It was an epic battle that neither team deserved to lose.
In the end, though, the Ankeny boys’ track squad was nosed out for the Class 4A state championship by one of its CIML rivals.
Johnston edged the Hawks in the final two events, the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, to capture the title on a sunny Saturday at Drake Stadium. The Dragons racked up 84 points, four more than Ankeny.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more,” said Ankeny coach Jordan Mullen. “This weekend was a total team effort. To put up 80 points at the state meet and if we come up a little short, we come up a little short. That’s the highest finish since 1970 in school history, so I’ll take that for my first year.”
With two events left, the two teams were tied for second place with 66 points. They both trailed Iowa City High by 11 points, but had a lot of ammunition left.
In the 4×100 relay, Iowa City West nipped Johnston by .007 seconds to win the event in 41.883. The Ankeny team of Aidan Adamson, Jazan Williams, Devon Akers and Tyler Sickerson took third in 41.94.
It was one of five school records set by the Hawks over the last two days.
“It was a good race,” said Sickerson. ‘I think we executed pretty well as a team, but our main goal was to beat Johnston because that would have helped out for the team title. We did pretty much all we could. We got the school record.”
Ankeny Centennial also scored points in the race. The quartet of Elijah Porter, Connor Welsch, Lawson Langford and Max Snyder took fifth in 42.41.
“This is probably one of the fastest years Iowa has seen in awhile, so we can’t be mad with (fifth),” said Langford. “We wanted to gain a couple of spots. We came in seeded fifth, so it would have been nice to get third or fourth. But we shaved like .5 seconds off our best time. I think we were pretty happy with it.”
That set the stage for the dramatic finale. Iowa City High led Johnston by three points and Ankeny by five going into the 4×400 relay, creating the possibility of a two- or even three-way tie for the title.
The Little Hawks were seeded sixth in the event and needed to finish second in order to clinch the crown. However, they got off to a slow start and eventually finished seventh.
Linn-Mar (Marion) led the race at the midway point, but Ankeny star Jack Belding then lifted the Hawks from seventh place all the way into first with a 47.53 split on the third leg.
“My legs are really tired, but I just put that past me and ran as hard as I could,” said Belding. “I knew what I had to do, so I went out and did it.”
Belding led by more than a second when he handed the baton to Jake Bosch, but Johnston had moved into second place and had star sophomore Jashua Anglo getting ready to run the anchor leg. Anglo had placed second behind Belding in the open 400 on Thursday.
The Dragons would have tied Ankeny for the title if they had finished second, but Anglo wasn’t in a sharing mood. He ran the final leg in 47.25 to rally his team to the victory in a time of 3:15.26.
The Hawks, who got a solid 49.15 split from Bosch, set a school record of 3:15.99. Bram van de Mortel and Tyson Miller ran the first two legs for the runner-up team.
“We can’t be mad about that at all,” Belding said. “We’ve had a lot of hard competition this year, and to be one of those teams that hasn’t gotten much recognition this year and come into state and get second, it’s just awesome. I’m really happy with what everyone has done these last three days, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team.”
Earlier, Johnston also edged the Hawks to win the sprint medley relay as the two teams ran the fastest times ever recorded in Iowa. Anglo anchored the Dragons to a winning time of 1:30.15.
The Ankeny team of Adamson, Williams, Akers and Belding was clocked in 1:30.78, setting another school record.
“We’ve been working all season for this,” Adamson said. “We’re just happy with what we got here. Anglo’s a tough runner. We definitely could have gone first, but we’re happy with second.”
Belding said the Hawks did everything that they could to win the race.
“We all ran great. We ran what we needed to run,” he said. “It’s just that we were running against some really good competitors.”
Centennial also competed in that event. However, the team of Porter, Snyder, Langford and Drake Dittmar was disqualified.
Belding later contributed a third-place finish in the 200. He turned in a time of 21.83.
Cedar Rapids Washington standout Miles Thompson won the race in 21.02. Iowa City West’s Izaiah Loveless was second in 21.52.
