Linn-Mar Wrestling

Lions draw North Scott in mat tourney

Waverly-Shell Rock and Iowa City West could have the two strongest wrestling teams in the state this year, so guess who Prairie and Jefferson drew in the Regional Dual Team Tournamament?

Exactly right.

Prairie will visit Waverly-Shell Rock and Jefferson will visit Iowa City West in the opening round of the Regional Dual Team Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Both Metro teams will be heavy underdogs in those meets.

Linn-Mar will host North Scott in the opening round Feb. 22 with a shot at making the state tournament Feb. 26 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

Prairie and Jefferson finished second in the team standings at their district tournaments this past Saturday, which is why they were paired with district champions for the dual team tournament. Linn-Mar won its district and drew a district runnerup in North Scott.

Sixteen teams qualified for the regional tournament. The assignments are Burlington at Bettendorf, Jefferson at Iowa City West, Spencer at Lewis Central, North Scott at Linn-Mar, Ankeny at Mason City, Urbandale at Southeast Polk, Indiana at West Des Moines Valley and Prairie at Waverly-Shell Rock.

Lions win district mat title

 EPWORTH -- They held a demolition derby at Western Dubuque High School Saturday and called it a Class 3A district wrestling tournament.

Linn-Mar survived a day of bloody noses to trim Prairie, 223-207.5, for the district title on a day that had a little of something for everyone.

A little happiness, a little sadness.

Prairie and Kennedy crowned four individual champions apiece, Linn-Mar captured three titles and Xavier notched one as Metro wrestlers nabbed 12 of the 14 individual crowns.

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Lions win division title despite poor outings

The last pair of dual meets for a wrestling team are usually the best and brightest of the season, if not a mini-preview of what’s to come.

Doug Streicher, the Linn-Mar coach, hopes that is definitely not the case for his 2011 team.

Linn-Mar struggled to top Iowa City High, 33-28, then crushed Washington, 61-12, in a double-dual at Washington Thursday night.

"That first dual of ours was not good at all," he said. "We were not intense, not sharp, not focused, they tied us up, they slowed us down, and wrestlers not as good as us were either close to us or beat us."

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Garcia 'Outstanding' in MVC tourney

Amid all the grim-faced and tight-lipped wrestlers at the Mississippi Valley Conference tournament Saturday stood A.J. Garcia, the 215-pounder from Linn-Mar.

He was all smiles.

Garcia upset top-ranked Conner Herman of Cedar Rapids Jefferson to win the 215-pound crown and was named the Outstanding Wrestler in the 14-team field at Xavier.

"I was ready to go for that match," he said. "It's a real big accomplishment for me."

Garcia dominated Herman, 9-3, in the biggest upset of the day, handing Herman his only loss of the season to a fellow 215-pounder.

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