The Ankeny Centennial girls’ track team has never placed in the top 10 at the Class 4A state meet.
This could be the year that the Jaguars break through that barrier.
“Our No. 1 goal is to have a ton of fun as a team and to continue to build on the great team culture we have,” said Centennial coach Tyler Asbe. “With that environment, the level of experience we have, and all of the hard work our girls put in, we think it is a great goal to finish as a top-10 team at the state meet.”
Centennial’s highest previous finish came in 2019, when it tied for 12th place in Class 4A with 22 points. Last year, in Asbe’s first season at the school, the Jaguars tied for 14th with 15 points.
Fourteen state qualifiers are back from that squad, led by the Class 4A long jump champion in junior Jaeden Pratt.
“We are grateful to return a great majority of our state-qualifying athletes from last year,” Asbe said. “It feels like we have really hit the ground running this season. The returning athletes and our coaching staff have great relationships that carried over from last season, and everyone is on the same page in terms of training and goals for the season. The culture surrounding our team is very positive, and the girls are bringing great energy to practice.”
Pratt became Centennial’s first individual state champion as a sophomore, when she won the long jump with a leap of 18 feet 1 inch. She earlier set a school record with a jump of 18-8 at the Waukee Northwest Relays.
Senior Kam Leazer is also back in the jumping events. She is a three-time state qualifier in the high jump and a two-time qualifier in the long jump.
Leazer tied for sixth in the high jump as a sophomore. She placed ninth in the long jump a year ago.
“Kam had a great meet at the IATC Indoor Championships (earlier this month), winning the long jump and placing fourth in the high jump,” Asbe said. “It was great to see her pick up right where she left off in both jumping events.”
Juniors Julia Flick and Kylin Smith are among the team’s other returnees. They both ran on the 4×400 relay that set a school record in the preliminaries at last year’s Drake Relays and went on to place second in the final.
Flick later set a school record of 58.81 in the 400 at a regional meet. She went on to place 12th at the state meet in that event.
Smith, meanwhile, placed fourth in the 400 hurdles at the state meet as a freshman. Last year, she placed eighth in the event at the Drake Relays, where she broke her own school record with a time of 1:04.59.
Smith was a part of three relays at the state meet. She joined Pratt on the ninth-place sprint medley relay and joined Flick on both the eighth-place 4×400 relay and 11th-place 4×200 relays.
The other returning state qualifiers are Ava Barten, Lila Blake, Haley Hveem, Olivia Larsen, Kori Lincicum, Kylie Lincoln, Anika Mohrhauser, Kacy Olson, Tallie Plueger and Morgan Posusta.
Mohrhauser placed ninth in the 3,000 at the state meet. Hveem and Plueger both ran on the 13th-place 4×800 relay.
“Through our first two indoor meets we have seen many great performances already,” Asbe said. “Our distance crew has had a nice start with some early PRs including Mohrhauser in the 1,500, Hveem in the 3,000, and Piper Zeman and Kylee Patterson in the 800.”
Larsen and Posusta joined Pratt on the 10th-place 4×100 relay at the state meet. Olson joined Flick on the ninth-place distance medley relay.
Barten, Lincicum, Lincoln and Blake teamed up for a 21st-place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay.
“We also have another 13 athletes who were alternates at state last year, including Addi Arringdale,” Asbe said. “Addi and Morgan both had PRs in the 60-meter dash at the Mason City Indoor meet which was great to see in the season opener. We are excited to bring such an experienced group back this season. It is great to have so many leaders on the team that have big meet experience. It is so valuable for our younger athletes to practice with and be around those girls every day.”
Anna Woods is part of a talented freshman group that is already making an impact for the Jaguars. Woods set a school record in the high jump at Mason City, where she jumped 5-6 to qualify for the Drake Relays, and also won the 60 hurdles.
“Anna had an early breakout, and it has been great to see the freshmen come in and begin to find their way,” said Asbe, whose team will open the outdoor season on March 23 by competing in the Little Hawk Invitational at Iowa City High. “The upperclassmen have done a great job of welcoming our new athletes, and it has been a smooth transition for them. Our hurdle and sprint groups have shown nice progress in the early part of the season as well, and we are super excited about the direction both of those groups are heading in this season.”