Prairie High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Young Shrine Bowl queen runs past her challenges

She’s a blonde wisp of a girl with a soft voice and a smile that could thaw a glacier. Don’t be deceived.

Toeing the start line at a track event or a 5 kilometer race, she’s got a competitive streak as tough as the carbon fiber in her prosthetic running leg.

Prairie Point seventh grader Jessica Heims is a natural athlete – a member of her middle school cross-country and track teams and a triathlete.

She’s also royalty, chosen as the Queen for this year’s Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Football Game in Ames. With the help of the Shriners Hospitals for Children, she has overcome steep odds to become a competitor in the sports she loves.

Read more...

Prairie celebrates 4x400 relay at Drake

DES MOINES - Jacob Aune has been through hell and back this year.

He battled a severe breathing problem at the district cross country meet, suffered a nasty concussion during the basketball season and has been plagued by legs cramps during the track campaign.

But Aune was feeling no pain Saturday after Cedar Rapids Prairie captured the 4x400 relay with a sterling performance at the 103rd Annual Drake Relays in Des Moines.

"It's been difficult, to say the least," said Aune, a reed-thin senior. "As an athlete, I've had an unlucky stretch, but it looks like it's lightening up a little bit."

Austin Dellamuth, Jarred Edmonds, Aune and Demetrius Harper toured the 1600 meters in 3 minutes, 21.15 seconds, nipping Clinton by 39-hundredths of a second in a race that was tight from start to finish for a half-dozen teams. Clinton finished second in 3:21.64 and Cedar Washington was third in 3:22.06.

Read more...

2 Prairie Hawks headed to Coe

Cedar Rapids Prairie seniors Bryce Alberts and Peyton Wagner plan to continue their athletic careers at Coe College.

Alberts plans to play football and baseball for the Kohawks, while Wagner plans to join the Coe wrestling program.

Alberts, 5-foot-11, 175 pounds, tied for the most tackles on the Prairie football team last season with 73 and also had one interception. He compiled a 5-2 record and 3.94 ERA for the baseball team in 2011 with 43 strikeouts in 37.3 innings.

Wagner finished with a 19-6 record for the Prairie wrestling team this year. He wrestled for Prairie in the state dual team tournament and also competed in the state individual tournament, but did not place.

Witte and Team Iowa fall to Team USA

IOWA CITY - Zach Witte of Cedar Rapids Prairie was the premier 152-pound wrestler in Iowa this year, but he tangled with the No. 1 guy in the country Friday night and absorbed a major defeat.

Brian Realbuto of Somers, N.Y., defeated Witte, 15-4, in the Dream Team Classic before a packed house at Iowa City West High School.

The event featured an all-star team from Iowa against an all-star team from across the country, but it turned into a mismatch. Team USA won 11 of 13 bouts and strolled away with a 40-7 victory.

Witte was a two-time undefeated state champion for Prairie in 2011 and 2012, but he barely laid a glove on Realbuto, a three-time state champion from New York who rolled up a 277-12 record in high school.

Read more...