Kennedy High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Kennedy jumps to 7th in Register poll

The Kennedy Cougars climbed to No. 7 in Class 4A in the Des Moines Register football poll Sunday with a 2-0 record.

The Cardiac Cougars have nipped Iowa City West, 34-31, and trimmed Washington, 28-24, in their first two outings and host North Scott this Friday for homecoming.

The Washington Warriors (1-1) dropped out of the rankings this week.

The Xavier Saints are ranked No. 7 in Class 3A after beating Davenport Assumption, 14-7, in their season opener Friday night.

West Des Moines Valley is ranked No. 1 in Class 4A and Pella is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A.

CLASS 4A

1. West Des Moines Valley (2-0), 2. Cedar Falls (2-0), 3. Bettendorf (2-0), 4. West Des Moines Dowling (1-0), 5. Fort Dodge (2-0), 6. Ankeny Centennial (2-0), 7. Kennedy (2-0), 8. Pleasant Valley (2-0), 9. Johnston (2-0), 10. Urbandale (1-1).

CLASS 3A

1. Pella (2-0), 2. West Delaware (2-0), 3. Norwalk (3-0), 4. Webster City (2-0), 5. Harlan (2-0), 6. Waverly-Shell Rock (2-0), 7. Xavier (1-0), 8. Solon (1-1), 9. Sioux City Heelan (2-0), 10. Independence (2-0).

Gorman, Eck win races at L-M meet

Reagan Gorman and Samuel Eck of Washington were the individual winners at the Linn-Mar Invitational cross country meet Saturday at the Oak Ridge Middle School.

Gorman captured the girls 5K race in 20 minutes, 12 seconds. Eck claimed the boys 5K race in 17 minutes, 17 seconds.

Linn-Mar won the girls team title and Washington took the boys team title.

GIRLS RESULTS

Team Standings

1. Linn-Mar 34, 2. Jefferson 59, 3. Xavier 80, 4. Kennedy 81, 5. Washington 105, 6. Waterloo East 178.

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Cougars top Warriors in thriller

The Kennedy Cougars have supplanted the Washington Warriors as the new kings of Metro football.

By a whisker.

The ninth-ranked Cougars edged the fifth-ranked Warriors, 28-24, in a see-saw thriller Friday night at Kingston Stadium in a battle of Metro powers.

Washington rallied from a 21-3 deficit to grab a 24-21 lead in the fourth quarter, but Kennedy responded and scored the winning touchdown on a 3-yard run by Shaun Beyer with 5:22 left in the game.

The Cougars and Warriors could meet again in the Class 4A playoffs in two months, but for now the Cougars have bragging rights against a club that reached the state finals last year.

Beyer switched from tight end to wildcat quarterback to score the winning touchdown, leaning his 6-foot-5 body over the goal line for his first victory over Washington in four tries.

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Kennedy boys second at Iowa City

IOWA CITY - Led by a fourth-place finish from senior Andrew Solsrud, the Kennedy boys cross country team finished second Thursday at the Bob Brown Cross Country Classic at Kickers Soccer Park.

Mount Vernon-Lisbon won the team title with 58 points, followed by Kennedy with 66. Solsrud covered the 5-kilometer course in 17:44.98. Matt Manternach of Monticello won in 17:15.34.

The Cougar girls finished in third place, led by Hannah Fusselman's third-place finish. She ran the course in 20.41.31. Durant's Alyssa Williams won the event in 19:15.31.

Monticello win the team title with 45 points, followed by Mount Vernon-Lisbon (79) and Kennedy (97)

KENNEDY BOYS: 4. Andrew Solsrud, 17:44.98; 8. Derek Girling, 17:59.75; 14. Jackson Foley, 18:12.70, 15. Jacob Ciabatti, 18:13.82, 28. Jackson Middlekauff, 18:37.61, 43. Gage Cadenhead 19:27.32, 56. Braden Ernst  19:52.07.

KENNEDY GIRLS: 3. Hannah Fusselman, 20:41.31, 6. Grace Walker, 21:01.60; 20. Hannah Peterson, 23:14.32, 34. Ali Meyer, 24:15.45, 36. Emily Manders, 24.21.13, 44. Hannah Ratzler, 24.56.25, 45. Olivia Green 24.58.42.

Warriors cruise at Airport National

The Washington Warriors found Airport National to their liking Thursday and captured the title at a five-team golf tournament.

Alex Slattery claimed medalist honors for Washington with a 2-under-par 30 as the Warriors finished with 127 strokes. Washington teammates Frank Lindwall and Jabe Gonder shared second place at 1-under 31.

Cameron Stump of Kennedy and Griffen Clark of Prairie tied for fourth at even-par 32.

The Warriors topped Prairie by nine shots in the team standings.

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Prairie jumps to 5th in volleyball

The Cedar Rapids Prairie volleyball team jumped seven spots to No. 5 in the new Class 5A rankings Thursday by the IGHSAU.

The Hawks are now the highest-ranked Metro team in Class 5A after getting off to a 4-0 start. Kennedy is ranked No. 7 in Class 5A and Linn-Mar is ranked No. 8.

The Marion Indians, who open their season Thursday night against Vinton-Shellsburg, stayed in the No. 2 spot in Class 4A.

Iowa City High is ranked No. 1 in Class 5A and West Delaware is No. 1 in Class 4A.

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No. 9 Cougars aiming for No. 5 Warriors

It's always fun to head into a big high school football game when you have no clue how it's going to turn out.

That's the case heading into Friday night's showdown between the ninth-ranked Kennedy Cougars and fifth-ranked Washington Warriors at Kingston Stadium.

Based on last year's results, you'd have to make the Warriors a heavy favorite. But based on how things are shaping up this year, it could be a toss-up.

The picture can change quickly in high school sports. Washington reached the Class 4A state championship game last season and finished with a sparkling 13-1 record. Kennedy, meanwhile, began the season with a six-game losing streak and had to hustle to finish 3-8.

Washington returned a host of outstanding skill players this season, but the Warriors took a heavy hit on the offensive line. Now it's Kennedy that has a strong offensive line that helped tailback Tyler Dralle rush for 265 yards and four touchdowns last week in an exciting 34-31 victory over Iowa City West.

Washington was locked in a 14-14 battle with Jefferson last week before the Warriors broke away for a 27-14 victory, with its rebuilt offensive line opening some nice holes when it mattered.

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No. 5 Cougars spike No. 3 Lions

For awhile Tuesday night, it looked like big Amanda Ollinger was going to personally wreck the Kennedy Cougars in their volleyball showdown with Linn-Mar at the Kennedy gym.

The Cougars kept their cool and battled back for a 17-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-15 victory over the Lions in a battle between two of the top Class 5A volleyball teams in the state.

Linn-Mar is ranked No. 3 and Kennedy is ranked No. 5, but the experienced Cougars were the better club this time.

Ollinger, a 6-foot-1 senior who will play basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes, collected eight kills in the first set as the Lions got off to a fast start, but she had only 10 more kills the rest of the night.

"We started off a little shaky," Kennedy senior Tianna Drahn acknowledged.

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Williams paces Kennedy by J-Hawks

Jessica Williams was a triple-winner Tuesday night as Kennedy topped Jefferson, 124-61, in a Mississippi Valley Conference swimming meet at Jefferson.

Williams won the 500 freestyle and swam on the triumphant 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.

Maddie Bagby, Raquel Green, Alicia Miltner, Kassidy Lovig, MacKinzee Macho and Peyton Ross were double-winners for the Cougars. Macho captured the 100 fly and 100 back.

Jaylee Chung claimed the 50 free and 100 free for Jefferson.

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