By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – At a Class 4A state qualifier a second-place finish gets the job done.  

In most instances, Valerie Welch isn’t interested in second place even if it earns her an automatic berth to the state track and field meet.

Halfway through the 400 hurdles at Thursday’s 4A Region 5 meet second place sounded pretty good to Welch.

A spill on the fourth hurdle left the West High senior face down on City High’s Raffensperger Track.

“The first thing that hit my mind honestly was ‘oh crap I’m not going to qualify’ and the second thing was ‘get up’,” Welch said. “I got up and I said I just need to finish second then I started closing and at the end I felt her slowing down and I thought ‘forget it we are going for first’.”

Welch recovered from her early tumble to edge City High sophomore Merryl Green at the finish line.

The win in the 400 hurdles capped a four-gold day for Welch and one of the few tense moments on an otherwise smooth day for the Women of Troy.

West High won 10 events and posted 15 automatic qualifiers in 11 different events while cruising to the district team title with 190 points, 60 more than runner-up Cedar Rapids Prairie.

“I think things went according to plan, all the things that we expected to get in we did,” West High coach Mike Parker said. “I am just very proud of the girls.”

The only drama for West High came when Welch tumbled to the track 150 meters into the 400 hurdles.

For a brief moment it appeared Welch wouldn’t get a chance to improve on her third-place state finish in the event last season.

Welch popped up and closed the gap on the field before clipping Green at the finish line to win her fourth race of the day.

“I just thought, ‘get up, get up’,” Parker said. “When the race was done my biggest concern was is she o.k. but the way she fought that last 50 meters was fantastic. That’s the type of person she is.”

Welch won the 400 hurdles in 1:07.52, more than three and a half seconds slower than her season-best time that ranks third in the state.

It wasn’t the way she imagined but Welch is returning to the state meet which is what matters most.

“I would rather have not done it that way,” Welch said. “I felt really good going in I was hoping to run a really good time because I haven’t been running that well in the 400 hurdles lately but I will take qualifying.”

Welch added titles in the 100 hurdles and long jump and ran a leg on the winning distance medley relay team.

“Val won four gold medals but she had to get up from her belly to do it,” Parker said. “She could have easily accepted a second place when she fell but she didn’t and that’s the mentality that we are looking forward to her bringing next weekend.”

Junior Bailey Nock matched Welch with four golds on Thursday coming on three individual titles and a relay win.

Nock won the 800, 1,500 and 3,000 as West High finished first and second in all three events.

“It was really just taking it event, by event,” Nock said. “I did what I had to do today to get to next week and that’s what you have to do at this meet.”

It was the second straight week that Nock pulled off the distance sweep after winning the same three individual events at last week’s MVC divisional.

On Thursday, Nock added another 800 meters to her schedule, anchoring the winning West High distance medley relay team.

Nock won the 800 by three seconds over teammate Deniz Ince and topped senior Gabby Skopec in both the 1,500 and 3,000.

“We are trying to fit this three-day meet into one day and you have people like Bailey Nock who have to come back and come back and come back,” Parker said. “You can’t run any further than she did today and she was impressive in every one of those events.”

West High got titles from Chandler Haight in the shot put and Leah Dusterhoft in the discus as both posted career-best efforts.

The winning throw of 44-7 by Haight is the second best in the state this season while Dusterhoft’s mark of 134-8 is third best.

Class 4A, Region 5

At City High

Team scores – 1. West High 190; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 130; 3. City High 123; 4. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 104; 5. Ottumwa 80; 6. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 44; 7. Newton 35; 8. Burlington 26.

Individual Results

(Automatic state qualifiers; Area place winners)

100 – 1. Raenice Hilderbrand (CRP) 12.47; 2. Cheyenne Mitchell (CRK) 12.86; 3. Brooke Bormann (ICH) 13.36; 5. Elizabeth Davis (ICW) 13.57; 6. Isabel Hansen (ICH) 13.8; 7. Mia Dillingham (ICW) 13.84.

200 – 1. Cheyenne Mitchell (CRK) 26.57; 2. Callie Anderson (BUR) 26.67; 5. Taylor Cannon (ICW) 28.04; 7. Elizabeth Davis (ICW) 28.41; 8. Sydney Fellows (ICH) 28.65.  

