Prairie High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cougars jump to 4th in volleyball poll

The Kennedy Cougars climbed three spots to No. 4 in the new Class 5A volleyball rankings Thursday by the IGHSAU.

Kennedy has an 8-3 record and trails Cedar Falls, Bettendorf and Ankeny Centennial in the poll.

Linn-Mar jumped one notch to No. 7 in the 5A rankings. Prairie fell five spots to No. 10.

The Marion Indians stayed No. 2 in Class 4A behind West Delaware.

Read more...

VanDraska leads Prairie to title

Tysen VanDraska was sorely disappointed when he finished seventh at the Class 4A state cross country meet last fall.

"I kind of choked a little bit," he claimed Thursday.

He does not plan to let it happen again.

VanDraska captured top honors and led Cedar Rapids Prairie to the team championship Thursday at the annual Cedar Rapids Invitational at Noelridge Park.

VanDraska won the 5K outing in 16 minutes, 7.68 seconds, edging Brandon Cooley of Bettendorf by 1.5 seconds in a tight race throughout. Prairie ran away with the team championship with 31 points with Jake Moore finishing fourth, Chris Oehlert sixth and Cam Steffens seventh.

VanDraska may have been a little harsh on himself by claiming he "choked a little bit" at the state meet, but he's always set high standards for himself as a distance runner.

Read more...

No. 5 Prairie falls to Hempstead

The fifth-ranked Prairie volleyball team was swept by No. 14 Dubuque Hempstead, 27-25, 25-21, 25-22, in a tight Mississippi Valley Conference match Tuesday night at Prairie.

Kenzie Soeken led Prairie with 11 kills. Megan Oldenburger was 18-for-19 on serves with eight kills and two aces.

Kendra Gaskill collected 28 assists and Taylor Fisher had 16 digs.

Bohannon fires 71 at CRANDIC golf

If Jordan Bohannon ever gets tired of playing basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes, he might be able to change sports and play a few rounds for the University of Iowa golf team.

He's got a good touch on a golf course, too.

Bohannon fired a 1-under-par 71 Tuesday and finished second at the annual CRANDIC meet at Gardner Golf Course with the best competitive round of his life.

The Linn-Mar senior committed to play basketball for the Hawkeyes about two weeks ago and feels like a free man now. It translated onto the luscious green grass at Gardner.

"I was just playing good," Bohannon said. "I don't have a lot of stress after committing to Iowa.

"It was a lot of weight on my shoulders, just trying to figure out where to go for college. It kind of affected my personal life. I feel a big weight off my shoulders now."

Read more...