Jefferson High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

No.1 Saints brace for No.3 Solon

The Xavier Saints reached the Class 4A championship game in 2012 and 2013, so some people have anointed them the favorite to win the 3A title this year after dropping down a class despite heavy graduation losses.

The Saints will find out where they really stand Friday night after hosting the third-ranked Solon Spartans.

Xavier whipped then-No.5 Davenport Assumption, 30-6, last Friday. Another convincing victory over Solon might prove the point.

Solon reached the semifinals of the Class 3A playoffs last year and snapped Iowa City Regina's 56-game winning streak this season, 29-28.

All eyes will be on Saints Field in the Class 3A District 4 opener for both clubs.

All eight Metro football teams will be in action Friday night. The Washington Warriors, ranked No.3 in Class 4A, will be hosting Iowa City West at Kingston Stadium. All of the other Metro teams are on the road.

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Murphy brothers help Lions take title

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."

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Mitch Lorenz shoots 36 for Prairie

Mitch Lorenz shot an even-par 36 Thursday to help the Prairie Hawks place second in a Mississippi Valley Conference triangular meet at Twin Pines.

Andrew Kehl fired a 2-under 34 for Dubuque Senior as the Rams won the title.

Nile Happel and Kellen Brown shot 3-over 39's for Jefferson.

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Dubuque Senior 143, 2. Prairie 149, 3. Jefferson 167.

PRAIRIE: Mitch Lorenz 36, Cal Clark 37, Cooper Reittinger 38, Blake Seda 38.

JEFFERSON: Nile Happel 39, Kellen Brown 39, Adam Van Oort 43, Reid Griffith 46, Connor Hammons 46.

Eckley sparks Jefferson swimmers

WILLIAMSBURG - Hannah Eckley won two individual events and swam on two victorious relays Tuesday night as Jefferson dunked Williamsburg, 108-46, in girls swimming at Williamsburg.

Eckley captured the 200 and 500 freestyle races. She also swam on the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.

Tessa McRoberts captured the 100 fly and 100 backstroke for the J-Hawks.

JEFFERSON 108, WILLIAMSBURG 46

EVENT WINNERS

200 medley relay - Jefferson (Bailey Swartzendruber, Mika McChesney, Josie Thompson, Hannah Eckley) 2:07.69

200 free - Aubree Bourgeous (CRJ) 2:47.63

200 IM - Emma Wilkins (CRJ) 2:37.49

50 free - Josie Thompson (CRJ) 27.87

100 fly - Tessa McRoberts (W) 1:06.20

100 free - Taylor Langel (CRJ) 1:01.20

500 free - Hannah Eckley (CRJ) 6:19.03

200 free relay - Jefferson (Emma Wilkins, Emily Wallace, Mika McChesney, Josie Thompson) 1:54.55

100 back - Tessa McRoberts (CRJ) 1:06.23

100 breast - Mike McChesney (CRJ) 1:22.11

400 free relay - Jefferson (Emily Wallace, Taylor Langel, Hannah Eckley, Emma Wilkins) 4:21.91

Ollinger, J-Hawks fall short against Tigers

Amanda Ollinger still has not broken anyone's nose with her powerful kill shots on a volleyball court, but it might be just be a matter of time.

She also has not decided what she's going to do in college. That's just a matter of time as well.

Basketball or volleyball? Volleyball or basketball?

She's an all-state player in both sports, a versatile 6-foot-2 junior with great agility for someone that big and strong.

Ollinger collected 36 kills, 10 blocks and nine digs Tuesday for the Jefferson volleyball club in a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the Cedar Falls Tigers in a Mississippi Valley Conference match at the Jefferson gym.

Cedar Falls prevailed, 27-29, 25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 15-4, after the J-Hawks had taken a 2-1 lead after three sets.

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Ollinger, J-Hawks fall short against Tigers

Amanda Ollinger still has not broken anyone's nose with her powerful kill shots on a volleyball court, but it might be just be a matter of time.

She also has not decided what she's going to do in college. That's just a matter of time as well.

Basketball or volleyball? Volleyball or basketball?

She's an all-state player in both sports, a versatile 6-foot-2 junior with great agility for someone that big and strong.

Ollinger collected 36 kills, 10 blocks and nine digs Tuesday for the Jefferson volleyball club in a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the Cedar Falls Tigers in a Mississippi Valley Conference match at the Jefferson gym.

Cedar Falls prevailed, 27-29, 25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 15-4, after the J-Hawks had taken a 2-1 lead after three sets.

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Kennedy claims CRANDIC golf tourney

IOWA CITY - The Kennedy Cougars flexed their muscles at the annual CRANDIC golf tournament at Pleasant Valley in Iowa City Tuesday.

The Cougars claimed four of the top seven spots in the individual standings and won the team championship with a four-man score of 292.

Davis Sutton of Kennedy was the medalist with a 1-under-par 71. Tanner Stewart placed second with a 72, Cole Murdock tied for fifth with a 74 and Conner Koberg placed seventh with a 75 for Kennedy.

The Cougars won the meet by 11 shots over Washington.

Frank Lindwall of Washington and Trevor McCann of Linn-Mar tied for third at 1-over 73. Jake Patterson of Washington tied for fifth at 2-over 74.

CRANDIC GOLF TOURNAMENT
Pleasant Valley, Iowa City
Par 72

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Kennedy 292, 2. Washington 303, 3. Linn-Mar 314, 4. Xavier 321, 5. Prairie 329, 6. Iowa City West 345, 7. Jefferson 366, 8. Iowa City High 379.

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS

1. Davis Sutton, Kennedy          71
2. Tanner Stewart, Kennedy      72
3. Frank Lindwall, Washington   73
Trevor McCann, Linn-Mar      73
5. Jake Patterson, Washington   74
Cole Murdock, Kennedy          74

KENNEDY: 1. Davis Sutton 71, 2. Tanner Stewart 72, 5. Cole Murdock 74, 7. Conner Koberg 75, 18. Jordan Weiss 82.
WASHINGTON: 3. Frank Lindwall 73, 5. Jake Patterson 74, 8. Jabe Gonder 77, 10. Will Jackson 79, 22. Alex Slattery 83.
LINN-MAR: 3. Trevor McCann 73, 9. Ben Greif 78, 15. Jake Sevcik 81, 18. Max Thrune 82, 23. Brent Larson 84.
XAVIER: 10. Brody Robinson 79, 14. Sam Martin 80, 15. Jordan Even 81, 15. Tyler Breitbach 81, 18. Matt Neumeyer 82.
PRAIRIE: 10. Bryce Prokop 79, 18. Cal Clark 82, 23. Cooper Reittinger 84, 23. Mitch Lorenz 84, 28. Matt Lorenz 85.
JEFFERSON: 31. Nile Happel 87, 33. Adam Van Oort 90, 33. Kellen Brown 90, 41. Reid Griffith 99, 44. Carter Schmitz 103.

Wash tournament had something for everyone

A star-studded 12-team field Saturday at the 24th annual Washington Warrior Invitational volleyball tournament showed once again that class doesn’t really matter.

In the championship finals, Class 5A fourth-ranked Johnston survived Class 3A top-ranked Solon in three games.

But throughout the day-long tourney with seven ranked teams, little schools battled big ones on an equal footing.

From the Metro area, highly ranked Class 4A Marion and Class 5A Linn-Mar both made the championship semifinals. And unranked Jefferson fell to Johnston in the quarterfinals.

“We came really close to both Johnston and Solon,” said J-Hawk Coach Mary Kay Van Oort. “To think we played that well that against such impressive competition that’s here today is a good day. And I know we can play even better.”

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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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