Xavier High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Linn-Mar girls crack top 10

It took new head coach Jaime (Printy) Brandt two games to steer the Linn-Mar girls basketball team into the top 10 of the Class 5A rankings.

The Lions (2-0) moved into the No. 9 spot in the new rankings this week by the IGHSAU. Linn-Mar was not ranked when the season began.

The Kennedy Cougars (2-0) remained No. 8 in Class 5A. The Xavier Saints (2-1) improved one spot to No. 13 in Class 4A.

Dowling topped the 5A rankings and Harlan led the 4A poll.

CLASS 5A

1. Dowling (2-1), 2. Southeast Polk (2-0), 3. Waukee (1-0), 4. West Des Moines Valley (1-0), 5. Iowa City West (3-0), 6. Johnston (3-0), 7. Ankeny Centennial (1-0), 8. Kennedy (2-0), 9. Linn-Mar (2-0), 10. Mason City (2-1).

CLASS 4A

1. Harlan (1-0), 2. Carlisle (4-0), 3. North Scott (1-0), 4. Western Dubuque (2-0), 5. Perry (1-0), 6. Ballard (2-0), 7. Sioux City Heelan (0-0), 8. Keokuk (3-0), 9. Davenport Assumption (0-2), 10. Indianola (3-0), 11. Waverly-Shell Rock (1-0), 12. Lewis Central (2-0), 13. Xavier (2-1), 14. West Delaware (2-0), 15. Pella (1-1).

3 Metro teams make wrestling poll

Jefferson, Prairie and Linn-Mar have been ranked in the top 10 of the initial Class 3A wrestling poll for the 2014-15 campaign.

The J-Hawks are ranked No. 3, Prairie is ranked No. 4 and Linn-Mar is ranked No. 7.

Southeast Polk is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, followed by Bettendorf.

Jefferson has seven ranked wrestlers with Brenden Baker No. 2 at 113 pounds, Luke Sedlacek No. 3 at 160, Kyle Briggs No. 4 at 132, Dalton Kuehl No. 5 at 285, Kelly May No. 6 at 182, Tavian Rashed No. 7 at 152 and Joseph Sibomana No. 10 at 120.

Prairie features six ranked wrestlers with Marcus England No. 2 at 106 pounds, Josh Wenger No. 2 at 138, Sam Uthoff No. 3 at 126, Jarod Cadena No. 8 at 182, Jonah Manson No. 8 at 220 and Taylor Mehman No. 9 at 195.

Linn-Mar has five ranked grapplers with Shea Hartzler No. 2 at 160, Matt Wempen No. 3 at 145, Noah Ajram No. 5 at 120, Sam Nowak No. 6 at 220 and Toby Northrup No. 8 at 152.

The Xavier Saints have three ranked wrestlers with Clint Lembeck No. 2 at 132, Josh Gerke No. 6 at 126 and Jeff Vipond No. 9 at 106.

Kennedy has two ranked wrestlers with Nolan Hromidko No. 3 at 120 and Logen Rodriguez No. 5 at 145.

CLASS 3A TEAM RANKINGS
The Predicament

1. Southeast Polk, 2. Bettendorf, 3. Jefferson, 4. Prairie, 5. Iowa City West, 6. Fort Dodge, 7. Linn-Mar, 8. North Scott, 9. Dowling, 10. Council Bluffs Jefferson.

Saints forfeit 7 matches in loss

IOWA CITY - The Xavier Saints forfeited seven matches Thursday night and lost to fifth-ranked Iowa City West, 51-26, in a Mississippi Valley Conference wrestling meet in Iowa City.

Josh Gerke (132), Alex Francois (220) and Michael Maher (285) collected pins for Xavier. Clint Lembeck (138) won a technical fall.

IOWA CITY WEST 51, XAVIER 26

106 - Jeff Vipond (X) dec. Alex Aguirre, 6-3
113 - Aaron Stumpf (ICW) won by forfeit
120 - Hunter Davis (ICW) won by forfeit
126 - Nelson Brands (ICW) won by forfeit
132 - Josh Gerke (X) pinned Jeff Garbutt, 0:51
138 - Clint Lembeck (X) tech fall Tyler Yoerger, 18-2
145 - Carter Rohweder (ICW) won by forfeit
152 - Sam Cayler (ICW) won by forfeit
160 - Ben Bertell (ICW) won by forfeit
170 - Nathan Kelsay (ICW) def. Ryan Williams, 2-1
182 - Karl Ratner (ICW) won by forfeit
195 - Donovan Doyle (ICW) pinned Sam Meyers, 1:42
220 - Alex Francois (X) pinned Guy Snow, 0:55
285 - Michael Maher (X) pinned Blake Moser, 0:56

Xavier girls make Tigers dizzy

What might seem to be a helter-skelter style of play by the Xavier girls is fully by design.

“We’re going to get a lot of kids in, and we’re going to get them in early,” said veteran Saints Coach Tom Lilly after his team blew past Cedar Falls, 48-36, Tuesday night on their home floor.

“We want to play an aggressive pressure defense and an up-tempo offense. The goal is by the fourth quarter the other team won’t have much left.”

To play that way for a full 32 minutes means Lilly is shuttling girls in and out (often three and four at a time) every whistle. They pass a baton to each other on each substitution to keep track.

“We work on subbing practice,” said senior guard Lizzy Bailey, who led all scorers with 15 points. “So we all know what we’re doing when we’re out there.”

Read more...