The opening day of the coed state track meet featured a few head-to-head battles between the Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial girls’ teams.
In two of the events on Thursday at Drake Stadium, both the Hawkettes and Jaguars scored points. They each earned top-three finishes in the high jump and top-six finishes in the 4×800 relay.
“I really enjoy running beside Ankeny,” said Centennial junior Julia Flick, who helped her team to a sixth-place finish in the 4×800 relay. “They’re a great competitor, and I just love all of them.”
Ankeny sits in fourth place in Class 4A with 14 points heading into Friday’s portion of the three-day meet. Centennial is in sixth place with 11 points.
Pleasant Valley leads the way with 24 points, followed by Johnston with 19 and Valley with 18. The Spartans picked up a victory in the 4×800 relay, where they became the first Iowa team to ever break the 9-minute barrier.
The foursome of Ani Wedemeyer, Aerielle Johnson, Kaylee Mowen and Grace Boleyn posted a time of 8:59.53.
“They were way ahead of us from the beginning,” said Ankeny sophomore Makenna Madetzke. “That was crazy how fast they ran.”
Madetzke teamed up with Lauren Jackson, Sophia Graber and Alli Macke for a third-place finish. The Hawkettes, who won the event a year ago in a slower time, set a school record of 9:16.24–the 20th-fastest clocking ever in Iowa.
“We were just coming out to compete,” Madetzke said. “We were going to be happy with anything in the top five. Macke is our only returner from last year’s team.”
Madetzke ran the opening leg in 2:17. Macke later ran the anchor leg in 2:14.
“I always run the first lap a little slower and then I just try to compete as best I can to put the team in a good position,” Madetzke said.
Flick combined with Ellie Blevins, Kylee Patterson and Bella Hodges to post a time of 9:19.35 for Centennial. Flick ran the second leg in 2:18 to put the Jaguars into fourth place, and Hodges later ran the anchor leg in 2:16.
“We were super happy,” Flick said. “All we wanted to do was run our hardest. We knew it was hot out, but we just wanted to push ourselves. We didn’t care about our splits. We just had to give it our all at the end because this is (the only race) we had today.”
Centennial got a runner-up finish from freshman Anna Woods in the high jump. She was among five jumpers who cleared the bar at 5 feet 4 inches, but she placed second based on fewer misses.
Woods had a successful opening jump at three of the first four heights.
“My goal was to go 5-4 again,” said Woods. “I wanted to make a lot of heights on my first attempt, and I did that. It helped that the conditions were perfect.”
Ankeny junior Reagan Hanfelt also jumped 5-4, but had to settle for a third-place tie. Maia Denge-Hagen of Linn-Mar (Marion) won the event with a jump of 5-6.
“I didn’t jump well. I don’t really know why,” said Hanfelt, who placed in the top three for the third straight year. “I think I really amped myself up in an excited way instead of a competitive way. I think that kind of screwed me up a little bit.”
Hanfelt entered the meet as the top qualifier, but needed two jumps to clear 5-2 and three more to clear 5-4. However, she then nearly cleared 5-6 on her first two tries at that height.
“I thought I had it,” Hanfelt said. “I kept coming down and hitting (the bar) with my hamstrings on the back side, and I don’t know how that was happening. There were just a lot of weird things happening that don’t usually happen.”
Ankeny also got a sixth-place finish from junior Drew Beason in the 3,000. She posted a time of 10:13.73.
“It wasn’t my best race, and I’m definitely not satisfied,” said Beason. “But I’m looking forward to the 1,500 (on Saturday).”
Valley’s Addi Dorenkamp pulled away from the field early in the race and went on to win her third consecutive title. She was clocked in 9:30.64.
Woods later helped Centennial to qualify for Saturday’s final in the shuttle hurdle relay. She teamed up with Samantha Johansen, Kylin Smith and Ava Barten to post a time of 1:04.59, which broke their own school record.
The Ankeny foursome of Madeline Poock, Lillian Smith, Ella Jumper and Jayla Williams also qualified for the final, turning in a time of 1:05.56. The Hawkettes will run against Centennial in the first of two sections on Saturday.
Here are the rest of the girls’ results from Thursday:
Discus–Sam Poock (A), 114-10 (11th); Ava Tomlinson (A), 112-0 (14th); Bella Anderson (AC), 90-9 (23rd).
3,000–Anika Mohrhauser (AC), 10:26.49 (12th); Haley Hveem, 10:56.37 (21st).
200–Karsen Jacks (A), 26.62 (21st).
High jump–Kambria Leazer (AC), 5-0 (16th); Mila Badillo (A), 4-10 (tied for 19th).
100–Morgan Posusta (AC), 12.83 (22nd).
400–Morgan Johnson (A), 1:00.50 (16th); Charlee Cibula (A), 1:01.84 (18th); Ellie Pollock (AC), 1:02.82 (21st).
