The Ankeny boys’ track team competed at the North Polk Invitational on Tuesday and got a huge win from Sam Madsen in the 110 hurdles.
Madsen posted a personal-best time of 14.46 seconds, which puts him among the top nine hurdlers in Class 4A. It was also the fourth-fastest time in school history.
Madsen also ran on the winning shuttle hurdle relay. He teamed up with Jack Romig, Harrison Truman and Norman Ha to post a time of 59.46 seconds.
“Sam has his confidence back now, and he is rolling!” said Ankeny coach Jordan Mullen. “That will strengthen our shuttle and gives us two serious contenders (along with Hayden Carlson) in the high hurdles now moving forward!”
Another highlight came in the 3,200, where Ankeny had four of the top six finishers. Mullen gave a lot of his younger athletes an opportunity to compete at this meet.
“North Polk had a team pull out and then asked us if we would like to have two lanes, so we essentially got to bring up two full teams with our varsity and JV,” Mullen said.
Benton Schuchart was the runner-up in the 3,200 in a time of 10:13.93. Logan Rolling took third in 10:17.20, Cody Banks was fifth in 10:22.21, and Jackson Schulz finished sixth in 10:27.58.
Ankeny’s Colby Fahrmann placed fourth in the 1,600. He was clocked in 4:53.92.
“We brought all the young bucks up in the distance races, and they all had huge PRs!” Mullen said. “So that was really exciting to see. They were pretty excited as were we as a staff!”
The Hawks easily won the 4×100 relay in 42.66 seconds. That team consisted of Finn McClure, Owen Fischer, Treyton Grossman and Cooper McDowell.
Ankeny edged North Polk by .54 seconds to win the 4×800 relay. The foursome of Jackson Kaiser, Gideon Miller, Brayden Nixt and Alan Johnson posted a time of 8:43.25.
Truman took second in the 400 hurdles in 59.76 seconds. Nathan Lee was the runner-up in the shot put with a throw of 47 feet 1 inch.
The Hawks placed fourth overall at the meet, which was won by Dowling Catholic.
Ankeny will compete at the Valley Quadrangular on Friday.