Bell City volleyball pair make all-state

Bell City's run to a Class 1 state volleyball title in the fall has landed it two spots on the Missouri all-state list.

Senior setter Whitney Abner and junior hitter Katie Niemczyk both earned first-team honors.

Niemczyk had a big state tournament, setting a record for digs in the tournament. In Bell City's three-game championship match, Niemczyk finished with 17 kills and 30 digs. Abner had 32 assists in the final.

Central, Jackson square off against wrestling powers

Central and Jackson will face visiting Rockwood Summit and Marquette in a double dual hosted by Central on Tuesday.

Jackson enters the duals 7-0 in dual meets this season. Central is 5-3 in duals. Jackson finished second at the SEMO Conference meet on Saturday and Central was fourth.

A matchup which should excite wrestling fans is in the 145-pound weight class. Marquette's Bobby Conn is one of the top 145-pounders in the state, and defeated Jackson's Cody Rouse in the finals of the Tiger Classic earlier this year. Conn is ranked No. 1 and Rouse No. 3 at 145.

The same can be said of the 140-pound matchup between Jackson and Marquette, which will likely pit Anthony Haddad against Jackson's Brock Howard. Both Haddad and Howard are ranked near the top of the 140-pound class.

Central is led by Cory Huskey at 152 pounds and senior Jonathan Poston at 125.

Stoddard County basketball tournament gets under way

Dexter drew the top seed in the Stoddard County Conference tournament, which begins play today with two varsity games at Bloomfield High School.

Dexter will take on No. 8 Bernie at 8:30 p.m. The other varsity game pits No. 2 Bell City against No. 7 Puxico at 5:30 p.m. No. 3 Bloomfield will play No. 6 Richland and No. 4 Advance will play No. 5 Woodland in a pair of Tuesday games.

The championship game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Friday.

NMCC basketball coach fired, football coach resigns

Within a span of 48 hours, New Madrid County Central fired its girls basketball coach and assistant and received a letter of resignation from its football coach.

Suffering through a struggling basketball campaign, NMCC relieved coach Matt Ginther and assistant Tom Schoemehl of their duties on Tuesday. Ginther was replaced with Lance Tollison, who is the director of the Technical Center at NMCC.

Football coach Steve Rogers resigned on Wednesday due to personal reasons.

College notes

The Three Rivers Community College women's basketball team is currently ranked No. 24 in the national junior college rankings. Three Rivers finished the week with a 13-3 record. Freshman Rebecca Cook, a Delta graduate, has put up solid minutes off the bench and she scored in double figures in a win over Rend Lake earlier this month.