Today is the first competition day for volleyball and cross country for our area teams and already one event for Knoxville has been lost due to the overwhelming heat that is predicted today. The Early Bird Cross Country Invitational was scheduled for Pine Knolls Country Club, but with heat index values of over 100*, that event has been canceled. Knoxville was supposed to host PCM, Pekin, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, and Fairfield. Tonight’s volleyball quad in Ottumwa will go on as scheduled and the Panthers, who lost a lot of talent from last season’s South Central Conference champions return just as much talent and will not shy away from playing in bigger invitationals this season. Tonight the Panthers will battle two 4A schools in Carlisle and Oskaloosa, plus a 5A team in the host Bulldogs. Coach Mollie Keitges tells KNIA/KRLS Sports playing the bigger schools and going to the bigger Saturday events this season will get her team ready for the regional coming up in October.

Keitges: “That’s only going to make us better for the conference and postseason games. Win the conference and go to State, that’s the girls goals this season. It doesn’t do us any good to go to a smaller school tournament and beat up on developing programs. So we’re going to run with the big dogs and see what happens.”

Tonight’s quad is set to begin at five and will take place at Evans Middle School in Ottumwa.