The Ankeny girls’ track team finally got a chance to compete on Saturday, and coach TJ Jumper sent his athletes in two different directions.
Only part of his squad went to the Jim Duncan Invitational at Drake Stadium.
“Because of the stringent entry guidelines along with all the weather cancellations, we decided to split our squad,” Jumper said. “The sprinters went to Iowa City West’s Eastern Iowa Track & Field Festival and the distance runners and throwers, along with Mila Badillo in the high jump, competed at the Duncan Invite.”
Makenna Madetzke raced to a pair of victories at the Duncan Invitational. She won the 800 in a time of 2:14.25 and the 1,500 in 4:37.52, hitting both Blue Oval standards for the Drake Relays.
Badillo took fourth in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 2 inches. Maliya Cobb placed fifth in the discus with a throw of 126-5.
“That was a 13-foot PR for Maliya and puts her No. 4 in school history,” Jumper said. “We were very happy with our athletes’ execution at the two meets, but we are still a work in progress. These meets helped us see more areas of improvement in order to try to reach our individual and team goals.”
At the Iowa City West meet, Ankeny’s Morgan Fisher won the 400 in 55.97 seconds. She set a school record while meeting the Blue Oval standard.
Teammate Lena Bruening captured the long jump with a leap of 18 feet 1/2 inch. It puts her No. 4 all-time at AHS and also met the Blue Oval standard.
Jumper was just happy that his athletes were able to compete after having multiple meets cancelled in the previous two weeks, including the Hawkette Invitational on April 2.
“In my coaching career, I have never experienced this level of weather and cancellations,” Jumper said. “We hate having meets cancelled, but our athletes have shown some real discipline and adaptability which will benefit them in the long run. As coaches we have worked tirelessly to find meet opportunities for our athletes. They were eager to compete, and multiple coaches asked the Jim Duncan Invite to move to verifying performances in the last year but they decided to stay with the verification of performances this season. With so many weather cancellations, we did not have enough meets to meet those guidelines with our full varsity lineup to participate.
“The Eastern Iowa Track & Field Festival used the same qualifying verification as the Iowa Track & Field Coaches Association Indoor Meet which recognizes performances in the last year and over the summer. They wanted to have the best competition possible, and we were grateful for them allowing us into the meet and our sprinters took full advantage of the opportunity to compete and to qualify more individuals/events for the Drake Relays,” he added.
Ankeny will compete in the Jim Duea Relays on Tuesday at Ames.