Eagles power to district title

Football

     Fresh off his selection as KCRG-TV’s Athlete of the Week, Midland senior running back Austin Smith further lived up to the hype in leading the Eagle football team to a district championship.

     Smith rushed for 318 yards and six touchdowns as the Eagles rolled to a 52-20 home win over Lone Tree to win the Eight-player, District 4 championship for the second year in a row.

     “We played our best game of the year and dominated the football game,” Midland coach Casey Hack said. “Both teams’ fans showed up in full force, and the atmosphere was awesome.”

     Three first quarter touchdowns by Smith, the first one covering 65 yards, staked Midland to a 20-0 lead. Quarterback Britan Martens ran for touchdowns of 43 yards and one yard, and the Eagles led 32-6 at halftime.

     Three more Smith touchdowns in the third quarter, twice from 38 yards away and once from 45, gave Midland a 52-14 lead and put the game away. Martens finished with 70 yards rushing.

     “Offensively our line and backs dominated the line of scrimmage,” Hack said. “Defensively we played our best game. Our kids came downhill and punished ball-carriers all night.”

     Midland outgained Lone Tree 444 to 237. Carsen Rupp had an interception and a fumble recovery, and Brett Schoenherr also recovered a Lone Tree fumble. Griffin Gravel led the team with 8.5 tackles, Drew Gravel had 6.5 tackles including two sacks, Fisher Bisinger and Hunter Rushford had six tackles apiece, and Schoenherr had a sack.

     The Eagles (7-2 overall) will play host to Janesville (6-3) in a state first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.

     “All of our goals are still in front of us, and we will be prepared to play Friday,” Hack said.

Volleyball

     Midland’s volleyball season came to an end in a three-set loss to Cedar Valley Christian in the first round of the Class 1A, Region 6 tournament Tuesday, Oct. 17 in Wyoming.

     The Eagles fell by scores of 23-25, 21-25, 22-25, but had leads in two of the three sets.

     Midland jumped to a 14-9 lead in the first set, and later led 20-15, but CVC outscored the Eagles 10-3 the rest of the way.

     The Eagles rallied from a 13-17 deficit to tie the second set 19-19, but again the visitors finished well, winning six of the last eight points.

     An early 9-4 Midland lead in the third set was erased by an 8-2 CVC run. The teams were tied 18-18 before Midland fell behind 20-23. Kills by Delanie Uppena and Brennah Ricketts kept the Eagles close at 22-24, but a kill by CVC’s Abby Pospisil ended the match.

     Midland had 34 kills as a team, led by Uppena with 11 and Calli Markmann with eight. Markmann also had 14 assists, three blocks and served 11-for-12. Mikayla Dosland put up 13 assists, served 13-for-14 with two aces, and had two blocks.

     Emma Dusanek led the Eagles in digs with 19, Uppena had 16, and Markmann had 10.

     The Eagles finished with a record of 2-24, including 1-5 in the Tri-Rivers Conference East Division.

Cross country

     Midland had a pair of runners compete in the Tri-Rivers Conference Meet Oct. 12 at North Linn, and the Class 1A State Qualifying Meet Oct. 19 in Solon.

     Ryan Wariner finished in 20:56 in the conference meet, and 20:46 at the qualifying meet, setting personal records each time.

     “Ryan started running at the start of school and has slowly taken off time,” Midland coach Jon Eganhouse said. “It will be exciting to see what he can so with a year of training when he comes back for his senior year.”

     Owen Doll set a PR in the conference meet, 21:53; and then ran 22:54 at the qualifying meet.

     “Owen has a lot of potential as a runner,” Eganhouse said. “He needs to trust the training and himself when he runs races.”

     The meets ended the season for the Eagles.

     “The future for the program is looking up for the next few years,” the coach said. “I’ll have a good group of boy freshman runners next fall. We have the potential to run a seven-man team for next year.

     “I will still need to work on the girls’ team. We do have some quality runners in the school that have the potential to be very competitive.”