Four sports were going for Knoxville on Thursday. At The Preserve at Honey Creek Resort in Moravia the Knoxville Boys Golf Squad placed 2nd to Des Moines Christian by seven shots for runner-up but beat Pella by three shots. Evan Smith shot a 75 to take 2nd overall while Carson Uitermarkt shot a career best 77 for 4th place individually. On the tennis courts, the Panthers lost to Albia in both boys and girls. The girls fell 6-3 at the Joel Tonda Tennis Courts in Knoxville. Olivia Maasdam and Jayden Streigle won at #1 and three singles, respectively. The duo teamed up to get Knoxville’s only win in doubles. On the boys side, it came down to the final match at #3 doubles but Knoxville was unable to pull off the win and fell 5-4 to Albia. Joe Ferguson and Konner Leslie won in singles while Ferguson teamed with Grant Liston to win at #1 doubles while Leslie and Caleb Murra won at #2 doubles. Coach Perry Bell tells KNIA/KRLS Sports the fundamentals are being stressed this season and he is seeing progress.
Bell: “We’re working a lot on fundamentals. You would think we’re a middle school team, but we don’t have that middle school team. Even the older kids know there’s some fine tuning to their game, so we’re working to get the fundamentals down.”
At the PCM Track Invitational, the Panther boys finished 5th overall with 57 points. Coach Eric Kellar rested some of his top runners to get them ready for next week’s conference meet. The Panthers did come away with a few good finishes as the 4×400 meter relay team took 1st place in a time of 3:43.79, and 2nd place showings from T.J. DeJong in the long jump and the distance medley team placed 2nd.