CLARINDA -- The Harlan Community softball team finished the week on a high note Thursday, crushing 29 total hits in a doubleheader sweep at Clarinda with wins of 19-1 in three innings and 14-1 in five. HCHS outhit the winless Cardinals 29-3 overall as four players - Kaylie Briggs, Molly Gubbels, Morgan Schaben and Madison Parman - notched at least two hits in each game.

 AVOCA -- IKM-Manning scored seven runs in its final two at-bats to pull away from AHSTW for a 13-5 softball win Friday night, improving to 9-1 in the Western Iowa Conference (11-3 overall). The Lady Vikes matched the Wolves early on, answering IKM-M’s three-run top of the first with three in the bottom half and tying the score a second time with two runs in the third.

 AVOCA -- The AHSTW baseball team plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth to rally past IKM-Manning 4-3 in Western Iowa Conference action Friday night. Trailing by a run in the sixth, Gabe Pauley and Preslyn Grobe reached base for the Vikings and a throwing error allowed courtesy runner Brody Langer to score the tying run.

 HARLAN -- The player affectionately known as “Rook” by his coaches and teammates is starting to pitch like a seasoned veteran for the Harlan Community baseball team. Improving to 3-0 on the mound, sophomore Brett Sears fired a six-inning no-hitter against the sixth-ranked team in Class 4-A Monday night as the top-ranked (3-A) Cyclones stayed unbeaten with an impressive 11-1 home win over Lewis Central. Sears struck out eight in his second car

 ATLANTIC -- Eleven wins, no losses and eight instances of the 10-run mercy rule. Victory won’t come this easy all summer long for the Harlan Community baseball team, but the top-ranked Cyclones are certainly enjoying their current ride to start the 2017 season. HCHS improved to 8-0 in the Hawkeye Ten Conference (11-0 overall) Tuesday night with a 13-3, five-inning win at Atlantic, breaking open a close game with nine runs in the top of the fi

 HARLAN -- A third Hawkeye Ten loss in as many nights dropped the Harlan Community softball team to 1-4 in conference play and 4-8 overall on Wednesday, but the Cyclones are truly not far away from sporting the inverse of those win-loss records. In Monday’s home game vs. Lewis Central, the score was tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth when HCHS failed to take advantage of bases-loaded, no-out situation.

 LOGAN -- It wasn’t easy, but the IKM-Manning softball team snapped Logan-Magnolia’s 13-game winning streak Tuesday night with an 8-7 road victory over the 9th-ranked (2-A) Panthers. Trailing 3-2 after three, the Wolves scored two runs each in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings before holding off Lo-Ma’s four-run rally in its final at-bat when Mya Doyel caught a fly ball in left for the final out. Taylor Croghan’s two-run home run gave IKM-

 LOGAN -- Cody Chapman allowed two unearned runs in the first inning before putting up zeros the rest of the way Tuesday night as the IKM-Manning baseball team rallied past Logan-Magnolia for a 4-2 win. Chapman (1-0) finished with a two-hitter, walking four and striking out six in a complete game effort.

 MONDAMIN -- Alex Amaral, Cole Burmeister and Drew Buckholdt combined on a solid pitching performance Wednesday night as the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton baseball team improved to 7-0 on the season with 4-1 win at West Harrison. Amaral pitched the first four innings of the contest, Burmeister pitched two innings and Buckholdt finished up in the seventh. The Spartans scored two runs in the first inning and added single tallies in the third and the

Lewis Central 5, HCHS 1 HARLAN -- Held hitless for four innings and scoreless for five, Lewis Central tied the game with a run in the sixth and scored four in the top of the seventh to beat the Harlan Community softball team 5-1 Monday night for its eighth consecutive win. HCHS squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth when it loaded the bases with nobody out but failed to score against LC ace Ashtyn Miller, w

 HUTCHINSON, KAN. -- Marcus Klein capped a banner freshman season for the Iowa Western Community College track team by placing sixth in the men’s decathlon at the 2017 NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, held May 18-20 at Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson, Kansas.

 HARLAN -- Following a rocky performance in game one of Thursday’s twin bill vs.

 SERGEANT BLUFF -- Slugging two home runs and 10 total hits off Harlan Community pitcher Emily Brouse, the Sergeant Bluff-Luton softball team also took advantage of four HCHS errors to beat the Cyclones 13-3 in five innings last Wednesday.

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community baseball team extended one of its best starts in school history on Wednesday and Thursday nights, sweeping Hawkeye Ten doubleheaders against Shenandoah and Creston to improve to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the conference.

 NEOLA -- For a second straight year, the AHSTW girls soccer season ended at the hands of an athletic and highly-skilled Tri-Center squad in the second round of regionals. Struggling to string together more than one pass at a time on Friday night, the Lady Vikes allowed four first-half goals and were defeated by the eighth-ranked Trojans 5-0 in a Class 1-A, Region 1 semifinal. Tri-Center freshman Sage Schroder scored left-footed goals from nea