Metro Sports Report

No guarantees for Metro boys teams

Todd Tharp is the answer to your question.

He's the official at the Iowa High School Athletic Association who's in charge of making the Class 4A substate assignments for boys basketball this season.

It's not an easy job. He's got to study the teams and geography, then find an equitable solution that makes it possible for the best eight clubs to reach the state tournament.

There are 48 teams in Class 4A. The IHSAA will announce the eight substate assignments on Monday, but will wait until Feb. 7 or Feb. 8 to announce the pairings. It's a two-step process.

Six teams will be assigned to each substate on Monday, but they won't know who they'll play until two weeks after that. That gives Tharp more time to analyze results, seed teams and set the games.

Cougars dominate J-Hawks on the mat

Kennedy broke out the white singlets for its Senior Night meet against Jefferson.

It was not a white flag of surrender.

Kennedy routed Jefferson, 45-25, Thursday night in a Mississippi Valley Conference wrestling meet at Kennedy.

Kennedy won the first seven matches before forfeiting to Jefferson’s Conner Herman at 215. The J-Hawks’ Riley Welsh pinned Jake Dunne at heavyweight and Griffin Bollman received a forfeit at 103.

Kennedy won eight of the matches contested, Jefferson three.

Key matches for Kennedy included 145-pound senior Logan Kubovec winning over Dylan Moenck, 6-2.

“I just wanted to dominate—he beat me before earlier in the year,” said Kubovec. “I wanted to give the crowd what they came to see.”

Lions, Warriors hold spots, Xavier slips

Linn-Mar and Washington kept their holds on the No. 3 and 5 spots, respectively, in the Class 4A basketball poll released Thursday by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.

Xavier, which was beaten by Linn-Mar and Washington in its last two games, fell five spots to No. 11.

Three other Mississippi Valley Conference teams are ranked. Iowa City West is No. 4, Iowa City High No. 6 and Waterloo West No. 7.

CLASS 4A POLL (Records through Wed.)

1. Des Moines East (11-0), 2. Ankeny (11-0), 3. Linn-Mar (12-1), 4. Iowa City West (10-1), 5. Washington (10-1), 6. Iowa City High (11-2), 7. Waterloo West (9-2), 8. Southeast Polk (11-1), 9. Pleasant Valley (11-1), 10. Sioux City North (7-3), 11. Xavier (10-3), 12. Waukee (8-3), 13. West Des Moines Dowling (9-2), 14. Mason City (10-2), 15. Lewis Central (7-1).

See all the polls >> 

Piecing together the tourneys

The next two weeks begin a huge time for prep boys and girls basketball teams in the Metro area and across Iowa.

Not only are teams trying to fit all their “pieces” together to come up with the best possible combination to win games, but also the pairings for the various substate and regional tournaments will be determined.