Kirkwood Community College - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Petersen honored as Coach of the Year

Rewarded for his role in Kirkwood's first national championship run since 1998, Bryan Petersen was recognized Tuesday as the Spalding NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball Coach of the Year by the NJCAA DII Men's Basketball Committee.

Compiling a 31-4 overall record for the year, Petersen's squad lost just two games to DII opponents as two of its defeats came at the hands of an Iowa Western team that consistently ranked in the DI top 25 throughout the year. The Eagles' exceptional season culminated in an 83-76 upset of top-seeded Triton (Ill.) in the NJCAA DII Men's Basketball Championship Game.

Making the title run more special for Petersen was his deep ties to the program. A former Kirkwood player from 2005-07, Petersen returned to his alma mater as an assistant in 2012-13. One year later, he was promoted to head coach and immediately began to put the program back on the national landscape.

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Kirkwood baseball swept by No. 13 NIACC

The Kirkwood Eagles had little choice Saturday night.

They needed to go home, get warm and flush Saturday's double-header against NIACC from their system as soon as possible and get ready for a better performance on Sunday.

The 13th-ranked NIACC Trojans swept the Eagles, 8-1 and 16-5, in a chilly ICCAC conference twin-bill at Kirkwood.

"We have to flush it," said KCC Coach Todd Rima. "We don't have any other choice. We've got to move on and be better tomorrow."

Kirkwood and NIACC are scheduled for another double-header Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Kirkwood field, weather permitting.

"We've got to show up ready to go tomorrow," said Rima. "We're going to be a better team and we'll have to play well to win.

"Our guys will come ready to play. They'll respond," he vowed. "They've responded all year. There's no reason they won't do it tomorrow."

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No. 6 KCC softball sweeps No. 5 DMACC

BOONE - The Kirkwood softball team swept a double-header from DMACC Saturday to grab a two-game lead in the conference race.

The sixth-ranked Eagles topped the fifth-ranked Bears, 11-9 in nine innings and 12-6.

Kirkwood and DMACC began the day in a first-place tie for the ICCAC conference lead, but the sweep lifted the Eagles to 13-1 at the halfway point of the league race and dropped the Bears to 11-3.

Payton Mercer, Teagan Toft, Taylor Nearad and Maddie Hansen belted home runs for Kirkwood in the first game. Nicky Simpson got the victory.

Mercer and Toft homered again in the second game. Lexi Kinnaird got the win.

Kirkwood raised its record to 35-4. DMACC fell to 30-5.

Rhodes, Wood named JUCO All-Americans

Hunter Rhodes and Madison Wood of Kirkwood Community College have been named NJCAA Division II All-Americans.

Rhodes, a 6-foot sophomore from Canton, Ill., was named a first team All-American this season. He helped Kirkwood win the national title and finish with a 31-4 record.

Rhodes led the Eagles with 12.6 points and 4.1 assists. He also averaged 3.0 rebounds.

Wood, a 6-3 sophomore from Cedar Falls, was named a second team All-American. She led the Eagles with 11.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. Kirkwood won the ICCAC conference title and finished 27-6.

Grimm is no fairy tale for Eagles

Bryce Grimm has gone from being a part-time starter for the Kirkwood baseball team at the beginning of his freshman year in 2015 to one of the stars of the team this season as a sophomore.

Next year, the Xavier High School grad could be patrolling center field for an NCAA Division I ballclub at a four-year school.

Grimm continued to build on his solid campaign Tuesday as the Eagles split a non-conference doubleheader against Black Hawk College, winning the first game 11-9 and dropping the nightcap 10-2.

Grimm went 3-for-5 in the twin-bill with a home run, two walks and four runs, raising his batting average to .425 with two homers and 19 RBIs. He leads Kirkwood in hits, runs scored and batting average and ranks second in RBIs.

"Bryce Grimm has come so far," Kirkwood Coach Todd Rima said. "He wasn't playing every day (at the beginning of last year), but all he did was work. Now he's hitting with more power and driving in runs.

