(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
It all came down to the final event, and one singular point made all the difference in Ankeny Centennial’s second-ever CIML Conference boys’ track championship.
The Jaguars won two individual events and a pair of relay races on their way to taking the team title on Thursday with 120 points, edging runner-up Dowling Catholic by one point in a dramatic finish at Ankeny Stadium.
“We kind of just put the meet together to give some guys races because some guys had a week off, and we wanted to see where they were going to be at,” said Centennial coach Nate Smith. “For us to win the team title, it’s great for the program, the school and the kids. They put a lot of work into it.”
Centennial started the day out with a bang as Noah Ross, Caleb Reed, Robert McGhee and Jackson Reed captured the first of the Jaguars’ four event titles by posting a time of 1:31.81 in the sprint medley relay. Only Center Point-Urbana has ran a faster time this season (1:31.48).
Despite that win, Centennial trailed Dowling throughout most of the meet. The Maroons earned titles in three individual events and two relays to put themselves in contention to repeat as conference champions.
But one event that’s been dominated by Centennial wherever it goes is the 4×200 relay. The Jaguars set a Drake Relays record in that event two weeks ago, and on Thursday the quartet of Ross, McGhee, Caleb Reed and Braeden Jackson found a way to one-up themselves.
Jackson anchored the relay across the finish line in 1:25.95, by far the fastest time in the state this season. No other squad has ran under 1:27 in the event.
“We are just hungry, and we come out to every meet trying to dominate that race and improve,” said Jackson. “We won’t be satisfied until we win state and break the state record.”
The state record time of 1:25.55 was set by ADM during the 2024 Class 3A state meet. That was the first time in Iowa high school state history that a team ran a sub-1:26, and now the Jaguars have joined that elite group.
From there, the tone was set for Centennial to keep climbing up the team standings.
The Jaguars got a strong boost in the field events with seniors Max Dickinson and Gavin Humphrey placing first and third, respectively, in the shot put. Dickinson won the event with a throw of 54 feet 10.5 inches, while Humphrey recorded a toss of 52-8.25.
Junior JJ Morgan fell just shy of a long jump title, earning runner-up honors with a leap of 21 feet 11.25 inches. Valley’s Miciah LeLaCheur took the title at 22-6.75.
Senior Cael Woods was able to put the Jaguars on top of the team standings with just three events left after the South Dakota State commit captured the 400 hurdles with a time of 53.47 seconds.
“The team is full of some of the hardest workers I know and has put in so much work this last year, so it’s great to see all that work paying off as we are going into this championship season,” Woods said.
But the race for the team title got even tighter as Dowling captured titles in two of the last three events.
Owen Wolfe won the 1,600 in 4:15.91 with teammate Jack Flori supporting him with a fourth-place finish. Centennial’s Cohen Moll earned some much-needed team points with his third-place finish in 4:18.02.
Immediately following was the 4×100 relay, where Dowling posted a time of 41.47 seconds to edge the Jaguars for the victory. The Centennial team of Ross, McGhee, Caleb Reed and Jackson was clocked in 41.63.
That win gave the Maroons 118 points heading into the final event of the night, the 4×400 relay. Centennial sat in second place with 112 points.
Dowling’s Mamer Agau, Sam Spracklin, Josh Mohan and Dylan Ducharme ran in the first heat and posted a time of 3:38.15, which ultimately placed them eighth out of the nine teams and earned the team one point in the standings.
Centennial ran with the team of Jackson Reed, Corbin Vander Weerdt, Reed Anderson and Woods. While no team was able to best Johnston’s title-winning team at 3:23.45, the Jaguars’ quartet finished in second at 3:28.15.The eight points were just enough to give Centennial its first conference title since 2021, when the Jaguars won the CIML Iowa Conference crown.
“I thought everyone ran great,” Woods said. “We had a bunch of huge PRs from several guys, and it really sets the tone for the rest of the season.”
Other big performances included McGhee finishing second in the 200 and posting the state’s second-best time of 21.54, while Jackson placed third in the 100 at 10.72 and the distance medley relay team of Joel Neith, Sam Heither, Kyler Jones and Vander Weerdt placed third in 3:37.90.
“This team’s pretty positive and pretty strong in a lot of events,” Smith said. “When you think about the events with the throws, the sprints and the distance crew, pinpointing one individual is tough to do. There were a lot of good things in all of the events.”
But with the state meet rapidly approaching, the Jaguars are still focused on the larger picture.
“It feels great (to be conference champs), but we know there is still work to be done and we aren’t satisfied with just being conference champs,” Jackson said.
