Sports

Bishop Heelan of Sioux City jumped out to an early lead and rolled to a 42-7 victory over the Humboldt Wildcats in a Class 3A District 1 football game in Sioux City on Friday night, Oct. 16.

The loss dropped Humboldt to 0-8 overall, 0-4 in district play. Heelan, 5-3 overall, 3-1 in district play, will host Algona on Oct. 23. Humboldt ends its season at home next week against Sioux Center.

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The Humboldt High volleyball team won the North Central Conference championship in outright fashion by sweeping Hampton-Dumont-CAL in three sets on Thursday night, Oct. 15 in Hampton.

Humboldt rolled past the Bulldogs by scores of 25-10, 25-12 and 25-12 to move to 11-0 in conference play, 35-4 overall.

Humboldt will now focus on its first round Class 3A Region 4 opener in the Humboldt gym on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. against Grand View Christian.

The Wildcats' 35-win season is an all-time school record for single-season wins.

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The Humboldt girls' cross country team finished runner-up to Clear Lake in the North Central Conference meet held on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at Maynes Grove north of Iowa Falls.

Clear Lake was the team champion with 45 points. Humboldt had 68 and Forest City was third with 73 and Garner-Hayfield/Ventura fourth with 142.

Humboldt's Aubry Fisher was second overall in 19:45. Jade Malo was third in 19:45 and Avery Fisher fourth in 19:46. Meghan Korbel of Charles City was 1st in 19:12.

Humboldt's boys placed ninth in the team scoring. Clear Lake was the team champion with 43. Forest City was runner-up at 62.

Henry Kramer finished 17th overall in 18:15 to pace the Wildcats. Isaac Fowler was 57th in 20:48 and Bentley Rodgers was 60th in 21:01.

Next action in the state qualifying meet in Clear Lake on Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. The top 3 teams and the top 15 individuals advance to the state meet in Fort Dodge on Oct. 31.

The Humboldt High School cross country team has been assigned to a state qualifying meet in Clear Lake on Oct. 21.

The girls' race will start at 4 p.m., followed by the boys' race at 4:30. Veterans Memorial Golf Course will be the site for the race.

Each school is permitted a maximum of seven entrants. All competitors will be counted as they finish the race. In order to qualify for state as a team, five runners must finish. The first three teams, plus the first 15 individual place winners will qualify for the state meet.

The Class 3A state championships will take place on Saturday, Oct. 31, at Lakeside Golf Course north of Fort Dodge.

Other schools in the meet in Clear Lake include: Algona, Charles City, Decorah, Des Moines Christian, Hampton-Dumont-CAL, Iowa Falls-Alden, Mason City, Nevada, Spencer, Storm Lake, Webster City and host Clear Lake.

Twice in the fourth quarter of last week’s home football game, the Humboldt Wildcats drove deep into MOC-Floyd Valley’s territory threatening to score.

On both drives the host Wildcats fell just short in losing 13-7. The loss dropped Humboldt to 0-7 overall, 0-3 in Class 3A District 1.

Despite being down 13-0 at halftime, the Wildcats came out inspired in the second half and outplayed the visiting Dutch in the second half, only to come up short.

The narrow, hard-fought loss exemplified the kind of season it has been for Humboldt.

“It is so tough to lose again because of how hard our kids play out there on the field. That’s the thing that is tough for us as coaches right now. We would give anything for them to be able to have a victory to show for their efforts,” Humboldt head coach Derrick Elman said.

The fourth-ranked Humboldt volleyball team clinched a share of the North Central Conference championship on Thursday night, Oct. 8, by beating Forest City (25-19, 25-11) and Garner-Hayfield/Ventura (25-19, 25-23) in the Humboldt gym.

The Wildcats improved to 30-3 overall and 10-0 in the NCC. Humboldt can win the NCC title outright with a victory at Hampton on Oct. 15 in their final match of the regular season. Humboldt will compete in the Mason City tournament on Saturday, Oct. 10.

Avery, Jade and Aubry finish 1-2-3

Avery Fisher, Jade Malo and Aubry Fisher finished in the top three in consecutive order to lead the Humboldt girls’ cross country team to the team title of the Pocahontas Area Invitational held last Saturday, Oct. 4.

Avery finished in 19:20. Malo clocked 19:33 and Aubry ran 19:48. Macey Rodgers was also ninth in 21:45 for the Wildcats.

Humboldt’s boys finished sixth as a team as they were again led by Henry Kramer, who was fifth in 17:48. Bentley Rodgers was 38th in 20:09.

“The boys showed focus and were not afraid to go to a hard place. They took huge amounts of time off from last year. Henry had what might be his best high school race. He was aggressive from the start,” Wildcat coach Joel Hoogland said.

Humboldt hosts MOC-FV Friday

By PHIL MONSON
Anyone who has closely followed the Humboldt High football team this fall will easily tell you that this version of Wildcat football doesn’t quit.

Playing hard and playing with effort is always evident on the field. But just like life, sometimes things don’t go your way and that’s the case with the Wildcats as they now regroup from last week’s 42-14 home field loss to the Algona Bulldogs in a Class 3A District 1 contest.

The loss dropped Humboldt to 0-6 overall and 0-2 in district play. Humboldt has three games left in the regular season, two of which are at home. Algona improved to 3-2 and 2-0.

Coming off a rough and busy stretch of volleyball, Humboldt head coach Kara Waldorf and her Wildcats were looking to regain some of their spark.

Last week (Oct. 1) in the Algona gym, the Wildcats did just that with a convincing 3-0 victory over long-time rival Algona. Humboldt won by scores of 25-15, 25-18 and 25-13 to improve to 8-0 in the North Central Conference, 28-3 overall.

“We had a very busy month of volleyball in September which included some tough weekend tournaments. And we’ve had girls battling some illness and so it made it challenging for us,” Waldorf said.

“But the girls never quit and they kept on battling. That was so nice to see,” Waldorf said.

“We needed a win (3-0 sweep) like what we got tonight just to get some of that confidence back and show everyone we’re still a pretty good team,” Waldorf said.

Went 4-2 in Nevada Invite

Humboldt continues to have its way with North Central Conference volleyball competition.

The No. 3 ranked Wildcats (27-3 overall) improved to 7-0 in league play last week with a pair of wins at Iowa Falls on Sept. 24. The Wildcats whipped 25-11 and 25-13. Humboldt topped Clarion-Goldfield-Dows 25-12, 25-16.

Addie Waldorf made 23 assists to lead Humboldt against IFA. Adelynn Goodell had seven kills and Brayleigh Angstrom made two blocks. Ryah Cirks had 11 digs and Jazzie Dodd had two ace serves.

Gracie Johnson made 11 digs in the win over CGD. Dodd made one ace serve, Goodell six kills and Waldorf 21 assists.

Go 4-2 at Nevada

Humboldt went 4-2 in the Nevada tournament last Saturday, Sept. 26.