The last time Daniel Murphy ran in a high school cross country race, he collapsed at the Class 4A state meet in Fort Dodge and ended up in a hospital.

Saturday was much, much better.

Murphy ran away with top honors at the 30th Prairie Invitational and shattered the meet record in 15 minutes, 26 seconds for the 5K course.

The Linn-Mar senior beat Tysen VanDraska of Prairie by 11 seconds in the field of 17 schools and 119 individuals.

"I was not expecting that, honestly," Murphy said after his convincing victory. "Me and Tysen were battling a lot. I'm going to take it. It's a P.R. (personal record)."

Murphy was one of the top runners for the Linn-Mar varsity last year as a junior, but he suffered from dehydration and perhaps a virus at the state meet and finished 115th and last in 19 minutes, 43 seconds.

"It was weird. A bad combo," he said of his medical ailments.

Murphy fell several times at the state meet, collapsed about 100 meters from the finish line and staggered to the end. He was treated in the medical tent at the meet and visited the emergency room at a Cedar Rapids hospital when he got home as a precaution.

He finished nearly two minutes behind the next-to-last runner at the state meet. Linn-Mar placed fourth in the team standings that day, but the Lions could have been several spots higher if Murphy had run his normal race.

"You just have to put that out of your mind," he said of last year's nightmare, "but it's always in the back of my mind. I don't want that to happen ever again.

"I was just out of it. I felt horrible."

Murphy returned to form this spring and placed third in the 3200 meter run at the state track meet in a swift 9 minutes, 12 seconds. He enjoyed a good summer of training and looked strong Saturday.

Murphy and VanDraska were running neck-and-neck at about the midway point when Murphy began to pull away. "I tried to keep pushing," he said. "It worked out."

The Prairie Hawks won the 2013 state cross country title last fall and were ranked No. 1 coming into Saturday's meet, but Linn-Mar had the strongest club in the race and finished with 42 points. Prairie finished in fourth place.

Dalton Gosch placed fourth for the Lions and Ryan Murphy - Daniel Murphy's younger brother - crossed the finish line in fifth place. Bryan Fogerty (14th) and Jay Halverson (18th) also finished in the top-20 for Linn-Mar.

"That was awesome for our team," said Daniel Murphy.

Iowa City West finished second in the team standings and Waukee was third. Prairie had to settle for fourth place with 101 points. Jake Moore of Prairie finished eighth.

Waukee captured top honors in the girls standings, topping Iowa City West by 13 points. Linn-Mar finished third.

Amber Decker of Linn-Mar finished fourth to top all Metro runners. Maddie Saville of Linn-Mar was seventh.

BOYS RESULTS
Team Standings

1. Linn-Mar 42, 2. Iowa City West 69, 3. Waukee 82, 4. Prairie 101, 5. Mount Vernon/Lisbon 163, 6. Pella 182, 7. Washington 199, 8. Kennedy 210, 9. Monticello 221, 10. Marion 228, 11. Mason City 272, 12. Xavier 320, 13. Fort Madison 379, 14. Cascade 398, 15. Solon 426, 16. Maquoketa 446, 17. Davenport West 539.

Top 10 Individuals
5K

1. Daniel Murphy (LM) 15:26, 2. Tysen VanDraska (CRP) 15:37, 3. Akash Borde (ICW) 15:44, 4. Dalton Gosch (LM) 15:48, 5. Ryan Murphy (LM) 15:55, 6. Nick Feeley (ICW) 15:58, 7. Isaiah Hanna (Waukee) 15:59, 8. Jake Moore (CRP) 16:00, 9. Kevin Kato (Waukee) 16:02, 10. Preston Kauder (Cascade) 16:05.

LINN-MAR: 1. Daniel Murphy 15:26, 4. Dalton Gosch 15:48, 5. Ryan Murphy 15:55, 14. Bryan Fogerty 16:13, 18. Jay Halverson 16:20, 52. Noah Decker 17:18, 61. Jonathan Tripp 17:34.

