At KCII, we’re continuing to count down the top 10 sports stories at area high schools in the 2023-2024 academic year. At number nine is track and field athletes from Columbus, Lone Tree and Winfield-Mount Union winning medals at this year’s state championships in Des Moines.

The Columbus Wildcat boys were the most successful local team at the famed blue oval of Drake University, finishing 14th in team scoring in Class 1A. The 4-by-100-meter relay team had the best individual finish, taking second place at the state meet.

The team of senior Kaden Amigon, freshman Lamar Ceant and juniors Juan Chairez and Riley Kaalberg ran a time of 43.54 seconds in the preliminary round, the second-best overall time, before they put up a silver-medal time of 43.3 seconds in the finals to again finish runner-up to Lisbon.

Russell Coil finished his excellent career for Columbus by taking third in the shot put at state. The senior’s top toss of 51 feet 10-and-a-quarter inches on his second try was just under seven feet behind first place.

Wildcat sophomore Alexander Rees finished seventh in Class 1A in the 110-meter hurdles, putting up a time of 15.48 seconds in the prelims that guaranteed him a medal.

Columbus capped off a brilliant weekend at state by taking eighth in the shuttle hurdles relay. Rees, Kaalberg and Ceant joined junior Johnathan Miranda in running the fourth-best time in prelims by crossing the finish line in one minute 2.36 seconds before clocking in at 1:04 in the finals.

The Winfield-Mount Union Wolves earned a trio of medals on the boys’ side in Class 1A, including Gabe Hemsworth capping his career with a fifth-place finish in the 400 hurdles after he posted a time of 55.82 seconds.

The distance medley relay team of Hemsworth, fellow senior Ty Scorpil and juniors Kohlby Newsom and Sheaden Adams took fourth with a time of just over 3:36, and that same quartet would pick up another medal by finishing eighth in the 4-by-400 prelims and improving on that time to take sixth in the finals.

The Lone Tree Lions were the lone girls’ team from the area to make the podium at state, as the team of junior Vivian Zaruba, freshman Addison McCullough and sophomores Rylee Shield and Ava Christofferson took fifth in the 4-by-200.

Be listening over the next two weeks as the countdown of KCII’s Top 10 Area Sports Stories from the last year continues, and find the stories as their spot on the countdown is revealed at KCIIradio.com.