Prairie Boys Cross Country

VanDraska grabs 2nd at state meet

FORT DODGE - Tysen VanDraska planned to use his punishing kick to lick the field at the Class 4A state cross country meet Saturday in Fort Dodge and bring home the title.

Denied the championship, VanDraska employed his infamous kick to claim second place with a gutsy finish on the soft, squishy turf at Lakeside Golf Course.

VanDraska was hoping to whip Ryan Schweizer of Dowling for the individual title in the latest renewal of their personal showdowns, but Schweizer was a little too fast for Van Draska on a gray 50-degree day in Fort Dodge.

VanDraska appeared to slow down near the finish when he realized he wasn't going to win the race. He was running in third place with about 50 yards left when a runner suddenly appeared on his right shoulder.

Unwilling to finish fourth, VanDraska kicked into high gear and nipped Sam Schillinger of Cedar Falls and Trevor Kirk of West Des Moines Valley for the silver medal.

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Prairie runs away with district title

For awhile Thursday afternoon, it looked like the Cedar Rapids Prairie boys cross country team was holding an intrasquad scrimmage at Seminole Valley Park with all those orange checkerboard jerseys at the front of the pack.

It pretty much ended that way, too.

Tysen VanDraska led a 1-2-3 finish by the Prairie Hawks as they ran away with top honors at the Class 4A district meet.

"That was the goal," said VanDraska, who covered the 5K layout in a swift 15 minutes, 39.34 seconds. "We came out and executed it as best we could. And it worked out."

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VanDraska powers Prairie to title

DUBUQUE - Tysen VanDraska ran away with top honors and led Cedar Rapids Prairie to a convincing victory at the Mississippi Division cross country meet Thursday at the Dubuque Soccer Complex.

VanDraska toured the 5K race in 15 minutes, 29.5 seconds. He defeated teammate Cam Steffens by 29.3 seconds.

The Prairie Hawks also finished 5th, 8th and 9th with Chris Oehlert, Jake Moore and Colton LaGrange to end the meet with 25 points.

Steve Culpepper of Xavier placed seventh. Samuel Eck of Washington was 10th.

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VanDraska gets revenge at MVC meet

WATERLOO - Tysen VanDraska was not happy when he lost to a pair of runners from Cedar Falls at the Cedar Rapids Prairie Invitational back in August at the start of the cross country season.

He did something about it Thursday.

VanDraska used a blistering kick to conquer those same two runners from Cedar Falls and take top honors at the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet at Byrnes Park in Waterloo.

Sam Schillinger and Isaac Smith of Cedar Falls pulled away from VanDraska in the final stages of the Prairie Invitational to finish first and second in that race, but this time the Prairie senior was ready for them.

VanDraska sprinted away from the Tigers in the home stretch and won the race in 15 minutes, 46 seconds. He beat Schillinger by four seconds and topped Smith by six seconds.

The three premier distance runners ran neck-and-neck for most of the 5K race before VanDraska took control. It was two-against-one for much of the day in terms of strategy, but VanDraska handled the challenge.

"I knew they were going to try and pick on me the whole race and eventually beat me down, so I just tried my best to stay on them as much as I could," he said. "And I knew I could finish with them."

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