PRAIRIE: 2. Tysen VanDraska 15:37, 8. Jake Moore 16:00, 11. Zack Fiser 16:06, 34. Chris Oehlert 16:48, 46. Levin Lefebure 17:10, 55. Sam Uthoff 17:20, 95. Sam Habel 19:07.

WASHINGTON: 13. Finbar Berry 16:12, 25. Sam Ecker 16:27, 36. Sam Werner 16:58, 62. Ryan Miller 17:37, 63. Wyatt Forster 17:38, 74. Donovan Beard 18:08, 80. Augie Bergstrom 18:31.

KENNEDY: 38. Reece Linder 16:59, 40. Andrew Solsrud 17:00, 41. Tim Zange 17:00, 43. Addison Furry 17:03, 48. Derek Girling 17:13, 71. Ethan Williams 17:52.

MARION: 12. Colton Forster 16:11, 47. Jeremy Fopma 17:11, 51. Hunter Reifschneider 17:17, 54. Austin Yirkovsky 17:19, 64. Myles Bach 17:40, 78. Jacob Manderscheid 18:25, 83. Salem Snoop 18:33.

XAVIER: 29. Steven Culpepper 16:41, 37. Jonathan Francois 16:59, 79. Sam Rohret 18:30, 87. Jonah Scallon 18:40, 88. John Pape 18:41, 89. Evan Gradoville 18:41, 91. Evan Bednar 18:44.

GIRLS RESULTS
Team Standings

1. Waukee 52, 2. Iowa City West 65, 3. Linn-Mar 108, 4. Cedar Falls 152, 5. Fort Madison 187, 6. Pella 193, 7. Monticello 203, 8. Southeast Polk 222, 9. Cascade 243, 10. Kennedy 276, 11. Solon 316, 12. Marion 318, 13. Prairie 321, 14. Mount Vernon/Lisbon 332, 15. Xavier 357, 16. Anamosa 372, 17. Washington 440, 18. Davenport West 469.

Top 10 Individuals
4K

1. Rachel Brush (Waukee) 14:54, 2. Emmie Skopec (IC West) 15:05, 3. Erika Lewis (Waukee) 15:24, 4. Amber Decker (LM) 15:29, 5. Kelcey Blommers (Pella) 15:34, 6. Tess Roorda (Pella) 15:34, 7. Maddie Saville (LM) 15:35, 8. Bailey Nock (IC West) 15:35, 9. Sarah Steffensmeier (Fort Madison) 15:42, 10. Becca McDermott (Cascade) 15:42.

LINN-MAR: 4. Amber Decker 15:29, 7. Maddie Saville 15:35, 18. Deanna Newhouse 16:01, 37. Sydney Johnston 16:33, 42. Hanna Saville 16:52, 45. Morgan Garcia 16:55, 47. Bryce Jones 16:57.

KENNEDY: 13. Lauren Meyer 15:48, 41. Hannah Fesselman 16:48, 55. Laura Feld 17:10, 79. Alli Meyer 17:44, 88. Jenna Averhoff 18:06, 92. Emily Manders 18:11.

MARION: 17. Madison Bach 15:59, 60. Sam Livingston 17:15, 68. Andrea Ertz 17:24, 77. Skylar Dede 17:42, 96. Ellie Conzett 18:22, 104. Sydney Brase 18:48, 112. Jessica Ertz 19:34.

PRAIRIE: 34. Cayla Renwick 16:30, 53. Sarah Meyers 17:02, 58. Victoria Enyart 17:13, 83. Eilish Stanek 17:52, 93. Sophia Smith 18:19, 95. Alison Schmidt 18:22, 113. Katie Costigan 19:44.

XAVIER: 54. Jenny Dickes 17:05, 59. Emiko Coffey 17:14, 72. Maddy Bailey 17:32, 74. Kiana Stanek 17:38, 98. Sydney Oakley 18:26, 103. Faith Satern 18:36, 106. Alaina Marti 18:58.

WASHINGTON: 56. Serena Eck 17:10, 76. Joi Johnson 17:41, 94. Sierra Sheets 18:21, 99. Ashley Hageman 18:28, 115. Emma Witt 20:18, 119. Aaliyah Beeson 20:59.