Metro Sports Report

Dralle helps Cougars get 1st win

WATERLOO - Tyler Dralle rushed for 115 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns as Kennedy got its first win of the season Friday night, downing Waterloo East, 46-9.

Dralle scored on a 61-yard pass from Sammy Lizarraga and a 4-yard run. Jay Blank also scored on a pair of short runs for the Cougars, 1-6 overall, 1-2 in District 5 play. East falls to 0-7, 0-3.

Kennedy rushed for 267 yards and passed for 123 more. The Cougar defense limited East to 111 total yards.

Lizarraga had a pair of touchdown passes for Kennedy.

Decker races to MVC title

Linn-Mar junior Amber Decker established herself as one of the top distance runners in Iowa a long time ago, but she stands only 19th in the current state cross country rankings and had not done anything truly special this season.

That changed Thursday.

Decker raced to the front of the pack and posted an impressive wire-to-wire victory at the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet in 14 minutes, 32 seconds for the 4K course at Prairie.

Decker thinks she may have been sub-consciously waiting for the bigger races to come around - like the MVC Super Meet and the postseason meets that are on the horizon.

"My parents described it a little bit as teen-age procrastination. I don't know," she said, smiling. "It's been kind of a struggle this year, but I'm glad that I pushed through.

"It was a good race. It was a good time to finally push through and do what I needed to do."

VanDraska leads Prairie to MVC crown

Cedar Rapids Prairie junior Tysen VanDraska is built to run.

A compact 5-foot-6 and 125 pounds, he has the endurance to run long distances at a fast clip and the speed to finish a 5-kilometer race with a punishing kick that leaves others behind.

VanDraska put his talents to good use Thursday and captured the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet on his home course at Prairie in 15 minutes, 59 seconds for a seven-second victory.

The Prairie Hawks edged Linn-Mar and Cedar Falls for the team championship in a tight three-school battle with VanDraska in first place, Matt Lorenz in fifth place and Jake Moore seventh for Prairie.

VanDraska and Linn-Mar senior Daniel Murphy ran stride-for-stride for much of the race and Murphy nudged in front at the 10-minute mark, but VanDraska was too fast for everyone else when they finished on the Prairie track.

No mistake: KCC volleyball is No.1

Kirkwood sophomore Becca Bell thought somebody in the Student Life department exaggerated a tad Wednesday morning when they were promoting Wednesday night's volleyball match against DMACC and encouraging students to attend.

"They said, 'Come support your No. 1 Eagles.' We thought it was just a mistake," Bell related. "Then someone checked it out and looked and she was like, 'Oh my gosh, they weren't kidding. We're really No. 1.'

"There were smiles all day," said Bell. "It was really exciting."

The top-ranked Eagles were still smiling Wednesday night after they swept No. 8 DMACC, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22, at Johnson Hall.

This is the first time Kirkwood has been ranked No. 1 in volleyball during Jill Williams' 10 years as head coach.

"I'll take it," she said happily after the Eagles beat one of their arch-rivals in the ICCAC conference. "We get to enjoy it for a few more hours now."

Kirkwood (23-2, 6-0) climbed from No. 7 to No. 2 in the national rankings last week. The Eagles moved into the top spot after Parkland, last week's No. 1 team, lost to Illinois Central.