The Knoxville Wrestling Squad finished runner up to Eddyville-Blakesburg in the first South Central Conference Meet in several seasons with 165 total team points. The Panthers placed two on the top of the podium and eight total in the top three. Champions were: Luke Spaur at 120 pounds, and Gavin Montalvo at 170 pounds. Bringing home runner up medals were: Marco Alejo at 113 pounds, Nash Linsley at 160, and Wyatt Darnell at 182 pounds. Getting third place was Hayden Hatch at 126 pounds, J.J. Beaver at 138, Koby Gordon at 145, and Cael Hollinrake at 152 pounds. The Panthers do not get much of a break as they will be back in action at their home meet Saturday against Centerville, Fairfield, Moravia, Nevada, Burlington-Notre Dame, and the Southeast Polk JV.
The Knoxville Basketball Squads hopes to continue the good start in the South Central Conference when the Panthers travel to Chariton tonight. The girls got their road to a three-peat of a conference title off with a 41-point destruction of Clarke on Tuesday. Senior player Katie Keitges tells KRLS Sports playing these easier games now hopefully will get them ready for what is ahead come January when the meat of the schedule comes up.
Keitges:
“It is really good we’re having these now, because I know later in the season we have three games back-to-back-to-back with Bondurant-Farrar, Pella and Pella Christian so there will be three tough games that we’ll have to play really good. It’s good to get everything situated now, hopefully we will succeed later on.”
The Panthers have a tandem of scorers in Keitges, who averages 28.8 points per game and Maggie Wilkins, who scores 22.8 per contest. The Panthers likely will face its first team that may be able to hang with them on the scoreboard as the Chargers will counter with a scoring duo of its own in Emma Rector, who scores 19.5 points per game, and Avery Hall, who scores 18.3 per game. The boys game will pit two experienced teams against each other as most of Chariton’s roster are seniors while Knoxville comes in not as senior heavy but with lots of experience. You can hear the action tonight with Derek Cardwell and Marcus Wilkins on 95.3 KNIA beginning with the pregame at 6:15pm