Kiah Stokes of Linn-Mar and Matt Stocker of Cedar Rapids Prairie were named the Linn County Athletes of the Year at the 11th Annual Celebration of Sports Banquet Sunday night at the Clarion Hotel & Convention Center.

The program was organized by the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. The winners were selected by members of the bureau's Sports Tourism Advisory Committee.

Stokes was named "Miss Basketball" in Iowa this year and also was an all-state selection in volleyball. She helped Linn-Mar win the state basketball title in 2010 as a junior and broke the state record for blocked shots this season.

Stokes will continue her basketball career at the University of Connecticut and has already enrolled for summer classes.

Stocker helped Prairie win the state cross country title last fall and also helped the Hawks win the 4x800 relay at the state track meet this spring with a strong anchor leg. He will continue his running career at Minnesota State.

Stokes and Stocker were selected from a distinguished group of nominees from 14 high schools in Linn County. All of the nominees were the Athlete of the Year at their school.

The other Metro nominees for the Female Linn County Athlete of the Year were Layloni Beard (Washington), Katie Carver (Prairie), Shauna Happel (Kennedy), Ashley Madsen (Jefferson), Tyler Sampson (Xavier) and Leah Smith (Marion).

The other Metro nominees for Male Linn County Athlete of the Year were Matt Bohannon (Linn-Mar), Alex Carr (Washington), Nathan Even (Xavier), Conner Herman (Jefferson), Kasey Semler (Marion) and Ryan Sheldon (Kennedy).

Beard plans to participate in volleyball and track at Cornell College. Carver will attend Iowa State. Happel will play soccer at Northern Iowa. Madsen will play softball at DMACC. Sampson will run track at Western Illinois. Smith will play softball at St. Ambrose.

Bohannon will play basketball at Northern Iowa. Carr will play football at Northern Iowa. Even plans to play football at Loras College. Herman plans to play football and wrestle at Coe College. Semler will play basketball at Kirkwood Community College. Sheldon will wrestle at Coe.

Iowa State basketball coach Fred Hoiberg was the featured speaker at the banquet.