It was a victorious Senior Night for the Ankeny girls’ track team.
It wasn’t a bad night for Ankeny Centennial either.
Ankeny easily won its own Hawkette Invitational on Thursday at Northview with 167 points. The Hawkettes finished far ahead of runner-up Johnston, which scored 98.75 points.
“We were very happy about how the team performed at our home meet,” said Ankeny coach T.J. Jumper. “As a coaching staff, we feel like we witnessed our team implement our training. The team victory reinforces that we are where we need to be in our training at this time of year.”
Centennial, meanwhile, placed third in the eight-team field. The Jaguars finished with 90.75 points, five more than Dowling Catholic.
“We had a great meet with many PRs and season bests,” said Centennial coach Tyler Asbe. “We had a nice night to compete, and the girls took advantage of the weather and competed hard.”
Ankeny won six events, including the 4×800 relay. The foursome of Reagan Prendergast, Drew Beason, Alli Macke and Sophie Loeffler won that event in a time of 9:33.31, which set a meet record and met the Blue Oval Standard for the Drake Relays.
Beason also won the 1,500 in a time of 4:46.59, while Prendergast took second in 5:05.42. Macke captured the 800 in a time of 2:22.40, and Loeffler was third in that event in 2:24.06.
In the field events, the Hawkettes won everything but the long jump. Reagan Hanfelt took the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 4.25 inches, which set a meet record, while teammate Jayla Williams was third with a jump of 5-0.
Hannah Baier won the discus with a personal-best throw of 131-1, which met the Blue Oval Standard. Kendra Winfrey won the shot put with a toss of 38-11, and teammate Ava Tomlinson was third with a throw of 33-10.
“It will be important for us to be happy with our performance, but not satisfied as we have a long season and more training to do to reach our goals at the end of the season,” Jumper said.
Centennial’s Jaeden Pratt won the long jump with a leap of 17-0.5. Teammate Kambria Leazer took third in that event with a jump of 15-8.5.
Kylin Smith took the 400 hurdles. She posted a season-best time of 1:06.28.
The Jaguars’ other win came in the distance medley relay, where the quartet of Kacy Olson, Lizzy Mahama, Malin Vallejo and Tallie Plueger was clocked in a season-best time of 4:33.32.
“It was nice to get our whole team out to compete,” Asbe said. “The supportive and positive culture our coaching staff is seeing from this group is outstanding and will take our team a long way.”
Ankeny’s Lillian Smith placed second in the 400 hurdles in 1:07.60. She also took second in the 100 in 12.94.
Gracie Lindaman was third in the 400 hurdles in 1:10.41. Karsen Jacks placed third in the 100 in 13.15.
Paige Beason finished third in the 3,000 in 10:57.90. Morgan Johnson added another third-place finish in the 400, posting a time of 1:01.39.
The Hawkettes placed second in both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.
“The team is buying into the culture of supporting each other and having a championship mindset,” Jumper said. “Our next step is to be consistent with that culture and our performances. We will do that by focusing on the process that it takes to be highly successful.”
Centennial’s Julia Flick placed second in the 400 in 1:01.36. Teammate Rondi Quass was the runner-up in the 3,000 in 10:57.38.
Anika Mohrhauser finished third in the 1,500. She was clocked in 5:06.56.
The Jaguars placed second in the 4×200 and sprint medley relays. Both teams had season-best times.
Ankeny will compete in the Brooks Relays on Saturday at Valley.
