It was a good day to win a conference title for Knoxville Spring Sports Squads on Tuesday.
Girls Tennis Dominates At Conference Tournament
The girls tennis squad dominated the conference tournament at the Joel Tonda Tennis Courts in Knoxville winning with 31 points outdistancing Davis County by 16 points for the title. Individually, the Panthers took both the singles and doubles championships as Bridgette Liston defeated Megan Teno of Albia in a hard fought match 7-6, 6-4. Liston told KNIA/KRLS Sports she surprised herself with the conference title and now can join the rest of her family as conference champions.
Liston: “I wasn’t really expecting it, but I did it. My family helped in the offseason to get me reps and now there’s another Liston on the sign.”
Janie Maasdam and Marlea Cox teamed up to win the doubles title. For Maasdam it was her third conference title and first as a doubles player. Both Maasdam and Cox told KNIA/KRLS Sports their team work has worked well all season.
Janie: “Securing the three-peat even though it was doubles I got to get with my teammate Marlea which makes it more special.”
Marlea: “It’s awesome playing with Janie, I’m still a little new here, but I think we really play well as a team.”
Boys Win Conference Track Meet With 10 Gold Medals
The Knoxville Boys Track and Field Squad rolled up 198 points and won the South Central Conference Championship for the third time in five seasons while the girls placed 7th in Chariton on Tuesday. The boys won ten of the events including Koby Higginbotham going 3/3 winning the 100, 200 and 110 high hurdles in a new school record time of :13.94 beating his own record set earlier this year. Also winning multiple gold medals was Isaac Rankin in the 1600 and 3200, plus Kaiden Smith in the 400 hurdles, Cael Irving in the 800 and Yusef Gulley in the long jump plus the 4×100 and shuttle hurdles teams also mined gold. The girls best finish was a 2nd place from the 4×800 team of Naomi Bacon, Abi Vanderlinden, Laila Pedicini, and Serenity Turner in a time of 11:11.77. Knoxville is back on the track Monday at Pella.
Boys Golf 3rd At Atlantic Invitational
While they were not going for a conference title, the Knoxville Boys Golf Squad finished a strong 3rd in the 14 team Atlantic Invitational on Tuesday. The Panthers carded a 309, just five strokes off of defending class 3A State Champion ADM and 11 off of winner Atlantic. Grant Gerdes led the way for the Panthers with a 73 in 4th place. Brady Roozeboom was 6th also with a 73. The Panthers are off until Saturday when they travel to the Gilbert Invitational.