Sports

Asche, Jensen lead middle school runners

Humboldt’s girls placed third and the boys were 14th in the team scoring of the Storm Lake Invitational cross country meet on Sept. 15.

Avery Fisher ran fourth in 19:39.1 to pace the Wildcat girls. Aubry Fisher was seventh in 19:53.8. Henry Kramer was 27th to lead the Humboldt boys with a time of 18:01. Bentley Rodgers was 103rd in 20:26.

The Humboldt Middle School girls were led by Hadley Asche. Asche was 11th in 14:36.8. Quinn Jensen was 24th in 13:58.2 to lead the Wildcat boys.

“Losing the Clear Lake meet to the homecoming parade had us looking for a new meet to replace it this year. The Storm Lake meet may have given us everything we needed and more in a new meet,” HHS coach Joel Hoogland said.

“On both sides the meet featured six ranked teams and many ranked individual runners. It may be the best field we run in this year outside of the state meet,” Hoogland said.

The Fort Dodge High girls’ swim team, with six athletes from Humboldt, hosted their own Gary Winkler Invitational last Saturday, Sept. 19 and placed fourth.

Spencer won with 376.5, followed by Carroll with 307.5, Sioux City Metro 269, Fort Dodge 180 and Algona at 133.

Fort Dodge lost to Des Moines North, 113-57 in a meet in Fort Dodge on Sept. 15.

Humboldt’s Adelyn Meyer, Embree Meyer, Morgan Townsend, Ellen Townsend and Danica Diedrick all saw action in the meet.

The Dodger swimmers will travel to Algona on Sept. 24. They’ll compete at Des Moines Roosevelt on Oct. 6.

Humboldt Results Sept. 19
Adelyn Meyer: 14th in 200-yard freestyle in 3:11.16. 19th in 100-yard backstroke, 1:37.40. 4th leg of 12th place 400-yard freestyle relay, 5:43.34.

Morgan Townsend: 23rd in 100-yard freestyle, 1:22.76. 1st leg of 13th place 200-yard freestyle relay (2:29.98). 20th in 100-yard backstroke, 1:52.20.

By PHIL MONSON

Humboldt’s varsity girls’ volleyball team suffered their first loss of the season as they placed runner-up in the power-laden Dike-New Hartford tournament last Saturday, Sept. 19.

Humboldt, now 20-1 overall on the season, lost in the championship match to host DNH by scores of 25-21, 21-25 and 11-15. DNH, ranked sixth in Class 3A, improved to 14-5 overall.

Humboldt head coach Kara Waldorf, in her fourth season leading the Wildcats overall, won her 100th career match during the tournament. Her career won-loss record is now 101-28, 25-1 in conference play.

“The girls played great today. We got everyone’s best effort and we battled and never gave up. It was physically and mentally draining and we just came up short in the championship match, but we battled hard,” Waldorf said.

Wildcats at Webster City Friday

By PHIL MONSON

A pair of first half touchdowns was all Ballard Huxley needed in holding off the Humboldt Wildcats, 14-7 in a non-district game on Mason Maach Field in Humboldt last week (Sept. 18).

The 2-2 Bombers, who were manhandled by the Wildcats a year ago on their home field, slipped out of town with a victory last week in a close game where Humboldt had some opportunities slip away.

The Wildcats played even statistically with Ballard but had a few key miscues and missed opportunities which made the difference in the outcome.

The youthful Wildcats, who have improved each week out, will now take an 0-4 overall record into their first district game this Friday night.

Humboldt Invite is Sept. 21

By PHIL MONSON

Despite the recent string of wet conditions, Humboldt’s cross country team was able to get in their meet at Holstein on Sept. 12.

The Wildcat girls finished third in the large school field of teams while the boys were ninth.

Avery Fisher (19:32.60) was runner-up individually with Aubry Fisher third. Jade Malo was fifth.

Humboldt’s boys were paced by Henry Kramer, who was eighth in 17:40.60.

