Pritts and Prairie prove a point

 CEDAR RAPIDS -- The Prairie Hawks were easy to spot.They wore orange and black checkerboard uniforms that could be described as snazzy or tacky, depending on your fashion taste.And they could be found out front.Cedar Rapids Prairie had the frontrunners (Mitch Pritts and Isaiah Vlasek finished 1-2) and the depth (all five runners in the top 25), earning the boys championship of the Cedar Rapids Invitational cross country meet Thursday afternoon at Noelridge Park. Word to the Iowa Association of Track Coaches voting panel: Might want to rethink that No. 11 Prairie placement in Class 4A."I think this was a little bit of a statement," Pritts said. "We used that ranking as motivation that we should have been a little higher."The Hawks outpointed a Josh Evans-less Linn-Mar, 44-66. Ames was third with 86 points, followed by Iowa City High (141) and Iowa City West (149).Linn-Mar is top-ranked, but Prairie was the class of the 18-team boys' field on a beautiful early-autumn afternoon.Evans was out with what Lions Coach Todd Goodell called "a tweaked Achilles." Evans motored through a moderate workout at Noelridge on his own before the varsity race.But take absolutely nothing away from Prairie. The Hawks were dynamite.Pritts won the individual race in 15:32, 6 seconds ahead of teammate Isaiah Vlasek. Jake Moore was fifth."Isaiah and me, we try to push each other," Pritts said. "I don't know if you'd call it a rivalry -- it's a friendly rivalry. But we really do push each other."I felt good at a mile, and I took off."West's Ashlynn Yokom was the individual girls' champion in 14:08, but Ames' team dominance was the story of the girls' race. The Little Cyclones scored four top-10 runners and tallied a tidy 44 points.Cedar Rapids Kennedy (92) was second, outrunning a pair of teams -- Linn-Mar (104) and West (115) -- that had beaten them in the past week.Yokom was locked in a battle with Linn-Mar's Amber Decker for the first half of the race. By the time Yokom emerged from the south portion of the course, she was safely in front.She was clocked in 14:08. Brina Kraft of Muscatine was second in 14:23."The first mile was pretty easy for me. Then I kept pushing, faster and faster," Yokom said. "When you're on the (south) side of the bridge, there aren't that many fans there, so you can really pace yourself better and have your thoughts to yourself."City High's Ellen Carman and Cedar Rapids Washington's Shannon Gorman were fourth and fifth. Decker finished seventh.Daniel Gardarsson of West was third in the boys' race. Linn-Mar's Tanner Rathje was fourth. 

CEDAR RAPIDS INVITATIONAL

At Noelridge Park

GIRLS RESULTS

Teams -- 1. Ames 44, 2. C.R. Kennedy 92, 3. Linn-Mar 104, 4. Iowa City West 115, 5. Muscatine 136, 6. Iowa City High 138, 7. Bettendorf 180, 8. C.R. Washington 244, 9. C.R. Prairie 263, 10. C.R. Xavier 271, 11. C.R. Jefferson 325, 12. Dubuque Wahlert 326, 13. Davenport West 328, 14. North Scott 371, 15. Davenport Central 389, 16. Marion 450.

Individuals -- 1. Ashlynn Yokom (ICW), 14:08; 2. Brina Kraft (Musc), 14:23; 3. Caroline Marnin (Ames), 14:36; 4. Ellen Carman (ICH), 14:39; 5. Shannon Gorman (CRW), 14:42; 6. Payton Boylston (Ames), 14:42; 7. Amber Decker (LM), 14:44; 8. Claire Dupuis (Ames), 14:49; 9. Zoe Pritchard (Ames), 14:49; 10. Allison Culver (CRK), 14:51.

Kennedy -- 10. Culver; 14. Lauren Meyer, 15:02; 15. Alyssa Averhoff, 15:02; 25. Laura Feld, 15:28; 28. Carolyn Stone, 15:31.

Linn-Mar -- 7. Decker; 13. Maddie Saville, 14:56; 20. Morgan Garcia, 15:18; 31. Deanna Newhouse, 15:41; 33. Sydney Johnston, 15:44. 

I.C. West -- 1. Yokom; 11. Jessie Skopec, 14:52; 26. Olivia Moore, 15:28; 32. Maria Burtch, 15:44; 45. Emily Starman, 15:55. 

