Metro Sports Report

J-Hawks stop Lilly from netting 500

It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but the Jefferson girls got their wish with a 38-36 win on Xavier’s home floor Friday night.

"Before this week, our motto in the locker room was, ‘All we want for Christmas is two big wins,'” J-Hawk point guard Avery Guy explained. “We won both games, so now we’re over .500 (at 5-4) going into the break.”

The Saints, on the other hand, are now 3-5 and must wait awhile longer to give veteran coach Tom Lilly his 500th career victory.

“I don’t even want to talk about that,” Lilly said. “What I’m interested in is what we have to do to play with the intensity we showed in the last four and a half minutes.”

Up to then, it was a ragged affair as both teams had trouble holding onto the ball. Xavier had 18 turnovers for the game, Jefferson 16. And, at times, they had trouble putting the ball in the hoop.

In a woeful third quarter, the J-Hawks outscored the Saints 3-2 and went into the final stanza ahead just 24-19.

Versatile Ollinger helps Linn-Mar win

Sometimes Amanda Ollinger is a guard, sometimes she's a forward and sometimes she's a center.

The versatile 6-foot-1 senior did most of her damage in the low post Friday night and helped Linn-Mar top Cedar Rapids Prairie, 53-44, with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Linn-Mar coach Jaime Brandt saw Ollinger had a size advantage near the basket against the Hawks, so she stationed her top player in the low post where she could score or feed teammates for shots.

"That was an adjustment we made on the spot," Ollinger said. "We really didn't know what they were going to throw at us."

"I'm comfortable anywhere on the floor," she said. "Working on finishing at the hoop is a really big thing for me that I'm trying to improve on this season."

Ollinger did a good job with her back to the basket. She's spent of the season on the perimeter, but the situation called for a low-post center and she delivered.

Wennermark helps Prairie pin J-Hawks

New Cedar Rapids Prairie wrestling coach Kane Thompson has been preaching a "team championship lifestyle" to the Hawks since taking over the squad this season.

Trenton Wennermark embraced the concept Thursday night.

Wennermark rallied from a 9-0 deficit and pinned Brenden Baker in the biggest upset of the match as the sixth-ranked Prairie Hawks topped No. 7 Jefferson, 42-30, in a Mississippi Valley Conference showdown at Jefferson.

Wennermark lost all three of his matches against Baker last year and was headed for a fourth straight defeat when he turned the tables in the third period. He got a reversal to draw within 9-4, then put Baker on his back and pinned him in 4 minutes, 33 seconds.

Thompson and all the wrestlers on the Prairie bench jumped in the air in celebration. Baker, a senior, is ranked No. 2 at 120 pounds by The Predicament wrestling magazine and Wennermark, a sophomore, is ranked No. 8 at 120. They wrestled a weight higher at 126 and Wennermark gave the Hawks a 21-9 lead with his precious victory.

Mustangs plan to open facility in 2017

Mount Mercy University plans to break ground on the new $15 million Robert W. Plaster Athletic Complex this spring and have the massive outdoor facility ready for competition in the spring of 2017.

The university revealed final plans for the complex during a Holiday Open House at the University Center on campus Thursday evening. The Mustangs have raised $12.5 million so far for the facility and are seeking an additional $2.5 million in gifts to reach their goal, Mount Mercy President Laurie Hamen announced to a gathering of alumni, faculty, students, staff and friends.

The new facility will feature a baseball field, softball field and a stadium for soccer and track, among other features. The softball stadium has been named Busse Field in honor of a donation from the Busse Family.

Hamen said a final decision on whether to begin a varsity football program will be made early in 2016. If Mount Mercy adds football, the stadium can be modified to hold practices and games.