Stories from Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Spirit Lake girls and boys golfers took on a pair of Lakes Conference rivals, Cherokee and Western Christian, Tuesday. The girls carded a 221 in Cherokee to finish behind Western Christian (206) and Cherokee (239). The boys carded a 160 at Brooks Golf in Okoboji to top the Wolfpack (177) and the Braves (201)...

Okoboji girls and boys track athletes competed at the 2019 Dutch Relays held Tuesday, April 2 at Northwestern College in Orange City. Both squads placed sixth overall but came away with several stellar performances. The Pioneer girls earned seven top-three finishes on the day, including a trio of championships...

Harris-Lake Park boys and girls golfers split a Thursday afternoon road trip to Akron. The Wolves girls fell 198-254 to Akron-Westfield, while the returning Class 1A state runner-up boys squad handled the Westerners easily, winning 166-205. The boys were led by medalist Adrian Martin and runner-up medalist Lucas Gunderson. Both carded rounds of 39...

Spirit Lake boys and Spirit Lake Park girls track teams picked up a pair of championships Tuesday, April 2 at the 2019 Dutch Relays held at Northwestern College in Orange City. The Indians combined for 249 points and 26 top-three finishes and first-place finishes on the day...

Sophomores Mason Weeks and Jackson Laven carded low rounds for Spirit Lake, leading the Indians to a convincing win over Algona on Tuesday, April 2. The Indians defeated the Bulldogs 168-186 at Brooks Golf in Okoboji. Laven earned medalist honors with his round of 36. Weeks carded a 39 to earn runner-up medalist honors...

As Iowans start to thaw out from a brutal winter, paddlers and other boaters are itching to hit the water.  While some river levels have dropped, others remain high and unsafe. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recommends that paddlers wait for warmer weather to let the water temperatures rise slowly. It could be several weeks before water temperatures are ideal and safe...

Channel catfish move close to shore and are eager to bite in many lakes and the large reservoirs across Iowa just after the ice is gone. The bite starts sooner in the southern Iowa impoundment since they lose ice a week or two before northern Iowa natural lakes...

Your lawn is a buffer. It captures, stores, and breaks chemicals down. It keeps them from running off into the local watershed. A sound conservation practice at home is to aerate your lawn. Aeration will help your lawn continue to act as a buffer. As lawns age, soil compaction often results. Compaction reduces the pore space within the soil that would normally hold air. This results in poor nutrient uptake and reduced water infiltration. Poor water infiltration results in excessive runoff...

Many walleye anglers consider early spring to be their favorite time of year to chase their favorite fish. Rivers across walleye country, and many lakes and reservoirs in the same region, are seeing lots of anglers after walleyes. There are some states or areas where walleye season is closed, but there are plenty of places where we can get after walleyes right now. ...

What a difference a year can make! April 26 to April 2 — that’s the difference from 2018 to 2019 when the Rotary car plunged through the ice in Smith’s Bay. As I write this on Sunday evening, the lower lakes have opened up, most of East Okoboji is open and the ice is grudgingly deteriorating on both Big Spirit and West Okoboji. It’s pretty obvious that the iceout is going to be much earlier than the end of April like last year! Thank goodness!...

Despite missing several athletes Friday evening, the Spirit Lake Park girls track team turned in solid performances at the Cherokee Tomahawk Girls Relays. "Congrats to our girls for all their gutsy performances," SLP coach Tim Heinitz said. "We were missing some key athletes but our girls had PRs everywhere in both individual races and relays. Everyone was very busy but everyone stepped up and took responsibility and did the little things necessary to be successful. I could not be more proud."...

Harris-Lake Park earned several top-three finishes at the final Maverick Relays held Friday in Spencer. It was the second time out for the Wolves this spring. "The boys ran very well," H-LP coach Lane Gunderson said. "We were pleased with the progress from the first to second meet."...

Okoboji senior Ethan Albright set a meet record and earned the Pioneers' lone championship Friday in Hull. Albright won the 400-meter hurdles in 55.73 to set the Western Christian Invitational meet record in the event. The Okoboji boys placed seventh and the girls placed sixth overall...

The Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji boys soccer team picked up a road win Saturday over previously unbeaten Garner-Hayfield Ventura. The United topped GHV 1-0. "Myself and Coach (Scott) Dodge are very pleased with the heart shown by the team in securing the victory," SLPO coach Alan Ditsworth said. "It was a day of positive attitude and effort, which fits right in with our team vision. A victory was just icing on the cake."...

Spirit Lake-Okoboji took third place at a girls tennis tournament hosted by Spencer on Saturday SL-O's Casie Barba won the No. 1 singles bracket. "Casie Barba played great today, losing only two games in six matches including a resounding 6-1 victory over (Carroll Kuemper senior) Isabel Schwabe, who finished eighth at state last season. ...

Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji girls and boys soccer teams earned a road sweep over West Sioux Monday in Hawarden. The SLPO girls picked up their first win of the season, downing the Falcons 7-0, while the boys scored the game-winner in overtime to win 2-1...

The Okoboji girls golf team took first place in the first Siouxland Conference meet of the season Monday, carding a combined round of 201. Teammates Hannah Butler and Martha Stein earned the top two individual spots. Butler, a three-time state qualifier, won first-place medalist honors with her round of 43. Stein placed second with a 45...

Spirit Lake-Okoboji earned a 9-0 win over Cherokee to tip off the Lakes Conference girls tennis season Monday. In singles for SL-O, Casie Barba defeated Courtney Aden (10-0); Izzy Backhaus defeated Isabel Gebers (10-7); Karli Olsen defeated Megan Kellen (10-7); Mackenzie Vos defeated Kalina Shubert (10-4); Elli Hanson defeated Meredith Lovell (10-0); Rayna Petievich defeated Alisanne Struck (10-3)...

Spirit Lake-Okoboji picked up a convincing 9-0 home win to start the Lakes Conference boys tennis season Monday. In singles for SL-O, Drew Hickerson defeated Thad Booth (10-0); Nate Cornwall defeated Brendon Sullivan (10-0), Ben Newman defeated Carson Mongon (10-1); Parker Zeman defeated Matthew Stieneke (11-9); Drake Ditzworth defeated Jacob Kohn (10-4); Cade Wagner defeated Cael Lundy (10-0)...

A slow start and defensive mistakes put the Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji girls soccer team in a hole it couldn't dig out of Thursday in a 5-1 home loss to Unity Christian. The Knights jumped out to a 4-0 lead before a goal by Annika Stecker in the 35th minute made it a 4-1 halftime score. Unity Christian scored once more in the second half to make it a 5-1 final...

Spirit Lake-Okoboji earned a win over Carroll Kuemper in the boys' tennis home opener Friday. SL-O defeated the Knights 8-1 at Speier Park. "Kuemper is a solid team," SL-O coach Dan Taylor said. "Last season, they were one of the top eight teams in the state, qualifying for the first round of the team state tournament. ...

Harris-Lake Park girls and boys golf teams split a pair of home meets with West Sioux on Monday. The H-LP boys won 167-252, while the girls fell 227-232 to the Falcons. The boys were led by Braydan Perkins, who earned medalist honors with his round of 39. Teammate Lucas Gunderson was the runner-up medalist with his round of 40. Brody Sohn and Adrian Martin carded round of 40 to round out the Wolves' scoring. Sohn placed third...

Constant rain and bone-chilling cold made for miserable conditions Thursday, but the Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji boys soccer team made the most of it, jumping all over Unity Christian en route to a 5-1 win in the home-opener in Spirit Lake. "An outstanding team effort victory (against) Unity Christian," SLP-O coach Alan Ditsworth said. ...

Spirit Lake Fire Chief Patrick Daly said crews responding to a Wednesday morning fire at Polaris were immediately confronted with heavy smoke, but the actual fire was relatively minimal. Firefighters were paged at around 10:15 a.m. the chief said, and entered the building soon after arriving...