. In the 100, Gannon placed second to Mia Walker of Newell-Fonda in a PR of :12.54.

Gannon and Walker faced off again in the 200 meter dash. Gannon had the lead on her early, but Walker made a push to catch her at the end. The crowd waited for the results with bated breath as the two crossed the line simultaneously. Gannon's name went up first in a time of :25.29 and Walker's followed, also in :25.29. The announcer clarified Gannon had won by one one-thousandth of a second, :25.284 to :25.285.

The Mount Ayr boys took first in the distance medley relay and second in a close finish for the sprint medley relay. Reynolds anchored both events in addition to earning first in the 400 meter dash and 400m hurdles.

Led by sophomore Gabe Funk, the Tigers put together a second, a third and a fifth place finish in hurdle events. In the 110m hurdles, Funk ended up second in the event in a new personal best and Lenox school record time of :14.87. He took third in the 400m hurdles and the shuttle hurdle relay earned fifth.

Earning silver in two relays, Emma Lundy, Abby Engles, Maddie Wetson and Annika Nelson put up season-best times in the 4x100m relay and 4x200m relay. Lundy also took fourth in the 200m dash in a new PR of :25.81. The Nodaway Valley girls placed eighth as a team.

Aubree Shields placed second in the high jump for Mount Ayr, her 5-04 mark tying the school record with Dawn (Huff) Elliott, mom of NFL running back Ezekiel Elliott.

The Panthers qualified three events for state — Doryn Paup in discus, Brandon Briley in the 800m and the distance medley relay of Tyler Riley, Chris Aragon, Austin Evans and Briley.

July

Creston's Nevaeh Randall is named to the All-State first team in softball after a tremendous senior season including shattering several Creston softball records and playing in the all-star game.

She is only the fifth Panther selected for first team all-state since 2000. She joins the elite group of Katlin Briley, Madison Frain, Haylee LaMasters and Sara Keeler.

Randall ended her career with a school-record 47 home runs and 178 RBIs. This year she batted .444 with 21 home runs, 47 RBIs, 53 runs scored, four doubles and 21 walks while striking out just 16 times in 108 at-bats. She batted .456 last year with 10 home runs.

Her rankings include ninth in single-season batting average (.456), first in most runs scored in a season (47), fourth and fifth in most RBIs in a season (47 and 43), ninth in most doubles in a season (12), first, second, third, sixth and seventh in single-season home runs (21, 10, 9, 4, 3) and first in career home runs (47).

Her 21 home runs beat the previous single-season record of 10, held by both her and LaMasters.

She was named the team's most valuable player. She shifted from third base to shortstop this year and excelled defensively at her new position while having a record-setting season offensively. At shortstop she had 65 assists and 53 put outs on 129 total chances.

August

Panthers kick off the football season against Winterset, winning 36-17 after the teams combined for three touchdowns in just over a minute in the fourth quarter.

The win would set up a historic 11-1 season for the program.

September

Chase Oates and Daemon Rodriguez both earned their spots in November's NJCAA Cross Country National Championships with strong races at the Greeno/Dirksen Invite, co-hosted at Mahoney Park Golf Course by Nebraska Wesleyan University and University of Nebraska.

Returner Chase Oates led the Spartans with a third place finish in 19:18.7, stopping Simpson College from a perfect score.

Oates, a sophomore from Columbia Heights, Minnesota, continued his strong start to the 2023 campaign with a 59-second 8K PR. Oates crossed the finish line in 106th place overall out of 359 runners in the men's 8K race, running 26:13.3. It was also a 1:21 improvement over his time on the same course last year. That time vaulted Oates from 13th on SWCC's all-time performance list to fourth. It is the fastest 8K cross country time for the program since 2006.

Rodriguez, a freshman from Midlothian, Texas, also ran a strong race for the Spartans. He easily ran under SWCC's institutional-qualifying standard of 28 minutes, running 27:42.0 for 214th place overall. Rodriguez also got out to a fast start and then settled in, just how Vicker wanted him to.

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The Panthers' football team takes down major opponents in Lewis Central, Harlan and Nevada to finish with a perfect 9-0 regular season and take the top seed in the playoffs.

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The Panthers cross country team showed up in a dominating fashion in Indianola for the I-35 cross country invite.

The Lady Panthers bring home a championship after placing four in the top 10 and all five in the top 15. From left, Karter Clayton, Reese Strunk, Gretchen Hoepker, Payton Davis and Abby Freeman.

Both teams placed all five scoring runners in the top 15 for a medal, the lady Panthers came away with a meet victory, and the boys took silver.

October

Southwestern's Chase Oates moved from fourth to second on the program's all-time 8K performance list here Friday with his third-place finish at the Indian Hills Invitational.

Oates finished third overall in the field of 75 runners, behind Indian Hills' Brandon Ford (23:40.9) and Keveroy Venson (24:14.8). Oates crossed the finish line in 25:35.6. That was another 38-second improvement on his 8K PR, which he had previously set at the Greeno/Dirksen Invite in September (26:13.3). He now sits second in program history at the 8K distance, trailing only former All-American Walter Bolingo's time of 24:44.0 in 2008. Oates surpassed James Kitchwen (25:55.0, 2006) and Bobby Soper (25:58.1, 2006) on the school's all-time list.

November

The Panthers made a run in the football playoffs, first topping Harlan 35-27 to knock out the defending state champions.

Senior Milo Staver gets a hit on quarterback Will Arkfeld, causing the pass to fall short into the hands of freshman lineman Tom Mikkelsen in a game-winning interception.

The following week, they hosted a dominant run team, Webster City. For seven minutes, it began to look like the end as Webster City scored 19 unanswered points to start the matchup while the Creston offense floundered.

The Panthers did not allow another touchdown until the 5:03 mark of the fourth quarter, and by that time Creston had scored 43 unanswered points to take a 43-19 lead.

The victories sent the Panthers to play at the UNI-Dome for only the second time in program history where they would face Bishop Heelan.

The Panthers defense held the Crusaders' offense to only 16 points and a scoreless second half, but the offense struggled to get in a rhythm, falling 16-13.

A representative of the Iowa High School Athletic Association presents the Class 3A semifinals trophy to Creston captains, from left, Brennan Hayes, Max Chapman, Cael Turner and Austin Evans.

"At the end of the day, they should have a sense of pride about what they did," Coach Brian Morrison said. "Eleven wins. That's a tremendous season. They inspired the younger generation fo Creston football players and we had great support from the town of Creston."