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Hawks face Waverly-SR in dual mat tourney

Waverly-Shell Rock and Iowa City West could have the two strongest wrestling teams in the state this year, so guess who Prairie and Jefferson drew in the Regional Dual Team Tournamament?

Exactly right.

Prairie will visit Waverly-Shell Rock and Jefferson will visit Iowa City West in the opening round of the Regional Dual Team Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Both Metro teams will be heavy underdogs in those meets.

Linn-Mar will host North Scott in the opening round Feb. 22 with a shot at making the state tournament Feb. 26 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

Prairie and Jefferson finished second in the team standings at their district tournaments this past Saturday, which is why they were paired with district champions for the dual team tournament. Linn-Mar won its district and drew a district runnerup in North Scott.

Sixteen teams qualified for the regional tournament. The assignments are Burlington at Bettendorf, Jefferson at Iowa City West, Spencer at Lewis Central, North Scott at Linn-Mar, Ankeny at Mason City, Urbandale at Southeast Polk, Indiana at West Des Moines Valley and Prairie at Waverly-Shell Rock.

Hawks crown 4 champs at district mats

EPWORTH -- They held a demolition derby at Western Dubuque High School Saturday and called it a Class 3A district wrestling tournament.

Linn-Mar survived a day of bloody noses to trim Prairie, 223-207.5, for the district title on a day that had a little of something for everyone.

A little happiness, a little sadness.

Prairie and Kennedy crowned four individual champions apiece, Linn-Mar captured three titles and Xavier notched one as Metro wrestlers nabbed 12 of the 14 individual crowns.

On the unhappy side, quality individuals like Prairie 103-pounder Trey Blaha, Xavier 171-pounder Peter Ickes and Linn-Mar 189-pounder Mark Atwater did not qualify for the state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Feb. 17-19.

"It's tough to see a good kid not be able to reach their dreams," Linn-Mar Coach Doug Streicher remarked.

The top-2 finishers at each weight class qualified for the state tournament. Blaha and Atwater both finished third, as did other talented wrestlers.

Chris Walters (119), Zach Witte (145), Cameron Rathje (152) and Andrew Netolicky (189) earned district titles for Prairie.

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Xavier girls stump Hawks

It wasn't always pretty, but Xavier got the job done at Prairie, beating the Hawks, 56-37, on Friday in the regular season girls basketball finale.

No. 15 Xavier (14-7, 10-6 MVC) was led by senior Alex Saxen, who notched 19 points, including three 3-pointers. Junior Emily Walvoord chipped in 10 points for the Saints.

Freshman Madison Dellamuth topped Prairie with 10 points, and sophomore Alisa Weiland added eight points.

Prairie (4-17, 3-13) threw an unexpected wrinkle at the Saints by opening up the game playing zone defense for the first few minutes. But the Saints didn't miss a beat, stretching out the defense by hitting five 3-pointers to open up a 20-10 first-quarter advantage.

The Saints maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

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Prairie girls roll in Baker round

Prairie used a 131-pin advantage in the Baker round to rally past Iowa City High, 2500-2383, Friday in a Mississippi Vallley Conference girls bowling meet at Lancer Lanes.

City High (6-7, 5-5 MVC) held a 14-pin lead after the first round. Prairie's top three scores in the five-game Baker round were 202, 200 and 196 while City High did not break 175.

Jamie Kadolph led Prairie (5-8, 4-6) with a high game of 204 and 371 series.

IOWA CITY HIGH (2383): Shannon Koppes 177-312, Natalie Harapat 154-292, Brittany Tacke 169-314, Taylor Leonard 178-338, Abby Saehler 166-326.

PRAIRIE (2500): Niona Bruce 137-274, Brianna Wagner 197-329, Rebecca Kacena 155-282, Jamie Kadolph 204-371, Kate Palmer 174-312.

First round -- City High 1582, Prairie 1568. Baker round -- Prairie 932, City High 801.