DES MOINES -- Harlan Community senior Joshua Cheek was one of just 21 senior boys basketball players statewide named to the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association’s 2017 Boys Academic All-State Team. Josh is the son of Kevin Cheek and Janell Leinen. Selected from more than 170 nominations, this elite group combined to average an ACT composite test score of 29.6, a cumulative GPA of 3.98 and 15.7 points per game on the basketball floor.

 IOWA CITY -- Moving up one spot on the podium from last year, IKM-Manning senior Taylor Gross finished as a state champion last Saturday (March 11) in the Special Olympics Basketball Skills competition for ages 16-21. The event was held at Iowa City High. The daughter of Paul and Joy Gross, rural Manilla, Taylor has been competing in Special Olympics state competitions for many years.

 The following story was originally published by the University of Nebraska-Kearney website on February 13. It is being republished in the Harlan Tribune with persmission from UNK. KEARNEY, NEB.

 DES MOINES -- Mike Huegerich of Exira received the Iowa Farm Bureau Sportsmanship Award at the Girls State Basketball Tournament on February 27, representing the community of Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton. A fan from each school participating in the tournament was presented a sportsmanship award prior to the team’s first-round game.

Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton Results1-A Quarterfinal: Exira-EHK 58, Sidney 431-A Semifinal: Turkey Valley 48, Exira-EHK 46 (OT)Spartans’ final record: 24-2

 TOPEKA, KAN. -- Just two years after winning his second state wrestling title in the Iowa high school ranks, Kimballton native Evan Hansen is a national champion for the most dominant NAIA program in the country. Hansen, a redshirt freshman for Grand View University in Des Moines, claimed the 197-pound championship Saturday, March 4, at the 2017 NAIA Wrestling National Championships in Topeka, Kansas.

 DES MOINES -- Area girls basketball standouts Sophia Peppers of Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton and Kia Rasmussen of IKM-Manning were both recognized on all-state teams this week by the Iowa Newspaper Association and/or the Iowa Girls’ Coaches Association. The junior tandem has combined for more than 2,100 career points and helped their teams win 129 games over the last three seasons. Peppers, a 5-10 forward, was named first-team All-State by the I

The Harlan Community High School bowling team has partnered with Cyclone Lanes during the past three weeks to put together a mini Junior Cyclones Bowling League for the middle school students. In this league, each middle school bowler is paired with a high school bowler to help them learn the fundamentals of the game. 

 DES MOINES -- Each time the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton girls tied up Turkey Valley at crunch time Thursday, the Trojans had an answer. And so it went: fourth quarter ties at 32, 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42; another deadlock at 44 in overtime. The Spartans knotted the score seven times in all, and only once - in the final seconds of regulation - did the Trojans not score on their very next possession. When this virtual tug-of-war finally ended in the

DES MOINES -- Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton junior Sophia Peppers was one of six girls named to the Class 1-A All-Tournament Team at the Girls State Basketball Tournament in Des Moines last Friday night. In two state tournament games, Peppers ranked third in the 1-A field with 43 points while also grabbing 17 rebounds. She shot 57.6 percent from the field (19-of-33) in helping the Spartans reach the 1-A semifinals.

 DES MOINES -- Former AvoHa-Shelby-Tennant all-stater Amy Towne is one of three 2017 inductees into the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Basketball Hall of Fame. Towne will be honored during halftime of Saturday night’s Class 5-A state championship game at Wells Fargo Arena, which can be viewed live on IPTV. The 2017 Hall of Fame inductees also include Jaime Printy (Linn-Mar) and Carli Tritz (Sioux City Bishop Heelan).

 DES MOINES -- Thursday’s Class 1-A state semifinals featured top-ranked and defending champion Springville (23-2) vs. seventh-ranked Kingsley-Pierson (24-1) at 10:00 a.m., followed by No. 3 Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton (24-1) vs. No. 2 Turkey Valley (22-3) at 11:45.

 DES MOINES -- For the second time in three years, Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton has reached the semifinals of the Girls State Basketball Tournament. The 3rd-ranked Spartans did what they needed to do in Monday afternoon’s Class 1-A quarterfinal clash with No.

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community Athletic Booster Club Hall of Fame inductees for 2017 are Dave and Lois Kramer of Earling and Steve and Dee Dee Leinen of Panama. Longtime HCS Booster Club members, the Kramers and Leinens were both honored as the newest Hall of Fame members during a girl-boy basketball doubleheader in January.

 DES MOINES -- Six Harlan Community youth wrestlers competed at the 2017 AAU State Tournament held February 25-26 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. None of the Cyclone wrestlers placed at the state meet.