Stories from Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Unity Christian snapped Harris-Lake Park’s 11-match win streak on Tuesday, Oct. 2. The fifth-ranked (1A) Knights defeated the Wolves in straight sets (25-6, 25-13, 25-6) in Lake Park. The Wolves were led by Taylor Meyer, who finished with four kills, six digs, an assist and two blocks...

Spirit Lake handled Le Mars with ease Tuesday night, sweeping the Bulldogs in straight sets. The Indians won 25-13, 25-19 and 25-14 in Spirit Lake. Emma Loveall led Spirit Lake with 16 kills. She also had seven digs. Mikia Kriener had 10 kills, 13 digs and was 20-20 serving with three aces...

Swimming in their first home meet of the season Monday night, Spencer’s girls dominated the proceedings against Algona and Storm Lake, beating the Bulldogs 79-14 and the Tornadoes 64-30. Storm Lake beat Algona 67-14. “The girls had amazing times an enjoyed our first home meet of the season,” Tiger girls swim coach Amie Lawrence said...

Spirit Lake's star runner Kourtney Delperdang wrapped her final regular cross country season with a third Lakes Conference title on Monday. Delperdang, who won championships as a freshman and sophomore before placing second last season, won the meet by more than 25 seconds over last year's champion, Spencer's Elisa Fisher...

Editor's Note: This is the eighth installment of a weekly series previewing prep football in Dickinson County. With two weeks left in the regular season, just one Dickinson County team is playing for a playoff spot. Eighth-ranked Spirit Lake, coming off of a loss to Southeast Valley, picked up a dominant 59-0 homecoming win over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows last Friday, setting up a battle with third-ranked and undefeated Algona for district supremacy...

A unique relationship between Iowa bowhunters and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Research Section is entering its fourteenth year of partnering to collect observation data on wildlife they see while sitting in their tree stand...

It’s the middle of October, a time when fall colors normally begin to hit their peak here in northwest Iowa. Usually, fall comes with warm days and cool nights, low humidity, very few insects … and the brilliant autumn colors of our trees. This year, however, Mother Nature has been stubborn the entire year, and nothing has seemed normal. ...

I’m very fortunate to have been able to fish in a lot of different places during the past several decades. I’ve got lots of memories of outstanding fishing trips with wonderful people. Many of those memorable fishing trips occurred in the autumn. The fall months are a great time to be on the water for a number of reasons. Across the Midwest, fall fishing is the best season of the year to be on the water in the minds of many anglers. Following are some fall fishing memories of mine...

As I prepared to attend this year’s Prairie Lakes Conference, I looked at the array of topics. There were so many that I had to pick and choose. One title caught my interest: “History of Carp Management.” Ben Wallace, DNR Fish Management Biologist who manages a 12-county district in northwest Iowa, was the presenter...

The Harris-Lake Park volleyball team picked up a five-set road victory over Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on Thursday. The Wolves and Hawks went back and forth on the night. Harris-Lake Park won sets one (25-23), three (25-13) and five (15-9). HMS won set two (25-22) and four (25-21)...

The Okoboji volleyball team suffered a straight-set loss on the road against West Lyon on Thursday. The Pioneers fell 25-14, 25-9 and 25-12 in Siouxland Conference action. "West Lyon's serving game was strong, taking us out of system," Okoboji coach Ashley Linquist said. "We weren't able to use our middles as much as we'd like. Their serving allowed them to go on runs, which we weren't able to stop and come back from."...

Okoboji and Harris-Lake Park cross country runners competed at a meet hosted by George-Little Rock on Thursday. The Pioneers swept the team championships. The girls placed first with 34 points. The boys placed first with 67 points, edging runner-up Sioux Center by one...

The Spirit Lake volleyball team went 4-1 Saturday at a tournament hosted by Hampton-Dumont. The Indians picked up wins over South Hamilton (21-11, 21-13), Fort Dodge St. Edmond (21-12, 21-7), Nashua-Plainfield (21-13, 21-16) and Roland-Story (25-12, 25-14). They fell to Janesville in straight sets (25-14, 25-20)...

The Harris-Lake Park volleyball team went undefeated to win its home tournament on Saturday. The Wolves went 5-0, defeating Central Lyon (23-21, 15-21, 15-13), South O'Brien (21-15, 21-16), George-Little Rock (21-16, 21-6), Kingsley-Pierson (21-12, 21-11) and Rock Valley (21-19, 21-12)...

The Okoboji volleyball team fell to Sheldon in straight sets Tuesday in Milford. The Pioneers fell 25-13, 25-8 and 25-17 to the Orabs in Siouxland Conference action. "Overall, our energy and hype was better and we cut down on our hitting errors," Okoboji coach Ashley Linquist said. "We still struggled in serve receive and out of system balls."...

The Harris-Lake Park continued its hot streak into the final stretch of the regular season Tuesday night, as the Wolves picked up a 3-0 win over War Eagle Conference rival Hinton in Lake Park. It was their first-ever victory over the Blackhawks in conference play...

The Spirit Lake volleyball picked up a straight-set Lakes Conference victory over Storm Lake on Tuesday, Oct. 9. The Indians defeated the Tornadoes 25-8, 25-10 and 25-16 in Spirit Lake. Mikia Kriener led the way with 13 kills and six digs. She was 13-13 serving with five aces. Emma Loveall had 10 kills, eight digs and an assist. She was 16-18 serving with five aces...

The Spirit Lake volleyball team picked up a Lakes Conference road win Thursday over Estherville Lincoln Central. The Indians defeated the Midgets in straight sets, winning 25-21, 25-13 and 25-19. “Any match against ELC is always a battle,” Spirit Lake coach Beau Dielschneider said. “We knew going into it that we were going to be challenged and that we were going to be facing a quality team. It was a sweep, but it was a very competitive sweep.”...

Harris-Lake Park got off to another slow start in a lopsided loss to Newell-Fonda Friday in Lake Park. The Wolves struggled to contain the Mustangs' power rushing attack, as the visitors totaled 372 rushing yards in a 52-8 win. Newell-Fonda quarterback Bryce Coppock rushed for a game-high 149 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries...

Okoboji played close with Central Lyon/George-Little Rock for one half, but a key injury led to a second-half rout, as the Lions downed the Pioneers 51-0 in Milford. Pioneers quarterback Jacob Allen suffered a concussion while leading his squad to a 7-0 halftime deficit. Okoboji coach Jon Allen said third-string quarterback Dawon Goeke did his best, but the sophomore signal caller struggled to keep up with CL/GLR...

Spirit Lake got out to a fast start and never looked back in a 59-0 route of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Friday. The Indians came away with a fourth-down stop on defense before senior signal-caller Connor Jensen hit receiver Spencer Newman for a 60-yard touchdown with 5:56 remaining in the open quarter. And the rout was on...

District Court Judge David Lester has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. sentencing hearing Monday, Nov. 19, for a Milford woman who entered guilty pleas to a pair of vehicular homicide charges. Lester accepted 50-year-old Ann Marie Vanderpool's guilty plea Wednesday, Oct. 3, at the Osceola County Courthouse in Sibley. Authorities found her responsible for a June 10, 2017, crash that ended the lives of 48-year-old Travis Mier of Spirit Lake and his 5-year-old son, Elliot...

A Spencer man was charged with driving while intoxicated after losing control of his vehicle Thursday near Fostoria. The Clay County Sheriff's Office responded to a call for aid at approximately 8:15 p.m. in the 2100 block of 280th Street. Investigators determined 38-year-old David James Schmidt of Spencer had lost control of his 1997 Honda Accord while he was heading east out of Fostoria. ...