By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
Two basketball players from Linn-Mar (Marion) announced this week where they will next play college ball.
Zach Bohannon, a 6-foot-7 senior, says he will take a basketball scholarship from the U.S. Air Force Academy. Nate Hutcheson, a 6-6 senior, announced he will play next season at Western Michigan.
Bohannon chose the Air Force Academy over a scholarship offer from Cornell and a walk-on invitation from Wisconsin, where his brother Jason plays for the Badgers. Zach scored over 15 points and had 10 rebounds a game for the Lions, last year’s third-place finisher in the Class 4-A state tournament.
Hutcheson also averaged 15 points a game for the Lions last season. He expects to be able to play as a freshman and said that was a factor in his decision to attend Western Michigan.
Nate’s sister Jaye plays softball at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
Basketball: Waukee’s Knutson Heading to Lehigh
Waukee All-State forward Gabe Knutson has announced he will play college basketball at Lehigh University. The 6-8 senior scored 19.3 points and grabbed eight rebounds a game in taking Waukee to the Class 4-A state tournament last spring.
Knutson was a second team All-Stater as a junior. New Hampshire, Vermont and Lafayette were among the other schools interested in his services.
Football: Unbeatens Clash in Week Six
There were 44 unbeaten football teams in the state entering last Friday’s action. Three games were matchups of teams that were both 5-0.
In those games, Pella shutout Grinnell 29-0 in Class 3-A, Avoca-AHST defeated Madrid 21-7 in Class A, and CAM (Anita) beat Coon Rapids-Bayard 56-20 in eight-man action.
Football: Heelan Stays Unbeaten
An estimated 3,200 fans watched Sioux City Heelan’s Brandon Wegher run for 188 yards and five touchdowns Friday night in a 52-13 victory over Spencer. The future Iowa Hawkeye scored from 10, 4, 1, 27 and 32 yards out in the Class 3-A district game.
"Is that kid amazing, or what? Every game, even in practice sometimes, he'll do something I've never seen before," Jansen told the Sioux City Journal.
All but the first 58 yards came in the final quarter and a half of the game. Wegher now has 1,370 yards for the season and has scored 23 touchdowns for the top-ranked Crusaders.
Golf: Stars Win Sioux City Golf Meet, MRAC Title
The Sioux City North Stars are the champions of boys golf at the confluence of the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers. North was led by Nick Hessa in winning the city golf meet at Sioux City’s Green Valley Golf Course Monday, and then later in the week the Stars also claimed the Missouri River Activities Conference championship.
Hessa scored an 18-hole score of 80 on a soggy course that had standing water in nearly every fairway after heavy rainfall Sunday night.
North won the title 330-347 over rival East in the four-team tournament. Heelan took third at 349 and West finished fourth at 372.
The Stars’ conference title came with 338 team score at Sioux City’s Whispering Creek Golf Course, defeating city rival Heelan by eight shots. Brett Lacey was the medalist with an 83 score on the 18 hole course.
North took the top three spots on the leader board, as Hessa was second at 84 and Alex Walker took third at 85. Walker was last year’s conference runner-up and Lacey finished third in last year’s tournament.
The MRAC tournament consists of the four Sioux City high schools and Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln from Council Bluffs.
Urbandale Approves Boys Bowling Team
Urbandale’s club bowling team will soon go interscholastic, as the Urbandale school board has approved bowling as an official sport at the suburban Des Moines high school. Urbandale will begin varsity competition in bowling next school year.
There currently is a club bowling program playing under the Urbandale High School banner, but it is not part of the school’s athletic program.
Activities Director Bill Watson says the decision was made, partly because the Iowa High School Athletic Association this year sanctioned bowling as a varsity sport. He says girls bowling is already sanctioned at Urbandale, and while they are the first Central Iowa Metropolitan League school to sanction the sport for boys, he expects other conference schools will soon follow their lead.
Cody Malloy is on the club team, and although he will is graduating this year, he thinks the decision for next year is a good one.
"It's a pretty good move," Malloy said to the Des Moines Register. "Not every guy can play basketball or wrestle during the winter. It's nice to have an activity anyone can do."
