GLENWOOD -- For the second year in a row, the State Cross Country Meet will be a true co-ed affair for Harlan Community High School. Both Cyclone teams punched their ticket to Fort Dodge with top-three finishes in Thursday’s Class 3-A State Qualifying Meet at Glenwood Lake Park. The HCHS girls placed second and the boys took third - a flip-flop of last year’s SQM results - to mark just the second time in school history that both squads qualifi

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community football team is back at the top of the mountain in Class 3-A, District 8. One year after missing the playoffs for just the second time in 34 seasons, the sixth-ranked Cyclones are co-district champions and a number-one playoff seed after crushing Adel-DeSoto-Minburn 49-7 in Friday night’s regular-season finale at Merrill Field. HCHS also got a little help from Glenwood when the Rams topped Dallas Center-Grimes,

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community Cyclones won’t have to look far for a scouting report in preparation for their first-round opponent in the Class 3-A football playoffs. The video from their Week 7 game at Creston/Orient-Macksburg is just two and a half weeks old. The 6th-ranked Cyclones (8-1) will host the Panthers (5-4) at 7:00 p.m.

 AREA -- The AHSTW and Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton football teams will host first-round playoff games Wednesday night while IKM-Manning will open its playoff journey on the road following the release of the Iowa high school playoff pairings late Friday night. AHSTW (6-3) finished the regular season with a dominating 85-0, Week 9 win over West Monona/Whiting on Friday, earning second place in Class 1-A, District 1 with a 4-2 record.

 DENISON -- With an assist or two from Glenwood, the Harlan Community volleyball team is just one win removed from a third consecutive outright championship in the Hawkeye Ten Conference. HCHS improved to 8-1 in league play (32-5 overall) with a 25-12, 25-19, 25-13 sweep at Denison-Schleswig Monday night, maintaining its share of first place with Kuemper Catholic.

 LAKE CITY -- The IKM-Manning Wolves played some of their best volleyball of the year in Tuesday night’s Class 2-A regional opener at South Central Calhoun, then nearly let it all slip away. With their backs squarely up against the wall, however, the Wolves responded in a big way, scoring 15 of the last 21 points to outlast the Titans 25-11, 25-21, 21-25, 22-25, 15-9 and keep their season alive. IKM-Manning improved its record to 15-14 overall

 MISSOURI VALLEY -- Less than two minutes into the game last Friday, IKM-Manning’s Jared Vollstedt returned a punt 72 yards for a touchdown against Missouri Valley. He was only getting started. Before the night was over, Vollstedt added two rushing touchdowns, a 94-yard kickoff return TD and a 100-yard interception return score.

 ATLANTIC -- Harlan Community finished just a few places places shy of a championship sweep at Thursday’s Hawkeye Ten Conference Cross Country Meet. The Cyclone boys defended their team title by 54 points over Lewis Central while the girls finished just two points behind champion Denison-Schleswig at the Atlantic Golf and Country Club. One year after claiming its first H-10 title since 1983, the Cyclone boys improved their score by 12 points a

 GLENWOOD -- Harlan Community used a big-play offense, a bend-but-don’t-break defense and a strong finish Friday night to take down unbeaten Glenwood, 38-14, in a game that was much more competitive than the final score. Leading just 21-14 with 9:30 remaining, the seventh-ranked Cyclones responded with an 87-yard touchdown drive, a record-breaking ninth field goal by Ethan Knudson and a Josh Cheek pick-six to pull away late and climb to second

 EXIRA -- Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton bounced back from its first loss of the year in a big way Friday night, routing Boyer Valley 61-6 to improve to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in District 1. The Spartans built a 48-6 lead by halftime, riding the three-pronged rushing attack of quarterback Brady Hansen and running backs Drew Buckholdt and Martin Olson.

 AVOCA -- IKM-Manning outlasted Underwood in five highly-competitive sets, 25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 26-28, 15-7, on Thursday night to earn third place in the 2015 Western Iowa Conference Volleyball Tournament.

 HARLAN -- Fighting off some mid-match bouts of sluggishness, the Harlan Community volleyball team was still able to finish off a Senior Night sweep of Creston here Tuesday, winning 25-16, 25-22, 25-17, to maintain its share of first place in the Hawkeye Ten Conference. The 2nd-ranked (Class 4-A) Cyclones took control of game one with a 9-1 run and never trailed in game three, but had their hands full throughout a second set that was tightly c

GLENWOOD -- What a difference a year can make. Last season at this time, the Harlan Community and Glenwood football teams had won four out of 14 games en route to a combined overall record of 5-13 and a 2-10 mark in district play.

 MANNING -- The IKM-Manning defense forced six turnovers, including Noah Harlow’s 58-yard fumble return touchdown, in last Friday’s 30-6, non-district home win over Manson Northwest Webster. The Wolves trailed 6-0 after the first quarter - ironically due to a 58-yard fumble return score by the Cougars - before scoring 30 unanswered points to improve to 5-2 on the season.

 UNDERWOOD -- Nick Pedersen passed for 146 yards and three touchdowns and the Underwood defense held AHSTW to just 73 total yards last Friday night as the fifth-ranked (1-A) Eagles beat the 10th-ranked Vikings, 40-0, to stay undefeated on the year. The game was marred by a season-ending knee injury suffered by AHSTW senior quarterback and safety Nate Herbst in the first quarter.