Sports

Spirit Lake, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ spring fish spawning season is over and Iowa’s two walleye hatcheries are filled to capacity as netting crews collected enough walleye to produce 1,048 quarts of walleye eggs at the Spirit Lake hatchery and 846 quarts at the Rathbun hatchery.

Walleyes were caught at East and West Okoboji Lakes, Spirit Lake, Storm Lake, Clear Lake, and Rathbun Lake from April 3-13. The effort from all the lakes combined collected more than 249 million eggs.

This year’s walleye netting produced the highest number of quarts of eggs from Storm Lake since the walleye broodstock collection efforts began here in 1988. “We collected over 640 quarts of egg this year,” said Ben Wallace, DNR fisheries biologist. “This beat our old record by 144 quarts.”

“We had a very large year class of 18 to 20-inch females show up last year and we saw them again this year and they’ve put on a little growth,” said Wallace. “Egg collection at Storm Lake should be good for the foreseeable future provided we can maintain this year class of fish.”

A 30-inch female, estimated to be 13 years old, was brought through the Storm Lake hatchery. This fish was originally tagged in the hatchery in 2008 and was recaptured for egg collection in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014.

Crews at Rathbun Lake observed good numbers of smaller fish (

At Spirit Lake, fisheries staff netted more than 2,400 walleyes on Big Spirit Lake and East and West Okoboji lakes. The Spirit Lake Hatchery also cultures muskie and northern pike and DNR personnel collected 226 muskies providing eggs for hatching. Northern pike were netted from Spirit Lake and Diamond Lake, producing more than 823,000 fry, most of which have already been stocked.

With little natural reproduction by walleye in Iowa, walleye populations rely heavily upon stockings. Walleyes are stocked throughout Iowa into natural lakes, interior rivers, flood control reservoirs, and selected larger man-made lakes.

The DNR plans to release more than 149 million walleye fry in May. While the majority of walleyes are stocked as fry, some are cultured in Iowa DNR hatcheries and stocked at different sizes. More than 1.1 million two-inch walleyes are expected to be stocked into lakes, rivers, and streams across the state this summer. Larger 6-9 inch fingerlings (more than 340 thousand) will be stocked in lakes later this fall.

Lincoln Nebraska — Hull native Nancy Meendering Metcalf is one of seven distinguished student-athletes who will be enshrined in the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame this fall. The Nebraska Athletics Department made the announcement on Wednesday, April 13. The group will be the second class to be inducted into the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame, which was created last spring.

Nancy (Meendering) Metcalf earned multiple first-team All-America honors on the court and in the classroom while starring for the Nebraska volleyball team from 1997 to 2001. A three-time first-team All-American, Metcalf was also a two-time Big 12 Player of the Year and a two-time NCAA Regional MVP.

She capped her career with one of the greatest seasons in program history as a senior in 2001, when she was a finalist for the Honda Award – presented to the nation’s most outstanding player – and was also named the CoSIDA Volleyball Academic All-American of the Year. Metcalf helped lead Nebraska to a trio of Big 12 titles and two NCAA Semifinals appearances during her four seasons on the court, and she also played a role in the Huskers’ national championship in 2000, when Metcalf redshirted following time spent training with the U.S. National Team.

In the classroom, Metcalf was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-America selection, and she earned an NCAA Top 10 Award. Metcalf ended her career with 13 school records, and she still holds Nebraska match records for kills (39) and aces (7). She earned her degree in advertising from the University of Nebraska in 2001 and continued her career following graduation, representing the United States at the 2004 Olympics.

The Hall of Fame class is tentatively scheduled to be formally inducted into the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame the weekend of September 17th when the Husker football team hosts Oregon at Memorial Stadium.

In conjunction with an enshrinement ceremony, a plaque with the names of the seven members of the 2016 Hall of Fame class will be added to the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame Plaza, which was completed last fall.

Metcalf attended Nebraska following a standout career at Western Christian High School.

This years Hall of Fame class also includes Heather Brink (women’s gymnastics),Phil Cahoy (men’s gymnastics), Janet (Kruse) Sellon (volleyball), Nicola Martial (women’s track and field) along with Johnny Rodgers and Will Shields from the football program.