It seems only appropriate that both the Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial track teams were involved in the final girls’ high school event at this year’s Drake Relays.
The Hawkettes and Jaguars had been lighting up the blue oval all weekend.
Ankeny closed out a spectacular three-day meet by placing second in the 4×400 relay on Saturday. The foursome of Charlee Cibula, Lena Bruening, Gillian Schramm and Morgan Fisher posted a time of 3:52.24.
“It felt good,” Cibula said of her opening leg. “It felt nice to get back out there after getting seventh (Friday in the preliminaries) and coming in second today.”
The Hawkettes qualified for the final by running a time of 3:57.80 about 20 hours earlier. Fisher, who had anchored the winning sprint medley relay and also placed second in the 400 on Friday, did not run in the preliminaries.
Ankeny coach TJ Jumper inserted Fisher into the lineup for Saturday’s final. The sophomore standout got the baton in third place and ran the anchor leg in 55.57 seconds to move her team into second.
“We got Fish here and Lena, Gillian and me,” Cibula said. “We were really excited and decided to go for it.”
Ankeny posted the No. 2 time in school history, but was not able to challenge Waukee Northwest. The Wolves easily won the race in 3:45.36.
The Jaguars, meanwhile, placed fourth in the event. The quartet of Aly Balashaitis, Ava Barten, Bella Buesch and Rebecca Flick was clocked in 3:54.76.
“It was pretty good,” Balashaitis said of her squad’s performance. “We have a good team. We’re all here because of each other.”
Centennial had posted a time of 3:52.78 in the preliminaries. That was one of seven school records that were set during the weekend by the Jaguars, who medaled in five events.
“I think we killed it today,” Balashaitis said. “We’ve had a hard weekend, but we pulled through. We’ve had so many good performances.”
Northwest capped off an unprecedented day of fast times by setting a Relays record and establishing a new Iowa all-time best in the 4×400. The Wolves had already accomplished those things in the 4×800, shuttle hurdle and 4×100 relays, although they did drop the baton in the 4×100 final.
Still, Cibula thinks the Hawkettes can challenge for a Class 4A title in the 4×400.
“I think we have everything in order to win it,” she said. “We just have to keep working hard and see what we can do at state.”
Earlier, Ankeny got a runner-up finish from Makenna Madetzke in the girls’ Elite Mile. She posted a time of 4:53.25, dropping about 2 seconds off her previous best.
After winning the 800 on Friday to become the Hawkettes’ first individual Relays champion since 1998, Madetzke said she tried not to celebrate too much with another big race on tap.
“I feel like I did a pretty good job,” she said. “I went home as soon as I got done with the (800), had a good meal and then came back to support my team in the 4×4 (preliminaries).”
Madetzke tried to control the pace in the mile–just like she did in the 800. She led for much of the race.
“I just knew I don’t like to be in the mix with the chaos,” Madetzke said. “I want to be up front if I can. I just decided to take it out if no one else was going to.”
Cedar Falls sophomore Charlee Gall passed Madetzke just as the bell lap began. She ran the final 400 in 1:06.16 to win the race in 4:50.45.
“I was trying to win, but I could feel (Gall) trying to go around me at the 600 mark,” Madetzke said. “I just tried to stick with her and match her pace and I felt like I did up until the 400 mark, and then I just couldn’t stick with her. She’s such a great competitor.”
The race featured many of the state’s top distance runners as well as one from Nebraska and another from South Dakota. Freshman Natalie Cogdill of Centennial was just thrilled to be part of the special event–she placed 10th in a time of 5:16.48.
“I was blown out of the water,” said Cogdill. “I knew they were good, and I don’t even know how I got into this. I started running, and they were all so nice. It was so fun.
“Today has just been a magical day for me. I get to go and cheer on my teammate Ellie (Blevins) later, and I know she’ll do good,” she added.
Blevins was on the track about three hours later for the 1,500. She placed ninth in the event with a time of 4:39.17.
Blevins moved into seventh place with a lap to go before running the final 400 in 1:15.72. Lili Denton of Council Bluffs St. Albert won the race in 4:25.72, finishing more than 7 seconds ahead of Northwest’s Emmy Stubbendeck.
“It was a little tough obviously,” Blevins said. “All the 1,500s I’ve ran this year I’ve been fresh, so it was definitely a challenge for today. I know I gave it my all, and that’s all I can do for my team. Overall this weekend though, I’m really proud of our team’s efforts.”
Earlier, Blevins and Cogdill helped Centennial to a second-place finish in the 4×800 relay. They teamed up with Sammi Maile and Flick to post a time of 9:08.35, which broke the previous school record by nearly 11 seconds.
“It was a really good race,” said Maile, who ran the second leg. “We were hoping to run under 9:15.”
Blevins is the only returnee from last year’s 4×800 team that placed sixth at the state meet. She ran the opening leg on Saturday in 2:14.76, putting her team into fourth place.
Maile moved the Jaguars into third, then Cogdill followed with another strong leg to put the team into second. Flick ran the anchor leg in 2:14.26 to hold onto her spot.
“Obviously, a group of freshmen and a junior breaking that school record and actually smashing it, it’s so amazing,” said Blevins. “The atmosphere here, our coach (Tyler Asbe) just told us to take it in and just be present in the moment, and I think we all managed to do that.”
Northwest easily won the race in 8:58.03, becoming the first team from Iowa to ever break 9 minutes. The Jaguars knew they were running for second place.
“Their depth is insane,” Blevins said of the Wolves, who used 11 different runners across their four record-setting relays. “They had three girls in the 1,500, so their depth in the distances is crazy.”
The Jaguars opened the day with a fifth-place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay. The quartet of Barten, Siena Peddicord, Taylor Gilbreaith and Anna Woods posted a time of 1:03.64, but missed qualifying for the final by .37 seconds.
Northwest went on to win the final in that race in 59.57, breaking the 1-minute barrier.
Barten later set another school record in the 400 hurdles. She came out of the first of two sections to place eighth in the event with a time of 1:04.01.
Maeve Bowen-Burt of Iowa City High won the race in 1:02.01. Barten would have needed to run 1:03.11 in order to medal.
“I’m honestly really proud of my performance whether I got a medal or not,” Barten said. “It’s a PR and a school record.”
Both Ankeny teams also competed in the preliminaries of the 4×100 relay. The Centennial squad of Gilbreaith, Balashaitis, Buesch and Woods placed 14th overall in 49.12, but missed qualifying for the final by .36 seconds.
The Hawkettes finished 91st in 52.20. That team consisted of Brylee Bach, Quinn Roush, Avah Allison and Riley Kayser.