Iowa
Iowa wrestling transfer eyes national title after Division III success
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa wrestling is hoping to break through and win a national title, as they want to every year.
In the 197-pound weight class, there’s one former Wartburg competitor that might be able to contribute towards that. Massoma Endene is now a Hawkeye, coming to the black-and-gold following a national champion three-peat in Division III at Wartburg.
He’s reached one of the pinnacle programs of college wrestling, and has the same thing on his mind.
“My goal is to be a National Champion again,” Endene said.
Stepping up to Division I competition
Head coach Tom Brands knows it’s a tougher test.
“This is big boy now. Not saying that his accomplishments are little boy. But he has, you alluded to his skill level. He’s tremendously athletic and gifted. There’s a lot of things that he does very well on the mat. I think that he knows that he has to up it,” Brands said.
Endene might be able to improve quickly just like he’s done his whole wrestling career.
He didn’t start the sport until high school, and might never have if he was a bit better on the pitch.
“I wasn’t the greatest at soccer. I had to switch to a different sport. My brothers were really good and they kind of told me like, ‘Hey it’s probably not the sport for you,’” Endene said.
Making up for lost time
What the transfer lacks in experience, he gains in the determination to catch up to more veteran wrestlers.
“They’ve been wrestling their whole lives, but I think the fact that we’re here at the same level, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve put the same amount of time, if not more. I believe I put in more time than most of these guys. To me, that’s not really a barrier, it’s just another thing I want to achieve,” Endene said.
Even if there was a barrier, he’s blasted through it.
His last second comeback against an All-American last week proved it.
Unexpected opportunity
But all this almost never happened.
Endene competed at the junior college level that used to cost a year of eligibility.
He was surprised this offseason, when he found out that was no longer the case and he had another shot.
“Then I learned about the year that I actually do have. So then I was like, ‘Well college for another year isn’t too bad.’ So I just did that for one more year, and ended up at the best college,” Endene said.
Endene will look to once again be the nation’s best at 197 pounds.
Copyright 2025 KCRG. All rights reserved.
Iowa
Check the Powerball numbers. 28,000 Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes.
What are your chances of winning any prize on the Powerball game?
Powerball is a popular lottery game around the U.S. but winning isn’t easy.
The Powerball Jackpot keeps getting bigger. No one was the winner on Wednesday, Dec. 17, which means $1.5 billion is now up for grabs.
This is now the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.
How many Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes in latest Powerball drawing?
Iowa Lottery players won 28,677 prizes in Wednesday’s drawing, and this time, no one got close to winning the grand prize. Prizes ranged from $4 to $400.
What were the winning Powerball numbers in Wednesday’s drawing?
The winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing were 25-33-53-62-66 and Powerball 17. The Power Playmultiplier was 4.
When is the next Powerball drawing?
The next Powerball drawing will be on Saturday, Dec. 20. The game has drawings on Mondays, Wednesday and Saturdays each week.
The Powerball jackpot has been growing since early September, and Saturday’s drawing will mark the 45th in the current jackpot run, a record for most drawings in a single jackpot cycle, according to the news release.
How many Iowa Lottery Powerball tickets were sold?
Iowa Lottery players bought nearly $1.75 million in Powerball tickets for last night’s drawing, including $1.24 million in tickets on Wednesday alone. But the average Powerball purchase in Iowa for Wednesday’s drawing remained around $6, or about three plays per ticket.
Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.
Iowa
Arizona baseball to hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach
Arizona got caught up in the swirl of college baseball coaches leaving for professional jobs this offseason, losing pitching coach John DeRouin to a coordinator position with the New York Mets organization. But the Wildcats didn’t take long finding a replacement, one with a strong pedigree in the collegiate ranks.
Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com is reporting the UA will hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach. Kenny will techincally be Arizona’s fourth pitching coach in five seasons under Chip Hale, though DeRouin only served in that role during the offseason following Kevin Vance’s departure in June to become San Diego State’s head coach.
Kenny, 53, spent the 2025 season at Iowa where his staff ranked 16th in the country in ERA and 11th in strikeouts per nine innings. The Hawkeyes went 33-22-1 but missed the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to Iowa, Kenny spent the 2023 season at Iowa and before that was at Georgia from 2018-23. He’s also coached at Michigan, Maryland, Pepperdine and San Diego. The 2026 season will be his 30th in college baseball.
Arizona, which is coming off a trip to the College World Series, returns weekend starters Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey and NCBWA Stopper of the Year Tony Pluta among several other pitchers from the team that went 44-21.
The UA opens the 2026 season on Feb. 13 in Surprise against former Pac-12 foe Stanford, part of a tournament that also includes Oregon State and Michigan. The home opener is Feb. 17 vs. Omaha at Hi Corbett Field.
Iowa
Watch live as bodies of Iowa National Guard soldiers return to US
President Donald Trump, Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and families are receiving the bodies of fallen Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel “Nate” Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and Sgt. Edgar Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines and a civilian interpreter, Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Michigan.
The dignified transfer ceremony is expected to happen this afternoon at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
All three were killed Saturday, Dec. 13, by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria, before being shot dead.
Their caskets will be transferred from the plane to an awaiting vehicle and taken to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations building at the Dover base “for positive identification by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System and preparation for their final resting place.”
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