Day 2 at the Iowa state girls track meet

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By Jon Gremmels | Saturday, May 17, 2008 1:34 AM CDT | () comments

Iowa girls track state meet

Friday’s event-by-event report

Team races

Class 1A — North Tama had a solid lead with 46 points, while Logan-Magnolia is second at 30. Preston/East Central and Underwood are tied for third with 24 points. Northeast is tied for 14th with 8.

Class 2A — Orange City Unity Christian had 26 points and a two-point lead over North Polk, with Davenport Assumption third at 22 and Tipton in a three-way tie with Dike-New Hartford and Hudson with 20 points.

Class 3A — Pella held a one-point lead over Decorah 27-26, with Mount Vernon another point back. Central DeWitt was tied for 14th with 10 points, and Maquoketa was tied for 20th with 8.

Class 4A — With another solid day — and another title from AG Bradford — Davenport North moved up one spot into a tie with West Des Moines Dowling for second place with 37 points. Iowa City West has the lead with 53.5.

“This morning I woke up and went to breakfast and see that Davenport North is in third place and said, ’Are you serious?’” North’s AG Bradford said of the excitement to see her team doing so well.

Muscatine is seventh (18), Bettendorf is 12th (1) and Davenport Central is 14th (10).

100-meter hurdles

Class 1A preliminaries leader — Alex Gochenour (Logan-Magnolia) 14.37 (record). Class 2A preliminaries leaders — Jordie VanderHolt (Aplington-Parkersburg) 24.95 (Heat 2), Lindsay Lettow (Des Moines Christian) 24.95 (Heat 3). Class 3A preliminaries leader: Carmen Goedken (Dubuque Wahlert) 14.89. Class 4A preliminaries leader — AG Bradford (Davenport North) 14.12.

Notable: Katie Merritt of Davenport Assumption and Missy Miller of Tipton qualified 4-5 for Saturday’s finals. The third-, fourth- and fifth-best preliminary times came out of the first heat, in which Merritt took second in 15.05, edging Miller across the finish line as Miller’s time also was 15.05.

AG Bradford will try to earn her fourth title in 4A, and she qualified with the fastest time in the event. Pleasant Valley’s Susan Rodriguez also earned a spot in the finals, qualifying eighth in 15.22.

Andrew’s Michelle Deppe had the seventh-fastest time in 1A, finishing in 15.90.

There were no area entrants in Class 2A.

400-meter hurdles

Class 1A champion — Blaire Dinsdale (North Tama) 1:03.29. Class 2A champion — Kendra DeJong (Unity Christian) 1:04.05. Class 3A champion — Tashina McAllister (Oelwein) 1:04.99. Class 4A champion — AG Bradford (Davenport North) 1:00.82 (record).

Notable: AG Bradford of Davenport North shaved almost two seconds off the state record as she picked up her third title this week, but she said she might have been another second faster if so many things hadn’t gone wrong.

She was bothered by sore shins, cut her finger moving her starting blocks, had trouble with her steps and stumbled during the race.

“My steps were way off,” she said.

Asked if she still hated the event, she said, “I love it, but my legs don’t like it.“

Pleasant Valley’s Susan Rodriguez was fifth in 1:04.79 to score four points for the Spartans.

Whitney Miller of Clinton took 11th (1:08.34), Davenport Central’s Kelsey VandenBerg was 16th (1:09.52), Bettendorf’s Krysten Schlosser was 20th (1:10.14) and Muscatine’s Sophie Friedrich was 22nd (1:10.26).

Tipton’s Missy Miller knew she might be in a little trouble when she saw her lane assignment for the finals of the 400-meter hurdles.

A top-five finisher at the Drake Relays, Miller had to settle for third place in 1:04.45 running out of Lane 6.

“I like to see the people in front of me,” she said. “At Drake, I was in Lane 1. (Today) I got myself in a bit of a hole and couldn’t dig myself out.“

Miller’s teammate, junior Alicia Goetz, finished 18th in 1:09.24, and Columbus’ Summer Chandler was 20th in 1:10.18.

Andrew’s Michelle Deppe came through with a fourth-place finish in Class 1A with a personal-best time of 1:05.17.

Central DeWitt’s Lindsay Smith finished 19th in 1:10.15.

400 relay

Class 1A preliminaries leader — Elgin Valley 50.63. Class 2A preliminaries leader — Solon 49.93. Class 3A preliminaries leader — Benton Community 49.45. Class 4A preliminaries leader — Waukee 48.87 (record).

Notable: This could turn into a key event for Davenport Assumption and Tipton as they battle for team trophies. Assumption qualified fourth for Saturday’s finals, winning its heat in 50.97 seconds. Tipton also was in that heat, but the Tigers finished ninth overall (51.13) and failed to advance. Bellevue earned a spot in the finals with a 51.04 finish. Durant-Bennett finished 19th overall in 52.26.