“I’m ecstatic with it,” Belding said of the race. “I felt really good, especially after how much everybody ran this weekend. To be able to still be fresh and drop a time like that, it feels great.
“Those two guys (Thompson and Loveless) are phenomenal. There are some crazy athletes here, and I have nothing but respect for them,” he added.
Sickerson took seventh in the same event in 22.10. He finished .01 seconds behind sixth-place finisher Tatum Fox of Johnston.
“There wasn’t much (of a gap between third and seventh). It was really close,” Sickerson said. “Coming off the corner, I knew I was pretty far back. I tried my best to catch up, but unfortunately I couldn’t do it. There’s always next year. I’ll be back.”
Sickerson earlier placed fourth in the 100 in 10.96. Thompson easily won the race in 10.46.
“I was just tired. I had no gas left,” Sickerson said. “It’s the end of the season. There’s not much more you can ask for when you give it your all.”
Centennial’s Welsch placed sixth in the 100 in 11.17. He helped the Jaguars tie for 25th place overall with Waukee with seven points apiece.
“I improved my seed time,” said Welsch, who finished four-thousandths of a second behind fifth-place finisher Colton Voss of North Scott. “I was trying to beat my PR (of 11.11), but I didn’t do that.”
Ankeny set another school record in the 1,600, where Ethan Zuber placed third in a time of 4:14.39. Teammate Levi Hill was 20th in 4:29.75, while Centennial’s AJ Schermerhorn took 16th in 4:24.94.
Dowling Catholic star Jackson Heidesch won the event in 4:07.18. Zuber used a strong finish to edge three other runners by less than .4 seconds for third place.
“I wanted to do what I could to help the team,” Zuber said. “It came down to that last 100 meters and who wants it more. I wanted it more.”
The Hawks also scored points in both hurdles events on Saturday. Carter Accola placed fourth in the 110 hurdles and also ran on the fifth-place shuttle hurdle relay, matching their finishes from last year.
Accola posted a time of 14.68 in the 110 hurdles. He was edged for third place by .008 seconds.
Nicholas Gorsich of Linn-Mar won the event in 14.54.
“I’ve been running on a (hamstring) injury all year,” Accola said. “I missed Drake for this because I wanted to help my team so bad and today was just about finishing for me. I want to help my team win a title.
“I missed five weeks of training. There’s nothing I could do about it. It is what it is. But this adversity has prepared me for something bigger in college. I’m only getting started,” he added.
Accola earlier teamed up with Landon Pote, Hayden Carlson and Gavin Wise to post a time of 59.44 in the shuttle hurdle relay. Iowa City West won the event in 58.19.
“It was pure grit for us in the shuttle,” Accola said. “We weren’t supposed to be there again. But we were. Because Ankeny doesn’t give up, that’s for sure.”
Sam Madsen was part of the Hawks’ relay at the state qualifying meet. That allowed Accola to focus on the 110 hurdles.
“Props to Sam. He got us in, and he helped us all year,” said Wise. “I’m happy with the whole team. I don’t think I did that well. I wasn’t really moving as fast as I could, and then I hit (the fifth or sixth hurdle). It was a little frustrating, but I’m really happy with how everyone else did.”
Ankeny’s Abel Squires placed 12th in the 800 in a time of 1:56.86, which set a personal record. He was third in the first of two sections.
Gabe Nash of Sioux City North won the event in 1:52.34.
“My goal was to go out and win the heat and maybe score some points,” Squires said. “I gave it my all and I got third, and that’s all right. The boys ran some great times.”
After the meet, Mullen praised the Class 4A champions.
“If any other team was going to win it, let’s keep it in the CIML. Hats off to (Johnston),” he said. “They are an outstanding team. We’ll keep it here in central Iowa.”
Maybe next year Ankeny can dethrone the Dragons.
“They definitely have a lot of great competitors,” Belding said. “But I know a lot of them are seniors. With them out of the way, next year we’ll be back even stronger. We’re barely losing anybody.”
In the wheelchair events, Ankeny’s Josh Unguec placed second in the shot put (11-8.25) and finished eighth in the 100 (25.61).
