Kennedy Girls Cross Country

Murphy runs away at Prairie Invy

The last time Daniel Murphy ran in a high school cross country race, he collapsed at the Class 4A state meet in Fort Dodge and ended up in a hospital.

Saturday was much, much better.

Murphy ran away with top honors at the 30th Prairie Invitational and shattered the meet record in 15 minutes, 26 seconds for the 5K course.

The Linn-Mar senior beat Tysen VanDraska of Prairie by 11 seconds in the field of 17 schools and 119 individuals.

"I was not expecting that, honestly," Murphy said after his convincing victory. "Me and Tysen were battling a lot. I'm going to take it. It's a P.R. (personal record)."

Murphy was one of the top runners for the Linn-Mar varsity last year as a junior, but he suffered from dehydration and perhaps a virus at the state meet and finished 115th and last in 19 minutes, 43 seconds.

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Kennedy girls on stride for state meet

Led by its four horsemen in the orange checkerboard jerseys, the Cedar Rapids Prairie boys cross country team set sights on a state championship by running away from the field in the regional qualifying meet Thursday afternoon at the Tuma Soccer Complex.

The Kennedy girls, meanwhile, punched their own ticket to next week's state meet in Fort Dodge with a runnerup finish behind Iowa City West in team competition.

And though she didn't come close to winning, Washington's future U.S. Naval Academy cadet Shannon Gorman made waves for herself by coming in second to West's indefatigable Ashlynn Yokom.

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Kennedy girls take 2nd at division race

IOWA CITY - Alyssa Averhoff and Allison Culver helped Kennedy finish in second place at the Mississippi Division cross country meet Thursday in Iowa City.

Ashlynn Yokom led Iowa City West to the team championship. Averhoff placed second and Culver finished third for the Cougars.

The Jefferson girls finished in fifth place.

Jonathan Specht led Dubuque Hempstead to the boys title. Kennedy placed fifth and Jefferson was sixth.

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Hawks, Cougars rule in Iowa City

IOWA CITY - Cedar Rapids Prairie senior Mitch Pritts raced to victory at the Iowa City West Invitational cross country meet Tuesday and led the Hawks to the team championship.

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy girls also had a good day and claimed first place in their race.

Pritts captured the 5K boys race in 16 minutes, 7.51 seconds. Mason Tope of Davenport Central finished second in 16:14.04.

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