Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Austin West has spent most of his senior season chasing records.

School records, meet records and even state all-time best records.

The West High standout will resume his record chase next week at the state track and field meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines but on Thursday at the Class 4A, District 2 meet West was after something else – points.

West won three individual titles and anchored the sprint medley relay team to a title as West High won the district team title for the second consecutive year at Raffensperger Track at City High.

“I figured I wasn’t going to be breaking any records tonight but I was a part of 40 points tonight which was big,” West said. “That was the goal for tonight to get as many points to help us win a district title.”

West won the long jump, 400 hurdles and 400 and anchored the Trojans’ sprint medley team to a win as West High edged Cedar Rapids Prairie by eight points for the team title.

West High added an individual title from Kolby Greiner in the 3,200 and swept the throwing events while securing eight automatic qualifiers for the state meet.

Nearly as importantly to the Trojans was a second consecutive district title team.

“When coach Craig took over at the start of my sophomore year he put a big emphasis on team-oriented stuff and doing stuff together,” West said. “It has worked out for us, we have gotten better and better every year I’ve been on the track team and it’s a credit to coach Craig and how much he cares about this team.”

While chasing records this season West has left the competition chasing him.

With four events crammed into a four-hour meet that focus changed a bit on Thursday but the results did not.

West won the long jump by more than a foot without an attempt in the finals after registering a leap of 22-4 in the prelims.

He clocked a seasons-best time of 48.93 to win the 400 by nearly a second over Austyn Casillas of Ottumwa and held off Angelo of Romagna of Dubuque Senior to win the 400 hurdles in 53.83.

“When it comes down to it the guys that we need are there when we need them, Austin got the job done,” West High coach T.J. Craig said. “You can’t argue with 40 points, you can’t score any more points so he did his job and we had a lot of guys out there doing their jobs.”

The question for West entering Thursday’s meet was which relay he would add to his trio of individual events.

It ended up being the sprint medley and it ended up being a successful move.

West ran the 400 leg while helping the Trojans tie the school record with a time of 1:32.74.

“We knew that we’ve got a good selection of athletes it was just how we were going to use them,” Craig said. “Sprint medley was one of the options we thought about and sprint medley showed tonight that they are one of the best teams in the state of Iowa. Those guys did their job.”

Jackson Steburg and Dante Eldridge ran 100-meter legs and Andre White handled the 200-meter leg setting up West for the final 400.

West secured the win finishing better than half a second in front of runner-up Ottumwa.

“Andre White really stepped up,” West said. “He’s been improving all year and he ran really well on his 200 leg. Andre stepped up well and got me the baton in a good position I just had to finish it.”

Greiner won the 3,200 in 9:35.77 and finished second in the 1,600 in 4:28.96.

West High got titles from Jonathan Gannon in the discus and Landon Green in the shot put.

Gannon won the discus by more than 18 feet with a toss of 168-10 while Green won the shot put with a mark of 56-7.

“Our throwers have bailed us out week in and week out, without them last week we would have not won a conference title,” Craig said. “They have just done a great job and coach Haren and coach Breitbach have them doing a great job for us.”

Class 4A State Qualifier

At City High

Team scores – 1. West High 135; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 127; 3. Dubuque Senior 118; 4. City High 87.5; 5. Ottumwa 84; 6. Western Dubuque 83; 7. Dubuque Hempstead 61; 8. Burlington 42.5

Individual Results

(Automatic State Qualifiers; Area Placewinners)

100 – 1. Dylan Kutsch (DH) 10.94; 2. Austyn Casillas (OTT) 11.07; 3. Devonte Foster (ICH) 11.21; 7. Tahj Williamson (ICH) 11.58

200 – 1. Austyn Casillas (OTT) 22.17; 2. Dylan Kutsch (DH) 22.33; 3. Devonte Foster (ICH) 22.62;

400 – 1. Austin West (ICW) 48.93; 2. Austyn Casillas (OTT) 49.92; 4. Gabe Caruthers (ICW) 52.82

