Prairie High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

O'Shea 6th in 400 at Central College meet

PELLA -- Ashli O'Shea of Cedar Rapids Prairie placed sixth in the 400-meter dash in 1:05.97 Saturday at an indoor track meet hosted by Central College.

O'Shea also anchored Prairie's 4x200 relay that placed seventh in 1:56.35 with Jessica Miller, Kiana Jackson and Megan Titler.

Rachel Griffin of Prairie finished eighth in the shot put at 32-6 1/2. DaBryana Miller of Prairie was ninth at 32-1.

Morrissey brings great expectations to Prairie

 Mike Morrissey and his wife, Jessica, are expecting their second child this fall, just in time for his first season as the new football coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

There will be great expectations at Prairie as well.

Morrissey is only 28, but he's already coached at three different colleges and led Thornridge High School of Dolton, Ill., to the state playoffs last season in his first year as head coach.

Prairie announced Morrissey as its new coach Wednesday afternoon. He succeeds Craig Jelinek, who retired after the 2010 campaign with a 106-96 record in 20 years.

"I'm extremely excited," Morrissey told the Metro Sports Report. "It's a big step for my family. We're definitely ready to get started."

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Morrissey appears to be new grid coach

There were strong indications Thursday that former Upper Iowa University quarterback Mike Morrissey will be the next head football coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Morrissey, 28, was the head coach at Thornridge High School in Dolton, Ill., this past season.

"I can't really confirm anything now," Morrisey said Thursday afternoon.  He said he will be in Cedar Rapids on Friday.

T.J. Shirley, the athletic director at Thornridge, told the Metro Sports Report that an official announcement could be made Friday, but stopped short of confirming Morrissey had been hired by Prairie.

"We're kind of in the gray area right now, where it looks like it's a great possibility that he does have the job," said Shirley, "but I don't want to say something until I really know he does have the job."

Shirley said top Prairie officials visited Thornridge on Tuesday.

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Stocker 2nd in 800 at Wartburg

WAVERLY -- Prairie's Kyle Stocker was second in the 800 meters and Jefferson's Timauntay Jones was fourth at Tuesday's Wartburg Invitational indoor high school track meet.

Prairie and Jefferson were the only Metro teams competing on the boys side of the co-ed meet. Jefferson's girls also competed. There were no team scores kept.

Stocker, a key part of Prairie's state champion cross country team last fall, ran the 800 in 2:02.66. He was .4 seconds behind winner Conner Smock of Lisbon.  Jones ran a 2:05.45.

Prairie's Jordan Burns, another cross country runner, was fifth in the 3,200 meters with a time of 10:04.06.  Prairie's 1,600 sprint medley of Austin Dellamuth, Josh Rundall, Robbie Kohl and Justin Burns finished sixth in 3:52.19.

The Jefferson girls had several top five finishes. J-Hawk soph Taylor Jacobson ran the second fastest time in qualifying for the 55-meter hurdles, but slipped to fifth in the finals, just behind teammate Summer Carber. 

Jacobson, Carber, Rachel Sedlacek and Ashley Madsen ran on the J-Hawks' fifth-place 4x400 relay. Emma Edelen was fourth in the shot put.

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