The adverse weather conditions on Friday didn’t seem to bother the Ankeny Centennial duo of Anna Woods and Kambria Leazer.
Woods, a freshman, raced to a seventh-place finish in the girls’ 100 hurdles at the Drake Relays. It was the Jaguars’ highest finish of the weekend.
Woods posted a time of 16.21 seconds. Emma Havighurst of Valley won the race in 14.67.
“I kind of use that to my advantage,” Woods said of the rainy weather on Friday. “I try not to let it get in my head and stuff.”
Woods had earlier turned in a clocking of 15.44 in the preliminaries.
“I was really happy about my first race,” said Woods, who admitted to having some nerves on Thursday when she tied for 21st place in the high jump.
Leazer, meanwhile, placed eighth in the long jump. She jumped 16 feet 7.25 inches on her final attempt to move a half-inch ahead of Ankeny’s Jayla Williams, who finished ninth.
“I’ve never made finals at Drake before, so I was really excited just to get the three extra jumps,” said Leazer.
Leazer surpassed 16 feet on all four of her successful jumps. She scratched on her other two attempts.
“Hopefully, it’ll be a little warmer at state,” Leazer said.
On Saturday, Centennial’s Kylin Smith raced to a 10th-place finish in the 400 hurdles, posting a time of 1:06.24. Long jump champion Reese Brownlee of Clear Lake also won the 400 hurdles in 1:00.75, the fourth-fastest time ever in Iowa.
Smith had placed eighth in the event last year after finishing 11th as a freshman in 2022.
“I can definitely do a lot better,” Smith said. “I wanted to get at least eighth.”
Smith ran in Lane 8 in the second of two sections, forcing her to run all by herself with the other competitors staggered behind her.
“You can’t see anyone,” she said. “I had to run in Lane 8 at the Jim Duncan (two weeks ago), and I got about the same result. I didn’t get the place I wanted.”
The Jaguars also got a 15th-place finish from Anika Mohrhauser in the 1,500 on Saturday. She set a personal record with a time of 4:48.34.
The race was held after a storm delay of nearly three hours. Addi Dorenkamp of Valley set a Relays record and just missed the state’s all-time best in winning the event in 4:26.93.
Earlier on Saturday, Mohrhauser helped Centennial to a 10th-place finish in the 4×800 relay. She teamed up with Bella Hodges, Julia Flick and Kylee Patterson to post a season-best time of 9:30.14.
Hodges ran the opening leg in a split of 2:20.72. Mohrhauser later moved the Jaguars into seventh place on the third leg.
“I think we did really well,” Mohrhauser said. “We all just wanted to PR.”
Pleasant Valley won the race in 9:01.47, finishing more than 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Dallas Center-Grimes. The Spartans just missed becoming the first Iowa team to run under 9 minutes, but they easily broke the Relays record and the all-time Iowa best while posting the No. 4 time in the country this spring.
Centennial competed in three other relays over the last two days. The Jaguars placed 14th in the shuttle hurdle relay, 16th in the 4×200 and 20th in the 4×100.
The shuttle hurdle team of Samantha Johansen, Woods, Smith and Ava Barten was clocked in 1:09.15. Dowling Catholic later won the final for the second straight year, moving to No. 7 on the all-time list in 1:01.43.
Smith and Woods also teamed up with Aly Drefke and Flick to post a season-best time of 1:45.28 in the 4×200. The Centennial quartet of Olivia Larsen, Morgan Posusta, Jaeden Pratt and Addi Arringdale also posted a season-best time of 49.98 seconds in the 4×100.
Waukee Northwest won both of those races in 1:40.46 and 47.89, respectively.
