Getting a chance to run in the final of the Drake Relays 4×400 relay was enough for Eva Fulk and her teammates on the Ankeny girls’ track squad.
Fulk helped the Hawkettes to a seventh-place finish in the event on Saturday afternoon at Drake Stadium. They posted a time of 4:05.91.
“We pushed really hard to get into the finals,” said Fulk. “I was really happy with our PR that we had in prelims (on Friday night). We were trying to get on the medal stand, but I’m happy with how we did.”
Fulk was joined on the relay by Morgan Johnson, Lillian Smith and Zoe Shadravan. Ankeny’s 4×400 unit was without freshman standout Alli Macke, who ran at the Relays on Friday but then left for Burlington to play in the Tournament of Champions with the Hawkettes’ soccer team.
Fulk ran a 1:00.16 second leg to lift Ankeny from eighth place into fourth.
“I was really happy about that,” Fulk said. “I knew it was going to be an intense race, but I think we did what we had to do.”
Solon went on to win the race in a time of 3:56.24, edging Ames by .33 seconds. Emma Bock ran a 57.02 anchor leg for the Spartans.
The Hawkettes competed in three events on Saturday, while Ankeny Centennial participated in four. Both teams ran in the preliminaries of the 4×100 relay.
The Jaguars placed 13th overall with a time of 50.34 seconds. The team consisted of Addison Arringdale, Morgan Posusta, Mariah Belzer and Maraye Breeding.
“Our 4×100 was really good,” said Centennial coach Andrew Kruzich. “We dropped our season PR from 50.6 to 50.34 while again running in poor conditions. We came in 18th and moved up to 13th, and were the sixth-fastest in 4A. That gives us some reasons to be excited for the end of the season.”
Ankeny placed 49th in 51.72. The squad was comprised of Morgan Conklin, Karsen Jacks, Macie Strnad and Ava Leinen.
Waukee Northwest posted the fastest qualifying time of 48.80, but the Wolves later placed second in the final despite dropping .11 seconds off their time. ADM won the event in 48.48.
Centennial later got an 11th-place finish from freshman Kylin Smith in the 400 hurdles. She matched her personal record with a time of 1:06.45.
“My goal was to run 1:06.22 to break our school record, but I’m happy with it,” Smith said.
Smith smashed into one of the hurdles as she rounded the curve for the homestretch. But it didn’t seem to phase her.
“It’s not really hard for me to get going again,” she said.
Mackenzie Carney of Waukee Northwest easily won the race in 1:02.87, giving her a second straight title and four victories at this year’s meet. Nobody else ran under 1:04.
“Kylin ran really well,” Kruzich said. “She was sixth-best in 4A, and there was only one other underclassman in the field. She handled the race nicely and has a bright, bright future in hurdling.”
The Jaguars raced to a 13th-place finish in the 4×800 relay during the morning session. The foursome of Julia Flick, Rondi Quass, Bella Hodges and Tillie Smith was clocked in 9:49.70.
Quass, a junior, ran the second leg in 2:22.20. She lifted Centennial from 13th into 10th place midway through the race.
“We were happy to just have a chance to race it,” Quass said. “I think some of the girls wanted to perform a little better, but I think they did great for their first really big (meet).”
Flick, Hodges and Smith are all freshmen.
“I thought those three ran well,” Kruzich said. “We got gapped–too far behind the lead pack, but ahead of the trail pack–so it was hard to run great splits. But they fought hard and managed to move up from 14th to 13th.”
Dubuque Hempstead won the 4×800 in a time of 9:22.28.
Quass later placed 15th in the 1,500 in 4:52.36. It was her third race of the meet after placing fifth in the 3,000 on Thursday.
“I think with it being the end of the weekend, I just got worn down by the end,” said Quass, who moved into 10th place after the third lap but then struggled over the last 400 meters.
Ankeny’s Drew Beason, meanwhile, took 13th in the event in a time of 4:51.01. Ainsley Erzen of Carlisle won the race in 4:36.27.
“I felt pretty good the whole time,” Beason said. “I kept getting stuck, but overall I’m pretty happy.”
There was a mishap at the start of the race that caused a few of the runners to fall to the track.
“I was right next to it. I had to hop over them,” Beason said. “I thought we were going to start again, but we never did.”
Quass was also caught in the heavy traffic and didn’t emerge unscathed.
“The girls who stumbled and fell tripped her up, and she got spiked a bit,” Kruzich said. “She had to spend a lot of energy trying to work her way through that mess. She was in great position with 200 (meters) to go, but didn’t have any gas in the tank into that headwind.”
Still, it was a good weekend for Quass and the Jaguars.
“Rondi’s 3,000 was perfectly paced, and she had a PR in the 4×800,” Kruzich said. “Overall, we had a really positive Relays. All of our Saturday events came in between 12-18, so we were looking to move up and get some young guns some experience in big races.
“It’s all big meets when you get to May, and we’ve got some reasons for optimism after this weekend,” he added.