The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field.

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Dewitt, IA (Radio Iowa) — A 48-year-old who’s running across the country to raise awareness about childhood sexual abuse crossed into Iowa Wednesday. Christian Griffith of Atlanta, Georgia, says his goal is to get people to talk openly about abuse — just like they’d talk about any other disease. “If I was to do just another marathon, nobody would be paying attention,” Griffith says, “but I chose to do something big, something that’s seemingly insurmountable because I wanted a platform to talk about something that people are just simply not talking about.”

Griffith is calling his three-thousand mile trek “Run 2 Heal” and he’s trying to raise a million dollars for a group called “Help for Children.” The group gives grants to local child abuse prevention and treatment programs. Griffith first told someone he had been abused as a child in the fall of 2015 — when he was 45 years old. Griffith began getting counseling and treatment in February of 2016 — and Griffith says he’s found talking frankly about the abuse he endured as a child is important. “I know and understand what it feels like to isolate and hide from that and feel like your situation’s different or you’re unique and you can’t talk about it,” Griffith says, “and I want people to feel comfortable with the fact that they absolutely can talk about it and all of the fears that they have and the labels that are going to come at them when they do — none of that’s going to happen.”

Griffith began skateboarding in his teenage years and then pursued more “extreme sports” as an adult because it had a calming effect.  “It made it so it didn’t have to think about home,” Griffith says. “…I kept finding greater and greater challenges to numb the pain or kill the demons — whatever you want to call it.”  He says talking openly and frankly about abuse is important and Griffith is making stops along the way to talk with groups about the issue. Griffith runs about 30 miles a day. That means it’ll take him about a week-and-a-half to run across the state. His western Iowa trek takes him through Guthrie Center, Kimballton, and Persia, from May 18th through the 21st. (If you’d like to join him, you must pre-register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeXlMROqK6EgiMzD6o9BXzrM_i94wjCkHs4hXM7ywRba6VNw/viewform) For more information check out his Facebook page at Run2Heal, of go to https://run2heal.hfc.org/run-details/

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — Mark Trumbo delivered a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning, Chris Davis homered and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 to end a seven-game losing streak. Jonathan Schoop had two hits and scored twice for the Orioles, who lost 18 of their previous 21 games.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The last time the major leagues saw Miles Mikolas before this season, the right-hander was learning how to become a starting pitcher with the Texas Rangers. That was in 2014. Mikolas then spent three years in Japan. It has paid off for the 29-year-old and the St. Louis Cardinals, who signed Mikolas to a $15.5 million, two-year contract during the offseason. Entering Wednesday’s games, Mikolas was 10th in the National League with a 2.70 ERA.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs have promoted Mike Borgonzi to director of football operations and Ryan Poles to assistant director of player personnel as part of a series of front-office moves made following the NFL draft. Three scouts have also been promoted and Mike Bradway has been hired from Philadelphia as an assistant director of player personnel.

The Kuemper Catholic Knights won the District Tennis Tournament at Denison on Wednesday. The Knights racked up 23 points to advance to the Sub-State they will host on May 19th.

In singles play St. Albert’s Reed Miller was the champion with a finals win over Tanner Finken of Kuemper Catholic 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Both will move on to State in Waterloo.

In doubles action Keumper Catholic’s Cam Pille and Justin Schroeder won the title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Denison-Schleswig’s Jaden Heiden and Sean Moran. Both duos will head to State as well.

Denison-Schleswig scored 17 points on the day and will now host St. Albert in a Preliminary Sub-State match on Saturday. The Falcons scored 13 points to finish 3rd on Wednesday.

Girls Soccer

Atlantic 3, AHSTW 2 (Completion of game stopped by lightning)
Lewis Central 10, Denison-Schleswig 0

Girls Tennis

Shenandoah 7, Denison-Schleswig 2

Girls Golf

Missouri River Conference Tournament:

1. Sioux City East 355
2. Abraham Lincoln 367
3. Bishop Heelan 387
4. Sioux City North 441
5. Thomas Jefferson 442
6. Sergeant Bluff-Luton 457
7. Sioux City West NTS

Medalist: Kirsten Stykes, Sioux City East, 83.
Runner-Up: Madyson Frichter, Abraham Lincoln, 83

The Atlantic boys tennis team took the title at the Class 1A District Tennis Tournament they hosted on Wednesday. The Trojans notched 21 points on the day to run away from the pack. Creston was 2nd with 14 points and Clarinda was 3rd with 13 points.

