Ankeny Centennial’s Jaeden Pratt wasn’t even planning to go out for track until her basketball teammate, Mya Crawford, talked her into it.
Now, the sophomore owns the distinction of becoming the first individual girls’ state track champion in program history.
Pratt won the Class 4A long jump on Friday at Drake Stadium with a leap of 18 feet 1 inch. Her victory lifted the Jaguars into a tie for seventh place in the team standings with 14 points heading into Saturday.
“I was just out for the fun of it,” said Pratt. “Mya was actually the one who made me go out so props to her for making me. She was like, ‘If you’re not going out, I’m not going out.’ And I was like, ‘You can not do that to yourself.'”
Pratt, a basketball and volleyball standout, focused on those sports a year ago instead of competing in track. But she made a huge impact when she joined the squad this spring.
First-year coach Tyler Asbe said it’s not often that an athlete with Pratt’s untapped potential shows up on the first day of practice.
“Coming in you see how athletic she is and the possibilities there,” Asbe said. “But it takes a lot of execution on the day of the meet. Everything has to go the right way.”
Pratt took the lead with a jump of 17-9 on her first attempt in the preliminaries. That took some of the pressure off, since she had scratched on her first two attempts at the state qualifying meet.
“She got that first clean one in, and I think the confidence just shot up,” Asbe said. “The stress was gone.”
After the preliminaries, Pratt moved over to the track for the preliminaries in the 4×100 relay. She teamed up with Olivia Larsen, Morgan Posusta and Mariah Belzer for a 10th-place finish in 49.83 seconds.
When Pratt returned to the long jump area, she found out that Dowling Catholic’s Ruby Leman had taken the lead with a jump of 17-11.75 on her last attempt in the finals.
“I was kind of nervous because we’ve had such close jumps all season long,” Pratt said. “She’s a great competitor, and I know she’ll push me. I’m glad I was in that position so that I could push myself.”
Pratt wasn’t sure how her legs would react after anchoring the relay just a few minutes earlier. But she sealed the victory with a history-making jump on her first attempt in the finals, edging Leman by a quarter inch with a leap of 18-0.
“She knew what she had to do, and she got the job done,” Asbe said.
Pratt later improved her mark by another inch on her final attempt.
“It feels amazing!” she said. “There are no words to describe it, that’s for sure.”
Pratt’s teammate, Kambria Leazer, took ninth in the event with a jump of 16-7.75.
“We’ve had a good meet,” Asbe said. “We’ve had a couple of ninth places today, so those are tough being so close (to scoring points). But then to have a state champ come through, it’s just awesome. I’m so happy for Jaeden. She’s worked so hard this year and deserves everything that is coming to her.”
The Jaguars earlier placed ninth in the distance medley relay. The foursome of Layla Hughes, Kacy Olson, Julia Flick and Rondi Quass posted a time of 4:13.77.
“I’m not sure where we finished,” said Flick. “I just know it was a 9-second PR for our group. We just wanted to have smooth handoffs and just do our best and see what we get.”
Centennial later finished 11th in the 4×200 relay. The quartet of Crawford, Hughes, Kylin Smith and Flick was clocked in 1:45.19.
“We ran faster at Drake, which is what we were kind of looking for,” Crawford said. “This is our last time running with this group, since Layla is a senior. We really wanted to do good for her. But it’s fine.”
The Jaguars have a chance to score some more points on Saturday. The team of Crawford, Maddy LaVoi, Smith and Flick qualified for the final in the 4×400 relay, sneaking into the race with the eighth-fastest time of 3:58.14.
Flick ran the anchor leg in 58.31.
Centennial will also compete in the sprint medley relay. Quass will run in the 1,500.
