Distance Medley Relay Sets the Tone For City High in Strong Day-Two Showing
Click here for more photos from Iowa City High at the state track meet.
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DES MOINES – After a runner-up finish at the district meet Emma Cooper came to the Class 4A state track and field meet confident the City High distance medley relay team could earn a medal.
What City High did on Friday morning surprised even the most optimistic member of the Little Hawk relay team.
The City High distance medley team set the tone for a strong City High showing full of surprises with a fourth-place finish at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
“After districts we knew we were definitely capable of doing some big things at state but I think getting fourth place was kind of unexpected,” Cooper said. “We are just so proud and our coaches could not be happier.”
After failing to score a point on the opening day of the meet City High earned top-five finishs in four of five finals on Friday vaulting to seventh in the 4A team standings with 18 points.
City High lowered its time and finished at or ahead of its district seed in all four of the events it scored in on Friday, starting with its fourth-place finish in the distance medley.
“Of all the events that is probably the toughest one to figure out what everybody is going to do,” City High coach Terry Coleman said of the distance medley. “That is one where you don’t know if people are going to run their number two or number three 800 kid or their number one and we just threw everything at it.”
That attitude seemed to work wonders for City High on Friday.
City High picked up a pair of individual medals on Friday as Caroline Schaeckenbach finished fourth in the 400 hurdles and freshman Ella Cook was fifth in the long jump.
The Little Hawks added a fifth-place finish in the 4×200 to earn multiple state medals for the first time since 2015.
“I can’t say enough good things about these girls,” Coleman said. “Just to stick with it when maybe we thought things would happen earlier in the season and they didn’t but they never gave up and they just kept plugging away.”
The foursome of Cooper, Emma Clark, Tiara Green and CeCe Kelly-Harvey set the tone for the Little Hawks’ impressive Friday with the fourth-place distance medley finish in 4:10.33.
The time was more than six seconds faster than City High’s previous best at districts and was the first medal in a relay for the Little Hawks since 2015.
“I had a pr in my leg Emma Clark held the lead that we had and Tiara had the race of her life in her senior year at her last state meet,” Cooper said. “CeCe ran great and had a pr so that was really cool.”
The surprises for City High got bigger as the day went on.
The 4×200 team entered with the 14th best time in 4A this spring but Cooper and Clark teamed with freshman Ayana Lindsey and Sydney DePrenger to take nearly three seconds off their top time in a fifth-place finish in 1:46.66
“Three seconds in a 4×200 is incredible,” Coleman said. “The kids have it figured out and they are just rolling and they believe in each other and they are supporting each other.
The biggest surprise came via freshman Ella Cook in the long jump.
Cook was sixth at the district meet last week with a then career-best jump of 16-1 3/4 to earn the 24th and final spot in the state meet field.
On her first attempt on Friday Cook added nearly a foot to her career-best performance with a jump of 17-1 ½.
“This is one of those days where it’s fun to sit back and watch. I don’t coach any of the event groups,” Coleman said. “My assistant coaches have it and I just get to enjoy the fruits of everyone’s labor.”
Schaeckenbach capped the day with a fourth-place finish in the 400 hurdles in a career-best time of 1:04.99.
It was the first state medal for Schaeckenbach who took up track and hurdling for the first time this spring.
“It’s just really amazing,” Schaeckenbach said. “God has really blessed me to be able to come out and be a part of this team and do so well. I was really happy with how I did and kind of surprised to because I didn’t think I’d be able to be this fast.”
The time of 1:04.99 for Schaeckenbach was more than half a second better than her previous career best of 1:05.59 and made her the top finisher among non-seniors.
“I’m really happy, I didn’t expect that,” Schaeckenbach said. “I expected to get in the low 1:05s but I was really hoping to get to 1:04 so I am really happy with that.”
Class 4A State Track and Field Meet
At Drake Stadium in Des Moines
Team scores – 1. Waukee 49; 2. West High 42; 3. Cedar Falls 30; 4. Southeast Polk 26; 5. Pleasant Valley 23.5; 6. Linn-Mar 23; 7. City High 18; 8. Davenport Central 17; 9. Johnston 15; 10. Council Bluffs Lewis Central 14.
Individual results
(Champion; Area Participants)
400 Hurdles – 1. Payton Wensel (Linn-Mar) 1:00.15; 4. Caroline Schaeckenbach (City High) 1:04.99; 15. Lillian Reynolds (City High) 1:07.65; 21. Kiara Malloy-Salgado (West High) 1:09.14
Distance Medley Relay – 1. Cedar Falls 4:04.91; 4. City High (Emma Cooper, Emma Clark, Tiara Green, Cece Kelly-Harvey) 4:10.33; 14. West High (Katie Severt, Isyss Shaw, Kitra Bell, Kiara Malloy-Salgado) 4:16.48
4×200 – 1. Pleasant Valley 1:41.28; 5. City High (Emma Cooper, Ayana Lindsey, Emma Clark, Sydney DePrenger) 1:43.77
Shot put – 1. Kat Moody (Waukee) 44-7 ½; 2. Chandler Haight (West High) 44-1; 8. Salima Omari (West High) 38-3
Long jump – 1. Darby Thomas (Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln) 19-5; 5. Ella Cook (City High) 17-1 ½