Xavier High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Saints headed back to state tourney

IOWA CITY - Ryan Luehrsmann wants to make trips to the boys state basketball tournament a regular habit for the Xavier Saints instead of a sporadic occurrence.

Luehrsmann and the Saints took another big step in building that tradition Monday night.

The eighth-ranked Saints turned in a workmanlike performance and defeated Mount Pleasant, 63-47, in Iowa City to earn their second straight trip to the Class 3A state tournament in Des Moines next week.

"You put two trips together, that's a heck of an accomplishment," said Luehrsmann. "It's not easy to get down there.

"We want to change the mindset, we want to have a culture at Xavier where that's the expectation at the high school level. And the little kids on down in junior high and into the feeder programs coming, that they're used to going and seeing Xavier at state tournaments year-in and year-out."

Xavier (16-8) drew the No. 6 seed and will face No. 3 seed Spirit Lake (21-3) in the opening round on Tuesday, March 8 at 6:35 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.

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Hartzler tops all-Metro wrestling team

Shea Hartzler of Linn-Mar has been named the Wrestler of the Year on the all-Metro team, as selected by the coaches.

Hartzler won the Class 3A state title at 160 pounds this season and was the only state champion from the Metro area.

Dennis Hynek, who led Kennedy to a fourth-place tie in the Class 3A standings at the state meet, was named the Metro Coach of the Year.

ALL-METRO SELECTIONS
106 Pounds

1st Team - Conrad Braswell (Prairie)
2nd Team - Cam Shaver (Kennedy)
Honorable Mention - Jack Eichhorn (Marion)

113 Pounds

1st Team - Marcus England (Prairie), Jeff Vipond (Xavier), Joseph Sibomana (Jefferson)

120 Pounds

1st Team - Brenden Baker (Jefferson)
2nd Team - Keegan Schultschik (Xavier)
Honorable Mention - Jacob Tedrow (Prairie)

126 Pounds

1st Team - Nolan Hromidko (Kennedy)
2nd Team - Will Foreman (Washington)
Honorable Mention - Trenten Wennermark (Prairie)

132 Pounds

1st Team - Sam Uthoff (Prairie)
2nd Team - Dalton Mastin (Jefferson)
Honorable Mention - Austin McLeod (Kennedy)

138 Pounds

1st Team - Clint Lembeck (Xavier)
2nd Team - Alex Streicher (Linn-Mar)
Honorable Mention - Chase St. John (Prairie)

145 Pounds

1st Team - Josh Gerke (Xavier), Johnny Clymer (Linn-Mar)
2nd Team - Caleb Conway (Marion)

152 Pounds

1st Team - Logen Rodriguez (Kennedy), Kyle Briggs (Jefferson)
Honorable Mention - Jacob Wempen (Linn-Mar)

160 Pounds

1st Team - Shea Hartzler (Linn-Mar)
2nd Team - Ben Sarasin (Kennedy)
Honorable Mention - Tavian Rashed (Jefferson)

170 Pounds

1st Team - Garrett Kubovec (Kennedy)
2nd Team - Matt Culver (Jefferson)
Honorable Mention - AJ Geers (Linn-Mar)

182 Pounds

1st Team - Nick Dreckman (Jefferson)
2nd Team - Logan Hagmeier (Linn-Mar)
Honorable Mention - Preston LaGrange (Prairie)

195 Pounds

1st Team - Taylor Mehmen (Prairie)
2nd Team - Sam Pape (Kennedy), Braydon Schultz (Linn-Mar)

220 Pounds

1st Team - Dalles Jacobus (Kennedy)
2nd Team - Tyler Pasker (Prairie)
Honorable Mention - Alex Francois (Xavier)

285 Pounds

1st Team - Alex Heisdorffer (Prairie)
2nd Team - Tommy Pudil (Xavier), Carson Webster (Marion)

Linn-Mar, Xavier will meet in football

Linn-Mar High School has changed its mind and has agreed to play non-district football games against the Xavier Saints in 2016 and 2017.

Two years ago, Linn-Mar athletic director Scott Mahmens said his school was not interested in playing any games against a Class 3A school. The Lions compete at the Class 4A level and he said at the time they wanted to play other 4A schools in non-district games in 2014 and 2015.

Linn-Mar changed its mind and put Xavier on its preferred list of non-district games for the next two-year cycle of games in 2016 and 2017, but Mahmens declined comment when contacted by the Metro Sports Report Friday morning after the Iowa High School Athletic Association released the schedules for all teams.

Xavier athletic director Mike Winker has wanted to play games against any of the 4A Metro schools - Linn-Mar, Kennedy, Washington, Jefferson and Prairie - but they all turned him down during the 2014-15 cycle.

Mahmens told the Metro Sports Report several weeks ago that he put Xavier on his preferred list of opponents. The IHSAA has the final authority on putting the schedules together and they arranged for Xavier to play at Linn-Mar on Friday, Sept. 2. The Lions will visit the Saints in 2017 in the return engagement.

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Butkowski helps Saints dump Clippers

Nolan Butkowski found out Wednesday at a team meeting that he'd be starting in place of Mitchell Burger in Xavier's big game against Clear Creek Amana in the Class 3A district finals Thursday night.

It did not faze him a bit.

Butkowski embraced the assignment and scored a team-high 16 points as the Saints pulled away from the Clippers, 56-43, in the Prairie gym to move within one victory of reaching the state tournament for the second straight year.

Xavier (15-8) will face Mount Pleasant (18-5) in the substate finals at 7 p.m. Monday at Iowa City West.

Burger leads the Saints in scoring at 16.6 points, but the senior guard had to serve a one-game suspension for an unspecified violation of rules. In stepped Butkowski, who began the night with a 5.0 average.

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