Five KCII area schools were part of the Class 1A state track qualifier meet at Cobra Field in Sigourney Thursday, and six events made sure they will be part of next week’s competition in Des Moines. The Winfield-Mt. Union Wolves owned four of the six bids doled out to KCII area teams Thursday, three belonging to the Lady Wolves. WMU won the shuttle hurdle with a team of Morgan Grelk, Kayreanna Sharar, Josie Nelson and Keetyn Townsley beating the field with their time of 1:11.82. Townsley also took home the title in the 100m hurdles in 16.73 seconds. Jobey Malone won the shot put for the Lady Wolves with her throw of 37 feet. The fourth bid came from the Wolves Cam Buffington, as he flew 20’11” to claim the long jump. The two WMU field event winners, Malone and Buffington talked with KCII sports about their wins. Malone said, “It’s about not getting nervous, staying under control and not overthinking it. I came out with a 37 (feet), so I’m pretty proud of that. I’m really close to the school record so I have been pushing myself to get as far as I can. I had my mind clear and I just threw it.”
Buffington broke it down like this, “I hit a 21 (foot jump) and PR’d (Personal Record) at my first meet. After that I wasn’t jumping well. Then I started getting slowly back into it, hitting the board again. I was at state last year as a freshman. Felt a lot of pressure to get back there again this year.”
The WACO Warriors will send their championship shuttle hurdle team of Zach Schmitz, Isaac Oswald, Mason Miller and Simeon Reichenbach to Des Moines after posting a winning time of 1:03.55, and Leah Bontrager will represent Hillcrest Academy on the blue oval with the Raven senior winning the 800 in 2:32.98. The WACO boys had the top area team finish, placing fourth with 80.5 points behind champion New London’s 150 and the Lady Wolves were the top area team on that side of the meet with 52 points for fifth behind Pekin’s championship mark of 144.5. A link to full results from this meet are available with this story at KCIIradio.com.
The list of qualifiers for state will grow beyond Thursday. Once all of the event champions from each meet are qualified in 1A, the state also invites the next 14 best times and distances from around Iowa to Des Moines. KCII will have a full list of qualifiers when they become official.