It was a busy day and night for Knoxville sports teams as six Panthers squads were in action on Thursday.
Girls Tennis Routs Centerville, Boys Fall At Oskaloosa
The Knoxville Girls Tennis Squad for the second straight meet was impressive in victory as the Panthers took down Centerville 9-0 on Thursday at the Joel Tonda Tennis Courts. The Panthers swept the singles and no player dropped a set as Janie Maasdam, Iselynn Prevo, Marlea Cox, Bridgette Liston, Addy Dunkin, Ashlynne Marveilli all took singles wins. The Panthers also won all three doubles matches in straight sets. Meanwhile the boys fell to Oskaloosa 7-2. Ezra Schmidt won his singles match for Knoxville 8-2 while the Schmidt Brothers, Ezra and Everett took Knoxville lone doubles match 8-6.
Boys Golf Places 6th At Pella Invitational
The Knoxville Boys Golf Squad had its first 18 hole meet of the season and the Panthers finished in 6th place at the Pella Invitational at Bos Landen on Thursday. The Panthers shot a team score of 363 led by Grant Gerdes carding an 88. Other scores were Mikey DeVos with a 90, Urban Ziller with a 92, Brady Roozeboom scored a 93, Luke Roozeboom scored a 95 and Hayden Keefer had a 96. The Panthers will host a triangular with Pleasantville and Carlisle today at Pine Knolls Country Club.
Pella Golf Invitational Results
Knoxville Boys 2nd, Girls 9th at Oskaloosa Relays
The Knoxville Boys Track and Field Squad placed 2nd, three points shy of Newton’s 115 who won the 97th Oskaloosa Relays on Thursday. The Panthers got five gold medal performances including Koby Higginbotham in the 110 high hurdles, Isaac Rankin in the 1600 and Yusef Gulley in the long jump. Also getting gold medals was the 4×400 and 4×800 relay teams. The girls were 9th with, according to Coach Michael Splavec strong performances across the board including Hannah Dunkin running a season best 1:04.61 in the 400 placing 5th and the sprint medley relay team in 3rd place with a time of 2:07.18.
Boys Soccer Drubs Albia In Conference Opener
The boys soccer squad finally got its first win of the season, crushing Albia 7-0. The Panthers got on the board nearly 15:00 into the match when Brody DeJong found the back of the net, that led to two more goal in less than 2:00 when Jensen Finnegan and Rylan Robinson scored, and Finnegan finished off the scoring in the 1st half to give Knoxville a 4-0 lead at the break. Kaison Wilder, Max Magana and Jayden DeHeer all scored in the 2nd half. Senior Robinson and junior Drake Larson told KNIA/KRLS Sports it felt great to finally get a win after a rough start to the season.
Robinson: Fells good to get on the board and in a game like this and really lay it on them, and get back to what we do best.”
Larson: I don’t think we’ve been giving 100% all the time and it was great to see everyone give that effort and we really deserved that win.”
The Panthers start a stretch of four straight games on the road Monday when they travel across the river to take on Pella Christian.
Photos from Ryan Northcote