Day 1 Iowa state girls track meet

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By Jon Gremmels | Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:52 PM CDT | () comments

Iowa girls track state meet

Event-by-event report

Team races

Class 1A leader — Led by a 1-2 finish in the final final of the day, North Tama scored 26 points to built a 12-point lead in the standings over Underwood and Hinton. Preston/East Central was tied for fourth with 11 points, and Calamus-Wheatland was tied for 13th with 5.

Class 2A leader — Council Bluffs St. Albert closed the opening day in first place with 17 points, 5 ahead of second-place Riverside. Davenport Assumption was tied for eighth with 8 points.

Class 3A leader — Decorah and Marion were tied for first place with 16 points, while Grinnell was 2 points back. Maquoketa had 8 points and was tied with Pella and Perry for ninth place.

Class 4A leader — Iowa City West accumulated 27.5 points for a 1.5 edge over West Des Moines Dowling. Davenport North was third with 22, and Burlington was fourth with 13.5. Bettendorf and Muscatine were among teams tied for 10th with 6 points.

100 meters

Class 1A preliminary leader — Jennifer Jorgensen (Southeast Webster) 12.62. Class 2A preliminary leader: Callan Jacobson (Benton Community) 12.51. Class 3A preliminary leader — Brandee Bohr (Mid-Prairie) 12.56. Class 4A preliminary leader — Gabriel Williams (Sioux City West) 12.30.

Notable: Davenport Central’s Ebonie Butler (12.59) and Bettendorf’s Abbey Sawyer (12.90) qualified for the finals, but Jenna Higgins of North Scott, the area leader in the event and a third-place finisher last year, false-started in the third heat and was disqualified. Elizabeth Stemlar of Bettendorf was 14th in 13.15.

Molly Sieverding of Bellevue qualified sixth in the 2A 100, winning the third heat in 13.03 seconds. Liz Hasenmiller of Davenport Assumption was third in the second heat in 13.27 but did not qualify for the finals.

Kayla Selby of Central DeWitt claimed the final spot in the 3A finals. She placed third in the third heat at 13.07. Just .05 separated the final four qualifiers.

Demi Diedrich of Northeast was the lone area entrant in 1A. She finished 17th in 13.35.

200 meters

Class 2A preliminary leader — Hannah Willms (Dike-New Hartford) 25.32. Class 3A preliminary leader — Callan Jacobson (Benton Community) 25.41.

Notable: Camanche’s McKinzie McDaniel claimed the final spot in the 2A finals with her time of 26.87, edging Milly Pilcher of North Cedar by .03. Bellevue’s Paige Daugherty finished 20th in 28.02, and Columbus’ Navil Hernandez was 21st in 28.20.

Kayla Selby of Central DeWitt earned her second spot in the finals of a sprint event when she qualified sixth in Class 3A in 26.57.

“My goal was to make the finals in both of them,” Selby said. “I’m hoping for a top-three or -four finish in the 200. I’m never good in starts, so the 200 makes up for the start. I also like running on curves. My goal is to beat everybody to the 100 mark.”

400 meters

Class 1A champion — Sara Stoakes (North Tama) 56.54. Class 2A champion — Hannah Willms (Dike-New Hartford) 54.70. Class 3A champion — Michaela Brungardt (Storm Lake) 56.84. Class 4A champion: AG Bradford (Davenport North) 55.66.

Notable: Bradford led a 1-2 finish for Quad-Citians in the 4A race. Bettendorf’s Samantha Cameron came in second in 55.88. Nikki Miller of Davenport Central was 10th in 1:00.00, and Pleasant Valley’s Sanjana Ramesh of was 21st in 1:03.33.

Four Quad-City area girls were in the 2A race, but none finished in the top eight. North Cedar’s Steph Russell placed the highest, taking ninth in 1:00.30, followed by Katey Meyer of Durant-Bennett (15th in 1:01.74), Shelby King of Tipton (21st in 1:02.29) and Navil Hernandez of Columbus (24th in 1:07.48).

After qualifying for the 200 finals with the fastest time, Hannah Willms of Dike-New Hartford showed she had even more left in her. And track might not even be her best sport.

Willms, an elite all-state outside hitter for the Class 2A state championship volleyball team, broke her own 2A record in winning the 400 in 54.70 seconds. She set the record of 56.49 a year ago.

“I was really shocked,” she said. “My goal was 55.”

Her time was an all-time record in the state meet, something she didn’t realize.

“Usually I don’t sprint the first 100 (meters), but that’s what we’ve worked on a lot this year,” Willms said.

There were no Quad-City area entrants in the 200 race.

3.000 meters

Class 1A champion — Carly Olsen (Logan-Magnolia) 10:11.31. Class 2A champion — Abby Schlater (Council Bluffs St. Albert) 10:30.90. Class 3A champion — Danielle Nowasell (Grinnell) 10:12.36 (record). Class 4A champion — Katie Flood (West Des Moines Dowling) 9:46.04.

Notable: Mary Menster of Davenport Assumption (Class 2A) and Trisha Miller of Maquoketa (3A) earned second-place honors, and Wilton’s Paige Wheeler was seventh in 2A. Molly Slattery of Calamus-Wheatland was fourth in 1A at 10:58.15, getting overtaken by Underwood’s Kara Telfer with 200 left.

In Class 4A, Payton Strawser, a freshman from Pleasant Valley, and Davenport North junior Kelsey Regan finished 10-11. Strawser finished in 10:50.19, while Regan’s time was 10:54.24.

3,200 relay

Class 2A champion — Denver 9:29.05. Class 3A champion — Marion 9:39.60.

