Knoxville Boys Tennis Plays In The Individual Districts
The Knoxville Boys Tennis Squad played in the Individual District meet on Wednesday. The Panthers were unable to advance any player to the State Tournament. In singles, Henry Picard won his first round match over a Pella Christian player 6-0, 6-1, but fell in the quarterfinals to end his tournament. Talon Brown lost to Kirby VanWyngarden of Pella Christian in a first round match 6-0 6-0. In doubles, the team of Eli Bumgardner and Jacob Williamson lost to a team from Albia 6-0, 6-3 while Jimmy McCormick and Ethan Russell fell to a team from Newton 6-1, 6-2. Knoxville will now turn its attention to the first round of the team substate Saturday at Grinnell.
Knoxville Track And Field Squads Head To Saydel State Qualifyer
The road to the Blue Oval starts tonight as the Knoxville Track and Field Squads head to Saydel for the class 3A State Qualifier. The Panthers will be joined by Pella, Saydel, Clarke, Des Moines Hoover, Gilbert, Grinnell, and Newton. For the Panther girls, Ciara Heffron is the heavy favorite to win the discus and has the second best throw in the shot put according to Bound. On the boys side, Cael Irving has the 3rd best time in the 800 while Koby Higginbotham has a solid chance to make State in both open hurdle events as he has the top time in the 110 high hurdles and and the 2nd best time in the 400 hurdles. Coach Eric Kellar tells KNIA/KRLS Sports, Higginbotham’s performance at the Panther Relays earlier in the season made the decision easy.
Kellar: “Koby in the hurdles, both hurdles I don’t know that he was super excited about that, but what he did in the 400 hurdles at our home meet made it easier, so we have that pretty much made up.”
Kaiden Smith has the 2nd best height in the high jump at 6/3. He has been either 1st or 2nd in most of the meets that Panthers have been in. Stay tuned to KNIA/KRLS for coverage of Knoxville sports.