Central's Mitchell wins long jump; Irwin anchors PV to distance medley title

| Friday, May 16, 2008

Alexis Mitchell carried on a Davenport Central tradition by winning the long jump, and a strong anchor leg by Blake Irwin rallied Pleasant Valley to victory as the Spartans tied the Class 4A state-meet record Friday at the Iowa coed state track and field meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Irwin finished the final 800 leg in 1:49.6, and the Spartan capped the win in 3:26.51, tying Indianola's 1990 mark. PV also won the event at state last year.

"I knew going into the backstretch (of the last lap) I was going to be alone," Irwin said. "I decided to give it all I had.

"I didn't know I could do that."

Mitchell entered the meet with the best regional performance in the girls long jump in Class 4A, but she found herself in second place behind Atrianna Black-Scott of Waukee after the preliminaries. Black-Scott had a 17-foot-10.75 leap to Mitchell's 17-8.5.

"Her jump in the preliminaries made me a little nervous," Mitchell, a junior, admitted.

She had no need to worry as it turned out, however. She went 18-feet-4.75 on her first jump in the finals, and Black-Scott fouled on all three of her jumps in the finals.