Metro Sports Report

Mount Mercy spikes Iowa Wesleyan

The Mount Mercy volleyball team swept Iowa Wesleyan, 3-0, on Senior Night Monday at the Hennessey Recreation Center and improved its record to 28-11.

The Mustangs won 25-15, 25-14, 25-19.

Cori Peterzalek had 15 kills and 13 digs for Mount Mercy, Becca Thomson had 10 kills and 10 digs, Emma Pisark had seven kills and three blocks, Natalie Parizek had five kills, Hannah Whitley made 21 assists and Abbie Perez had 11 assists.

Mount Mercy finishes the regular season against Clarke at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at home.

VanDraska grabs 2nd at state meet

FORT DODGE - Tysen VanDraska planned to use his punishing kick to lick the field at the Class 4A state cross country meet Saturday in Fort Dodge and bring home the title.

Denied the championship, VanDraska employed his infamous kick to claim second place with a gutsy finish on the soft, squishy turf at Lakeside Golf Course.

VanDraska was hoping to whip Ryan Schweizer of Dowling for the individual title in the latest renewal of their personal showdowns, but Schweizer was a little too fast for Van Draska on a gray 50-degree day in Fort Dodge.

VanDraska appeared to slow down near the finish when he realized he wasn't going to win the race. He was running in third place with about 50 yards left when a runner suddenly appeared on his right shoulder.

Unwilling to finish fourth, VanDraska kicked into high gear and nipped Sam Schillinger of Cedar Falls and Trevor Kirk of West Des Moines Valley for the silver medal.

Bach, Fopma shine in Class 3A race

FORT DODGE - Myles Bach and Jeremy Fopma are only sophomores at Marion High School, but they had high hopes at the Class 3A state cross country meet in Fort Dodge Saturday.

"We wanted to go 1-2," Fopma declared confidently. "We felt like we had a shot. It was within range."

Bach was credited with fifth place and Fopma was awarded sixth place, even though both 10th graders had identical times of 16 minutes, 33.5 seconds. They were engaged in a terrific photo finish for 4th, 5th and 6th with Nick Peters of Estherville Lincoln Central, who edged them by one-tenth of a second in 16:33.4 for fourth.

You see photo finishes like that in track on occasion, but it's rare for it to happen at the end of a 5 kilometer cross country race when the runners are sore and tired.

Cougars swamp foes for regional title

Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s swift young swimmers were in first place before the regional meet even started on Saturday, and they just kept piling on the points throughout the afternoon.

In the early lead thanks to Jayden Lovell winning the regional diving title Thursday, the Cougar girls won seven of 11 swimming events in the fast Linn-Mar Aquatic Center pool to swamp the rest of the 10-team field.

Along with setting several school and pool records, Kennedy won its third straight regional championship with 469 points. Cedar Rapids Washington came in a distant second with 300.5 points.

“We’ve got a lot of young ladies who are both talented and motivated,” said veteran Kennedy Coach John Ross.

“They all did well individually today. More importantly, we did really well as a team.