Sports, Thursday, March 4th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Women’s College Basketball: Tiger Women Fall After Fourth Quarter Surge:

Iowa Wesleyan got 24 points from Morgan McCrea and 17 from Anija Simmons but it was not enough as Westminster came from behind for an 88-68 win over the Tigers at Ruble Arena last night.

The Blue Jays trailed by eight at halftime but went on a 31-11 fourth quarter run to pull away for the win.

Abbie Reece paced Westminster with 19 points as the Blue Jays improved to 4-1.

The loss dropped Wesleyan’s women to 1-5.

Iowa Wesleyan will take their home floor once again this Saturday hosting Eureka College in a conference matchup.

The women’s team will tip-off at 1:00 pm with the men’s team to follow at 3:00 pm.

Men’s College Basketball: Tiger Men Beat Up Blue Jays:

The Iowa Wesleyan men’s basketball team jumped out to a 12-point halftime lead, coasting to a 77-71 win over Westminster (MO.) last night at Ruble Arena.

Jarryd Fernandes led Wesleyan with 15 points and 16 rebounds, helping earn their second win of the season.

Alex Dentlinger, Marvin Saintolien and Kaleb Cresswell all finished in double figures for the Tigers as well, who shot a scorching 52% from the field.

Jaxon Althaus led the way for the Blue Jays with 17 points and nine rebounds.

Wesleyan, now 2-4, will host Eureka on Saturday in the second leg of a conference doubleheader.

Westminster dropped to 1-1.

Girls’ Basketball: State Tournament Continues On:

A couple of upsets headlined another busy day of the Iowa Girls High School State Basketball Tournament.

Here’s a full look at the finals:

2A:

No. 2 Dike-New Hartford 44, No. 7 Treynor 36

No. 3 West Branch 49, No. 6 Grundy Center 33

1A:

No. 1 Bishop Garrigan 48, No. 8 Springville 42

No. 4 Exira-EHK 60, No. 5 Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn 55

No. 2 Newell-Fonda 88, No. 7 Kingsley-Pierson 47

No. 6 Montezuma 50, No. 3 Saint Ansgar 45

Men’s College Soccer: Wesleyan Tabbed to Lead Conference:

The St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has released their  2021 men’s soccer preseason poll and Iowa Wesleyan was picked to finish first.

The Tigers received six first place votes.

Wesleyan is coming off of one of the best seasons in school history after finishing the 2019 season as the SLIAC Regular Season Champions with a record of 8-0-1.

The Tigers return multiple All-Conference choices including Javier Saldana and Cristian Garcia, who both were 1st Team All-Conference selections last year.

Saldana finished third in the league in goals (10) and assists (5) while Moreno added five goals and five assists.

Iowa Wesleyan opens up their season on Wednesday, March 10th, against Fontbonne University at home in Mediapolis.

Men’s College Wrestling: Hawkeyes Primed for Conference:

Four University of Iowa wrestlers are on the top line of the 2021 Big Ten Championships pre-seeds released Tuesday by the conference office.

Spencer Lee (125), Jaydin Eierman (141), Alex Marinelli (165) and Michael Kemerer (174) are all seeded No. 1 at their respective weight classes for the 2021 Big Ten Championships set for Saturday and Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pennsylvania.

Iowa’s four top seeds lead the conference.

The complete tournament brackets and official seeds will be released Friday afternoon following the Big Ten Conference coaches meeting.

Iowa has won 36 team conference titles, more than more than twice as many as the next school (Illinois, 17).