800 – 1. Mike Jasa (CRP) 1:58.03; 2. Jimmy Momberg (ICH) 1:59.46; 4. Jeff Garbutt (ICW) 2:01.27; 7. JP Rethwisch (ICH) 2:03.44

1,600 – 1. Jalen Hildebrand (DS) 4:27.07; 2. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 4:28.96; 6. Ethan Goers (ICW) 4:32.48

3,200 – 1. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 9:35.77; 2. Jalen Hildebrand (DS) 9:37.13; 6. Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand (ICH) 9:54.75; 8. Will Conrad (ICW) 10:28.19

110 hurdles – 1. Dakota Brimmer (DS) 15.22; 2. Freddie Hosch (WD) 15.44; 3. Cole Mabry (ICW) 15.51; 5. Oisin Leopold (ICH) 15.67; 7. John Aschenbrenner (ICH) 16.0

400 hurdles – 1. Austin West (ICW) 53.83; 2. Angelo Romagna (DS) 54.15; 4. Cole Mabry (ICW) 56.78; 7. Noah Kabat (ICH) 58.99

Sprint medley relay – 1. West High (Jackson Steburg, Dante Eldridge, Andre White, Austin West) 1:32.74; 2. Ottumwa 1:33.39; 6. City High (Devonte Foster, Bryce Hunger, Malik Kimber, Sila Lulinda) 1:40.05.

Distance medley relay – 1. Dubuque Senior 3:33.41; 2. Western Dubuque 3:36.06; 4. City High (Max DePrenger, Daniel Brown, Zach Jones, Caden Turnbough) 3:38.98

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 57.31; 2. Dubuque Senior 58.71; 5. City High (Malik Kimber, Max DePrenger, Zach Jones, Oisin Leopold) 58.91; 7. West High (Austin Geasland, Ryan Gudenkauf, Caden Fedeler, Jason Lu) 1:02.35

4×100 – 1. City High (Zach Jones, Max DePrenger, Malik Kimber, Devonte Foster) 42.86; 2. Western Dubuque 43.51; 8. West High (Joe Dixon, Fabian Brown, Tyuss Bell, Orin Cantu) 45.45

4×200 – 1. Dubuque Senior 1:29.92; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:31.12; 5. West High (Fabian Brown, Tyuss Bell, Caden Fedeler, Andre White) 1:34.3; 7. City High (Tahj Williamson, Luke Young, Cole Milder, Dean Wortman) 1:37.5

4×400 – 1. Dubuque Senior 3:21.73; 2. City High (Daniel Brown, Lucas Firmstone, Max DePrenger, Zach Jones) 3:21.93; 4. West High (Ethan McAreavy, Jeff Garbutt, Dante Eldridge, Gabe Caruthers) 3:26.66

4×800 – 1. City High (Jimmy Momberg, Daniel Brown, Lucas Firmstone, JP Rethwisch) 7:55.21; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 8:03.91; 4. West High (Jeff Garbutt, Ethan McAreavy, Ian Prescott, Osman Salama) 8:05.44.

Long jump – 1. Austin West (ICW) 22-4; 2. Taven Harris (BUR) 21-3 ¼; 6. Keyshawn Trice (ICW) 20-2

High jump – 1. Grant Kelchen (WD) 6-1; 2. Caleb Fuller (CRP) 6-0; 4. Tevon Williamson (ICH) 5-10; 7. Doug Burtch (ICH) 5-8  

Shot put – 1. Landon Green (ICW) 56-7; 2. Jason Simon-Ressler (WD) 52-10; 3. Jonathan Gannon (ICW) 51-10; 7. Raphael Hamilton (ICH) 44-8 ½

Discus – 1. Jonathan Gannon (ICW) 168-10; 2. Kaden Schilling (CRP) 149-11; 3. Ethan Postler (ICW) 148-4; 7. Levi Sherod (ICH) 128-5