City High -- 4. Carman; 12. Molly Shepherd, 14:55; 16. Mary Arch, 15:07; 50. Olivia Peterson, 16:14; 56. Soumba Traore, 16:22.

Washington -- 5. Gorman; 41. Morgan Stuckenschneider, 15:53; 48. Madison Stuckenschneider, 15:59; 59. Kristin Mackenburg, 16:26; 91. Brett Visser, 17:20.

Prairie -- 29. Cayla Renwick, 15:36; 47. Katie Costigan, 15:58; 58. Eilish Stanek, 16:25; 61. Sarah Meyers, 16:32; 68. Victoria Enyart, 16:43.

Xavier --23. Jenny Dickes, 15:21; 55. Marinna Schroud, 16:22; 60. Addy Hoffman, 16:30; 66. Maddy Bailey, 16:40; 67. Hannah Chicchelly, 16:42. 

Jefferson -- 38. Meredith Koenigsfeld, 15:50; 39. Sarah Hanna, 15:51; 46. Megan Ely, 15:56; 100. Caleigh Meyer, 17:57; 102. Jasmine Blue, 17:59.

Marion -- 44. Madison Bach, 15:54; 94. Sam Livingston, 17:28; 101. Sydney Brase, 17:59; 105. Tara Zumwalt, 18:30; 106. Grace Ehlinger, 18:36.

BOYS RESULTS

Teams -- 1. C.R. Prairie 44, 2. Linn-Mar 66, 3. Ames 86, 4. Iowa City High 141, 5. Iowa City West 149, 6. Muscatine 192, 7. Bettendorf 216, 8. Waterloo West 233, 9. C.R. Xavier 246, 10. Dubuque Wahlert 253, 11. Davenport Central 284, 12. Pleasant Valley 300, 13. C.R. Kennedy 357, 14. Marion 369, 15. North Scott 390, 16. Davenport West 449, 17. C.R. Jefferson 487, 18. C.R. Washingtno 519.

Individuals -- 1. Mitch Pritts (CRP), 15:32; 2. Isaiah Vlasek (CRP), 15:38; 3. Daniel Gardarsson (ICW), 15:38; 4. Tanner Rathje (LM), 15:53; 5. Jake Moore (CRP), 15:57; 6. Mason Tope (DC), 15:59; 7. Daniel Murphy (LM), 16:01; 8. Michael Mather (LM), 16:02; 9. Bennett Luedtke (Musc), 16:02; 10. Daniel Lee (Ames), 16:07.

Prairie -- 1. Pritts; 2. Vlasek; 5. Moore; 11. Tysen Vandraska, 16:09; 25. Connor Neuhaus, 16:43.

Linn-Mar -- 4. Rathje; 7. D. Murphy; 8. Mather; 23. Ryan Murphy, 16:37; 24. Greyson Dolezal, 16:38. 

City High -- 13. Ryan Dorman, 16:18; 20. Joel Bender, 16:31; 26. Jarrett Purdy, 16:49; 37. Zach Coleman, 17:04; 45. Rasheem Shivers, 17:08. 

I.C. West -- 3. Gardarsson; 17. Akash Borde, 16:20; 40. Abdallah Ali, 17:05; 42. Noah Brase, 17:06; 47. Nick Feeley, 17:09. 

Xavier -- 22. Jacob Schmitt, 16:34; 36. Luke Koechner, 17:03; 52. Steven Culpepper, 17:15; 62. Jonathan Francois, 17:32; 74. Nick Koechner, 17:47. 

Kennedy -- 53. Addison Furry, 17:18; 59. Matt Stevens, 17:28; 75. Derek Girling, 17:49; 83. Ethan Williams, 18:03; 87. Tim Zange, 18:10.

Marion -- 34. Colton Forster, 17:02; 76. Jacob Manderscheid, 17:51; 82. Austin Yirkovsky, 18:02; 85. Hunter Reifschneider, 18:06; 92. Maverick Miller, 18:17. 

Jefferson -- 61. Jason Chung, 17:31; 97. Tim Bell, 18:27; 103. Christopher Haring, 18:40; 111. Nathan Prochnow, 18:59; 115. Matt Swanson, 19:02. 

Washington -- 93. Robbie Gearhart, 18:21; 96. Sam Kline, 18:26; 98. Wyatt Forster, 18:36; 113. Weston Burdt, 19:01; 119. Sam Werner, 19:25.