Ryan Murphy has been chasing his older brother Daniel since they began competing in races back in grade school.

Don't look now, but Ryan is beginning to catch up.

Daniel Murphy placed second and Ryan Murphy finished fourth Thursday to help the Linn-Mar Lions claim the Cedar Rapids Invitational with an impressive performance at Noelridge Park.

Daniel, a senior, covered the 5 kilometer course in 15 minutes, 42 seconds. Ryan, a sophomore, finished just 15.39 seconds behind his brother.

Daniel Murphy was delighted for his brother.

"That's awesome. Geez, that's really good," Daniel said while looking at the official results. "Dang, that's awesome for him."

Ryan was pretty happy, too.

"That's a 23-second P.R. (personal record), I think," he said. "I've really improved since last track season. I'm happy with it."

The Murphy brothers seem to have a mutual admiration society.

"I've looked up to him my whole life," said Ryan. "To beat him would be the top. It's awesome to be up there with him."

Ryan Murphy finished ahead of Daniel at the Linn-Mar Invitational this past Saturday, but it was a small meet and Daniel used the outing as a training exercise. Ryan does not count that race as an official family

victory, but he'll keep trying and hopes to catch him some day.

"Maybe," he said, smiling. "If I have a good race."

Linn-Mar had an excellent race Thursday with five runners in the top 15. Dalton Gosch placed 11th, Bryan Fogerty ran 13th and Jay Halverson was 15th.

The Lions finished with 45 points for a solid victory over Iowa City West (80) and Cedar Rapids Prairie (84).

Linn-Mar has looked good this year, with major victories at the Prairie Invitational and Cedar Rapids Invitational despite losing superstar Josh Evans to Iowa State University. The Lions are ranked third in the state, but they've set their sights on being No.1.

"Hopefully soon," said Daniel Murphy. "How about state?

"I can't wait until the postseason to see how we stack up."

Josh Yeager of Center Point-Urbana won the individual title in 15 minutes, 35.89 seconds, beating Daniel Murphy by a little more than six seconds.

Tysen Van Draska of Prairie placed third in 15:54.46. Jake Moore of Prairie placed sixth in 16:10.66.

Colton Foster of Marion finished 10th in 16:18.80.

The Linn-Mar girls placed third in their race. Amber Decker led the Lions in fifth place in 14:38.68 and Maddie Saville of Linn-Mar took 10th in 15:00.65.

McKenzie Yanek of Pleasant Valley ran away with the title in 14:00.30 for a 24-second victory. Ames won the girls team championship.

CEDAR RAPIDS INVITATIONAL

GIRLS RESULTS

Team Standings

1. Ames 55, 2. Iowa City West 66, 3. Pleasant Valley 85, 4. Linn-Mar 93, 5. Muscatine 120, 6. Bettendorf 138, 7. Iowa City High 141, 8. Prairie 250, 9. Kennedy 259, 10. Wahlert 302.

11. Marion 325, 12. North Scott 377, 13. Washington 393, 14. Xavier 396, 15. Davenport Central 423, 16. Center Point-Urbana 481, 17. Davenport West 483, 18. Waterloo West 540.

Top 5 Individuals

1.  McKenzie Yanek, Pleasant Valley    14:00.30
2.  Payton Boylston, Ames              14:24.26
3.  Brina Kraft, Muscatine             14:26.36
4.  Emmie Skopec, Iowa City West       14:28.92
5.  Amber Decker, Linn-Mar             14:38.68

LINN-MAR: 5. Amber Decker 14:38.68, 10. Maddie Saville 15:00.65, 21. Morgan Garcia 15:14.68, 27. Maddie Mann 15:24.47, 30. Deanna Newhouse 15:26.96.

PRAIRIE: 43. Hannah Frazee 15:49.30, 44. Alissa Neubauer 15:52.99, 50. Kirstin Skriver 16:08.58, 53. Eilish Stanek 16:11.25, 60. Sarah Meyers 16:25.61.

KENNEDY: 20. Lauren Meyer 15:11.66, 36. Hannah Fusselman 15:37.82, 57. Laura Feld 16:17.72, 72. Emily Manders 16:48.29, 74. Kate Nus 16:50.24.

MARION: 34. Madison Bach 15:36.13, 55. Sam Livingston 16:13.77, 71. Andrea Ertz 16:47.63, 79. Sydney Brase 16:53.77, 86. Skylar Dede 17:03.58.

WASHINGTON: 38. Sarah Altemeier 15:42.77, 73. Serena Eck 16:49.14, 87. Joi Johnson 17:04.78, 97. Sierra Sheetz 17:32.86, 98. Brett Visser 18:38.99.

XAVIER: 49. Emiko Coffey 16:07.06, 78. Maddy Bailey 16:53.35, 85. Kiana Stanek 17:02.85, 91. Sydney Oakley 17:12.75, 93. Faith Satern 17:6. 62.

BOYS RESULTS

Team Standings

1. Linn-Mar 45, 2. Iowa City West 80, 3. Prairie 84, 4. Iowa City High 178, 5. Washington 198, 6. Wahlert 199, 7. Marion 227, 8. Bettendorf 229, 9. Center Point-Urbana 237, 10. Kennedy 243.

11. Ames 271, 12. Pleasant Valley 312, 13. North Scott 337, 14. Muscatine 342, 15. Xavier 355, 16. Davenport Central 361, 17. Jefferson 464, 18. Waterloo West 465.

Top 5 Individuals

1. Josh Yeager, Center Point-Urbana    15:35.89
2. Daniel Murphy, Linn-Mar             15:42.00
3. Tysen VanDraska, Prairie            15:54.46
4. Ryan Murphy, Linn-Mar               15:57.39
5. Akash Borde, Iowa City West         16:06.14

LINN-MAR: 2. Daniel Murphy 15:42.00, 4. Ryan Murphy 15:57.39, 11. Dalton Gosch 16:21.69, 13. Bryan Fogerty 16:22.27, 15. Jay Halverson 16:29.64.

PRAIRIE: 3. Tysen VanDraska 15:54.46, 6. Jake Moore 16:10.66, 20. Matt Lorenz 16:35.18, 24. Chris Oehlert 16:38.20, 31. Zack Fiser 16:46.42.

WASHINGTON: 18. Sam Eck 16:32.72, 27. Finbar Berry 16:41.53, 45. Sam Werner 17:02.34, 53. Ryan Miller 17:12.27, 55. Ian Hoover-Grinde 17:14.62.

MARION: 10. Colton Forster 16:18.80, 39. Myles Bach 16:57.15, 41. Jeremy Fopma 16:58.42, 66. "Austin Yirkovsky 17:24.14, 71. Hunter Reifschneider 17:35.90.

KENNEDY: 28. Addison Furry 16:43.96, 43. Andrew Solsrud 16:59.40, 54. Tim Zange 17:12.51, 58. Derek Girling 17:18.04, 60. Reece Linder 17:19.84.

XAVIER: 22. Steve Culpepper 16:36.67, 65. Jonathan Francois 17:23.06, 70. Nick Koechner 17:34.96, 98. Nolan Pithan 18:22.57, 100. Evan Gradoville 18:25.50.

JEFFERSON: 82. Trey Hitchings 17:59.15, 84. Nate Homan 18:00.07, 92. Jason Chung 18:15.67, 101. Christopher Haring 18:26.00, 105. Kane Kramer 18:39.18.