Notable: Pleasant Valley appeared to have a spot in the finals after crossing the finish line first in the final heat, but the Spartans were disqualified. Clinton placed 11th in 1:07.28.

Northeast took 15th in the Class 1A preliminaries in 1:10.19.

Bellevue’s foursome of Andrea Frank, Olivia Ambrosy, Madeline Schroeder and Katie Flogel finished 19th in 2A in 10:19.72.

Central DeWitt finished third in its heat in the 3A event, finishing in 1:08.30.

Shuttle hurdle relay

Class 1A preliminary leader — Logan-Magnolia 1:03.53. Class 2A preliminary leader — Tipton 1:05.15. Class 3A preliminary leader — Atlantic 1:05.67. Class 4A preliminary leader —

Notable: Tipton won the first heat — the opening heat of the day — and posted the best time in the 2A preliminaries. Maggie Wehde gave the Tigers a solid start, followed by Brittany Foulks, Alicia Goetz and Missy Miller, and the foursome built a one-hurdle lead during the race.

Central DeWitt did not advance to the final in 3A. Its foursome of Brittney Donovan, Abbey Peterzalek, Meghan Dunahoo and Lindsay Smith finished in 1:08.30.

Shot put

Class 1A champion — Leah Lechtenberg (Postville) 37-6. Class 2A champion — Kelsey Sukovaty of Manson/Northwest Webster 42-3.

Notable: Brittany Bark of Durant-Bennett came in with the third-best regional throw but couldn’t match it in the finals as she placed eighth in Class 2A. Bark had a 37-9 toss on her fifth attempt for her best effort. Davenport Assumption’s Steph Haas did not make the finals; she was 20th at 34-3.25.

Preston/East Central’s Lauren Camp made her day with her first toss in the Class 1A shot put, and it just got better as she finished in third place.

“I broke the school record with my first throw; that was really a relief,” she said of her toss of 36-2, which surpassed the old mark by an inch. Then, she threw 36-8.50 on her second attempt and added a 36-4.5 later.

“My previous best was 35-9 last week at the district meet, so I picked up almost a foot,” she said.

She had one throw that was better yet, but she fouled after letting it go.

“I saw it, and I knew it was the farthest, but sometimes you can’t get enough weight back in the ring,” Camp said.

Discus

Class 3A champion — Sarah Hoffmann (Western Dubuque) 133-0. Class 4A champion — Taylor Freeman (Iowa City West) 156-4 (record).

Notable: Danielle Frere of Muscatine was close in the standings but not in distance.

Frere, the favorite in today’s Class 4A shot put final, had some of the best throws of her career and all of her throws were farther than the third-place finisher, but she still finished almost 22 feet behind Iowa City West’s Taylor Freeman. That was no shame, though, since Freeman broke the state-meet record by 2-feet-2 with a heave of 156-4.

“Everybody knows she’s the one to beat,” Frere said. “I was trying to do my best and, hopefully, get a PR. I was really close, but I was consistent.“

Frere, whose all-time best is 135-4, had throws of 127-4, 133-9, 128-8, 128-9 and 134-9 before fouling on her final attempt.

Freeman hit 154-0 on her first throw in the finals, got the record on her next try and tossed a final 155-2. She had no trouble focusing, even though she came into the meet with the best regional throw by almost 20 feet.

“You have your own kind of goal I want to meet,” she said. “I’ve learned to understand that and how to motivate myself.”

Frere is hoping to be just as dominant today in the shot put, an event she won at the Drake Relays.

“I’m pumped for tomorrow,” she said. “I want to have some fun with it.“

Erin Burmester of Central DeWitt proved something to herself with a fourth-place finish in Class 3A.

“My sophomore year I was fourth, and last year I didn’t do very well,” she said. “I’m happy with where I came through. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it.”

Burmester set a personal record last week with a 124-3 throw at regionals. She threw 121-10 Thursday morning.

“I was about three feet off my PR,” she said. “I wanted to throw farther since this is my last time throwing.”

Burmester, a senior, will attend NCAA Division II Truman State (Mo.) next year and play volleyball.

Sarah Hoffmann of Western Dubuque, like DeWitt a WaMaC Conference team, won the 3A discus.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “I always dreamed of being a state champion, although I didn’t know in what sport. I didn’t think it would be track, though.”

Hoffmann, who also plays volleyball, basketball and softball, said she planned to play tennis as a freshman, but coach Jerry Ross talked her into going out for track.

High jump

Class 3A champion — Megan Glisar (Sergeant Bluff-Luton) 5-7. Class 4A champion — AG Bradford (Davenport North) 5-8.

There was no entrant from the Quad-City area in Class 3A, but AG Bradford won the 4A title, and Bettendorf’s Samantha Cameron (ninth), North Scott’s Krista Cota (13th) and Clinton’s Larissa Wilden (15th) all placed. Muscatine’s Stephanie Nagy did not clear the opening height.

Long jump

Class 1A champion — Jennifer Jorgensen (Southeast Webster) 18-7.5. Class 2A champion — Lindsay Lettow (Des Moines Christian) 18-0.25.

Notable: Brooke Craig of Clinton Prince of Peace barely missed placing in Class 1A for the second year in a row. Craig, who took sixth last year, 16-0.25, three-quarters of an inch behind eighth-place finisher Elizabeth Benjamin of Whiting. Kierstein Hansen of Calamus-Wheatland placed 13th at 15-7.25, and Preston/East Central’s Brook Tebbe was 14th at 15-6.25.

Brianna Runge of West Liberty placed 16th in the Class 2A event, and Liz Hasenmiller of Davenport Assumption was two spots back (14-11).