It was a banner night for the Ankeny girls’ track team.
The Hawkettes celebrated their Senior Night by winning the Hawkette Invitational on Thursday for the second year in a row. They finished with 122 points, five more than Johnston.
Ankeny Centennial also had a good meet. The Jaguars placed third in the eight-team field with 103 points.
Ankeny had five wins on the night, including a sweep of the jumping events. Reagan Hanfelt won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 7 inches, which set a meet record and broke her own school mark.
“I think I was just very motivated with it being our home meet, and I have been working super hard on all of my technical things and I finally put it all together!” Hanfelt said. “My coaches have been really working with me on these things for a while, and I just think it’s amazing how it all worked out.”
Jayla Williams added another victory in the long jump, posting a leap of 17-7.5 to edge runner-up Kam Leazer of Centennial by two inches. She also finished third in the 100 hurdles in 15.92.
“I was happy with my jump. It was better than our last meet,” said Williams, who was competing in the event for only the second time ever but posted the No. 5 jump all-time at Ankeny. “It was the coaches’ idea to have me try it. I like it, and I hope I can make it to state.”
Drew Beason had a pair of first-place finishes for the Hawkettes. She won the 3,000 in a time of 10:08.23, which set a meet record, and later took the 800 in 2:27.33.
“I had no idea what the record was!” said Beason, who also met the Drake Relays Blue Oval standard. “It just happened.”
Ankeny’s other win came in the 4×800 relay, where the foursome of Sophie Loeffler, Lauren Jackson, Makenna Madetzke and Alli Macke posted a time of 9:43.21. Macke came from about 50 yards behind to pass Valley’s anchor runner for the victory.
“At first I didn’t think I’d catch her, but then I just kept running my race and gradually caught up and passed her on the last curve,” Macke said. “We all just want to compete. Our goal obviously was to win that race, regardless of how far ahead she was. I wasn’t going to not try and get her.and just lay back.”
Macke and Loeffler both ran on last year’s state championship 4×800 squad. Beason and Reagan Prendergast are also back from that unit.
“I think we have a lot more depth than we did last year,” Macke said. “We have Lauren and Makenna, and we have Reagan and Drew. We have really good depth in that group. We can throw a lot of different runners in there to have a good chance to win it again.”
Macke, Loeffler and Madetzke are also members of the fifth-ranked Ankeny girls’ soccer team, which will open CIML Conference play on Friday at No. 3 Waukee. Several other athletes are also competing in both sports.
“There’s like eight or nine of us,” Macke said. “It’s a lot of work, but our coaches handle it great.”
Centennial’s lone victory came in the distance medley relay. The quartet of Olson, Leazer, Griggs and Plueger was clocked in 4:28.21.
The Jaguars got a pair of runner-up finishes from Anika Mohrhauser. She posted times of 10:29.15 in the 3,000 and 2:28.14 in the 800.
Piper Zeman added a third-place finish in the 800. She turned in a time of 2:28.36.
Centennial’s Aly Drefke placed second in the 200 in 27.29. Leazer took third in the high jump at 5 feet.
Ankeny’s Karsen Jacks took second in the 100. She was clocked in 13.21.
Also placing third for the Hawkettes were Lillian Smith in the 400 hurdles (1:10.04) and Gwyn Christensen in the shot put (33-6.5). Ankeny earned runner-up honors in both the 4×200 and distance medley relays.
The Hawkettes will compete in the Brooks Relays on Saturday at Valley.
