This year’s Iowa Association of Track Coaches Indoor State Championships at the Lied Recreation Center on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames were a great showcase for a number of local high school track and field athletes, especially for members of the Columbus Wildcats and Lone Tree Lions.

Columbus finished fifth as a team in the Class 1A boys’ standings, thanks in part to the victory by junior Alexander Rees in the 60-meter hurdles race. Rees ran the top time of 8.47 seconds in the preliminary heats and then was a touch faster at 8.4 seconds to win the 1A finals.

Rees also took sixth in the 200-meter dash for the Wildcats. Riley Kaalberg finished fifth in the long jump, as did fellow senior Ty Muniz in the 3,200 meters. Muniz was also seventh in the mile, while Kaalberg just missed the top 10 in the 200.

Columbus would take fifth place in the 4-by-100-meter relay thanks to the quartet of Kaalberg, Rees, senior Juan Chairez and junior Tyson Kaalberg, while the 4-by-800 team of Muniz, senior Bryan Tlatenchi and sophomores Cade Storm and Ryan Villa were also fifth.

While Lone Tree would end up middle of the pack in girls’ team scoring, they still had a number of individual efforts that were among the best in Class 1A. Senior Rylee Shield had a pair of them, taking fourth place in the 400 meters and rounding out the top 10 in the long jump.

Junior teammate Ava Christofferson was fourth in the long jump, while Hayden Yoder was eighth in the shot put toss for the Lions. Fellow senior Vivian Zaruba missed the top 10 in the 800 by one spot and just missed qualifying for the finals in the 60 meters.

But Lone Tree’s best finish came from their sprint medley team of Shield, Christofferson, Zaruba and senior Cate Sexton, which was runner-up among 1A girls. Junior Domonic Garcia had the best finish for the Lion boys, just missing the finals of the 60 meters by taking 18th in the prelims.

Greyson Hartman had the best finish for the Washington boys, taking third place in the Class 3A shot put. Multi-time state medalist junior Josh Anderson also competed in the wheelchair 200 meters for the Demons and crossed the finish line in just under 35 seconds.

Washington got a seventh-place finish from their 4-by-800 relay team of sophomore Ethan Hotchkiss, junior Sawyer Tschantz and seniors Logan McDole and Tyler Alderton. The WACO Warriors also got a top-10 from junior Jude Dykstra in the Class 1A boys’ 1,600 meters.