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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Drake Relays director Brian Brown says officials are confident that athletes and fans will be safe during next week’s meet. Brown was asked on multiple occasions about event security Tuesday in the wake of pair of recent explosions at the Boston Marathon. Though Brown declined to go into details about the meet’s security protocol, he says officials are “prepared” to host the event at Drake Stadium from April 25-28. Drake released a statement Tuesday saying that the public will be notified if the event decides to change its existing security plans. Brown says campus and Des Moines police, along with state and federal officials, help coordinate the annual safety plan for the meet.
A total of 178 officials are scheduled to receive awards at the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s 19th Annual Officials’ Banquet and Recognition Ceremony, Saturday, April 27 at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. A social hour will start the festivities at 5:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and recognition program.
The list of honoree includes five officials who each have 50 years of service. Those officials are Jerry L. Courtney of Burlington; Jack Foresman from Cleghorn; Willard Howell of Wapello; Martin Pillers from West Des Moines; and Larry C. Williams of Waverly.
Deb Richarz of LeMars will be honored as the NFHS Distinguished Active Official for Section 4 (Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana). Ms. Richarz has been an IGHSAU official for 32 years and has been an IHSAA official for 19.
She has officiated the State Volleyball and Softball Tournaments 13 years each including four title matches in volleyball and seven in softball. She has been the state’s NFOA official of the year in each sport, and has been inducted in the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She also has extensive experience in both sports at the NAIA, Division II and Division III levels at national and regional tournaments. She is active in the Siouxland Officials Association and a past president of the group.
Thirty-seven individuals will be honored for 35 years of service; 45 others for 25 years and 71 for officiating 15 years. In addition awards will be given to five aspiring new officials and 15 officials will receive a plaque as the NFOA state award winner of official of the year in a particular sport.
This year’s keynote speaker is Mike Pereira, a former college and NFL official who appears regularly on FOX Sports as a rules analyst. Pereira spent 14 years as a college football official with eight post season bowl games before joining the National Football League for 14 seasons as a game official followed by being a supervisor of officiating, director of officiating and vice president of NFL officiating. He left the NFL in 2009.
With FOX, if circumstances warrant a rules interpretation, he is on hand throughout their telecasts, communicating to the network announcers and fans. He is a regular contributor to the NFL Sunday pregame show, FOX Sports.com and the network’s sports radio. His vast experience allows him to pen a weekly column, which is titled “Under Review” and ranks the 10 most impactful calls made during the previous week’s games.
Following are the local officials scheduled to be honored at the April 27 ceremonies.
15 YEAR OFFICIALS
Tom Berens TREYNOR
Kevin O. Garrett ATLANTIC
Phillip Hascall ATLANTIC
David Huff GREENFIELD
Tom Kealy COUNCIL BLUFFS
Douglas Maher STANTON
Mark D. Markham ATLANTIC
Tom McLaren ATLANTIC
Michael L. Ruhnke CARROLL
Bruce Schenck GLENWOOD
Tom Woodin FARRAGUT
25 YEAR RECOGNITION
Doyle Engelen TEMPLETON
Bruce Thomas MISSOURI VALLEY
35 YEAR RECOGNITION
Jim Christensen FONTANELLE
C. Leroy Dukes BEDFORD
Jim Molitor CARROLL
Dale “Ernie” Reinke MANNING
James “Jake” Schwartzkopf STUART
John D. Walters CRESTON
ASPIRING NEW OFFICIALS
Kevin Cabbage STANTON
NFOA STATE OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR
Wrestling: Tom Moore GRISWOLD
Baseball: Bob Sweeney ATLANTIC
For only the third time in school history, the Iowa State women’s basketball team has had multiple players taken in the WNBA Draft. Aplington native Chelsea Poppens went in the middle of the second round last night, taken by the Seattle Storm with the 18th pick. Fellow Iowa State senior Anna Prins was also taken in the second round, going to the Connecticut Sun with the 23rd pick.
