Oskaloosa’s volleyball season is over.  The Indians were swept at Clear Creek-Amana last night in the Class 4A Region 7 semifinals.  The scores were 25-14, 25-21 and 25-21.  Oskaloosa Coach Jen Comfort says her team played some good volleyball in a very competitive match.  Three seniors graduate, but Comfort says there’s plenty to work with for the future.

“It’s always hard to lose three seniors, but I think we have some really good building blocks here, the foundation is strong. And girls that you’re not seeing on the court playing are working really hard behind the scenes and really getting ready.  Girls like Jessica Schlessleman, she’s going to be a senior next year,  she hasn’t seen the court much, but she’s working her tail off in practice every single day to make us better. There’s girls like her, the whole group, and the freshman class are ready, just chomping at the bit, ready to play Osky volleyball.

Freshman Faith DeRonde had 11 kills for the Indians, junior Taylor Wills had nine.  Clear Creek-Amana’s Calia Clubb had 13 kills plus three blocks for the Clippers.  Oskaloosa ends the year with a 12-19 record.

Clear Creek-Amana will play Pella for the 4A Region 7 title next Monday.  Pella defeated Carlisle three sets to one in Tuesday’s other semifinal.  Pella will host that region title game on Monday (10/29).

Oskaloosa will have two runners in the state 3A cross country meet next week in Fort Dodge.  The Indians’ Carter Huyser was third in Thursday’s boys’ district race in Pella, while Lauren Coon was 12^th in the girls’ race.  This will be the third time Huyser has qualified for state, while it’s the fourth time for Coon—and she’s just the second Oskaloosa cross country runner to accomplish that.

Pella will also be well represented in the state 3A cross country meet.  Josiah Wittenberg won the 3A district race with Dutch teammates Drew Van Hauen, Cutler Turner and Mason Johnson 12^th through 14^th respectively.  On the girls’ side, Pella’s Caroline McMartin was in third place, with teammates Makayla Kruse 7^th, Abigail Cutler 13^th and Chelsea Jorgenson 14^th.

In Class 4A, Ottumwa has two girls going to state: Carollin Mellin was 7^th in yesterday’s district race in Indianola and Alli Bookin-Nosbisch was 9^th.

In Class 2A, Albia has three boys going to state: Landon Noe was 2^nd in the district race in Panora, Brock Ratliff was third and Dawson Bonnett 13^th.  Albia’s Sherryl Mae Rowe also qualifies for state after coming in sixth in yesterday’s qualifier.

And in Class 1A cross country, Pekin has two boys going to state in Brady Millikin and Colten Glosser and Sigourney’s Mason Moore also qualified for state.  North Mahaska’s Cheyenne Shaw won the girls race in 20 minutes, 35-point-59 seconds.  Elise Boulton of Montezuma and Pekin’s Lauren Derscheid and Emily Laumeyer also qualified for the state 1A girls meet.