Iowa
Jose Luis Ballester fends off Iowa’s Noah Kent in U.S. Amateur final
CHASKA, Minn. (AP) — Jose Luis Ballester, a senior-to-be at Arizona State, became the first player from Spain to win the U.S. Amateur, fending off Iowa sophomore Noah Kent 2 up Sunday at Hazeltine in the 36-hole match on his 21st birthday.
Ballester, who was the only player in the top 10 of the world amateur ranking to reach the round of 16, took the lead on the second hole and never trailed. He joined Jon Rahm as the only players from Spain to win a USGA tournament. Rahm, who also played for the Sun Devils, won the U.S. Open in 2021.
“We have many great Spaniards, many great legends,” Ballester said. “Being able to add my name into that history is pretty sweet.”
Both finalists gained exemptions for the Masters and the U.S. Open next year, and Ballester also got a spot in the British Open.
Ballester trailed at some point in his last three matches before taking control in the grueling final. Wearing a red polo, yellow shorts on loan from Spaniard he beat in the semifinals, Luis Masaveu, and black socks to match his country’s colors, Ballester went 3 up after four holes on two early birdies. He had a 4-up lead at the lunch break on a vintage 82-degree day with a slight late-summer breeze.
Kent, who entered the week as a long shot at No. 560 in the world amateur ranking, refused to fade on the exhausting final day.
“You don’t want to be 4 down going into an 18-hole match, but it’s been done before, and I kept telling myself that. Everybody in my corner kept telling myself that,” Kent said. “I fought like crazy out there.”
He hit a long putt for eagle on No. 25 — the seventh hole on the course — to move within two. Then after falling behind by four with seven holes to go, the player from Naples, Fla., snapped back to win Nos. 31, 32 and 34 and pull within one.
On the 34th hole, Hazeltine’s signature lakeside No. 16, Ballester hit into the thick rough off the tee and, after clipping a tree, landed in worse shape in the reeds. He wound up with a bogey.
But with his lead down to one, Ballester got back on track to par the final two holes. He nailed the shot off the No. 17 tee within striking range on the green.
“I was juiced. I could feel the adrenaline in my veins, in my forearms,” Ballester said.
Kent hit into the bunker off the No. 18 tee, then the rough. His last-chance chip overshot the hole. Once the victory was secured, Ballester began to cry as he thought of friends and family in Spain, including his grandmother who’s been ill this summer.
“It was a hard summer back in Spain, so I feel like all those emotions kind of came out,” Ballester said.
Wearing a white polo with a Hawkeyes logo, Kent was attempting to become first Iowa player to win the event. The 19-year-old had the clear edge in fan support with dozens in gold Caitlin Clark shirts cheering from the gallery.
“I knew it was going to be like that from yesterday. I kind of liked it a little bit,” Ballester said. “When the other guy is feeling it and he’s kind of grabbing that momentum and you see all the supporters that are going for him, it can be a little depressing. So it’s important to face it with a nice mindset.”
Kent hadn’t trailed since the 12th hole of his second round match until Ballester took the early lead. Kent beat 17th-ranked amateur and Big Ten rival Jackson Buchanan of Illinois in their 18-hole semifinal match.
Ballester, who won the European Amateur last year, took a congratulatory call from fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia after his semifinal win. He shined with the short game all week.
“I think it’s in the blood,” Ballester said. “It has to be.”
Hazeltine, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1962 in what was then mostly farmland and now a suburb filled with lakes and cul-de-sacs about 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis, last hosted the men’s amateur in 2006. Since then, the course has seen the PGA Championship (2009), the Ryder Cup (2016) and the Women’s PGA Championship (2019). The Ryder Cup is due back in 2029.
The event began Monday with 312 players over two courses, the 130th edition of the tournament that has helped launch many greats of golf into a decorated career on the pro tour.
Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are among the dozens of notable names who won the U.S. Amateur. Jones won the event a record five times. Woods won three. The last European to win the U.S. Amateur was Viktor Hovland of Norway in 2018 at Pebble Beach.
With June rapidly finishing up, that means the Iowa high school softball season is preparing to enter the stretch run of the year.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament will begin Monday, July 20, in Fort Dodge at Rogers Park, bringing together many of the top teams and players in the state. High School On SI Iowa currently provides a Top 25 state softball power rankings, so now, we need to see who the top players are.
Below are the nominees for the High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player of the Year in each classification. Stats listed with the player are from Bound and based on those numbers imputed as of June 26, 2026 at noon CT.
Feel free to vote as many times as you like, with voting set to close on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player Of The Year Nominees
Rachel Eglseder, Edgewood-Colesburg, Senior
Eglseder owns a 16-5 record, striking out 225 batters with a 1.66 earned run average while adding 11 extra-base hits and 40 RBI at the plate.
Rylee Mudderman, Kee, Junior
Mudderman continues to be a difficult out, batting .488 this season with two homers, 11 doubles and four triples. She has driven in 38 and scored 35 times, stealing 10 bases.
Faith Shirbroun, St. Edmond, Senior
Speaking of tough outs, Shirbroun owns a batting average of .606 this season, recording seven homers, 17 doubles and five triples. She has driven in 36 and scored 37 times, stealing 22 bases while setting several school records for hitting.
Sydney Lovrien, Clarksville, Senior
The ace for the defending state champions, Lovrien is 13-5 with 100 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched. She also has 23 hits and 21 RBI at the plate.
Sam Kruckenberg, Mason City Newman Catholic, Senior
A veteran now, Kruckenberg owns an 18-4 record with 227 strikeouts and a 1.23 earned run average. She is batting .440 with five homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBI at the plate.
About Our Midseason Player of the Year Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The Iowa chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors of America (LICA) officially opened a new facility on its 80-acre demonstration farm in Marshall County Thursday.
Iowa LICA President Scott Bohle said having classroom and meeting space will make it easier to educate the next generation of professional contractors, along with government employees, lawmakers and students, to help conserve soil and water in the state.
Bohle said the building “gives people a place to gather, collaborate and continue the important work that defines our association.”
Just outside the new space are wetlands, terraces, sediment control basins, bioreactors and other features, which members have built since LICA purchased the farm near Melbourne in 2000.
“We call it the one-stop shop, where you can see anything being put to practice by our landowners,” said Kelby Kiefer, executive director of Iowa LICA.
Together, these “edge-of-field” practices remove 50% of phosphates and almost 100% of the nitrates from the runoff of a 1,000-plus acre watershed, according to the association.
Adding more wetlands, saturated buffers and bioreactors across the state are a key part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It aims to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields by 41% and 29%, respectively.
The strategy is part of a broader effort to reduce nutrient pollution in the state’s waterways and the Gulf of Mexico by 45% compared to the 1980-96 baseline period. It does not include a target date.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state has accelerated edge-of-field practices in recent years, in part through the Batch and Build model. The approach bundles projects in a targeted watershed to reduce costs and save time for farmers and contractors.
Nearly 150 nitrate reducing wetlands and around 500 saturated buffers, bioreactors and multi-purpose oxbows had been built in the state as of 2024. Thousands more will be needed to meet the state’s nutrient reduction targets.
“[Clean water is] something we need to be focused on, and we can be proud of the work that’s happened, but we know that we need to do more,” Naig said. “Buildings like this help.”
Naig said scaling up conservation infrastructure across the state will require more skilled contractors. He described them as the “critical link” between concepts and “getting things on the ground.”
“It’s from that point where you say, ‘We have a design that’s ready to go, a willing landowner,’ but somebody needs to make it happen,” Naig said. “The land improvement contractor sits in that very important spot.”
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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