Prairie wins historic MVC Valley Division track and field title

CEDAR RAPIDS – Cedar Rapids Prairie boys' track and field coach Bill Schwarz couldn't nail down a decade, much less the year it last occurred. Athletic director Rocky Bennett was equally stumped.This much is certain – history was made Thursday at John Wall Field.Distance runner Mitch Pritts opened with a victorious 3200, while sophomore Tysen Van Draska anchored a pair of relay wins to help host Prairie to a landmark win in the MVC Valley Division boys' track and field championship."Throughout the day – a couple points here, a couple points there – on down the line," Schwarz said. "Boy, there were just some special performances out there."A win in the 1600 sprint medley gave the Hawks the lead for good with three events remaining. Prairie finished with 119 points, five better than runner-up Cedar Falls. Only third-place Waterloo West won more events (5) than Prairie's four."It's been the goal for quite some time now," Van Draska said. "It all came together today. It was a perfect day."Pritts garnered Athlete of the Year honors after edging Linn-Mar's Daniel Murphy in the 3200 with a time of 9:48.89, and closed his day with a runner-up finish in the 800, .23 behind Lions' star Josh Evans (2:00.64)."We had a plan coming in here that we wanted to score a lot of points," Pritts said. "We kind of executed everything the way we thought we could, and used everything to our advantage."Michael Lamparek easily won the discus with a throw of 152-09 for Prairie. Pritts ran the 1600 in 4:29.58, which yielded bronze due to a 1-2 finish from Linn-Mar teammates Evans and Tanner Rathje. Evans blistered the field and set an MVC record with a time of 4:12.69, nearly four seconds better than the previous record set in 1997 by Rob Brock (4:16.50) of Dubuque Senior."It's pretty awesome," said Evans, who will attend Iowa State in the fall. "We've got a whole corps of strong distance guys and strong sprinters."Linn-Mar finished fourth with 103 points. Curtis McCrary won the long jump for the Lions with a leap of 20 feet, 11 inches over runner-up Landen Akers of Cedar Rapids Washington (20-06). Akers helped the fifth-place Warriors (73 points) to a win in the 400 relay, and captured individual gold with a time of 49.61 seconds in the 400."I got a good backwind going on the back stretch," Akers said.Akers claimed his second silver of the day in the 200, a mere three one-hundredths of a second slower than victor Lance Dunn of Waterloo West (22.82).Cedar Rapids Xavier was sixth with 22 points.

MVC VALLEY DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP At John Wall Field

Teams - 1. C.R. Prairie 119, 2. Cedar Falls 114, 3. Waterloo West 107, 4. Linn-Mar 103, 5. C.R. Washington 73, 6. C.R. Xavier 22, 7. Dubuque Wahlert 19.

Shot put - 1. Lajashiene Williams (WW), 52-03; 2. Dylan Draeger (WW), 51-09.50; 3. Michael Lamparek (CRP), 50-04;

Discus - 1. Michael Lamparek (CRP), 152-09; 2. Lajashiene Williams (WW), 146-04; 3. Dylan Draeger (WW), 137-03;

High jump - 1. Marquise Busch (CF), 6-0; 2. Curtis McCrary (LM), 5-08; t3. Matt Hilligas (CRP), 5-06; t3. Ke'Rone Williams (WW), 5-06;

Long jump - 1. Curtis McCrary (LM), 20-11; 2. Landen Akers (CRW), 20-06; 3. Chris Eagen (CF), 19-02.50.

3,200 - 1. Mitch Pritts (CRP), 9:48.89; 2. Daniel Murphy (LM), 9:49.75; 3. Spencer Van Dorn (CF), 10:02.79;

3,200 relay - 1. C.R. Prairie (Lorenz, Adams, Lefebure, Van Draska), 8:13.10; 2. Cedar Falls, 8:17.00; 3. Linn-Mar, 8:25.20;

Shuttle hurdle relay - 1. Cedar Falls (Riehm, Hermansen, Louviere, Barney), 1:00.81; 2. C.R. Washington, 1:01.06; 3. Linn-Mar, 1:01.94;

100 - 1. Lance Dunn (WW), 11.20; 2. Trevor Northrup (CRP), 11.44; 3. Denison Harrington (CF), 11.53;

400 - 1. Landen Akers (CRW), 49.61; 2. Zach Shippy (CF), 50.04; 3. Jalen Rima (CRP), 51.14;

800 relay - 1. Waterloo West (Jones, Cooper, Williams, Dunn), 1:29.66; 2. Linn-Mar, 1:30.03; 3. C.R. Washington, 1:31.83;

110 hurdles - 1. Conner Riehm (CF), 15.27; 2. Matt Goedken (DW), 15.72; 3. Tavion Stewart (CRW), 15.90;

1,600 - 1. Josh Evans (LM), 4:12.69*; 2. Tanner Rathje (LM), 4:28.39; 3. Mitch Pritts (CRP), 4:29.58;

200 - 1. Lance Dunn (WW), 22.82; 2. Landen Akers (CRW), 22.85; 3. Jalen Rima (CRP), 23.18;

400 hurdles - 1. Christian Burt (WW), 55.76; 2. Keagan Pinter (CRP), 56.48; 3. Noah Clasen (CRX), 57.52;

1,600 medley relay - 1. C.R. Prairie (Northrup, Wallace, Rima, Van Draska), 3:38.54; 2. Linn-Mar, 3:39.10; 3. Waterloo West, 3:44.23;

800 - 1. Josh Evans (LM), 2:00.64; 2. Mitch Pritts (CRP), 2:00.87; 3. Jared Failor (CF), 2:01.42;

400 relay - 1. C.R. Washington (Snitker, Akers, Taylor, Herzog), 43.17; 2. Linn-Mar, 43,47; 3. Waterloo West, 43.51;

1,600 relay - 1. Cedar Falls (Ahrenholz, Thompson, Jamison, Lavallee), 3:26.24; 2. Linn-Mar, 3:33.51; 3. C.R. Prairie, 3:34.50. * - new MVC record

Athlete of the year - Mitch Pritts (CRP).

Coach of the year - Bill Schwarz (CRP).