The Ankeny Centennial girls’ track team earned its third title of the season on Monday by winning the Larry Weier Invitational at Dowling Catholic.
And the Jaguars did it without pushing their top runners to the limit.
“We ran the girls pretty minimally,” said Centennial coach Tyler Asbe. “It was just a light night to stay sharp, but very low volume for our top kids.”
The Jaguars won eight events and racked up 179.5 points. Dowling placed second in the seven-team field with 175 points, ending its three-year reign as champions.
Ankeny, meanwhile, finished in sixth place with 39 points. With the Drake Relays coming up later this week, the Hawkettes rested many of their top athletes.
“We decided to train and prep for Drake,” said Ankeny coach TJ Jumper. “We use the meet to allow some of our JV athletes to get varsity experience and have the opportunity to be able to compete this week instead of taking the week off. This meet helps us develop depth for future years.”
Centennial’s Anna Woods won the 100 hurdles in 15.49 seconds. She also anchored the winning shuttle hurdle relay, teaming up with Ava Barten, Siena Peddicord and Taylor Gilbreaith to post a time of 1:05.26.
Rebecca Flick captured the 1,500 in 4:44.16. Teammate Sammi Maile was the runner-up in that event in 4:53.39.
Flick later anchored the winning 4×400 relay. She combined with Ellie Pollock, Kaelyn Rinehart and Teagan Jackson to turn in a time of 4:05.63.
Earlier, Barten and Jackson ran the final two legs of the winning sprint medley relay. Aly Drefke and Aly Balashaitis ran the first two legs for the Jaguars, who were clocked in 1:50.80.
Balashaitis and Drefke joined Morgan Erwin and Bella Buesch on the winning 4×100 relay. Centennial posted a time of 50.28 to edge the host Maroons by .07 seconds.
Drefke, Peddicord and Erwin joined Audrey Sandholm on the winning 4×200 relay. The Jaguars were clocked in 1:48.38.
Sandholm provided Centennial’s other victory in the long jump, where she recorded a leap of 16 feet 5 inches. Teammate Ella Whitver cleared the bar at 5 feet to place third in the high jump.
Ankeny’s top finishes came in the throwing events. Gwyn Christensen placed third in the shot put with a throw of 35-9.5, while Emerson Hutchins took fourth in the discus with a toss of 100-0.
Centennial’s Jaeden Jackson placed second in a pair of sprint events. She posted times of 28.03 in the 200 and 1:01.09 in the 400.
Buesch was the runner-up in the 100 in 13.26, losing to Des Moines East’s Kenzie Potter by just .03 seconds. Rinehart was second in the 800 in 2:22.83, while Ellsie Cole took second in the 400 hurdles in 1:10.19.
Placing third for the Jaguars were Aubrey Mohr in the 400 (1:02.38), Bradlynn Virchow in the 400 hurdles (1:11.90) and Trinity Klingensmith in the 3,000 (11:09.99).