Metro Sports Report

Meeker, Beckman give Prairie big boost

Bryce Meeker has been a big boy for a long time.

He weighed 260 pounds when he began playing varsity football at Cedar Rapids Prairie as a precocious freshman in 2011, battling older guys and more than holding his own.

He's gained 10 or 15 pounds every year and is now an imposing physical specimen at 300 pounds, ready for his final campaign with the Hawks and a spot with the Iowa State Cyclones next year.

"I'm feeling good. I'm feeling really good," he said this week at practice.

"I'm just taking everything in. Going out and proving something," he said. "Not taking any reps off, not trying to be a kid who commits and then takes a season off.

"I want to go out and prove something. We're still a family and a team out here. Just trying to do everything I can."

Davis Sutton wins Metro Spotlight Award

Cedar Rapids Kennedy senior Davis Sutton is the winner of the Metro Spotlight Award for high school boys this week, the Metro Sports Report announced Sunday.

Sutton tamed the links at Gates Park in Waterloo Thursday with a sizzling round of 7-under-par 65 to take medalist honors at the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet.

Sutton won the meet by four strokes as Kennedy ran away with the team championship.

Sutton is one of the top golfers in the state. He finished sixth at the Class 4A state meet at Hunters Ridge last October to help Kennedy place second in the team standings.

The Cougars are one of the favorites to win the state title this season.

Steph Jenks wins Metro Spotlight Award

Linn-Mar junior Stephanie Jenks is the winner of the Metro Spotlight Award for high school girls this week, the Metro Sports Report announced Sunday.

Jenks captured the silver medal in the triathlon at the Youth Olympic Games Saturday in Nanjing, China, with a time of 1 hour, 33 seconds in the grueling swim, bike and run event.

The Youth Olympic Games are being covered on television, which showed the spectacular opening ceremony.

Jenks has become a world traveler in her running and triathlon career with trips to China, England, Brazil and Mexico. She also has competed all over the United States and will race in the ITU Junior World Triathlon in Edmonton, Canada Aug. 29.

Hinojosa sparks Kernels to clutch win

Jonatan Hinojosa had to sit on the sidelines for 50 games this season after failing the Minor League drug-testing program, but the infielder from the Dominican Republic is making up for lost time now with the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Hinojosa lined a two-run triple over the center fielder's head in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Kernels the go-ahead runs in a clutch 4-2 victory over Peoria before 4,922 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The victory gave Cedar Rapids a 33-21 record in the Western Division of the Midwest League, just a half-game behind Kane County for first place in the second half of the season.

Hinojosa, 21, tested positive for metabolites of Nandrolone and had to serve a mandatory 50-game suspension.

"That was tough," said Hinojosa. "When I was in offseason, I took some product. And that's bad. When they told me that you (are) suspended 50 games, I was feeling bad."