The Atlantic doubles team of Grant Podhajsky and Cooper McDermott earned a return trip to the State Tournament with a runner-up finish Wednesday. The duo placed 8th at state a year ago. Atlantic’s Nile Petersen also qualified for State in singles play with a District Championship. He earned his way to the final and then was awarded the title after his opponent forfeited the final match due to cramping issues.

Atlantic will move on to Sub-State play as a team on May 19th at Kuemper Catholic. Creston will host Clarinda in a Preliminary Sub-State match this Saturday to determine which of them will join Atlantic in Carroll.

Full match results can be found here: Boys_Districts_2018

The Atlantic High School and Atlantic Activities Department announced on Wednesday evening that Jeff Ebling will be the next Head Boys Basketball Coach, pending board approval.

Ebling comes to Atlantic from Norwalk where he has been an assistant coach for the past three years. His other coaching stops included 1 year as an assistant at Greene High School, 7 years in Ottumwa as an assistant, 2 years as head coach at Fairfield, and 4 years as an assistant at Des Moines Roosevelt.  He has been a part of three state tournament teams including last season with Norwalk.

Ebling is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa with a bachelors degree in elementary and middle level education. He also obtained a masters degree in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University-Irvine. He has been teaching at the middle school level for the past 16 years. Mr. Ebling will teach social studies at Atlantic Middle School starting in the fall of 2018.

Jeff and his wife Erin plan to move to Atlantic as soon as possible. Erin Ebling will be teaching English/Language Arts at Atlantic Middle School next fall.

The school stated “Coach Ebling’s experiences and background will be a great asset to the Trojan basketball program. He is looking forward to meeting with the players and working with them and the basketball staff in the near future.”

Ebling takes over for Alan Jenkins who recently announced he is leaving to become the Head Boys Basketball Coach at Southeast Polk High School.

Atlantic’s Nile Petersen has qualified for the Class 1A State Tennis Tournament. Petersen picked up a semi-final win in Atlantic over JD Hitt of Clarinda 6-2, 6-0. Creston’s Dustin Merritt then forfeited the final due to cramping, making Petersen the District champion. Meritt advanced to the final with a 3-set win over Atlantic’s Kalob Flory in the semis. Merritt defeated Flory 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 to earn a state berth.

Petersen will compete in the Class 1A State Tournament in Waterloo on May 25th and 26th. His teammates Grant Podhajsky and Cooper McDermott had already qualified for state in doubles play earlier in the day.

Atlantic clinched the District Title as a team as well and will head to Sub-State competition on May 19th at Kuemper Catholic. That Sub-State site will include winning teams from the Atlantic and Denison District sites.

District Tennis is being contested for boys teams around the state today and one the Class 1A District sites was in Atlantic. For the third straight season the Doubles team of Grant Podhajsky and Cooper McDermott are heading to state. The Trojan duo came in second in District action today. They fell to the team of Joel Ibanez and Adam Konfrst of Glenwood in the finals 6-1, 6-2. Both doubles teams will head to the Class 1A State Singles and Doubles Tournament at Byrnes Park in Waterloo on May 25th and 26th.

The team of Podhajsky/McDermott finished 8th at last year’s Class 1A State Tournament.

The top two doubles teams and individuals from District play at all 8 sites today will advance to the State Tournament in both classes.

The top scoring team at each District site will advance to Sub-State play on May 19th. The 2nd and 3rd place teams will play a preliminary sub-state match this Saturday to determine the other sub-state qualifier. The second place team will host the preliminary sub-state match.

See other story for Western Iowa Conference Meets.

Girls

East Union 202, Martensdale-St. Marys 254
Harlan 202, Shenandoah 215 Red Oak 235
Tri-Center 197, Logan-Magnolia 227

Boys

East Union 185, Martensdale-St. Marys 200
Harlan 165, Shenandoah 199, Red Oak 209
Logan-Magnolia 168, Tri-Center 169
Treynor 171, IKM-Manning 175