DES MOINES -- Harlan Community seniors Keaton Jones and Drew Voge were both named to at least one all-state boys soccer team in June after leading the Cyclones to a 16-3 season and an appearance in the Class 2A substate finals. Jones was named to the Des Moines Register’s All-Iowa Boys Soccer Team (Class 2A) as the goal keeper and was invited to attend the Des Moines Register Sports Awards on June 23 at Wells Fargo Arena.

 HARLAN (July 18) -- Not so long ago, Brett Sears and the words pitch efficiency didn’t always belong in the same sentence. It’s hard to argue with Sears’ 27-3 career record for the Harlan Community baseball team, but sometimes striking out a lot of hitters requires throwing a lot of pitches. Not on Wednesday. Putting together one of the best outings of his four-year varsity career, the Cyclone junior ace outdueled Winterset sophomore Casey Yo

 HARLAN (July 16) -- On a night when Harlan Community committed three throwing errors and four all told, the biggest defensive play of the game involved two perfect relays that stifled Denison-Schleswig’s rapidly-gaining momentum. Three-run home runs by seniors Jared Moser and Nick Foss also proved pivotal as the top-ranked Cyclones held off a late-game Monarch charge to win 10-5 in Monday’s Class 3A, District 15 baseball final at Jim Goeser F

 WEST DES MOINES -- Area graduates Drew Voge of Harlan Community and Rudy Herrera of AHSTW both played for the victorious West squad after being selected for the 2018 Iowa High School All-Star Soccer Game on Saturday, June 16. Also known as the East-West All-Star Cup, the game was played at Valley Stadium and hosted by the Des Moines Menace of the Premier Development League, with support from Soccer Master and the Iowa High School Soccer Coach

 HARLAN (July 14) -- It’s not easy racking up 14 strikeouts in five innings, but Harlan Community junior ace Brett Sears just kept on missing bats during Saturday night’s Class 3A, District 15 baseball semifinal at Jim Goeser Field. Sears mowed down 14 of the 19 Carroll batters he faced and the Cyclone hitters eventually got to Tiger lefty Nick Haberl in an 11-1, five-inning win pushed back 24 hours due to rain.

 COON RAPIDS (July 12) -- For four innings on Thursday, pitcher Alex Lingle and IKM-Manning were able to stay away from the big inning defensively and hang with Audubon in a Class 1A district baseball semifinal. Unfortunately for the Wolves, when momentum started to swing the way of the Wheelers, a 1-0 game quickly snowballed into an early finish. Putting 12 of its last 13 batters on base safely, Audubon plated five runs in the fifth and four

 HARLAN (July 11) -- The Harlan Community baseball team closed the books on another outstanding regular season here Wednesday night, beating Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson 8-3 as Brett Sears homered twice and Logan Klaassen pitched a complete game. Now the fun part begins as the number one-ranked Cyclones (28-3) gear up for a potential run to their eighth consecutive State Baseball Tournament as the top seed in Class 3A, Substate 8. Harlan’s

 ANITA (July 10) -- For six and one-third innings Tuesday, the tougher the situation was the better Cole Burmeister pitched for Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton. Locked in a district duel with Coon Rapids-Bayard’s Christian Cook, the Spartan junior scored his team’s only run in the third and blanked the Crusaders for six gutsy innings on the mound. Unfortunately for Exira-EHK, Burmeister’s gem went for naught in the end as a high pitch count, some sh

 MADRID (July 10) -- Grant Stracke hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning to give IKM-Manning a 4-0 lead and Jared Johnson pitched a four-hitter Tuesday night as the eighth-seeded IKM-Manning baseball team knocked off top-seeded Madrid 4-3 in a Class 1A district quarterfinal. The Tigers scored three runs off Johnson (one earned) during the fifth and sixth innings but the senior ace was able to close the deal and send the Wolves (8-14) to t

 CLARINDA (July 7) -- The AHSTW baseball season ended in heartbreaking fashion last Saturday night when a two-out error in the bottom of the seventh allowed Shenandoah to score the winning run and beat the Vikings 3-2 in a Class 2A district quarterfinal held at Clarinda. AHSTW took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when a bases-loaded walk/wild pitch allowed both Joel Sampson and Sam Porter to score.

 IRWIN (July 9) -- With an inning to go in Monday’s Class 2A, Region 3 softball final, it appeared that IKM-Manning’s veteran squad might have the young Earlham Cardinals right where it wanted them. Still trailing by a run, 4-3, the 2nd-rated Wolves had the heart of their order due up in the bottom of the seventh, needing just three outs to set up their chance for a state-clinching walkoff win. The 15th-rated Cardinals, though, had other ideas

HCHS 4, Des Moines Roosevelt 1 DES MOINES (July 10) -- Senior Jacob Bartley pitched his third straight complete game and had arguably his best outing of the season Tuesday as the Cyclones won 4-1 at Des Moines Roosevelt (15-22). Bartley (6-0) tossed a seven-hitter, walked two and struck out five, following up his 71-pitch performance against Shenandoah last week with an 87-pitch gem against the Class 4A Roughriders. Offensively, Jared Moser ba

 IRWIN (July 6) -- Same round, same town, same teams. And just like two years ago, Panorama came to play for Friday night’s Class 2A regional semifinal at 2nd-ranked IKM-Manning. This time the Wolves were ready too, producing big two-out runs in the early innings, making timely defensive plays behind senior pitcher Peyton Gross and pulling away late to beat the upset-minded Panthers 8-1 at the Irwin softball diamond. Panorama, which finished 1

 GLENWOOD (July 5) -- Harlan Community softball coach Brooke Schaben liked her team’s chances going into Thursday’s Class 4A first round regional game at Glenwood, and history was on her side. On June 14, the Cyclones split a Hawkeye Ten doubleheader against the Rams, totaling double-digit hits against Glenwood pitcher Sydney Biermann in a 10-1 game-one victory. Biermann was also the Rams’ starting pitcher on Thursday, but the difference in re

 LE MARS (July 6) -- Winning 4-0 and 14-9, Harlan Community swept a non-conference baseball doubleheader at Le Mars on Friday, improving to 25-3 with three games left in the regular season. The top-ranked (Class 3A) Cyclones got a combined four-hit shutout from Brett Sears and Riley Kohles in game one, then stormed out to a 13-3 lead and hit seven doubles in the night cap. Le Mars, which has now lost six straight games and 11 out of 15, droppe