Senior Connor Welsch of the Ankeny Centennial boys’ track team is one of the state’s top sprinters. He won the 100 in a state qualifying meet on Thursday at Waukee Northwest, setting a school record and posting the fastest time among all Class 4A qualifiers with a clocking of 10.66 seconds.
Welsch anchored the winning 4×200 relay and ran on the victorious 4×100 relay. He also ran on the runner-up sprint medley relay, helping the Jaguars to a second-place finish overall.
Here is some inside info on Welsch:
Congratulations on breaking the school record. What does that do for your confidence going into the state meet, knowing that you were the fastest qualifier?
Thank you! Breaking that school record and being the fastest qualifier has for sure given me a lot of confidence in that race!
You ran in the sprint medley relay on Thursday before the meet was delayed for nearly an hour due to rain and lightning. What did you do during the break, and was it difficult to get warmed up again?
Yeah, me and the team just went back to the bus and waited for the weather (to clear up). It was nothing new. That’s basically what we did at the Drake Relays the whole time so I was kind of used to it, I guess.
Were you happy with the times in your relays?
Yeah, I thought our times were solid. I would say the biggest thing for us was making sure we got the baton around and giving us a good chance at state!
Your team qualified for state in all seven relays and also has 12 athletes who qualified in a total of 13 individual events. Going into the meet, did you think the team could qualify in that many places?
For sure, we returned basically everyone from last year and our whole team has been getting better throughout the season! We knew we wanted to try and get as many running events in, but shout out to the field events–we had a qualifier in each one of those which is really pretty good!
Your team placed second overall with 164 points, finishing seven points behind Waukee Northwest. Was it a goal to contend for the team title, or was the primary focus just to qualify for state in as many events as you could?
Yeah, I mean the biggest thing for us was getting all the events we could to state. It would have been nice to win the district, but I thought the team had a really solid performance which was good!
Let’s talk about the state meet now. You placed sixth in the 100 a year ago and enter this meet as the top seed. What would that mean to you to win the state title in that event?
It would mean a lot if I could win the open 100! It’s a pretty big event with a lot a talented athletes so going in to it as the top seed is pretty surreal.
There are 12 other qualifiers who ran under 10.90 on Thursday, including your teammate Elijah Porter and Logan Fairchild of Ankeny–the Drake Relays champion. Assuming the conditions are good, what kind of a time do you think it will take to win the race?
To win I will probably have to run better than I did at Northwest. There’s a good field so most likely I’ll have to go sub-10.6 to win.
Your relays are seeded second (4×200), sixth (4×100) and eighth (sprint medley). Do you feel like you have a good chance to score points in all four of your events?
Definitely. I think we can do really well in all of those events. I feel like we’ve got a good shot in both the 4×2 and 4×1. We’ve got to clean up some stuff in both those relays, but if we can do that I think we can run a really good time and place high.
Ankeny is considered one of the favorites to win the Class 4A title after placing second a year ago. What is the goal for the Jaguars? Do you think you can be a top-10 finisher?
Yeah, I think we should go top-10 for sure. Our team goal should be to finish in the top five.
You are headed to Iowa State in the fall to join the Cyclones’ football program as a preferred walk-on. When do you have to report to camp?
I go up June 7.
Your former Jaguar teammate, Easton Miller, joined the program a year ago in similar fashion and has already made an impact. Does his success give you confidence that you can make an impact as well?
Easton’s hard work has been paying off, and he’s had good things to say about it all which is good to hear. I’m excited to go up soon and try to make my own impact!
