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Busswitz leads Prairie spikers past Saints

Kate Busswitz had 13 kills and five ace serves to lead Prairie to a 14-25, 25-10, 25-11, 25-22 Mississippi Valley Conference volleyball win over visiting Xavier on Tuesday night.

Megan Spengeler added seven kills for the Hawks. Jenni Lockhart had 13 digs while Mallory Jones and Kendra Gaskill had 18 and 12 assists respectively.

For the Saints, Kayla Torson had 13 digs, nine kills and three blocks. Madsy Richards had 17 digs, eight kills and a pair of blocks.

Rima casts eye on Prairie baseball job

Kirkwood Community College baseball coach Todd Rima confirmed Monday that he's interested in becoming the new head baseball coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

If hired by Prairie, Rima would continue to serve as the head coach at Kirkwood and hold both jobs.

"I would consider it. Yes," Rima remarked when asked if he's interested in the post at Prairie.

Matt Thede resigned as Prairie's baseball coach after the 2014 season to become the athletic director and assistant principal at Mount Vernon High School.

Rocky Bennett, the athletic director at Prairie, confirmed he has spoken to Rima informally about the job, but quickly added that he's spoken to several other potential candidates as well. Bennett said he'd move forward on the selection process in September.

Joe Yegge, the softball coach at Kirkwood, is also the head softball coach at Prairie, so there is precedent for someone doing both jobs. Rima said he has talked to Yegge about the demands of holding both assignments.

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Murphy runs away at Prairie Invy

The last time Daniel Murphy ran in a high school cross country race, he collapsed at the Class 4A state meet in Fort Dodge and ended up in a hospital.

Saturday was much, much better.

Murphy ran away with top honors at the 30th Prairie Invitational and shattered the meet record in 15 minutes, 26 seconds for the 5K course.

The Linn-Mar senior beat Tysen VanDraska of Prairie by 11 seconds in the field of 17 schools and 119 individuals.

"I was not expecting that, honestly," Murphy said after his convincing victory. "Me and Tysen were battling a lot. I'm going to take it. It's a P.R. (personal record)."

Murphy was one of the top runners for the Linn-Mar varsity last year as a junior, but he suffered from dehydration and perhaps a virus at the state meet and finished 115th and last in 19 minutes, 43 seconds.

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Lions turn tables on Prairie, 35-9

Bob Forsyth said he never mentioned it.

“I don’t recall it ever coming up,” he said as a big smile crossed his face.

The “it” of which the veteran Linn-Mar football coach spoke was the result of the Lions last visit to John Wall Field in Week 8 of the 2013 season against Prairie.

In that contest, the Hawks amassed 615 total yards en route to a 63-17 victory.

What a difference 10 months can make.

Linn-Mar’s defense held Prairie to just 72 yards on the ground while the offense took advantage of five Prairie turnovers to win the 2014 opener, 35-9, on a rainy night at Prairie.

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