Waukee had the best time in 4A, taking .07 off the 4A state record set in 2005 by Cedar Falls. North Scott qualified seventh for the finals, finishing second in the third heat in 50.25.

Clinton was 13th in 50.62, Davenport North was 16th (50.81), Pleasant Valley was 18th (50.94) and Davenport Central was 21st (51.79).

There were no Quad-City area entries in either 1A or 3A.

800 relay

Class 1A champion — Logan-Magnolia 1:46.50. Class 2A champion — North Polk 1:42.94 (record). Class 3A champion — Benton Community 1:43.64. Class 4A champion — Cedar Falls 1:44.29.

Notable: Bettendorf ran its best time of the year as it placed sixth in the Class 4A event in 1:45.37.

“We wanted to run our own race, and we came out and ran our best time,” senior Patty Kautz said.

“I think everything went really well,” fellow senior Katie Stinson said.

The top five teams all finished within two-thirds of a second of each other.

North Scott finished 15th in 1:46.81, Clinton was 16th in 1:46.92 and Pleasant Valley took 20th in 1:48.54.

North Polk broke the Class 1A record that it set last year, but Quad-City area teams were in the middle of the scoring of the race with a 3-4-5 finish by Tipton (1:46.20), Camanche (1:46.63) and Davenport Assumption (1:46.98). The top seven teams came out of the third heat.

Central DeWitt finished fourth in the Class 3A race in 1:46.71.

There were no area teams in the 1A event.

1,600 relay

Class 1A preliminaries leader — New London 4:05.38. Class 2A preliminaries leader — Mediapolis 4:02.55. Class 3A preliminaries leader — Marion 4:03.72. Class 4A preliminaries leader — Waukee 3:54.55.

Notable: Davenport Assumption, Tipton and North Cedar moved into the finals, qualifying fifth, sixth and seventh in the preliminaries. Assumption’s time was 4:04.87, followed by Tipton (4:07.48) and North Cedar (4:08.71).

Pleasant Valley had the highest finish of the four Quad-City teams in the 4A field, but none of them qualified for the finals. The Spartans placed 15th in 4:08.42, while Davenport Central was 20th (4:13.34), Bettendorf took 22nd (4:15.73) and Davenport North was 23rd (4:15.93).

Central DeWitt was 15th in 3A at 4:11.04.

Clinton Prince of Peace (4:15.98) and Northeast (4:16.22) finished 18-19 in 1A.

Distance medley relay

Class 1A champion — North Tama 4:11.28. Class 2A champion — Davenport Assumption 4:11.73. Class 3A champion — Mount Vernon 4:11.01. Class 4A champion — Waukee 4:01.13.

Notable: Assumption and Tipton finished 1-2 in the Class 2A finals, with the Tigers coming in at 4:14.25. Bellevue finished 21st in 4:34.99. Katie Merritt led off for the Knights, Steph Quinn ran the second 200-meter leg, Jordan Ricciuti was inserted in the third spot (400) and Amanda Brandt ran the 800-meter anchor leg.

“It’s a fun race, and it was fun winning it,” Quinn said.

Waukee obliterated the all-time state record, winning the 4A race in 4:01.13, shaving almost five seconds off the 4A record and almost three seconds off the all-time mark (4:03.56) set by Iowa City High in 2001.

Pleasant Valley scored three points with a sixth-place finish in 4:14.77. Bettendorf took 21st in 4:27.79, while Davenport Central and Davenport North were disqualified.

In Class 1A, Northeast appeared headed for victory, but a miraculous anchor leg by Brooke Dinsdale rallied North Tama to the win. North Tama was in last place when Dinsdale took the baton, but she charged through the field and finally passed Northeast’s Morgan Casey and won in 4:11.28. Northeast, which was third last year, finished second in 4:13.06.

Casey had taken the Rebels from fifth place to second, and she then took the lead with 200 meters to go, only to see Dinsdale catch her with 75 meters left.

“We were reaching for first,” said Audrey Moehr, who ran the third leg for Northeast. “Give Morgan all the credit in the world. She got us up there.

“We all just had awesome runs. We were all kind of nervous, but we turned those nerves into energy.

There were no entries from the Quad-City area in Class 3A.

Shot put

Class 3A champion — Brooke Gritters (Pella) 44-1.5. Class 4A champion — Danielle Frere (Muscatine) 46-11.75 (all-time record).

Notable: Danielle Frere entered her senior track and field season for Muscatine with three main goals. She reached them all, and came away with a state record, too, Friday at the Iowa Class 4A girls state meet at Drake Stadium.