MOC-Floyd Valley (45) and Spencer (55) finished ahead of the Wildcats (66). Sioux City North dominated the boys’ field.

Humboldt will host its own meet on Monday, Sept. 21. The middle school girls’ race begins at 4 p.m. with the boys at 4:30. The varsity and JV girls will race together at 5 p.m. with the varsity and JV boys starting together at 5:30 p.m.

The Fort Dodge High girls’ swim team, which has six athletes from Humboldt, lost to Des Moines Lincoln in a home meet on Sept. 8, 100-75.

Humboldt’s Adelyn Meyer, Embree Meyer, Morgan Townsend, Ellen Townsend, Danica Diedrick and Amelia Winter all saw action in the meet.

In another home meet on Sept. 10, Fort Dodge defeated Algona (48-45) and lost to Sioux City Metro (66-28). Amelia Winter wasn’t able to compete due to an ankle injury.

The Dodger swimmers will the Gary Winkler Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 19.
Humboldt Results Sept. 10

Adelyn Meyer: 7th in JV 50-yard freestyle in 37.8 seconds. Swam 2nd leg of 5th place varsity 200-yard freestyle relay (2:27.14). 6th in varsity 100-yard backstroke (1:34.36). Swam 2nd leg of 1st place JV 400-yard freestyle relay (5:26.29).

Morgan Townsend: 5th in JV 50-yard freestyle in 35.26. Swam 2nd leg of 1st place JV 200-yard freestyle relay (2:34.06). 3rd in JV 100-yard breaststroke (1:50.25).

Humboldt climbs to 14-0 overall

The top-ranked and unbeaten Humboldt volleyball team kept their perfect record intact after winning the Cedar Falls tournament last Saturday, Sept. 12.

Humboldt, now 14-0 overall, went 5-0 on the day. The Wildcats defeated Johnston (21-13, 21-15), St. Ansgar (21-12, 21-13), Cedar Falls (21-16, 21-11), Nevada (21-10, 21-9) and Waverly-Shell Rock (21-17, 18-21, 15-10).

“We had a great weekend. All of the girls stepped up and played well together,” Humboldt coach Kara Waldorf said. “Tournaments can be mentally and physically challenging. Each girl on the court focused every point of every match and did their job.”

“Their energy and intensity throughout the day was exactly what they needed to win and they played well as a team,” Waldorf said.

The opening kickoff of Humboldt’s home football game with Ballard Huxley on Friday, Sept. 18, has been moved up to 6 p.m. in hopes of beating the forecast heavy rain, Humboldt activities director Ryan O’Hern announced.

Humboldt’s top-ranked and unbeaten Wildcat volleyball team moved to 15-0 overall, 5-0 in the North Central Conference, after sweeping the Clear Lake Lions in three sets in the Humboldt gym on Tuesday night, Sept. 15. Humboldt won by scores of 25-5, 25-17 and 25-10.

Humboldt plays in the Dike-New Hartford tournament on Saturday, Sept. 19.

The victory over Clear Lake gives Humboldt head coach Kara Waldorf an overall career won-loss record of 96-27. She is 25-1 in the North Central Conference in her four years as head coach of the Wildcats.

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Wildcats host Ballard Friday

By PHIL MONSON
Week three of the high school football season proved to be a turning point for the youthful Humboldt Wildcats.

While the Carroll Tigers emerged 29-13 winners over Humboldt in their non-district game in Humboldt last Friday night (Sept. 11), ninth-year

Humboldt head coach Derrick Elman saw big growth steps with his team’s offense, which struggled in the first two games of the season.

The Wildcats moved the ball through the air and on the ground and didn’t back down against a physical Tiger ballclub with both teams battling to a 7-7 halftime score. The Tigers scored three second half touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter, to drop Humboldt to 0-3 on the season while Carroll improved to 2-1.

“I thought we moved the ball really well. Our run game got going and we had some great passes down the stretch. I was real happy with the way we played,” Elman said.