Metro Sports Report

All-star game April 1 features Metro stars

Imagine an all-star basketball game with Metro stars Jarrod Uthoff, Josh Oglesby, Matt Bohannon, Wes Washpun and Kasey Semler all on the same court at the same time.

Imagine no more. Thanks to Jamie Johnson and Elite Sports USA, the inaugural Eastern Iowa All-Star Game will be staged on Friday, April 1 at Linn-Mar High School.

It will be a doubleheader, featuring a girls all-star game at 6 p.m. and a boys game at approximately 7:30.

Johnson, 36, has deep roots in high school basketball circles. He founded the Iowa Barnstormers all-star basketball program in 2004 and prior to that worked for FutureStars.

Trcka, Healy rule on the lanes

Xavier sophomore Tara Trcka, who won the Class 1A state bowling title Thursday, has been named the Metro's female bowler of the year and Jefferson senior Dan Healy is the male bowler of the year. Read about the All-Metro bowling team here.

Both bowlers also were honored by the Mississippi Valley Conference.

Trcka was named the Valley Division female bowler of the year. She and Jefferson junior Courtney Moore were unanimous all-conference selections. Read about the girls MVC bowling teams here.

Healy was the Valley Division male bowler of the year. He was joined on the first team by Michael Kilts. Linn-Mar had three bowlers on the Mississippi Division first team. Read about the boys MVC bowling teams here.

Tourney time could be good for Metro teams

At last we have hit tournament time, one of the most exciting times of the high school year athletically. Cedar Rapids and Marion, in both girls and boys basketball, should be well-represented in Des Moines.

First up will be Linn-Mar, as the defending girls champion, and Cedar Rapids Washington. Washington split two games with Linn-Mar in the regular season, which in my mind makes the Warriors viable contenders for the 4A state championship.

And on the boys side, does Cedar Rapids and Marion have an answer for last year's state titlist Ames? That was the Harrison Barnes era at Ames, and does Linn-Mar have an answer in the person of Marcus Paige?

In fact, it brings to mind the answer is a positive, because Paige is every bit the player that Barnes was with the Little Cyclones. And maybe come college time, Paige will be an even better player from his position and maybe become even more valuable to North Carolina than Barnes.

Xavier's Trcka wins state bowling title

DES MOINES -- Xavier sophomore Tara Trcka rolled a 248 in her third game and won the Class 1A state bowling individual title Thursday at Plaza Lanes.

Trcka, who had battled a hand injury the last two weeks of the season, beat Dubuque Wahlert's Kristina Hochrein by three pins.  Wahlert won the 1A girls team title.

Western Dubuque won the boys team title and Red Oak's Taylor Mellott was the individual winner, rolling a 750 series.

Less than a week ago, Trcka's hand was so sore that she barely was able to qualify for the girls state bowling tournament.  She was one of the last players to make the field as an at-large entry after rolling a 388 in Saturday's regional tournament at May City Bowl.

But she had the line Thursday.

Trcka rolled a 236 game in the first round to take a four-pin lead over Hochrein and Creston's Taylor Hance.

Hance held a 23-pin lead over Hochrein after the second round, when Trcka slid to third place with a 190 that put her 31 pins back.

Trcka dueled Hance in the final game, beating her Mississippi Valley Conference foe by 11 pins, 248-237.  Hance, meanwhile, rolled a 197 and finished in third place, 20 pins behind Trcka.

The Class 2A tournament is Friday. Jefferson, Linn-Mar and Kennedy will compete for the girls team title and Linn-Mar for the boys.