Metro Sports Report

Final countdown for Hutcheson

Athletic competition can turn the best of friends into fierce enemies.

But only for about an hour and a half, says Allie Hutcheson.

Kennedy’s talented senior setter has battled regularly against some of the top volleyball players in the region – and also played side by side with them as teammates on her highly competitive Iowa Rockets USA Volleyball Club squad. They’re best of friends, she says.

Chances are friends will meet as foes again during this week’s state volleyball tournament that begins Wednesday at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

“It’s always a little weird because you want to joke around with them and have fun,” says Hutcheson, who is nothing if not outgoing.

Everybody wins 'Battle of Oney Sisters'

CEDAR FALLS - Craig and Kathy Oney were the proudest parents in the McLeod Center Sunday afternoon.

Two of their daughters - Katelin and Alissa - played against each other in an exhibition basketball game that gave new meaning to the term sibling rivalry.

Katelin, 21, is a senior guard at the University of Northern Iowa, where she's helped the Panthers play in two straight NCAA tournaments. Alissa, 18, is a freshman guard at Maryville University, an NCAA Division II school in St. Louis.

They were on the same team briefly at Cedar Rapids Washington High School in 2008 when Katelin was a senior and Alissa, then a ninth grader, was promoted to the varsity for the state tournament. Other than that, they'd never played with or against each other in a game prior to Sunday's meeting.

2 Cougars, 1 Saint on MVC volleyball squads

Kennedy's Allie Hutcheson and Alexus Rogers were selected to the Mississippi Division first team, and Xavier's Kelly Biermann to the Valley Division first team of the Mississippi Valley Conference volleyball all-conference teams.

Biermann, a senior outside hitter, was a unanimous selection. She had team-highs for kills (293) and aces (30). She also had 41 blocks.

Hutcheson, a senior, was selected as a setter, even though she led the Cougars with 267 kills. She also had a team-high 735 assists to go along with 173 digs and 51 blocks.

Rogers, a junior middle hitter, had 214 kills and 82 blocks.

Class 4A No. 2 Iowa City High, Class 3A No. 1 Dubuque Wahlert and Kennedy, ranked seventh in 4A, had two players apiece on the Mississippi Division first team. Wahlert senior Amy Ihm, City High sophomore Michaela Nelson and Waterloo West senior Zinka Duric were unanimous first team selections. Duric was named Athlete of the Year.

Class 4A No. 1 Iowa City West, No. 4 Dubuque Hempstead and No. 11 Cedar Falls had two players apiece on the Valley Division first team. West seniors Shelly Stumpff and Anna Pashkova, Hempstead junior Audrey Reeg and Biermann were unanimous first team selections. Stumpff was named Athlete of the Year.

Lions win 200 free relay; 8th at state

MARSHALLTOWN – They’ve got no pool of their own and not much tradition.

And the Linn-Mar Lions girls swimmers don’t  get much respect either, at least according to team leader Emilie Berg.

“We’re always considered the underdogs,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

Why, indeed, after Berg and fellow sprinters Lizzie Adams, Lauren Dalecky and Alex Dunn staked claim to the 200-yard freestyle relay title at the high school state championship meet Saturday afternoon at the Marshalltown YMCA.

It helped boost the Lions to eighth place in the final team standings behind runaway winner Ames.