Xavier High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Gerke beats Conway, aims for 3rd place

DES MOINES - Xavier senior Josh Gerke beat his nemesis at the state wrestling tournament Friday and will be aiming for third place when  the meet ends Saturday in Des Moines.

Gerke has lost three matches to Caleb Conway of Marion this season, but he trimmed Conway 5-3 in a consolation match Friday at 145 pounds and will finish ahead of Conway at the state tournament.

Gerke also defeated Drew Sams of Oskaloosa, 4-1, in a consolation match Friday at Wells Fargo Arena. If Gerke beats Trevor Anderson of Glenwood Saturday, he'll wrestle for third place. If he loses to Anderson, he'll wrestle for fifth place.

Gerke, a senior, placed fifth at the state meet last year and has compiled a 41-4 record this season, with three of those losses to Conway.

Xavier senior Alex Francois (24-18) split his two consolation matches  Friday at 220 pounds and will wrestle for seventh place Saturday. Francois beat Drake Leek of Norwalk, 13-3, and was pinned by Jacob Eggleston of Waverly-Shell Rock.

Saints push No.1 Trojans without Joens

IOWA CITY - The Xavier Saints gave the top-ranked team in Class 4A a  good battle Thursday night without one of their top players.

Now the Saints will try to rise to the top in Class 3A for the second  straight year when the postseason tournament begins Monday.

Xavier took a 33-32 lead over Iowa City West midway through the third  quarter Thursday, but the game slipped away and the Saints lost 58-46  in the final game of the regular season.

The Saints played without Jackson Joens, a talented junior who banged his head against Dubuque Wahlert Tuesday night. He thought he'd be OK  for the game against Iowa City West, but had more concussion-type  symptoms Thursday and was withheld.

Joens is questionable for Monday's game against DeWitt Central in the  opening round of the Class 3A district tournament.

"It's looking like he probably won't be there," said Coach Ryan  Luehrsmann. "And he may not be there the next game if we're lucky enough to get there."

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Gerke, Francois alive at state wrestling

DES MOINES - Xavier High School wrestlers Josh Gerke and Alex Francois  split their two matches at the Class 3A state tournament Thursday and  are alive in the wrestle-backs.

Gerke, who is ranked No. 4 in Class 3A at 145 pounds, was nipped by  second-ranked Grant Stotts of West Des Moines Valley, 5-4, in a tough  opening-round match for both grapplers.

Gerke defeated Dalton Woodyard of Waverly-Shell Rock, 7-4, in a  consolation match and will wrestle again Friday.

Francois was pinned in the first round at 220 pounds, but he rebounded  and pinned Gage Linahon of Newton in 3:42 in a consolation match to  stay alive in the tournament.

Patrick Chambers was pinned in both of his matches at 126 pounds.  Chambers finished his sophomore campaign with a 29-20 record for Xavier.

Mims sets record as Saints roll

Matt Mims is a talented point guard who has the rare ability to score  a lot of points or collect a lot of assists, whichever the Xavier  Saints might need him to do on a particular night.

A lot of times he does both in the same game.

Mims scored 16 points and dished out nine assists as the Saints rolled  by Dubuque Wahlert, 71-52, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at  Ron Thillen Gymnasium to square their record at 10-10.

Mims, a 5-foot-10 junior, established a new school record with 202  assists in his career, snapping the old mark of 200 assists set by Kevin Andrews from 2003-2006.

Mims still has a full year left in his high school career and could  finish with more than 300 assists at the rate he's going. He's  averaging a healthy 15.4 points and 5.3 assists, a testament to his  ability to score and find his teammates for baskets.

"Matt is, by instinct, a true point guard and a distributor," said  Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann. "We've asked him to score a little bit  more this year.

"I really like where he's at right now. He's in a good spot. He's  making the play that's called upon at a given moment. And when he does  that, he's pretty special."

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