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Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – In 2015 West High finished an uneventful seventh at the eight-team Forwald-Coleman Relays, a whopping 62 points out of first place.

Nobody has beaten the Trojans at the event since.

West High used a strong finish over the final three events to win the Forwald-Coleman Relays for the fourth consecutive year Thursday on a cool and overcast evening at Raffensperger Track at City High.

The Trojans won five events and had runner-up finishes in four others while rolling up 134 points to edge host City High by four for the team title.  

“Hats off to City High tonight for putting up such a fight on their home track but I think you saw in the emotions from our guys that this meant a lot to our seniors,” West High senior Kolby Greiner said. “We’ve never lost this meet in all four years so today was all about team points.”

Greiner gave West High a late lead in the team race with his second individual title of the evening in the 1,600.

West High followed with a runner-up finish in the 4×100 and a fourth-place performance in the 4×400 to hold off City High and two-time defending state champion West Des Moines Valley which placed third.

“This is a meet where we can come together and see what we’ve got,” West High coach T.J. Craig said. “I didn’t know what we had when we came in but today was a true team effort. It was down to the last event, a true team effort.”

Greiner swept the distance events adding a title in the 3,200 and fellow senior Gabe Caruthers won individual titles in the 100 and 400.

All five individual titles for West High and two of the Trojan’s three runner-up finishes came from seniors.

Landon Green won the discus and was second in the shot put and Cole Mabry was runner-up in the 400 hurdles as the West High senior class capped an unbeaten career at Raffensperger Track.

“The good thing about seniors are is when you need them they are there,” Craig said. “We needed them tonight and we got every bit of them.”

Caruthers won the 100 in 11.03 and then nearly matched his top time of the season of 48.82 in the 400 with a 48.88 that blew away the field.

“Running 48 back-to-back in the 400s that’s big,” Caruthers said. “If I can be consistent like that those times will just get better. A 48 in cold weather might as well be a 47 in warm weather.”

Greiner cruised to a win in the 3,200 by more than 21 seconds and then fought off Max Murphy of Pleasant Valley to win the 1,600 in 4:28.5.

“All the seniors on this team, we’ve gone through thick and thin together,” Greiner said. “We’ve been through it all together and I’m just so proud that this is my team.

The win by Greiner in the 1,600 gave West High a three-point lead on City High going into the final two events.

Caruthers helped seal the deal for West High, anchoring the Trojans’ 4×100 team to a runner-up finish in 44.36 and turning around to anchor the West High 4×400 squad that was fourth in 3:32.93.

“To win four titles on a rival track means so much,” Caruthers said. “I’ve come such a long way with this team and I’ve seen the results and to come through tonight with this specific group of guys it means so much to me.”

Forwald-Coleman Relays

Team scores – 1. West High 134; 2. City High 130; 3. West Des Moines Valley 125; 4. Linn-Mar 104; 5. Cedar Rapids Prairie 86; 6. Pleasant Valley 83; 7. Muscatine 43; 8. Marion 30

Individual results (Event winners; area placewinners)

100 – 1. Gabe Caruthers (ICW) 11.03; 3. Max DePrenger (ICH) 11.39; 7. Shamar Wyatt (ICW) 11.59

200 – 1. Ryan Kilpatrick (CRP) 22.92; 5. Dahron Fouch (ICH) 23.53; 6. Fabian Brown (ICW) 23.7; 7. Ryan Gudenkauf (ICW) 24.01

400 – 1. Gabe Caruthers (ICW) 48.88; 2. Max DePrenger (ICH) 50.18; 8. Grahm Goering (ICW) 53.54

800 – 1. Evan Armitage (WDV) 2:00.87; 2. Daniel Brown (ICH) 2:02.31; 6. Matt Taylor (ICH) 2:08.89; 7. Yousif Salama (ICW) 2:09.15; 8. Ian Prescott (ICW) 2:09.84

1,600 – 1. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 4:28.5; 4. Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand (ICH) 4:36.49; 6. Owen Jones (ICH) 4:40.36; 8. Will Conrad (ICW) 4:43.82

3,200 – 1. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 9:40.06; 4. Nicolo Schianchi (ICW) 10:14.37; 7. Mitchell Wilkes (ICH) 10:30.84; 8. Yasar Hassan (ICH) 10:37.23  

110 hurdles – 1. Trent Davis (L-M) 14.64; 2. Oisin Leopold (ICH) 14.9; 6. Cole Mabry (ICW) 15.34

400 hurdles – 1. Ben Wilson (PV) 55.57; 2. Cole Mabry (ICW) 56.52; 5. Jason Lu (ICW) 57.51; 6. Soren Ostby (ICH) 57.97; 8. Noah Kabat (ICH) 58.65

4×100 – 1. Linn-Mar 43.84; 2. West High (Mason Applegate, Fabian Brown, Tyuss Bell, Gabe Caruthers) 44.36; 5. City High (Kaleba Jack, Max DePrenger, Tahj Williamson, Dahron Fouch) 45.25

4×200 – 1. Linn-Mar 1:32.53; 3. City High (Kaleba Jack, Giovanni Housson, Jovan Harris, Sila Lulinda) 1:34.1; 5. West High (Mason Applegate, Nick Johnson, Ryan Gudenkauf, Fabian Brown) 1:35.0

4×400 – 1. Linn-Mar 3:26.71; 2. City High (Daniel Brown, Jovan Harris, Carter Seaton, Max DePrenger) 3:27.81; 4. West High (Grahm Goering, Jason Lu, Tyuss Bell, Gabe Caruthers) 3:32.93

4×800 – 1. City High (Daniel Brown, Matt Taylor, Owen Jones, Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand) 8:09.48; 4. West High (Ian Prescott, Will Conrad, Osman Salama, Yousif Salama) 8:17.99

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Linn-Mar 59.23; 5. City High (Griffen Vogelgesang, John Aschenbrenner, Tevon Williamson, Oisin Leopold) 1:01.31; 6. West High (Jason Lu, Cole Mabry, Anuj Jani, Ryan Gudenkauf) 1:04.19

Sprint medley relay – 1. West Des Moines Valley 1:36.32; 3. City High (Sila Lulinda, Giovanni Housson, Jovan Harris, Carter Seaton) 1:38.85; 5. West High (Shamar Wyatt, Fabian Brown, Nick Johnson, Tyuss Bell) 1:39.7

Distance medley relay – 1. Linn-Mar 3:36.74; 4. West High (Nate Gudenkauf, Nick Johnson, Thayer Abu-Hiljeh, Caden Noeller) 3:51.29

Discus – 1. Landon Green (ICW) 154-5; 3. Levi Sherod (ICH) 150-8; 5. Raph Hamilton (ICH) 133-4

Shot put – 1. Jake Remsburg (WDV) 57-9; 2. Landon Green (ICW) 56-6; 6. Raph Hamilton (ICH) 44-7

Long jump – 1. Kaleba Jack (ICH) 21-10 ½; 2. Dahron Fouch (ICH) 21-7 ¼; 7. Ryan Gudenkauf (ICW) 20-1 3/4

High jump – 1. Aguek Deng (WDV) 6-3 ¼; 2. Marcus Morgan (ICW) 6-3 ¼; 4. Tevon Williamson (ICH) 5-10; 6. Doug Burtch (ICH) 5-8

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