Stories from Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Lexi Stahly carded a 96 to earn a runner-up individual finish, and Kenzie Heikens carded a 102 to place fifth for Harris-Lake Park and advance in postseason play Monday at the Class 1A regional golf tournament held in Graettinger. The Wolves combined to score a 452 and finish fourth...

Siouxland Conference champion Okoboji continued its hot finish to the season with a win at the Class 2A regional golf tournament in Emmetsburg on Monday. The Pioneers, led by a trio of top-six finishes, carded a 365 to top the runner-up E-Hawks by 30 strokes...

The Spirit Lake-Okoboji boys tennis team earned a 5-3 win over Le Mars Monday to advance in postseason play. SL-O picked up four singles victories and two doubles wins to down the 'Dogs in the preliminary round of substate. Kyler Olsen lost to Le Mars' Zach Wingert. Karson Rodriguez lost to Le Mars' Caleb Ketelson. Ben Newman defeated Le Mars' Kaden Wingert. Drew Hickerson defeated Le mars' Josh Pratt. Jackson Arends defeated Le Mars' Caden Washburn. Nate Cornwall defeated Le Mars' Sam Vacura...

Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji boys and girls soccer teams dropped a pair of matches to Western Christian on Monday. The boys fell 3-2 at home and the girls fell 3-0 in Hull. The SLP-O boys fell behind in the first two minutes of the contest, as the Wolfpack took a 1-0 lead. ...

Brooke Harrington and the Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji girls soccer team hosted MOC-Floyd Valley Tuesday night. Results were not made available in time for print. (Photo by Matt Heinrichs)

Zach Fillippi found the net in each half to help the Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji boys soccer team pick up a 3-1 road win Monday, May 7, in Sioux Center. SLP-O started the season 0-3, but improved to 3-4 with the win. It was also the team's first road win of the season...

The Pioneers hoped to get nine holes in on their trip Tuesday, May 8, at the Siouxland Conference meet in Orange City. Good timing paid off for the five conference rivals who sent complete teams the course: They dodged raindrops, hail stones and lightning strikes to squeeze in a pair of nine-hole tournaments...

No. 1 singles player Casie Barba got Spirit Lake-Okoboji off to a fast start Tuesday, May 8, and the team rolled to a 9-0 road win over Spencer. "Spencer’s depth has improved dramatically since last year," SL-O girls tennis coach Bob O'Hara said. "In fact, they may be the deepest team we've played this year. So, I was happy to come out with a 9-0 win."...

On a pleasant spring day, it seems ludicrous to worry about winter habitat. Wildlife in rooster country, however, frequently pays a price when unusually mild weather degenerates into a blizzard. Further south, more sporadic harsh winters can simply be devastating for quail...

Iowa’s 2018 reported spring turkey harvest is approaching 9,300 birds. Last year, hunters reported nearly 11,800 turkeys. Iowa’s spring turkey hunting season ends May 20. Annual spring night population survey of deer, skunks, badgers, opossum, red fox, coyotes and other furbearers is wrapping up. The data is used as one factor to estimate Iowa’s deer population and is important for guiding management decisions on furbearers. The survey began in the late 1970s...

Walleye Season 2018 has arrived across the Midwest. In fact, it here’s been here for a while for some anglers. But now that the season is open for pretty much everyone in Walleye Country, it’s time to get on the water. When it comes to catching walleyes early in the fishing season, it’s tough to beat a jig. ...

Hats off to all those who made the 36th Annual Walleye Weekend another great success. As always, people came from all over with nearly 2,000 entries into the annual contest. For me, the Walleye Weekend always signals the beginning of some of the best fishing of the season. ...

The Spirit Lake girls golf team needed to use its scores from the Lakes Conference tournament held Monday, May 7, at Storm Lake, to determine a pair of dual meet results. The Indians finished second in a triangular with Cherokee and Western Christian. The Braves carded a 219 to Spirit Lake's 219 and Western Christian's 258...

The Harris-Lake Park boys golf squad, led by a quartet of top-six individual finishes, earned a runner-up team finish at the Class 1A sectional tournament in Hull on Friday to advance in postseason play. The Wolves carded a combined round of 355 to finish behind champion Boyden-Hull (347)...

Spirit Lake's Cameron Dau advanced in postseason golf Thursday with his runner-up finish at the Class 3A sectional golf tournament held Thursday in Spencer. The Indians placed fourth overall behind champion Spencer, Humboldt and MOC-Floyd Valley. "This was a great meet for Cameron Dau," Spirit Lake boys coach Bob Kirchner said. ...

Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji boys and girls soccer teams split a pair of matches with Storm Lake on Friday. The girls won 1-0 in Storm Lake, while the boys lost 10-0 to the top-ranked Tornadoes. "We were short three starters this time and got down 5-0 at half," SLP-O boys coach Mike Davis said. ...

The Spirit Lake-Okoboji girls tennis team made quick work of Spencer in the first round of regional tournament play on Saturday. SL-O picked up a 5-0 sweep over the host Tigers to advance in the postseason. "The girls had an outstanding day today playing some of their best tennis of the season," Spirit Lake-Okoboji coach Bob O'Hara said. ...

The Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji girls soccer team lost a 1-0 contest at Storm Lake on Thursday. Additional statistics and results were not made available. (Photo by Dana Larsen)

For the first time since 1996, the Okoboji girls golf team took home the Siouxland Conference title with a pair of wins at Sioux Center on Thursday. The Pioneers finished with 77 total points to edge perennial power MOC-Floyd Valley by two, snapping a 17-year winning streak for the Dutch...

The Class 2A No. 1 Storm Lake boys soccer team continued a dominant season Thursday with a 4-0 win over Spirit Lake-Okoboji. The game was moved from the Bedell Family YMCA grounds to Spirit Lake High School's turf-covered football field. The Tornadoes broke a scoreless tie with 1:35 left in first half. SLP-O coach Mike Davis said the goal gave Storm Lake a lot of momentum coming out of the intermission...

The Spirit Lake-Okoboji boys tennis team kept its season alive with a third-place finish Wednesday, May 9, at Speier Park in Okoboji. Spencer won the district tennis tournament with 31 points. Le Mars finished second with 13 points. Spirit Lake-Okoboji's 12 points moved past Clear Lake for the final spot in the next round...

Sheldon and Estherville Lincoln Central emerged from the Class 2A boys sectional held Thursday at the Emerald Hills golf course in Arnolds Park. Okoboji finished in fourth place, with a score of 354. Only the top two teams advance to the district tournament Thursday at the Landsmeer Golf Course in Orange City...

Dickinson County will be well represented at the 2017 Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships, as Lakes Area athletes will compete in 20 events at Drake University's famed "Blue Oval" in Des Moines later this week. Athletes from Spirit Lake, Okoboji and Harris-Lake Park earned 14 automatic bids at state qualifying track meets, including 7 championships, and earned six additional spots with qualifying times or distances...