A year ago, Ankeny’s Jack Belding watched as teammate Tyrese Miller raced to a victory in the 400 at the Class 4A state meet.
On Thursday at Drake Stadium, Belding accomplished the same feat.
The junior came out of Lane 2 to win the event in a time of 47.94 seconds. He nearly broke the school record of 47.91 that Miller set at last year’s Drake Relays.
“I really liked seeing everybody ahead of me so I could hunt them down,” said Belding. “Being in Lane 2 I could pretty much see every competitor I had. Once I got in front of them, I knew I could close.”
Belding held off Johnston’s Jashua Anglo down the stretch. Anglo was clocked in 48.13.
“It feels awesome,” Belding said. “Winning that Drake (Relays) title a few weeks ago as a team (in the 4×400 relay) was awesome, and I’m so proud of what we were able to do then. I love how I was able to carry that momentum into this individual race and go out and compete against some really talented competitors. It was just a lot of fun, and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
Belding put his name into the all-time record books. His time equaled the 17th-fastest in state history.
He never expected to break 48 seconds.
“I was hoping for a low 48 maybe,” he said. “I ran it a lot harder than I always do. I didn’t care how I was going to feel after. I just put it all out there and got what I wanted out of it.”
Belding’s teammate, Bram van de Mortel, placed 10th in the 400. He posted a time of 50.81.
Belding’s victory helped put Ankeny into contention for the Class 4A title. The Hawks are tied with Johnston for third place with 18 points after the opening day of the meet.
Iowa City High leads the way with 29 points. Linn-Mar (Marion) is second with 22.
The Hawks got a third-place finish from Ethan Zuber in the 3,200. He posted a time of 9:14.10.
“My goal was to get third. The team wanted me to get third place,” said Zuber, a sophomore. “I had some great runners ahead of me, so I just ran my own race and focused on third. But there’s no time to celebrate. The job’s not finished yet.
“We’re trying to take it all,” he added.
Dowling Catholic star Jackson Heidesch pulled away from Iowa City High’s Ford Washburn to win the race in 9:06.86.
“I run with (Heidesch) but I do not compete with him,” Zuber said.
Ankeny Centennial’s AJ Schermerhorn placed 18th in the race. He was clocked in 9:50.60.
“I really wanted to get top eight. I knew that was a stretch, but it just wasn’t meant to be today,” said Schermerhorn, a junior. “I felt really good going into it and then like halfway through I just hit a wall. But it’s still fun to race here. It’s a great experience.”
Ankeny got a seventh-place finish from Jamison Patton in the high jump. He cleared 6 feet 3 inches on his first attempt, but then missed all three of his tries at 6-5.
“I came up short,” said Patton. “I didn’t get the points I wanted to get for the team, but I’m satisfied with the season. I’m glad I did what I did.”
This is the final high school meet for Patton, who elected not to play baseball this summer in order to begin his football career at Iowa State.
“It still hasn’t hit me yet. I didn’t realize that until you said that. It’s crazy,” Patton said. ‘It’s definitely hard (to give up baseball). When you play a sport your whole life, it’s hard to give it up. I wish I was out there competing, but them guys got it. I’ll be cheering them on from the sidelines.”
Ankeny nearly scored some points in the 4×800 relay. The foursome of Levi Hill, Zuber, Abel Squires and Jake Bosch placed ninth in a time of 8:01.42.
Hill tripped and fell on the opening leg, which likely cost the Hawks several seconds.
“Obviously, that didn’t help, but it wasn’t his fault. He got tripped up,” Bosch said. “It just shows what a great team we have. To have something like that happen and still drop time. That shows we deserve this.”
Zuber ran the second leg in 1:58.03 after earlier running the 3,200. Squires followed with a split of 1:57.93, then Bosch anchored the relay in 1:56.27.
“We wanted to place out of the slow heat,” Bosch said. “We knew that we could. We were upset with our district time.”
Centennial placed 16th in the race. The team of Bennett Blakeslee, Aammin Hassan, Brayden Vander Wilt and Corbin Vander Weerdt was clocked in 8:12.24.
The Jaguars also got a 15th-place finish from Blaine Sandquist in the discus. He recorded a throw of 145 feet 3 inches on his second attempt.
In other events, Ankeny’s Tyler Sickerson and Centennial’s Connor Welsch both qualified for the final in the 100. Sickerson posted the fourth-fastest time of 11.13, while Welsch is seeded seventh at 11.27.
“My biggest goal for the prelims was just to advance and make the finals so I was fine with how I ran because I advanced,” Welsch said. “Now that I’m there, though, I want to place top five and improve my time.”
Sickerson and Belding both advanced to the final in the 200. Belding was the fourth-fastest qualifier at 21.86, just ahead of Sickerson’s clocking of 21.87.
“We got into the finals, and that’s all we needed to do,” Sickerson said. “My 100 could have been better, but I’m happy with the 200.”
Centennial’s Lawson Langford placed 21st in the 200. He posted a time of 23.26.
The Hawks also qualified for the final in the shuttle hurdle relay. The quartet of Carter Accola, Landon Pote, Hayden Carlson and Gavin Wise posted the seventh-fastest time of 59.76 seconds.
“We were satisfied,” Accola said. “It’s our first time this season going sub-1 minute, and it was a great warmup for the 110 high prelims (Friday). We came in (seeded) 14th, but I knew we would be going to the finals.”
Centennial finished 17th in the event with a time of 1:03.02. That team consisted of Cael Woods, Mark Nelson, Drake Dittmar and Cole Pieper.
