Linn-Mar Girls Cross Country

Decker races to MVC title

Linn-Mar junior Amber Decker established herself as one of the top distance runners in Iowa a long time ago, but she stands only 19th in the current state cross country rankings and had not done anything truly special this season.

That changed Thursday.

Decker raced to the front of the pack and posted an impressive wire-to-wire victory at the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet in 14 minutes, 32 seconds for the 4K course at Prairie.

Decker thinks she may have been sub-consciously waiting for the bigger races to come around - like the MVC Super Meet and the postseason meets that are on the horizon.

"My parents described it a little bit as teen-age procrastination. I don't know," she said, smiling. "It's been kind of a struggle this year, but I'm glad that I pushed through.

"It was a good race. It was a good time to finally push through and do what I needed to do."

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Amber Decker wins Metro Spotlight Award

Linn-Mar junior Amber Decker is the winner of the Metro Spotlight Award for high school girls this week, the Metro Sports Report announced Sunday.

Decker, one of the top runners in Iowa, posted a convincing wire-to-wire victory in the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet Thursday on the Prairie High School cross country course. She defeated runners from all 14 MVC schools, showing she's ready to compete for high honors at the state meet this year.

Decker finished ninth at the state cross country meet as a freshman in 2012 and placed eighth last year as a sophomore. Now she appears ready to take another step this season.

Decker also has excelled at the Class 4A state track meets the past two years. She has collected seven top-10 finishes in individual events and relays for Linn-Mar.

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Warriors’ Eck fourth at Dubuque meet

DUBUQUE – Cedar Rapids Washington junior Sam Eck was the top Metro finisher Thursday at the Eastern Iowa Classic, taking fourth in a time of 16:28.3.

Eck’s finish helped the Warriors to a third-place team finish in the boys division with 84 points. Individual champion Joe Meehan (16:09.02) led Dubuque Hempstead to the team title with 31 points. Iowa City High was second with 72. Among other Metro teams Kennedy was fifth, Linn-Mar seventh and Xavier ended up 10th.

Xavier’s Jenny Dickes was the top girls Metro finisher, taking sixth in 15:31.3. Iowa City High’s Mary Arch won in 14:54.50, leading the Little Hawks to the team title with 51 points. Prairie was the top Metro school, finishing fourth. Other Metro team finishes included: Kennedy (fifth), Xavier (seventh), Linn-Mar (eighth) and Washington (10th).

EASTERN IOWA CLASSIC
BOYS
TEAM STANDINGS
1. Dubuque Hempstead 31,  2. Iowa City High 72, 3. Washington 84, 4. Dubuque Wahlert 129, 5. Kennedy 138, 6. Waterloo West 160,  7. Linn-Mar 187, 8. Clinton 205, 9. Davenport North 220, 10. Xavier  240, 11. Iowa City Regina 277.

WASHINGTON : 4. Sam Eck 16:28.3, 10. Finbar Berry 16:49.4, 17. Sam Werner 17:08.3, 25. Wyatt Forster 17:28.5,  28. Ryan Miller 17:32.5, 39. Ian Klopfenstein 17:51.9, 48. Augie Bergstrom 18:03.9.

KENNEDY: 11. Addison   Furry 16:49.5, 20. Andrew Solsrud 17:17.4, 24. Derek Girling 17:27.8, 34. Reece Linder 17:45.7, 49. Tim Zange 18:05.4, 55. Hunter Schoenauer 18:28.9, 56. Riley Patton 19:32.8.

LINN-MAR: 12. Michael Mather 16:50.9, 35. Johnny Clymer 17:47.6,  40. Thomas Doyle 17:52.9, 46.  Kyle Gansen  18:03., 54. Jake Bushlack, 12 18:25.8,  60. Griffin Lorenz 18:43.4, 68. Ethan Schmidt 19:20.6.

XAVIER: 8. Steven Culpepper 16:39.6, 44. Evan Gradoville 18:01.9,  61. John Pape 18:51.9,  63. Nolan Pithan 19:02.6,  64. Evan  Bednar 19:03.5, 65. Nick Lyon 19:03.8, 66. Sam Rohret 19:05.1.

GIRLS
TEAM STANDINGS
1. Iowa  City High 51, 2. Dubuque Hempstead 59,  3. Iowa City Regina 95, 4. Prairie 109, 5. Kennedy 129, 6. Dubuque Wahlert 144,  7. Xavier 200, 8. Linn-Mar 222, 9. Clinton 237, 10. Washington 257, 11. Waterloo West 313,  12. Davenport North 319.

PRAIRIE: 18. Cayla Renwick 16:06.1, 20. Sarah Meyers 16:11.7,  22. Hannah Frazee 16:15.4,  24. Eilish Stanek 16:18.8,  25. Alissa Neubauer 16:19.4, 31. Victoria Enyart 16:37.2, 34. Kristin Skriver 16:48.4.

KENNEDY: 15. Lauren Meyer 16:02.2, 16. Hannah Fusselman 16:02.5, 19. Laura Feld  16:10.1,  38. Kate Nus 16:53.6, 41. Lauren Gifford 16:54.9, 49 Alli Meyer 17:03.0, 53. Emily Manders 17:24.8.

XAVIER: 6. Jenny Dickes  15:31.3, 29. Emiko Coffey 16:36.2, 50. Kiana Stanek 17:06.1, 57.  Lydia   Brown     17:42.4,   58. Annie Sigmon 17:47.3 62. Faith Satern 18:10.9, 65. Jennifer Sigmon 18:22.8.

LINN-MAR: 36.  Jaclyn Simons 16:52.7, 40. Madeline Block, 16:54.7, 43. Abby Van Rheenen 16:55.5, 44. Abby Gries 16:56.2,  59  Crystal Barajas-Peterson 17:47.4, 61. Emma Clanin 18:09.1.

WASHINGTON: 9. Sarah Altemeier 15:37.1, 51. Sierra Sheets 17:08.7, 60. Serena Eck 17:48.7, 64. Brett Visser 18:17.3, 73. Anne Visser 19:21.4.

Lions run away with Linn-Mar Invy

The Linn-Mar High School cross country teams dominated their own invitational at Lowe Park in Marion Saturday morning.

The Linn-Mar girls swept the top five spots in their race for a perfect score of 15 points to easily outdistance the six-team field. The Linn-Mar boys nearly duplicated the feat by sweeping the top four spots in their race.

Amber Decker sped to victory over the 4K girls course in 15 minutes, 18 seconds for a 13-second victory over teammate Maddie Saville.

Dalton Gosch claimed top honors in the 5K boys race in 16 minutes, 27 seconds for a 19-second victory over teammate Ryan Murphy.

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