Playing only one of their first six games at home, Iola High’s basketball teams have one more doubleheader on the road before taking to their home court. The Fillies and Mustangs finish a six-game road run tonight at Anderson County High School in Garnett.
Both the Fillies and Mustangs are 3-3 overall. The IHS basketball teams play at home Friday against Girard then have a non-league doubleheader at home against Fort Scott next Tuesday.
Iola High’s wrestling team enjoyed a 5-0 run in dual action in the first semester. The Mustangs step things up a bit as they open Southeast Kansas League wrestling at home Thursday.
“Drawing Fort Scott and Pittsburg at home to open SEK action is tough. We see most of the top teams in the SEK early as we have Columbus at Parsons then against Chanute and Labette County at Chanute,” said Aaron Sweazy, Mustang wrestling head coach.
The Mustang wrestling team is down to 16 wrestlers. Senior Devin Culler is 8-1 at 160 pounds and senior Zack Vaughn is 7-2 at 170 as the top varsity wrestlers for Iola out of the first semester.
Pittsburg is ranked third in Class 4A and has five individually ranked wrestlers. Fort Scott has two individually ranked wrestlers.
“We’ve averaged five or six wrestlers in our holiday practices which is disappointing to me but those who have been there have worked hard. Denton Christian, a senior, is going to challenge sophomore Bryce Misenhelter this week for the varsity spot at 182 pounds. Chase Roettgen, a junior, will be a full-time varsity wrestler at 220 pounds. Chase has worked very hard and is willing to sacrifice a bit for the team. He is certified at 182 but has wrestled well at 195. We believe he can save us some team points by wrestling at 220,” Sweazy said.
Sweazy said the Mustangs’ January schedule is a challenge for the fourth-year program. The Mustangs won’t have junior Joe Myrick, who decided on possible surgery for an injury that kept him off the mat in the first semester. “He says he wants to come back ready for his senior season next year,” Sweazy said.
THE MUSTANG basketball team started off hot with three victories but finished on a three-game losing streak. But that hasn’t gotten the Mustangs down as they come into 2012.
“Those were three close losses to quality teams and our guys are excited to get back after it. We learned from the losses,” said Bill Peeper, IHS boys’ basketball head coach. “Everybody is healthy and they’ve worked hard in practices.”
Iola lost a heartbreaker 43-41 at Independence just before the holiday break. Peeper said the Mustangs will deal with not being in school today and having a game tonight. He said the team really hadn’t had a routine of practices during the break and it shouldn’t be a problem.
“But we did discuss a thing called a home game,” Peeper said laughing. “We talked about what we do at home games and how good it is going to be playing on our home court two games in a row.”
FOR THE FILLIES, having days of practices without competition was a good thing, according to head coach Becky Carlson. The Fillies have been working hard the few days of practice over the break.