The Seattle Storm also picked Iowa State’s Alison Lacey in the WNBA Draft in 2010. Prins is the second Iowa State player picked by Connecticut, following Lindsey Wilson in 2003.
(Radio Iowa)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Creighton University Athletic Hall of Fame has added three more members.
Christy Neneman, Nate Funk and Dan Smith were inducted Monday night during a ceremony in downtown Omaha.
Neneman was a women’s basketball player who graduated in 2004, Funk played on the men’s basketball team and graduated in 2007, and Smith was a pitcher for the baseball team and a first-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 1990.
Volleyball player Megan Bober and men’s basketball player Ethan Wragge (RAH-gee) were named Carl M. Reinert Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
Bober and men’s basketball player Doug McDermott were named the school’s Athletes of the Year.
AMES, Iowa – For the third time in school history Iowa State had two players selected in the WNBA Draft as Chelsea Poppens was selected by the Seattle Storm in the second round with the 18th overall pick and Anna Prins went to the Connecticut Sun, also in the second round, with the 23rd pick. Poppens and Prins are the 11th and 12th Cyclones selected in the draft.
Poppens and Prins recently wrapped up standout careers with both scoring over 1,000 career points. Now they will head to training camp at the beginning of May.
“It is a great honor to be selected in the WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm,” Poppens said. “They are a great franchise with a championship history and I’m excited to get started.”
“I’m very excited,” Prins added. “I wasn’t expecting to go that early so it kind of surprised me. I’m very excited for Pop as well. I’ve grown up watching the WNBA so it is a dream to have this opportunity.”
Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly was happy for the two players, who are roommates and good friends.
“It is fantastic to have two kids drafted,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “It is a testament to those kids. They worked very hard to get to this point. Anytime you can hear Iowa State called it is a good thing. They are close friends so for them to go with picks 18 and 23, it is pretty special. I’m very happy for them.”
Poppens, an Aplington, Iowa native, was a two-time Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American and a two-time All-Big 12 first team selection. The forward became the second player in school history and the 14th player in Big 12 history to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in a career. She averaged 11.1 points and 8.7 rebounds in her 126 game career. Poppens shot 50 percent from the field and 71.1 percent from the free-throw line.
Prins, a center from Broomfield, Colo., had the best season of her career in 2012-13, averaging a career-best 12.3 points. Prins, who for the first time in her career didn’t miss a game, played 26.6 minutes a game and was in double figures in 20 games this season. She averaged 19.6 points and shot 58.7 percent from the field in the Cyclones’ five postseason games, including an all-tournament team performance at the Big 12 Championship. Prins scored a career-high 32 points in the semifinals against Oklahoma. In 117 career games, Prins averaged 10.1 points and hit 100 career 3-pointers.
Eight players from the Big 12 were drafted.
Boys Soccer:
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Boys Tennis:
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Nearly 160 Iowans were registered to run in Monday’s Boston Marathon, where two bomb blasts killed two people and injured dozens more. A small contingent from western Iowa was among those who narrowly escaped being injured by the blasts. According to the Daily NonPareil, Kim Moore, from Treynor, was among several people waiting for a medal when she heard the first explosion. Moore, who had finished the Boston Marathon 10 minutes earlier, turned around to see a large plume of smoke and saw the impact as another explosion rocked the finish line of the prestigious race.
Council Bluffs native Mike McSorley finished about the same time as Moore. He was seated at a restaurant table with friends when he heard the news. Lory Van Tilburg of McClelland told the paper she let her family and friends on Facebook know she was safe, but that she missed the bomb by just minutes. Peter Crawford, of Red Oak, also ran in the Boston Marathon. Crawford, an engineer with JFSCO Engineering, was near the finish line when the bombs went off. He told local media representatives that he would have been caught up in the explosions, if his time had actually been quicker than it was.
