Xavier Girls Basketball

Metro girls saluted in district soccer

The Linn-Mar Lions and Xavier Saints grabbed five spots apiece on the all-district soccer teams, the Iowa Girls Coaches Association announced Monday.

The Lions, ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, placed Jensen Sevening, Olivia Garcia and goalie Rylie Frese on the Class 3A East first team. Claire Larson and Malory Garman were named second team all-district. Steve Dickinson of Linn-Mar was named the Co-Coach of the Year.

The Saints, ranked No. 3 in Class 2A, were represented on the Class 2A East team by Marissa Berutti. Elizabeth Bailey, Katie Ives, Sydney Wright and goalie Holly Hazelton were named to the second team from Xavier.

Hannah Kousheh of Prairie and Kaela Dickerman of Kennedy were named first team all-district in Class 3A. Morgan Petsche and Sydney Hayden of Kennedy, Shalyn Kinney of Jefferson and goalie Hannah Schroeder of Washington were second-team picks.

Amanda Sahm, Erica Kelly and Madison Bach of Marion were named second team all-district in Class 2A East.

8 Metro girls make INA all-state

Eight players from the Metro area were named to the all-state girls basketball teams by the Iowa Newspaper Association Tuesday.

Dani Franklin of Washington was named first team all-state in Class 5A and Shelby Hembera was named first team all-state in Class 1A.

Amanda Ollinger of Jefferson and Aleena Hobbs of Washington were named second team all-state in Class 5A. Michalyn Mohr of Marion and Hayley Deutmeyer of Xavier were honored as second-team selections in Class 4A.

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Kayla Armstrong wins IGHSAU award

Xavier High School graduate Kayla Armstrong has been elected as the recipient of the "Jack North Basketball Award," one of the highest high school athletic honors in Iowa.

The award is given by the IGHSAU to an outstanding basketball player from the previous year who has graduated. Armstrong was a member of Xavier's 2013 state championship girls basketball team and was named captain of the 2013 state tournament team. She currently attends Drake University, where she plays soccer.

"I am both humbled and grateful to have been selected as the recipient of the Jack North Award," said Armstrong. "I may be the one accepting this honor, but this award truly belongs to the great teammates and coaches that I have had the opportunity to work with and teams I have been fortunate enough to be a part of during the various stages of my career.

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Bailey, Saints drop heartbreaker to Lancers

MOUNT VERNON - Lizzy Bailey made a bid for the Kayla Armstrong Award Tuesday night, but Bailey and the Xavier Saints fell a second short of earning a trip back to the Class 4A state tournament.

Evan Hundley scored on a putback at the buzzer to lift 10th-ranked North Scott past the 13th-ranked Saints, 47-46, in the frantic regional finals in Mount Vernon.

It was Hundley's only basket of the game and denied Xavier a chance to defend its Class 4A state title from a year ago.

Bailey poured in a career-best 24 points and hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to give the Saints a 46-45 lead, but they ran out of magic.

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