400 – 1. Kirstin Skriver (CRP) 1:01.14; 2. Kierra Bishop (OTT) 1:01.22; 6. Jordan DuBrava (ICH) 1:06.01; 8. Lindsey Parrott (ICH) 1:07.45.

800 – 1. Bailey Nock (ICW) 2:19.61; 2. Deniz Ince (ICW) 2:22.61; 3. Mary Arch (ICH) 2:25.63; 4. Gabriel McCormick (ICH) 2:27.75.

1,500 – 1. Bailey Nock (ICW) 4:49.35; 2. Gabby Skopec (ICW) 4:53.48; 5. Anna Lindower (ICH) 5:02.6; 6. Emily Bywater (ICH) 5:06.61.

3,000 – 1. Bailey Nock (ICW) 10:41.12; 2. Gabby Skopec (ICW) 10:43.2; 4. Emily Bywater (ICH) 10:54.94; 5. Bridget Brown (ICH) 11:37.02.

100 hurdles – 1. Valerie Welch (ICW) 14.69; 2. MiAsia Bergmann (CRJ) 15.04; 4. Peyton Steva (ICW) 15.89.

400 hurdles – 1. Valerie Welch (ICW) 1:07.52; 2. Merryl Green (ICH) 1:07.61; 3. Micaela Gravelin (ICW) 1:08.82; 8. Annie Rummelhart (ICH) 1:14.43.

Sprint medley – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:50.99; 2. Burlington 1:51.54; 3. City High (Emma Clark, Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Emma Cooper, Tiara Green) 1:53.26; 5. West High (Katie Severt, Ally Bauer, Elizabeth Davis, Simone Willis) 1:58.93.

Distance medley – 1. West High (Peyton Steva, Kitra Bell, Valerie Welch, Bailey Nock) 4:06.15; 2. Ottumwa 4:09.32; 4. City High (Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Cyan Vanderhoef, Sydney DePrenger, Kinsee Brands) 4:23.31.

Shuttle hurdle – 1. West High (Kitra Bell, Taylor Cannon, Kia Noibi, Peyton Steva) 1:03.96; 2. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 1:07.16; 6. City High (Kate Swenning, Brooke Bormann, Merryl Green, Michelle Jennings) 1:12.6.

4×100 – 1. City High (Emma Clark, Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Tiara Green, Emma Cooper) 49.99; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 50.4; 4. West High (Kia Noibi, Peyton Steva, Katie Severt, Ally Bauer) 50.81.

4×200 – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:46.09; 2. City High (Emma Clark, Tiara Green, Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Emma Cooper) 1:46.33; 4. West High (Elizabeth Davis, Micaela Gravelin, Katie Severt, Kitra Bell) 1:48.0.

4×400 – 1. Ottumwa 4:01.34; 2. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 4:02.03; 4. West High (Deniz Ince, Claire Ronnebaum, Olivia Moore, Micaela Gravelin) 4:14.33; 6. City High (Sydney DePrenger, Izzy Jones, Emma Clark, Emma Cooper) 4:19.96.

4×800 – 1. Ottumwa 9:36.46; 2. West High (Deniz Ince, Olivia Moore, Claire Ronnebaum, Gabby Skopec) 9:46.34; 3. City High (Naomi Meurice, Anna Lindower, Mary Arch, Izzy Jones) 9:49.79.

High jump – 1. Katie Beer (CRK) 5-1; 2. Cyan Vanderhoef (ICH) 5-0; 7. Kate Swenning (ICH) 4-10.

Long jump – 1. Valerie Welch (ICW) 18-3 ¾; 2. Kitra Bell (ICW) 17-10 ½; 7. Isabel Hansel (ICH) 15-5 ¾; 8. Brooke Bormann (ICH) 15-0 ¾.

Shot put – 1. Chandler Haight (ICW) 44-7; 2. Haile Cook (CRJ) 41-2 ½; 3. Luci Murphy (ICH) 40-9; 5. Salima Omari (ICH) 36-2 ¼; 6. Leah Dusterhoft (ICW) 35-9.

Discus – 1. Leah Dusterhoft (ICW) 134-8; 2. Alicia Sill (CRP) 121-1; 3. Luci Murphy (ICH) 119-0; 4. Chandler Haight (ICW) 114-7; 6. Michelle Jennings (ICH) 104-8.