CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — For anyone, this qualifies as a hot surge at the right time. For the Linn-Mar Lions, it serves as a sign of hope.
The Lions struck for four runs in the bottom of the first, piled on four more in their last plate appearance and took down Cedar Rapids Washington, 9-1, in a Class 4A regional quarterfinal softball game Saturday night at the Jefferson Softball Complex.
After an uncustomary down year in 2009 and a slow start this season, the Lions (12-24) have won nine of their last …

Linn-Mar guard Matt Bohannon gave a verbal commitment Friday to play college basketball in 2011-12 to the University of Northern Iowa.
Bohannon is a 6-foot-4 guard who will be the third member of his family to play D-I basketball. Oldest brother, Jason, just finished a fine career at Wisconsin and brother, Zach, will be a sophomore at Air Force.
Their father, Gordy, played quarterback at Iowa.
“I talked to both of my brothers during the recruiting process,” Matt said. “They’ve both gone through it, obviously. They told me just to …

Linn-Mar’s Kyle Dunn has been named the 2009-10 Gatorade Iowa Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year.
Dunn, a junior, won the 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles, and finished second in the 110-meter high hurdles, at the Class 4A State Meet this spring, helping to lead the Lions to a third-place finish. His winning time of 51.41 seconds in the 400 hurdles ranked as the nation’s fastest among prep competitors under all conditions at the time of his selection.
Dunn also earned double gold at the Drake …

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Linn-Mar’s Kiah Stokes was not selected to the USA Basketball 17-and-under girls’ team that will FIBA World Championship July 16-25 in France.
Stokes, however, was selected to the USA Women’s Youth Olympic Games Team. The four-player team will compete in Singapore, Aug. 14-26, in an international 3-on-3 tournament.

IOWA CITY — Bad weather couldn’t stop Kyle Dunn last week.
And a full day’s work couldn’t slow him last night.
Dunn continued to chip away at his 400-meter hurdles time, motoring through a 51.51-second lap at a Class 4A state-qualifying track and field meet last night at Trojan Field.
That ranks No. 4 all-time in Iowa. And he did it in his fourth race of the evening.
The junior credited a teammate.
“My buddy (Nick) Lucas goes really hard for the first 200, and that pushes me a lot,” said Dunn, who had run …

CEDAR RAPIDS — This is the time prep tennis coaches are put to the test.
With rosters due Monday for Thursday’s Class 1A and 2A district meets, boys’ tennis coaches are challenged to find their best possible lineup.
It turns out that determining lineups for district competition is more complex than filling out a sheet with names. Coaches implore strategy to try to advance as many athletes to the state meet as well as improving the team’s chances to reach team substate.
Coaches and players have to decide whether to compete in singles …

Linn-Mar’s Chelsea Burkle has signed to play volleyball at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, an NCAA Division II program.
Burkle averaged 4.36 kills per game as a senior as the Lions advanced to the state tournament.
Here is more from the UMSL website.

(From Iowa men’s basketball writer Scott Dochtermann)
MARION – Two of Iowa’s three most prolific scorers in school history will boast sons on next year’s men’s basketball team.
Darius Stokes, a 6-foot-8 forward from Linn-Mar, will join the Hawkeyes as a walk-on this fall. Stokes’ father, Greg Stokes, ranks third all-time in scoring at Iowa with 1,768 career points. Darius Stokes will join Devyn Marble, son of Iowa’s all-time leading scorer Roy Marble, on next year’s team.
The thought of following his dad’s Iowa legacy was pivotal for Darius Stokes in deciding to walk on …

From the Iowa Soccer Coaches Association:
B Soccer_WE-5 1 10_Rankings