Frere had the shot put state title wrapped up at 45-feet-9 before her final throw and then unleashed a toss of 46-11.75 on that one to beat the all-time state-meet record by a half-inch.

“My main goals since last year were to win both Drake and here, and go undefeated in the shot put, and it happened,” said Fere, who will take her throwing talents to Iowa State next fall.“

She said she felt some pressure coming in as the favorite and having won the Drake Relays title, but she didn’t mind that.

“I like to be top dog,” she said. “I know pressure in me. I like pressure. I like to chill and get the job done.“

The win string was in jeopardy when Iowa City West’s Taylor Freeman, who beat Frere on Thursday in the discus competition, opened with a heave of 44-8.75. But Frere equaled that on her second throw and then beat it twice in the finals.

It

Frere went 45-9 on her first throw in the finals. Throwing last, she already had the title in hand before her final throw.

“I knew I was in first, but that’s not really what I was going for; I was going for the record,” she said. “I knew my last throw was my last throw, so go for it. As soon as it left my hand I saw the 46(-foot) line and thought I had it, so I was pretty excited.“

Davenport North’s Carissa Coopman placed fourth (41-7), and Bettendorf’s Erika Sevigny was eighth (37-3.25).

“I wanted to get third,” Coopman said. “My goal is always to come out a little better. The competition was good, though.“

Muscatine’s Alissa Martin placed 10th (36-1.5), with Clinton’s Ashley Loerzel one spot back at 35-10. Pleasant Valley’s Liz Williams took 17th at 34-2.5.

There were no Quad-City area entrants in Class 3A.

Discus

Class 1A champion — Devon Jensen (Underwood) 125-10. Class 2A champion — Becca Fischer (Sheldon) 121-6.

Notable: Taylor Feldman of West Liberty fell a bit short of her personal best, but she threw well enough to make the finals and finish seventh in Class 2A.

“I wish I could have thrown a little farther,” said Feldman, a junior whose best throw (115-2) was about 4 feet shy of her personal record. “I wish I could have had a little more explode at the end.“

Camanche’s Sarah Powell, who had the fourth-best regional throw, did not make the finals. She finished ninth at 112-1. Davenport Assumption’s Steph Haas was 17th at 104-1, and Camanche’s Karissa Turner was 24th at 91-2.

Preston/East Central’s Lauren Camp had an interesting day as she placed fourth in Class 1A. She threw 106-2 on her first throw, but that was good enough to put her in the finals. That was good for her because she fouled on her next four attempts before going 108-10 on her final try.

High jump

Class 1A champion — Megan Hutson (Logan-Magnolia) 5-5. Class 2A champion — Hannah Willms (Dike-New Hartford) 5-10.25 (record).

Notable: After a long battle, Tiffany Bormann of Preston/East Central had to settle for second place in Class 1A. Both she and Megan Hutson went 5-5, but Hutson won because of fewer misses.

“I wanted to prove I could get to the top,” said Bormann, a junior who bettered her personal record by reaching 5-5. Bormann had a close call at 5-5. After Hutson had cleared the height, Bormann jumped and scraped the bar. It wiggled but stayed in place.

“I noticed when it shook,” she said. “That time I was a little scared.“

Hannah Willms of Dike-New Hartford set her second 2A state record of the meet when she won the event. A day after winning the 400 meters in 54.70, Willms outdueled defending champion Kendra DeJong of Unity Christian, with each breaking Megan Gilsar’s 2A record of 5-6.

Willms broke the 2A record and on her third attempt cleared 5-10.25 for the all-time state meet record in any class. Willms then tried to beat the all-time state record of 6-0, set in 2002 by Clinton’s Stacy Boerema, but she missed all three attempts at 6-0.25.

Natalie Massey of North Cedar was the highest placewinner from the Quad-City area. She went 5-1 and placed 11th. Nicole Broders of Wilton was 21st at 5-0, and Wapello’s Logan Hjerleid failed to clear the opening height.

Long jump

Class 3A champion — Mwale Kopanda (Mount Pleasant) 17-11.25. Class 4A champion — Alexis Mitchell (Davenport Central) 18-4.75.

Notable: Mitchell made it four straight long jump titles for Central, following three-time champion Christina Airington to the winner’s circle.

Sarah Wenzel earned a top-six placing for the third time. Wenzel, a junior, was fifth. She took sixth last year and fifth as a freshman. Pleasant Valley’s Kelly McElhiney was 13th (15-10.75), Cortni Kooi of Clinton was 15th (15-10.5), Amber Harrington of Davenport North was 17th (15-7.75) and Sadie Kaminski of Pleasant Valley was 23rd (14-6.5).

There were no entrants from the Quad-City area in Class 3A.