Area Sports

The girl’s high school basketball season is underway and with it, the preseason Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s preseason rankings are out. The Mount Ayr Raiderettes appear in the first rankings, at No. 5 in Class 1A. The Raiders were 16-7 last season under longtime head coach Thad Streit. The Raiders are favored to…

The 2024-25 girl’s high school wrestling season began last week and the Mount Ayr Raiderettes kicked off the season at the SW Valley tournament last Saturday. Seven Mount Ayr wrestlers placed ninth out of 12 scoring teams at the tournament with 41 team points. All but one Mount Ayr wrestler placed at the tournament. Mount…

A pair of Mount Ayr volleyball players were recently named to the Class 1A South Central All-District team. They were Aubree Shields and Jaxy Knight. Shaffer led Mount Ayr in assists with 345 this year. She also had 27 kills on 138 attacks, 156 digs, and served 276-for-288 with 30 aces. Shields led Mount Ayr…

Senior Brock Shaha will soon begin his final wrestling season for the Mount Ayr Raiders. Following graduation from Mount Ayr Community School, Shaha has committed to wrestle at Upper Iowa University in Fayette, roughly four hours northwest of Ringgold County. “These are guys you hate to see leave the program, because they’ve been leaders since…

The Mount Ayr Raiders 2024 football season ended recently and after last week’s state semifinal loss by Madrid, the 2024 Class A District 6 awards were handed out. The district released their honors list for the 2024 season with their all-district selections. Mount Ayr had a staggering 17 combined selections on the three lists. The…

Randy Smith of Mount Ayr was inducted November 2 in the Iowa Racing Hall of Fame at the Briggs Woods Conference Center in Webster City. Smith started driving sprint cars in 1975. He traveled throughout the United States, competing in 23 different states, as well as Australia and Canada. Smith’s racing career found him piloting…

The 2024 Pride of Iowa Conference honors list for the completed volleyball season was released last week. The annual list showcases and honors the league’s best volleyball players from the previous season. This year, the Mount Ayr Raiderettes tied with the most all-conference selections among the nine-member schools with five. Those selections were sophomore Jaylee…

End season at 7-3 after falling to second ranked ACGC It wasn’t meant to be. A good start and well-played first half turned late before halftime for Mount Ayr in a 41-14 playoff loss at second-ranked ACGC. A key Charger touchdown late in the first half gave them momentum at halftime and bled into the…

Advance to second round of playoffs and rematch with ACGC A wild shoot-out type football game was one that many probably did not expect in the Raider’s first-round Class A playoff game against Earlham last Friday at home. There, the two traditional powerhouse football programs put up video game-like totals in a 58-50 Mount Ayr…

A conference rival that Mount Ayr couldn’t get past. The Lenox Tigers ended the Raiderettes season on Monday, October 21 when the two longtime Pride of Iowa Conference rivals met in the first round of the Class 1A Region 6 tournament. There, the Tigers rallied from down 1-0 to win the final three sets to…