Liberty High Continues Strong State Meet With Runner-up Finish In Distance Medley
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DES MOINES – One relay Liberty High identified for months as a state title contender.
Another the Lightning loaded up for the first time at the state meet.
Together those two relays have sparked the best state meet showing ever for a Liberty High program on the rise.
A day after winning the first state title in program history in the 4×800 Liberty High continued its strong state meet with a runner-up finish in the Class 4A distance medley on Friday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
“Something that I really like about our team is just our team culture,” Liberty High senior Jack Kinzer said. “Everyone is friendly, everyone cheers everyone on and gets along. We are definitely building some with this culture.”
Liberty High built towards Thursday’s 4×800 title for two months.
The runner-up finish in the distance medley was a different story.
Friday was the first time all season the foursome of Michael Miller, Luke Meyers, Kinzer and Bowen Gryp had run together.
The result was a seven-second drop from the previous school record set last week at the district meet.
“After the second meet we always all talked about it but we never put it together until today,” Miller said. “We wanted to do it but each meet we were all spread out in other events.”
As much as the 4×800 relay team was months in the making the distance medley squad came together quickly.
Kinzer, a distance specialist for much of his career, was the key.
Once Kinzer started running the 400-meter leg everything seemed to come together.
“Once Jack started running the 400 and he ran 50 flat we knew that we could move somethings around, I could drop down to the 200 and we could let him do his thing,” Meyers said. “It just came together.”
Kinzer ran the 400-meter leg with Gryp on the 800-meter anchor when Liberty High ran a season-best 3:38.18 at the district meet.
That time was still good only for 11th fastest in 4A this season.
On Friday with Miller and Myers slotted into the two 200-meter legs the Lightning dropped to 3:31.07.
Cedar Falls won in 3:25.84, good for fifth fastest in state history.
“We are happy with that for sure, Cedar Falls is so tough, they have an excellent 400 and 800 leg,” Gryp said. “I’m so happy for these guys. We have a 3,200 runner that came down to run the 400 and that is huge for us this year, that’s crazy for him but that’s what this team is about.”
Liberty High won the second heat and had to wait to find out its fate.
Cedar Falls ran away with the final heat and the title but Liberty High’s time stood up for second as Ames was third in 3:31.17 and City High was fourth in 3:32.74.
“We haven’t every really gone after it with this lineup but we ran well enough to get to Drake,” Kinzer said. “I think the winner at Drake was like 3:32 we knew we could get that and we were a little disappointed we didn’t go after it at Drake but to finish second here is a great feeling.”
Class 4A Boys State Track and Field Meet
At Drake Stadium in Des Moines
Team scores – 1. Cedar Falls 55; 2. Ames 31.5; 3. Waukee 30; 3. West Des Moines Dowling 30; 5. Linn-Mar 22; 6. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 20; 7. Ankeny Centennial 18; 7. Liberty High 18; 7. Dubuque Senior 18; 7. West Des Moines Valley 18; 11. City High 17; 26. West High 4
Individual results (event winners; area competitors)
Shot put – 1. Matt Kapustka (Waukee) 60-6 ¼; 4. Raph Hamilton (City High) 53-10 ¾; 13. Mason Appletate (West High) 48-0 ¼
Long jump – 1. Drew Bartels (Cedar Rapids Kennedy) 23-5 ½; 9. Ronnie Major (City High) 21-6 ¼; 14. Daqwan Sanders (Liberty High) 20-9 ¾
400 hurdles – 1. Drew Bartels (Cedar Rapids Kennedy) 52.49; 10. Matt Schaeckenbach (City High) 56.32; 20. Jason Lu (West High) 59.3
4×200 – 1. West Des Moines Valley 1:27.06; 14. West High (Mason Applegate, Christian Janis, Trey King, Fabian Brown) 1:31.84
Distance medley – 1. Cedar Falls 3:25.84; 2. Liberty High (Michael Miller, Luke Meyers, Jack Kinzer, Bowen Gryp) 3:31.07; 4. City High (Isaac Rohret, Akili Mattox, Jovan Harris, Ammon Smith) 3:32.74
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