Sports

North Liberty Leader
IOWA CITY– North Central Junior High’s girls cross country team won Clear Creek Amana’s Clipper Cross Country Classic Monday, Sept. 26, at the Kickers Soccer Complex in Iowa City. The Knights won with 21 team points, followed by Northwest Junior High (26), Mid-Prairie (52), Vinton-Shellsburg (63), the host Clippers (101) and Columbus Community (125).
North Central’s Ashlyn Keeney won the 3,200-meter race in 12:09.79 with Kaite Hoefer taking fourth in 13:47.31, Camille Mac finishing seventh in 14:05.53 and Isabelle Woody coming in ninth with a time of 14:36.50.

By Jeff Hess
Solon Economist
FORT MADISON– Brisk air and the whispers of fall caressed the Spartan fans making the trek to Fort Madison on Friday, Sept. 30. Although cooler temperatures indicate a change in season, Solon football continued its success unchanged on the field.
The Solon Spartans have outscored their last four opponents 168-25 following the Friday waxing of Fort Madison, 56-7, handing the Bloodhounds their sixth consecutive loss of the season.

SOLON– After a Tuesday race in Williamsburg, Wednesday was ‘Run to Work Day’ for the cross country Spartans. And work was picking pumpkins.
Again this year, the high school cross country team waded into its community service project at Leo Shima’s farm, snipping stems and tossing pumpkins aboard the farm wagons that rolled slowly alongside of them. “It would take us two days to do what they do in an hour,” Shima said and smiled as the last wagon was lined up on his farm two miles west of Solon.

DYERSVILLE– The Solon varsity volleyball team dropped to 5-13 on the season after a 3-1 loss to Dyersville Beckman Sept. 27 at Dyersville.
The Blazers won the first two sets (25-12, 25-22) before the Lady Spartans battled back to capture the third game, 28-26. Beckman edged out Solon in the fourth, 25-22.
Solon hosts Central DeWitt Thursday, Oct. 6, for the final home match of the season. After a weekend tournament in Center Point, the Lady Spartans enter WaMaC Conference pool play Tuesday, Oct. 11, with bracket play Thursday, Oct. 13.

TIFFIN– The father-and-son coaching duo of Ronnie and Matt Hughes have a simple philosophy for getting through the varsity football season at Clear Creek Amana (CCA).
“Every week, we want to be 1-0,” Matt Hughes said. “If we get enough 1-0s, at the end of the season, we’ll be happy.”
So far the Clippers have racked up six, surpassing the 5-0 mark which hadn’t been attained since 1999, and now establishing a new team-best benchmark after defeating West Delaware, 30-14, Friday, Sept. 30 in Tiffin.