The listening area will be well represented at this year’s Iowa high school track & field championships, as official rosters are now set for the Class 1A state meet Thursday through Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
There will be plenty of Columbus blue on the famous blue oval, as the Wildcat boys’ team will be in nine different events with 12 total participants. Coming off his district championships in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes, junior Kaden Amigon will now not only hunt for state titles in both races, but he’ll compete against senior teammate Jeff Hoback in both events. Amigon will also take part in the high jump.
Senior Triston Miller looks to add a state title to his district crown in the 110-meter hurdles and will be joined in the event by Columbus freshman Alexander Rees. Miller makes the high jump with the second-best qualifying height in all of 1A, while Wildcat junior Russell Coil will take part in both the shot put and discus toss.
Amigon, Hoback, Miller and sophomore Riley Kaalberg captured a 1A District 10 title in the four-by-100-meter relay and had the second-fastest time in the state. Columbus’ shuttle hurdles relay also heads to state, led by Miller, Kaalberg, Rees and senior Dante Zuniga.
Winfield-Mount Union finds its way to 11 different events at state, nine of which are for the boys. Wolves junior Cam Buffington won the long jump at districts and will also participate in the 100 meters. WMU junior Gabriel Hemsworth also heads to state trying to add more hardware to his district win in the 400 hurdles.
Other individual state qualifiers for the Wolves now include sophomore Kohlby Newson in the 800 and senior Kai Malone in the discus. Buffington, senior Caleb Giese and juniors Eli Miller and Abram Edwards will represent WMU in the 4-by-100, while Hemsworth, Newsom, junior Ty Scorpil and sophomore Sheaden Adams will run in the 4-by-400.
Newsom, Scorpil, Edwards and sophomore Lane Genkinger move on to state for the Winfield-Mount Union boys in the distance medley, as do Edwards, Buffington, Hemsworth and Giese in the sprint medley.
The WMU girls had the sixth-fastest time in 1A in the shuttle hurdles, giving sophomore Josie Nelson, junior Tessa Huston and seniors Keyreana Sharar and Keetyn Townsley a shot to add to their district crown. Townsley will also compete in the 100 hurdles.
Seven of the eight events featuring the Lone Tree Lions will be on the girls’ side. That includes the 4-by-100 team of senior Riley Krueger, freshman Ava Christofferson and sophomores Rylee Shield and Vivian Zaruba, which ran the sixth-fastest qualifying time in 1A. Shield, Zaruba and Christofferson also have the second-fastest time in the state in the sprint medley with freshman Sophie Bell and the fourth-fastest time in the 4-by-200 with sophomore Avery Morarie.
Christofferson will try to add to a rookie-season district title in the 100, while the Lions also get qualifying results from Shield in the 200, Zaruba in the 800 and Krueger in the high jump. Lone Tree’s boys 4-by-200 team of freshman Emmett Burke, junior Ethan Bockelman and seniors Tyce Alt and Drew Gauley also made it to state.
The WACO Warriors will be in seven events in the boys’ 1A meet, including senior Simeon Reichenbach in both the long jump and the 110 hurdles. Senior Odee Shtefanchuk will be trying to add a state medal to a district championship in the discus, while the 4-by-200 team of sophomore Clayton Miller and seniors Braden Spain, Isaac Oswald and Mason Miller look for the second of back-to-back wins coming on the state’s biggest stage.
WACO sophomore Louden Huisenga has qualified for the high jump, while Reichenbach, Oswald and Mason Miller move on with Huisenga in the shuttle hurdles and with Spain in the 4-by-100.
Highland’s Sarah Burton will be all over the place at Drake Stadium next week. The junior looks to add to her district crowns in the long jump and the 100, and she’ll run in both the 4-by-100 and 4-by-200 with sophomore Lilly Barre and seniors Katelyn Waters and Mackenzie McFarland.
The Sigourney Savages will be represented at state by sophomores Reagan Clarahan and McKinley Chittick in the 400 hurdles and the high jump, respectively. The 1A state championships will begin Thursday morning at 9 with the girls’ shuttle hurdles relay at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.