Metro Sports Report

Sheldon brings toughness to Coe wrestling

Coe senior Ryan Sheldon is tough and dedicated to wrestling.

The biggest thing for Sheldon is being tough during the events.

“There’s not a lot of thinking while I wrestle. It’s just a lot of reacting,” he said.

Sheldon, a Kennedy graduate, is ranked No. 4 at 184 pounds at the NCAA Division III level. He has a 9-2 record, with four major decisions and three pins for the fifth-ranked Kohawks.

He won the 184-pound title at the Turkey Open at Coe Nov. 22 and placed third at the Luther Hill Invitational in Indianola Saturday.

Sheldon said wrestlers build their toughness in the workout room and in practices. “You feel like your body doesn't want to go any more so you keep pushing it to get tough,” he remarked.

Bloomington punches RoughRiders in nose

Maybe a little fight was just what the Bloomington Thunder needed Saturday night against the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.

The Thunder scored three unanswered goals in the third period after engaging in some fisticuffs and socked the RoughRiders, 4-2, before 2,344 fans in a rugged USHL game at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

Bloomington forward Ryan Siroky dropped his gloves at the end of the second period and challenged Cedar Rapids center Adam Gaudette to a bare-knuckle fight after both clubs had done a fair shove of pushing and shoving during the stanza.

Gaudette accepted the challenge and they fired away at each other before an official broke it up. Both combatants were given 15 minutes in penalties for fighting, including a game misconduct penalty that banished both of them for the rest of the night.

The RoughRiders led 2-1 at the time, but the Thunder dominated the final stanza after the fight and handed the league-leading RoughRiders only their third loss of the season in 21 games.

Joens blisters No.8 Cougars with 42

Iowa City High junior Courtney Joens had a bag of ice attached to her knee after Friday's game at Kennedy, but that ice was the only thing that cooled her off all night.

Joens was not merely hot against the Cougars. She absolutely sizzled.

Joens popped in eight 3-pointers and collected 42 points with a dazzling performance as the Little Hawks knocked off the eighth-ranked Cougars, 76-59, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game.

City High Coach Bill McTaggart thought the eight 3-pointers and 42 points were school records, but was not absolutely sure. She missed only one 3-pointer all night, going 8-for-9 from long range.

"She was just phenomenal," said vanquished Kennedy Coach Tony Vis.

Sibomana makes impact for No.3 J-Hawks

Joseph Sibomana and his family fled Tanzania when he was eight years old, settled in Atlanta for awhile and moved to Cedar Rapids to join other family members four years ago.

He did not know a thing about wrestling until he enrolled at Roosevelt Middle School as an eighth grader.

"There was a poster in the locker room that said, 'If you think you're tough, come join wrestling,'" he said Thursday night. "I thought I was tough, so I went out for it."

Sibomana was plenty tough for the third-ranked Jefferson High School wrestling team Thursday in a pair of Mississippi Valley Conference dual meets to begin the season.

Sibomana collected two pins at 120 pounds as the J-Hawks defeated Dubuque Wahlert, 50-27, and Cedar Falls, 48-25.

Sibomana, a junior, pinned CJ Lange of Wahlert in 2:59 and stuck Jacob Watters of Cedar Falls in 5:21.