"He's as good a center-fielder as anybody in our league and in the midwest, I think. He's a Division I baseball player. There's no question in our mind that he can play at that level. We're going to find him a spot, because he's a great player.

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Mengler shines for Eagles as Yegge wins 400th

Allie Mengler was an unexpected hero for the Kirkwood softball team Saturday and helped Coach Joe Yegge collect his 400th victory with the Eagles.

Mengler became the emergency starting pitcher in the second game of the doubleheader against DMACC and tossed a four-hit shutout against the fourth-ranked Bears in a clutch 10-0 victory.

DMACC blanked the sixth-ranked Eagles in the first game, 6-0, in the showdown of top-10 teams.

Nicky Simpson, one of Kirkwood's top pitchers, was warming up for the nightcap when a throw from the bullpen catcher hit her squarely in the mouth and knocked out two of her front teeth, sending her to the hospital for treatment.

Mengler, who had pitched only 7 1/3 innings all season, stepped into the void and handcuffed DMACC with pinpoint control despite not having much time to mentally prepare for the game.

"It was definitely weird," she said. "I've never been in that situation before."

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Healthy Butz delivers for Kirkwood

Tyler Butz was playing catch before the first game of the season for the Kirkwood Eagles last year in Kansas when he felt a sharp pain in his right elbow.

He played anyway that day and appeared in a few games after that on Kirkwood's spring trip to Florida, but an MRI revealed that he'd torn the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his elbow and needed surgery.

Butz, a Cedar Rapids Prairie grad, was granted a medical red-shirt for the 2015 campaign and returned this season as a third-year sophomore to try and resurrect his baseball career.

Butz and the Eagles are sure glad he did.

Butz delivered a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday to give Kirkwood a 4-3 victory over Ellsworth in the first game of an ICCAC conference double-header at the Kirkwood field.

The Eagles won the second game, 7-3, in the conference opener.

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Kirkwood whips No. 1 Triton for national title

DANVILLE, Ill. - The Kirkwood Eagles nearly gave their coach and fans a heart attack Saturday night by missing a bunch of free throws in the final minutes of the NJCAA championship game, but they survived the ordeal and left the gym at Danville Community College with huge smiles and the biggest prize in junior college men's basketball.

The sixth-ranked Eagles whipped top-ranked Triton College, 83-76, in the finals of the NJCAA Division II tournament to claim the second national title in school history.

Kirkwood missed 11 free throws in the final four minutes and two seconds, but managed to hang onto the lead and cut down the championship nets.

"All right!," Coach Bryan Petersen exclaimed as he snipped the final strand and displayed the net to the Kirkwood players and fans.

Petersen, 28, was a junior college All-American at Kirkwood in 2007 before becoming a two-year starter at Iowa State. Now he's led the Eagles to the national championship in just his third year as head coach.

"It still hasn't quite set in yet on what we just did, but I couldn't be more happy for our kids and what they did with the special run this week and all year," he said. "Pretty cool stuff."

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Fantastic rally lifts Eagles into NJCAA finals

DANVILLE, Ill. - It looked like the Kirkwood Eagles had run out of steam at the NJCAA Division II national basketball tournament Friday night when they trailed by 23 points early in the second half, but that just was a mirage.

As it turns out, they were just getting started.

The sixth-ranked Eagles staged a phenomenal rally and stunned third-ranked Essex County of New Jersey, 77-66, in the semifinals of the national tourney in Danville, Ill.

Kirkwood (30-4) will face top-ranked Triton (34-2), an 82-77 winner over second-ranked South Suburban on Friday, in the NJCAA finals Saturday night at 7:30. The Eagles won the national title in 1998 and are seeking the second crown in school history.

Kirkwood fell behind by 24 points in the first half and trailed by 23 points at 53-30 in the second half when they began their magnificent surge to victory. Incredibly, the Eagles outscored Essex 45-7 from that point to turn a 23-point deficit into a 15-point lead at 75-60 with 20.4 seconds left in the game.

"It was an unbelievable game," said Kirkwood Coach Bryan Petersen. "We got off to probably the worst start we could have had. We dug ourselves a hole right away.

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