Metro Sports Report

8 Metro grapplers head to semifinals

DES MOINES - Eight Metro wrestlers rolled into the semifinals of the Class 3A wrestling tournament Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Alijah Jeffery (120) of Linn-Mar, Damon Griffin (126) of Linn-Mar, Clint Lembeck (132) of Xavier, Nick Drahozal (145) of Xavier, Ross Lembeck (152) of Linn-Mar, Trey Blaha (152) of Prairie, Skyler St. John (160) of Prairie and Andrew Holladay (195) of Linn-Mar won their matches in the quarterfinals Friday to maintain hopes of winning a state crown.

Eight Metro wrestlers are alive in the consolation rounds with a shot at finishing third when the three-day tournament ends Saturday. Brenden Baker (106) of Jefferson, Noah Ajram (113) of Linn-Mar, Nolan Hrmidko (113) of Kennedy, Kyle Briggs (120) of Jefferson, Sam Uthoff (120) of Prairie, Matt Wempen (132) of Linn-Mar, Josh Wenger (138) of Prairie and Cole Turner (285) of Xavier have lost one match in the tournament and are fighting back for points.

All 16 of the Metro wrestlers who compete Friday night are assured of placing in the top-8 when the three-day tournament ends Saturday.

Metro wrestlers enjoy good start at state

DES MOINES - Metro wrestlers compiled a 22-15 record with eight pins on the opening day of the Class 3A state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Thursday.

The Prairie Hawks stand in fourth place in the team standings. All six of Prairie's wrestlers advanced to Friday's competition, with Marcus England (106), Sam Uthoff (120), Josh Wenger (138), Trey Blaha (152) and Skyler St. John (160) alive in the quarterfinals.

The Linn-Mar Lions are in fifth place, just a half-point behind Prairie. Alijah Jeffery (120), Damon Griffin (126), Ross Lembeck (152) and Andrew Holladay (195) reached the quarterfinals with opening-round victories.

Tirone, Poturalski named USHL all-stars

Danny Tirone and Andrew Poturalski of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have been named to the Midseason USHL All-Star Team from the Eastern Conference.

Tirone, 19, from Trumbull, Conn., was named the first-team goalie for the Eastern Conference. He has an 18-8-0 record and a 2.44 goals against average. His save percentage of .921 ranks second in the league.

Poturalski, 20, from Williamsville, N.Y., was named a second-team forward. He leads the RoughRiders in scoring with 40 points, based on 13 goals and 27 assists.

Metro wrestlers fall short at state duals

DES MOINES - Prairie, Jefferson and Linn-Mar all took the same serious approach to the state dual meet wrestling tournament in Des Moines Wednesday and went for the gold.

Unfortunately for the three Metro squads, so did everybody else.

Unlike the last two years, teams used their best wrestlers in the dual meet tournament for as long as it made sense before backing off and resting key guys for the individual state tournament that begins Thursday.

The fourth-ranked Prairie Hawks clipped No.5 Linn-Mar, 35-27, in a spirited battle in the opening round and the seventh-ranked Jefferson J-Hawks pushed No.2 Waverly-Shell Rock to the limit before falling 32-26 in the first round.