The Ankeny boys’ track team was looking to make some noise on Saturday in the Brooks Relays at Valley.
The Hawks’ superlative performance could likely be heard across the state.
Ankeny won the 12-team meet with 122 points, edging runner-up Johnston by three points. Iowa City High, which won last year’s meet, took third with 92.5 points.
“I’m very happy with my team’s performance, and I think the depth we have is amazing,” said Ankeny sophomore Tyler Sickerson. “I feel like we are very well-rounded, and I can’t wait for more big meets like this.”
Ankeny Centennial also competed in the meet, which was held under sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s. The Jaguars placed fifth with 55 points.
“It was a great day for track,” said Centennial coach Nate Smith. “There was some great competition.”
Ankeny won five events, including the distance medley relay. The foursome of Jazan Williams, Devon Akers, Bram van de Mortel and Jake Bosch won that race in a time of 3:36.48, which was just shy of the Blue Oval Standard for the Drake Relays.
Sickerson raced to a victory in the 100 in 11.01. He edged Southeast Polk star Abu Sama by .03 seconds.
“I definitely felt like I had a good start. My first 30 meters is something I worked on very hard in the offseason,” Sickerson said. “Obviously, the race was very close, but right after my drive phase I knew I was going to win. I’m very confident in myself this year as I’ve put in more work into track than I ever have before. This paired with trusting my training and my coach is going to equal a good season.”
Ankeny’s Jack Belding placed third in the 100 in 11.21. He later captured the 200 in 22.62 to avenge the loss to Sickerson, who took second in that race in 22.76.
The Hawks also posted a 1-2 finish in the 1,600. Ethan Zuber won the race in a time of 4:22.59, while Levi Hill was the runner-up in 4:25.20.
Zuber also placed second in the 3,200 in 9:27.02. Hill finished fifth in that event, posting a time of 9:46.52.
Carter Accola provided Ankeny’s other victory in the 110 hurdles. He stayed unbeaten on the season by posting a time of 14.92 seconds.
Accola also anchored the Hawks to a second-place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay. He teamed up with Gavin Wise, Landon Pote and Hayden Carlson to post a time of 1:02.33.
Ankeny scored some points in the jumping events as well. Jamison Patton took second in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet 3 inches, while Cade Pederson took fourth in the long jump at 20-10.
Centennial, meanwhile, won a pair of events. Sam Dietz easily took the shot put with another personal-best throw of 55-7.5, defeating runner-up Trystin Irvin of Valley by more than seven feet.
“Sam continues to do what he said he was going to do in the shot,” Smith said.
The Jaguars’ margin of victory was a lot closer in the 4×100 relay, where the quartet of Elijah Porter, Connor Welsch, Lawson Langford and Max Snyder posted a winning time of 42.94 seconds. They edged runner-up Johnston by one-hundredth of a second.
“We were pretty confident going into the race,” said Welsch. “That was the first time we ran with that group. I thought it was a good first race for us. We still can run faster and get better at our handoffs, though.”
Welsch also placed fifth in the 100 in 11.40. Teammate Cael Woods took fifth in the 400 hurdles in a personal-best time of 57.83 seconds.
Centennial placed third in the 4×800 relay. The team of Bennett Blakeslee, Aammin Hassan, Corbin Vander Weerdt and AJ Schermerhorn was clocked in 8:18.95.
Blakeslee ran the opening leg in a swift 2:02.6. He later anchored the Jaguars to an eighth-place finish in the 4×400 relay with a split of 51.21.
“Bennett had two great legs,” Smith said.
Ankeny will compete in the DouBrava Invitational on Tuesday at Urbandale. The Hawks and Jaguars will both compete in the Jim Duncan Invitational on Saturday at Drake.
