Metro Sports Report

Snafu nearly costs Piche 2nd at Drake

DES MOINES -- Linn-Mar senior Amanda Piche lived dangerously at the 102nd Annual Drake Relays on Thursday.

She was almost disqualified for wearing the wrong number on her uniform (not her fault), then almost failed to qualify for the finals in the discus after winning the event here last year.

"I was kind of freaking out," she said.

Xavier grad Nelson wins Drake Relays race

DES MOINES - Former Xavier High School state champion Meaghan Nelson won the 5000 meter run for university and college runners Thursday night at the 102nd Drake Relays.

Nelson is a junior at Iowa State, but she ran unattached Thursday. She has battled injuries this year and is taking a redshirt season with the ISU women's track team.

Nelson captured the 5000 in 16 minutes, 27.55 seconds. Technically, she was the unofficial winner of the race because she ran unattached. Martina Barinova of Nebraska got credit for the victory in 16:28.77, more than a second slower than Nelson.

Nelson helped Xavier win a state cross country title during her career with the Saints. She finished second in the 1500 and fourth in the 3000 at the 2008 state track meet as a senior.

Metro wrestling coaches don't like change

Metro wrestling coaches had an interesting response Wednesday after learning of a big change in the State Dual Meet Tournament.

To a man, they don't like it.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association announced Wednesday that the State Dual Meet Tournament is leaving Cedar Rapids and will be held at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines in conjunction with the Traditional State Wrestling Tournament in 2012.

The dual meet tournament will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and the traditional tournament will be held the following three days on Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 16-18. Previously, the dual meet tournament was held a week after the traditional tournament.

Under the new format, the traditional state tournament will be reduced from four days to three days at Wells Fargo Arena.

Linn-Mar Coach Doug Streicher, Prairie Coach Blake Williams, Jefferson Coach Dick Briggs and Kennedy Coach Brent Paulson all like the idea of shrinking the traditional state tournament to three days, but they all strongly dislike the idea of holding the dual meet tournament on the day before the traditional tournament begins.

All four coaches said it's a question of fairness. Some wrestlers will be asked to compete on four straight days (if their teams qualify for the state duals) while other wrestlers will compete on only three straight days (if their teams do not qualify for the state duals).

IHSAA made the right move with wrestling

It was anticlimactic. What was the "it"? The state dual team wrestling tournament.

Having it a week after the traditional state tournament, even though it was here in Cedar Rapids, simply didn't do it for the team sport concept of a state championship.

After all, the big show in Des Moines was already over and the state duals at the U.S. Cellular Center just became an adjunct to the season.

Consequently the Iowa High School Athletic Association, after the national association made some changes in the weight classes, decided to put the duals at the front of the parade in Des Moines. That means on the Wednesday of state tournament week, the dual championships will be decided before the individual champions are crowned in the Thursday through Saturday event.

Better for the wrestlers, lousy for Cedar Rapids. But if you looked at it with a balanced view, you can see the reasoning behind the association's change. Plus, Cedar Rapids will have to go back to square one when the new convention complex is completed and now will have to start promoting the future to try and bring other sporting events to the area when it is ready for occupancy.