Metro Sports Report

Metro is the discus capital of Iowa

DES MOINES - Sam Joens and Amanda Piche turned the discus events into a Metro celebration at the Class 4A state track meet Thursday.

Two events, two state champions, two wide margins of victory.

Joens, a senior at Cedar Rapids Prairie, uncorked the five best throws of the entire competition and won the state title with a heave of 184 feet, 6 inches.

Piche, a senior at Linn-Mar, won the girls title by more than eight feet with a mighty toss of 146 feet, 4 inches.

Joens was a monster. His five best throws of 184-6, 181-4, 180-4, 177-9 and 171-8 were all better than the 167-7 toss by Jacob Hayes of Bettendorf that took second place.

Joens actually finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the event if you judge by sheer distance.

"I can't complain about anything," said Joens, who will join the Big Ten champs at the University of Iowa next season. "I'm just happy the way it turned out."

Prairie wins 4x800 relay; Dunn nabs 4th title

DES MOINES - Ryan Smith, Justin Burns and Matt Stocker exchanged hugs and celebrated winning the 4x800 meter relay at the Class 4A state track meet Thursday.

A few feet away, Kyle Stocker lay sprawled on the ground, unceremoniously depositing a stream of bodily gunk onto the Field Turf at Drake Stadium, unable to join his teammates.

That was OK with Kyle Stocker. He's accustomed to missing the party with the Hawks.

"I didn't want them to wait for me," he said 10 minutes later, after partially recovering from his arduous leg on the relay. "I do my own thing after a race. I throw up. All the nerves."

It was a heck of a race, except for Kyle Stocker's inability to celebrate the victory in style.

The Hawks toured the Blue Oval at Drake in 7 minutes, 54.56 records to beat Indianola by slightly more than two seconds. The public address announcer said the 800-meter splits were 1:58.8 for Kyle Stocker, 1:59.6 for Smith, 1:59.8 for Burns and 1:56.2 for Matt Stocker, but that was unofficial and does not exactly equal 7:54.56.

It doesn't matter. They were fast. "Overall," Matt Stocker said, "it was great."

Kennedy girls forge tie atop MVC

The Kennedy girls soccer team pulled even with Washington atop the Mississippi Valley Conference's Mississippi Division standings Thursday night.

The Cougars, who trailed the Warriors by one game in the standings coming into the game, pitched a shutout with a 2-0 victory at Kingston Stadium.

“It is a big deal to us because we have won the conference for the past four or five years now so it is kind of a tradition we want to hold,” said Kennedy senior forward Shauna Happel. “The fact that they were one game ahead of us coming into the game made us that much more motivation to beat them. We don’t want to lose to Wash and we don’t want to lose the conference championship, so this was a big one for us.”

Freshman forward Emily Feltes led the way for the Cougars putting in both goals.

“She is one of several freshmen that are just really talented and as they are figuring out the high school system compared to playing in their age appropriate teams, they are doing well,” said Kennedy Coach Homer Screws. “She is really talented, she has a strong foot and she is a true forward. She likes to score goals so it is a nice thing to have.”

Feltes’ first goal came in the 29th minute when she headed a beautiful cross from fellow freshman Kaela Dickerman into the back of the net. Feltes struck again in the 65th minute. She wrestled the ball away from a Washington defender and took advantage of the Warrior keeper coming out and netted her second goal of the night.

Warriors nip Kennedy boys in soccer

The fifth-ranked Washington boys soccer team secured a second place finish in the Mississippi Valley Conference's Mississippi Division on Thursday by beating its rival, No. 7  Kennedy, 1-0 at Kingston Stadium.

The game was fast paced and physical as Washington (14-3, 11-2) and Kennedy (12-5, 9-4) slugged it out in the regular-season finale.

“The game was fast paced all around,” said Washington senior keeper Camron Harrison. “They attacked us hard and we attacked back. Our defense really pulled through and our boys up top did their job. This whole week we have been working on give and goes and it connected. It just seemed like their defense got lost when we put it to them.”