The Ankeny Centennial girls’ track team has grown by more than 40 percent.
“We have 115 kids out right now, up from 80 last year,” said Centennial coach Andrew Kruzich. “We’ve had a massive jump, which is exciting and challenging.”
The Jaguars, who are slated to compete in the UNI Indoor Meet on Monday at Cedar Falls, placed 14th in last year’s Class 4A state meet with 24 points. Twelve state qualifiers are back from a team that placed second in the CIML Iowa Conference meet and won a regional crown.
Seniors Olivia Anderson, Maraye Breeding and Elle Street are back along with juniors Mariah Belzer, Layla Hughes, Maddy LaVoi and Rondi Quass. Sophomores Addison Arringdale, Ella Jumper, Jordy Jumper, Kambria Leazer and Morgan Posusta are the other returning qualifiers.
“The biggest challenge we have is that we lost a lot of talent and experience from last year’s team,” Kruzich said. “Kathryn Vortherms, Millie Hill, Katie Jensen, Josie Bearden and Jordan Su–those girls scored a lot of points for us in the regular season and at state. So our distance crew will turn over quite a bit, and we have to find new girls to step up there, in the hurdles, and in the long jump. Losing Liv Anderson (to a knee injury in volleyball), one of our fastest and most consistent sprinters, hurts too.”
Quass is the team’s top returnee. She was the conference and regional champion in the 3,000, then placed ninth at the state meet in that event with a time of 10:18.56.
Quass finished 10th in the 1,500 in 4:49.60. She also anchored the 4×800 relay to a third-place finish in 9:27.18, which set a school record.
Quass is a two-time top-15 finisher in the state cross country meet as well.
“Our fall cross country season was very encouraging for the future, and we’ll look for Rondi to lead that young crew through their first spring like she did last fall,” Kruzich said.
Breeding is one of the team’s most versatile performers. She joined Anderson and Street on the 4×200 relay team that placed fifth in a time of 1:45.05, which set a school record.
Breeding anchored the 20th-place sprint medley relay that also included Arringdale, Posusta and Anderson. She joined Anderson and Street on the distance medley relay that was disqualified at the state meet.
Breeding also joined the Jumper twins on the shuttle hurdle relay. That unit placed 14th in a time of 1:10.64.
Like Breeding, Street will again be a key performer in the relays. She is the lone returnee from the 4×400 squad that placed sixth in 4:05.37.
Street has yet to practice, though, as she just finished her basketball season last Monday.
“Our basketball girls haven’t joined us yet, so this week is about getting some girls some race experience and begin the auditioning process for our varsity events,” Kruzich said. “We’re looking forward to it.”
Arringdale, Hughes and Posusta are all back from the 4×100 relay team that placed 13th in 50.44 seconds. Belzer ran on that unit at the state qualifying meet, but was unable to compete at state due to food poisoning.
Leazer advanced to state in both jumping events. She placed 10th in the high jump (5-0) and 23rd in the long jump (15-1.75).
LaVoi is also back for the Jaguars. She helped the distance medley relay to qualify for state.
“We have a lot of young bodies in the mix to contribute,” Kruzich said. “Over 80 percent of last year’s non-seniors came back, which means they had a great time. We have a lot of options in the sprints, too, even without Liv. Maraye and Elle are back from the 4×200, and our 4×100 from the state qualifying meet was two sophomores and two freshmen. We have a lot of girls looking to run 400s this year, which always helps everything. We have two senior throwers, Alayna Feilmeier and Alee Edwards, who are ready to be regular scorers.
“I think we can go into each meet and be very competitive in each event, and have a lot of options as we search for our best,” he added.