The best of a pretty amazing year
2024 gave us so many memorable women's sports moments in Iowa and beyond
It’s that time of year.
Not the time of the year when we all eat too much and spend too much and wonder where the heck we put that thing we bought in July that would make a perfect Christmas gift for somebody.
Oh, it’s all that, but it’s also one other big thing: list time.
I’m always skeptical of “best of” lists because they’re so subjective. And they only ever reflect what the list-maker got to read, listen to, watch or experience (something that’s even harder to relate to in our splintered media and entertainment landscapes). Favorites? Sure. Best-of? Whatever.
So indeed, these are just my thoughts about some of the best Iowa women’s sports moments for 2024. We’re lucky to live somewhere where amazing things happen any year, but 2024 was indeed something special. Here’s to more in 2025.
Best Moment
Caitlin Clark. Scoring record. The one against Michigan. Duh. Let’s just get that one out of the way.
Best Reason Another Power 5 School Should Launch Women’s Wrestling
Iowa is in just its second official season and already it’s not a fair fight. Facing off against smaller but more established women’s wrestling schools, the Hawkeyes won the national title in March and have this season outscored opponents 687-34 in nine dual meets. Launching a program isn’t cheap but no doubt they’re paying attention in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. (It is a club sport at Oklahoma State.) Then again, dominating in wrestling is what Iowa does; the men had streaks of nine NCAA titles in a row (1978-86) and six (1995-2000).
Best Social Media Follow
Art But Make It Sports on X, on Bluesky and Instagram provides a unique view into the games everyone is watching and the moments that amaze us. They then amaze us further with a fantastic photo and even further when LJ Rader finds a piece of art to match. It’s incredible. The sports data professional and art enthusiast had a field day with Clark’s record chase and the WNBA season, among other things. Rader also has an intriguing Substack newsletter, in which he does deep dives about the process. When Clark hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat Michigan State, not only did Art But Make It Sports have a phenomenal art comparison, but Rader interviewed photographer Brian Ray of the Iowa athletic department about the iconic photo he captured of that moment. He collected some of the Caitlin Clark combos and if you need a rabbit hole to go down over the holidays, he’s currently counting down his Best of 2024.
Best National Anthem
If you go to a lot of sporting events, you hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” a lot. A LOT. Sometimes it can be a bumpy ride for performers and listeners. But for the sold-out crowd at the Knapp Center for the Iowa-Drake women’s basketball game on Nov. 17, it was a treat. Not only was it a beautiful rendition, the singer was Quinn Pohlman. Name seem familiar? She’s the daughter of Drake coach Allison Pohlman and a senior at Johnston High School. Encore, encore!
Best Living Your Best Life
If someone came to a TV or movie studio with the story of former Iowa basketball player Kate Martin, it would be rejected – even by Hallmark or Disney – as being too preposterous, less believable than “Air Bud.” But no, the player who primarily went to the WNBA draft to support her bestie (Caitlin Clark if you just tuned in) instead got drafted by the then-defending champion Las Vegas Aces. Martin (to be played by Millie Bobby Brown in the movie) made the team and became such a fan favorite that hers became the No. 4-selling WNBA jersey this summer. Then in October she signed on for the upcoming Unrivaled 3-on-3 league. And she got drafted AGAIN when the Golden State Valkyries came calling in the WNBA expansion draft. Beloved by her Aces teammates, it was superstar A’ja Wilson (to be played by Beyoncé) who bid Martin farewell by saying on social media, “My baby, so happy for you, you are a gem.” Sniff.
Best Best Is Yet to Come
Young runners made quite a splash at the state cross-country meet this fall. Marissa Ferebee of Pella, just a junior, ran the fastest cross-country 5K ever by a state high school girl to win the Class 3A meet. She also ran 2 minutes faster than her winning time from the previous year. A senior made some history too, when Noelle Steines of Class 1A Tipton became just the second girl to win four individual state cross-country titles. Perhaps we’ve got another Karissa Schweizer in our midst?
Best Celebrity BFF
Yeah, it was cool that Ted Lasso, Sue Bird and the Dalai Lama all wanted to see Caitlin Clark play this year (OK I made up the last one but he might have a Peacock subscription, you never know). Even more charming was the way rapper Flavor Flav got the word out to help fundraise for Northern Iowa swimmer and Paralympian Olivia Chambers so her family could travel to watch her compete in Paris. Thanks to Flavor Flav, the Go Fund Me was a success, and Chambers’ family was on hand to see her win a gold medal and two silvers.
Best last hurrah
Former Harlan and Iowa State volleyball player Jess Schnaben-Landsman already had a lot going on in her life when she decided to give her sport one more shot. She had recently had a baby and was teaching and coaching in Nebraska when she joined the Omaha Supernovas of the new Pro Volleyball Federation that launched in fall 2023. It was worth the effort for Schnaben-Lansman – the Supernovas won the league’s inaugural championship in May. Schnaben-Lansman, an Iowa high school hall of famer, hung up her knee pads after that first season and is head volleyball coach at Blair (Neb.) High School.
Best NIL placement
Oh sure, there are any of number of name, image and likeness deals out there now, from Clark’s TV commercials to those porcine-friendly names of the Iowa State football players featured in the Iowa Pork Producers ads. But I’ll take Iowa State basketball player Audi Crooks’ smiling face welcoming people to Des Moines as they walk through the airport here. The signage promotes West Des Moines medical startup ClaimDOC. She has other deals with the likes of Topps and Fareway, but the airport ad has a special kind of charm. Kind of like Crooks herself.
Best game of musical chairs
In May, Iowa gymnastics coach Larissa Libby resigned after 20 years as the school’s head coach. She had been put on paid leave pending an independent investigation of the program. A settlement was reached after concerns about the program sparked a review, concerns that have never been made public. Libby’s staff, including former Hawkeye Jessa Hansen Parker, was not retained by the new head coach, Jen Llewellyn. Llewellyn came from the University of Washington, and who got the Washington coaching job? Jessa Hansen Parker, a Des Moines native who trained at the famed Chow’s Gymnastics where she was a teammate of Olympian Shawn Johnson. Longtime Iowa sports page readers might be familiar with Jessa’s dad – former Des Moines Register (and Tribune) sports columnist Marc Hansen.
Best not a dry eye in the house moment
On Nov. 16, the Drake women’s basketball team threw itself a 50th birthday party. For all the stars in attendance, the brightest of all was the Bulldogs’ lone first-team all-American Wanda Ford. It was OlajuWanda’s first return to Des Moines since graduating in 1986, the year she led the nation in scoring and rebounding, and she was hands down the rock star in the room. Everyone wanted their photo taken with her (including me; I covered her for the Drake Times-Delphic when we were both students) and she charmed everyone with her warmth and humor. Speaking during the event Ford, now a youth coach in Cleveland, said “I’m a humble person, but I’m feeling really special today” – or something similar because I wasn’t taking notes. The whole room of 300-plus people about burst into tears.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”
Awesome column! No dry eye for me after reading that!
Great read on a Sunday morning! Thank you, Jane!`