The Ankeny Centennial girls’ track team qualified for last year’s Class 4A state meet in just about every event and scored points in many of them.
The Jaguars, though, placed no higher than sixth in any event while tying for 15th place overall with 18 points.
“We were able to medal in nine events, and a goal of ours is to be able to repeat that success while finishing a little higher in as many of those events as possible,” said Centennial coach Tyler Asbe. “If we can do that, I believe we can be a top-10 team at the state meet in May.”
Centennial boasts 12 returning state qualifiers. Leading the way are a pair of juniors–distance runner Ellie Blevins and hurdler/sprinter/jumper Anna Woods.
Woods placed seventh in the 100 hurdles in 14.96 seconds and finished 22nd in the high jump at 5 feet. She is a two-time Drake Relays finalist in the 100 hurdles.
Woods ran on the shuttle hurdle relay that placed eighth at state in a time of 1:04.20. She also ran on the 11th-place 4×200 relay that set a school record of 1:44.15.
Blevins, meanwhile, ran on the 4×800 relay that placed sixth in a school-record time of 9:19.20. She also finished 15th in the 800 in 2:18.05.
The other returning qualifiers are Aly Balashaitis, Ava Barten, Bella Buesch, Aly Drefke, Taylor Gilbreaith, Jaeden Jackson, Teagan Jackson, Trinity Klingensmith, Lauren Sandholm and Bailey Snyder.
Barten placed eighth in the 400 hurdles in a time of 1:05.85, while Gilbreaith finished 18th in the 100 hurdles in 16.32. Those two joined Woods on the shuttle hurdle relay.
Balashaitis took 18th in the 200 in 26.01. She also joined Buesch on the distance medley relay that placed seventh in 4:07.08.
Teagan Jackson placed 12th in the long jump with a leap of 16-4. She also joined Barten and Balashaitis on the 4×400 relay that took seventh in 3:57.42.
Klingensmith joined Blevins on the 4×800 relay. Those two also helped Centennial to a fifth-place finish in the Class 4A state cross country meet last fall.
Drefke, Jaeden Jackson, Sandholm and Snyder are part of the Jaguars’ deep pool of sprinters. Snyder teamed up with Balashaitis, Buesch and Woods in the 4×200 relay.
Drefke joined Buesch and Sandholm on the 4×100 relay that placed 18th in 50.40. She also combined with Buesch, Gilbreaith and Jaeden Jackson to place 19th in the sprint medley relay in 1:54.16.
Among the team’s other returnees are Anna Bauch, Keely Beach, Ellsie Cole, Morgan Erwin, Kaelyn Rinehart and Audrey Sandholm. They all served as alternates for the state meet.
“The keys to reaching our potential are to have everyone bring their best effort and mindset every day,” Asbe said. “We have a ton of underclassmen so it will be crucial for our upperclassmen to lead by example and continue to show the way and guide our younger athletes through the season like our leaders in previous seasons did for them. We have a very selfless group of athletes that are willing to do whatever is best for the team, and that makes it easy to coach and find success as a team.”
The Jaguars have already enjoyed some success. They competed in two indoor meets before the Central College meet last weekend was moved outdoors due to the warm weather.
“The indoor season was great for us,” Asbe said. “It was great to get a good number of our athletes some competition. Indoor season is a great opportunity for kids to get back into the flow of competition and to get some benchmarks of where they are so setting goals becomes more clear for the rest of the season. That was a surprise this time of year when the Central meet was moved outdoors, but our athletes enjoyed getting to start the outdoor season a little early.”
Woods met the Blue Oval standard for the Drake Relays in the 100 hurdles at the Central meet. The 4×100 relay team of Barten, Beach, Balashaitis and Woods also met the Blue Oval standard.
Centennial will compete in the Johnston Quadrangular on Thursday.
“Our goals for the season are to continue to build and improve on what we’ve been able to accomplish the last few seasons,” Asbe said. “Our team is well-rounded with a good amount of state experience despite graduating 31 seniors last season. We have great leaders within our program in each event group that will continue to take our team to the next level.”