Metro Sports Report

6 Metro teams could make playoffs

Three Metro football teams have clinched spots in the football playoffs and three more Metro clubs are still alive heading into the final week of the regular season.

Washington and Linn-Mar have clinched Class 4A district titles and the Xavier Saints can win their Class 3A district crown with a victory over Marion Friday night.

Jefferson, Prairie and Kennedy are still in contention for Class 4A playoff spots heading into decisive contests.

The top-ranked Washington Warriors and sixth-ranked Linn-Mar Lions will be No. 1 seeds for the playoffs and will face a No. 4 seed in the opening round.

The fifth-ranked Xavier Saints are tied for first place in their district with Solon and Western Dubuque, but the Saints own the tiebreaker and will draw a No. 1 seed by topping Marion.

Drake, Lions shatter 3 MVC records

It's too bad they don't have a decathlon for high school swimmers.

If anyone could win 10 events at one meet, it would be Linn-Mar sophomore Kelsey Drake.

Freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke. Sprints, middle distances, long distances. It wouldn't matter.

Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake.

"It would be her," Linn-Mar Coach Chad Derlein confirmed Saturday. "It doesn't matter, she can swim it. Whatever event.

"She's probably the most versatile swimmer I know."

Drake starred at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet at Kennedy Saturday. She broke meet records in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly, then had a sizzling anchor on the 400 freestyle relay to help Jenn Jenks, Lizzie Adams and Stephanie Jenks shatter another record.

High school swimmers are limited to four events at one meet. The closest Drake ever came to a "decathlon" in swimming was at the 12-and-under state meet a few years back, when she recalls winning nine events.

Drake enjoys all four strokes, although the butterfly is her favorite. "I could swim butterfly and never got bored with it, I love it so much," she remarked.

Cougars make strong run in MVC tourney

After winning  five straight matches Saturday, the Kennedy girls finally ran out of steam and had to settle for second place to Iowa City High in the 14-team Mississippi Valley Conference volleyball tournament.

Along the way, the Cougars got revenge for regular-season losses to Iowa City West and Linn-Mar. And they beat City High in three games in pool play during the morning session.

But in the championship final the Little Hawks found their groove and posted a dominating 25-16 25-16 victory.

“I think the kids were kind of zapped at the end,” said Kennedy Coach Michelle Goodall. “And Iowa City came out on fire.”

Ranked eighth in Class 5A, City High (21-9) came into the tourney as the top seed with the only unblemished MVC record of 6-0. The Class 5A 10th-ranked Cougars (25-11) were seeded eighth based on their 4-2 conference mark.

Rekers helps Coe dump Simpson

INDIANOLA - Josh Rekers passed for two touchdowns and ran for another Saturday as Coe defeated Simpson, 35-21, in an Iowa Conference game before 3,873 fans in Indianola.

The game was tied, 14-14, at halftime when Rekers and the Kohawks went to work. Rekers hit Josh Rekers with a 50-yard touchdown pass for a 21-14 lead and connected with Dan Kopp for an 18-yard score.

Rekers also scored on a 1-yard run in the third quarter as Coe exploded for 21 points in the stanza and grabbed a 35-14 advantage before Simpson (3-3, 0-3) could respond.