Three brothers from Cedar Falls ran in the race. Joey, Daniel, and David Sevcik are members of the Iowa State Running Club and according to Joey, they left the finish line area about 10 minutes before the explosions. “Many of our guys heard an explosion…but didn’t know what it was,” Sevcik said. “We were somewhere between the 25th and 26th mile marker. We’re not exactly sure where.” Sevcik said his group only heard one of the explosions and didn’t know what was going on until they started receiving messages on their cell phones.
“We didn’t assume, you know, it was a bomb or thing anything like that. We were just kind of like, ‘Oh, what was that.’ And didn’t think anything of it until we got back into cell service and everybody’s cell phone started to go off and say, ‘Hey! Are you guys OK? Are you guys OK?’ And then that’s when we realized what exactly it was,” Sevcik said. “There were also, at that time all of a sudden, ambulances and fire trucks flying down every which way through the middle of Boston.” This was Sevcik’s sixth marathon and even with the chaotic nature at finish lines, Sevcik said he’d never been concerned for his safety.
“I’ve never felt unsafe at all. There was no reason to feel unsafe (Monday) even. It’s such a crowded area, especially at the finish line,” he said. “Thousands upon thousands of people cheering…so there’s no reason to feel anxious. It was just a completely packed area, so it’s kind of shocking.” The explosions happened about three hours after the winners crossed the finished line. Jeanine Penticoff of Cedar Rapids was about a half mile away from the finish line when officials stopped the race. “There were a lot of family members who were waiting at the finish line that were associated with the runners we were running alongside, so there was just a lot of worry and concern,” Penticoff said. It took Penticoff more than an hour to find her husband, as cell phone coverage was limited and roads had been closed off.
“You just never know what’s going to happen, because obviously these things can happen at any time, at any place,” Penticoff said. This was the first Boston Marathon for Penticoff, who’s the Director of the Energy Efficiency Department at Alliant Energy. Des Moines attorney Doug Gross got a phone call from his daughter, Eileen, shortly after the bomb blast, saying she was O.K. “Our daughter, Molly, was running in the race. I think Molly missed it by about 10 minutes,” Gross says. “Eileen, my wife, and then our oldest son, Eric, who was with Eileen, were looking for Molly and they went right near that finish line and just minutes before it went off they were right by there. They heard it go off. They thought it was something big dropping out of a building is what they described it as and then they said it was mass confusion — and thank God they’re safe. They’re all safe.”
Molly Gross was part of a group running to raise money for “Best Buddies,” an organization that helps people with disabilities. “There was a special place where they met in a law firm and so they went there and they were locked down there for about an hour-and-a-half to two hours, until they were free to go back to their hotel and I just talked to them and they’re back at the hotel and they’re fine, so thank goodness they are,” Gross told Radio Iowa shortly before six o’clock Iowa time. Des Moines native Jeremey Hellickson, a pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, was playing in Boston Monday afternoon. He knows the Gross family. Hellickson sent a text message to Mrs. Gross, checking to make sure the family was safe.
(Radio Iowa)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have signed veteran Akeem Jordan to provide depth and push for playing time alongside middle linebacker Derrick Johnson. The team announced the move in a statement Monday. Jordan has appeared in 82 games with 34 starts in six seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles, where current Chiefs coach Andy Reid had been in charge until he was fired this offseason. Jordan has made 184 tackles, two interceptions and forced two turnovers in his career.
The Chiefs have also signed former Titans linebacker Zac Diles, who played at Kansas State, to help shore up the linebacker position. Kansas City could also attempt to fill one of the biggest voids in its defense through the draft.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jon Jay and Matt Holliday each had two hits and two RBIs as the St. Louis Cardinals jumped on the Pittsburgh Pirates early in a 10-6 victory Monday night. Allen Craig doubled and drove in three runs for the Cardinals, who knocked around James McDonald (1-2) with a seven-run second inning. McDonald gave up eight runs, three earned, and walked two in 1 1-3 innings, the shortest start of his career. Lance Lynn (2-0) labored through five innings to get the win. Lynn allowed four runs, walking three and striking out four. Starling Marte had three hits and Neil Walker homered for the Pirates, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
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