Metro Sports Report

Jared Belin wins Metro Spotlight Award

Linn-Mar senior Jared Belin is the winner of the Metro Spotlight Award for high school boys this week, the Metro Sports Report announced Sunday.

Belin is the star goalkeeper for the Linn-Mar soccer team, which is ranked fifth in the state in Class 3A.

Belin collected three straight shutouts Saturday as the Lions won their own Challenger Cub at the Linn-Mar Stadium, including a 2-0 victory over Muscatine in the finals.

Belin has allowed only one goal in six games for the undefeated Lions, with five shutouts to his credit. His goals-against average is 93 percent.

Belin was named Honorable Mention all-state last year and plans to continue his soccer career at Briar Cliff University.

Lane used sports as springboard for success

The one thing Doug Lane was good at as a Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School student back in the mid-1960s was throwing a 12-pound steel ball.

He could throw it so far, in fact, that after 46 years he still holds the state shot put record as well as the high school record at the Drake Relays.

When he heaved the shot 70 feet, 11 inches at a meet in Dubuque on a mild day in May in 1968, it was a remarkable 10 feet farther than any Iowa prep had thrown before and five feet farther than any has done since.

“A perfect day,” Lane, now 64, recalled on Friday while watching this year's J-Hawk track squad practice at Kingston Stadium. “Everything came together.”

It set the national record then, too, by more than a foot and put him on the cover of the prestigious Athletic Journal.

Long since living in California after he left Cedar Rapids for an All-American and NCAA championship stint at USC, he was back in town to visit relatives. And he asked Jefferson Coach Ron Tower if he could talk to the track team.

“I've wanted to do this for a long time,” he said.

Jacobus helps Cougars soar at Kingston

Derek Jacobus woke up Saturday morning and felt he was ready for a really good day at the Draxton/Stiers/Wilkinson Invitational coed track meet at Kingston Stadium.

He had no idea how good.

Jacobus soared 23 feet, 1 1/2 inch in the long jump to break the Kennedy record and move into the No.1 spot in the state rankings. He won the long jump at the Class 4A state meet last year at 22 feet, 10 1/4 inches, so he's already ahead of his junior campaign despite an assortment of ailments.

Kernels bag 5th straight win

LANSING, Mich. —  The Cedar Rapids Kernels beat the Lansing Lugnuts, 6-2, at Cooley Law School Stadium on Sunday afternoon before 1,710 fans to complete a three-game sweep and extend their winning streak to five games.

The Kernels took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning when Mitch Garver singled into center field, scoring Tanner Vavra and Zack Larson. Garver has a team-high eight RBIs.

Vavra extended his hit streak to five games by singling into center, while Larson collected his team-high sixth double off the right-field wall.

Cedar Rapids (7-3) extended its lead to 4-0 in the third inning with RBI singles from Larson and Chad Christensen. Jason Kanzler was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Larson singled home Kanzler to put the Kernels up by three runs.

Larson stole second base and came home on Christensen's RBI single into right-center. Christensen's single extended his hit streak to six games.