Click here for more photos from Iowa City West at the state track meet. 

Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – With 19 events across four classes all tracked by time or distance there are a lot of numbers getting thrown around at the state track and field meet.

The numbers for the West High throwers this week were pretty simple.

Two events in two days producing four medals and most importantly 16 valuable team points.

West High had a pair of medalists in a throwing event for the second straight day on Friday as Chandler Haight and Salima Omari each collected medals in the 4A shot put at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Haight capped a brilliant prep career with her second consecutive runner-up finish while Omari earned her first state medal placing eighth.

On Thursday Haight and sophomore Alexie Little placed fifth and sixth in the 4A discus.

“If you would have said before the meet we’d get four medals I would have been thrilled,” Haight said. “That was what we knew we had to do to help the team so it feels good to be able to do our jobs.”

The nine points in the shot put on Friday pushed West High’s total to 42, seven points back of two-time defending 4A champion Waukee.

Cedar Falls is third with 30 points followed by Southeast Polk with 26 and Pleasant Valley with 23.5.

“When I was looking at the numbers from the season and what they threw last week I knew we could do it, it was just a fact of what else was going to happen with other people,” West High throws coach Danica Haight said of double placing in both events. “I knew that we could do it.”

Chandler Haight dueled with Waukee junior Kat Moody before settling for a second consecutive runner-up finish.

Haight took the lead with a toss of 44-1 on her first attempt in finals but Moody followed with what turned out to be the winning throw of 44-7 ½ only moments later.

“I knew it would be that way, that it would be back and forth,” Chandler Haight said. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy for either of us and that we were both going to push each other.”

The runner-up finish was capped an impressive career for Haight who will continuing her track and field career at Drake.

A four-time state qualifier in the shot put, Haight closed her career with three straight top-three finishes.

“It’s been amazing,” Haight said of her four-year career. “I’ve not only become a family with my own team but with a lot of these other girls that I’ve been competing with.”

Omari earned her first medal in her first trip to state in a West High uniform.

She placed 23rd last season as a freshman at City High but added better than five feet to her state distance while placing eighth with a mark of 38-3.

“I really wished for Salima Omari to get a medal,” Chandler Haight said. “I just believed in her and I knew that she could do it.”

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