Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Those inside the City High track program believed the Little Hawks were poised for a breakout season last spring.

Instead, a global pandemic wiped out the season.

While the wait was a little longer than preferred City High finally got the state meet breakthrough it was looking for.

City High scored 18 points across four events on Saturday while surging to sixth in the Class 4A team standings with 35 points on the final day of the state track and field meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

“I was ready to compete that’s all I can say,” City High senior Isaac Rohret said. “After not having the chance to compete with all those great athletes last year I was hungry and I was ready to compete.”

Highlighted by third-place finishes from Ammon Smith and its sprint medley relay team City High scored 18 points on Saturday while posting its best state meet showing since placing fifth with 35 points in 2013.

The sixth-place finish is the first time City High has been in the top 10 since 2013.

“It was a pretty good week for us, I think we showed what we could do,” Rohret said. “The first day was a little rough, we had a slow start but we picked it up the second day and today we just wanted to finish as strong as we can.”

Rohret finished with four medals in his only state meet in a City High uniform.

The senior sprinter helped the Little Hawks to a fourth-place finish in the distance medley on Friday before earning three medals on Saturday.

Rohret finished seventh in the 100 in 11.17 and was on the City High 4×100 relay team that placed seventh in a time of 43.32.

Rohret ran the opening leg on the City High sprint medley team that was third in a season-best time of 1:32.61.

“We knew we could compete,” Rohret said of the sprint medley. “We were planning on it and we were working and we knew we were right there with those teams.”

Sam Rew and Ronnie Major ran the 100-meter legs of the sprint medley with Rohret handling the 200-meter leg.

Junior Jovan Harris ran an electric 400-meter anchor as City High dropped half a second off its previous season best time in its third-place finish.

“We knew could do well in that so it wasn’t a surprise,” Rohret said. “We thought we could hang right with those teams and we were excited to get that third-place.”

City High had five top-four finishes at the state meet including a third-place performance from sophomore Ammon Smith in the 800 on Saturday.

Smith posted a career-best time of 1:55.39 finishing behind only Ames senior Aniey Akok (1:52.95) and Cedar Falls senior three-event champ TJ Tomlyanovich (1:53.08) who was runner-up out of the first heat.

The winning time for Akok ranked 17th all-time while Tomlyanovich record the 20th fastest time in state history in a runner-up finish.

“I came with the number two seed but knowing that TJ was in the first heat I just wanted to get first or second in my heat and hope that would be enough to finish second or third,” Smith said. “I was happy with my time and how I ran.”

Smith improved his previous career-best time by more than a second in his third-place finish and was joined in the top-eight by classmate Truman Thompson who finished seventh in 1:56.8.

“It’s so nice to have guys like Truman and a bunch of really fast guys to train with,” Smith said. “I am way more competitive with my own team than anyone else so it’s nice having them really close to me.”

Thompson entered with the 20^th fastest time in 800 season but took nearly three seconds off his previous best time on Saturday while chasing Smith for most of the race.

“It’s extremely helpful and it’s really fun running with him and training with him and he’s one of my number one competitors,” Thompson said of Smith. “Sometimes it’s easier to try to catch your teammate than someone else and it clearly works pretty well for us.”

Class 4A Boys State Track and Field Meet

At Drake Stadium in Des Moines

Team scores – 1. Cedar Falls 87; 2. West Des Moines Dowling 77; 3. Ankeny Centennial 61; 4. Ames 44.5; 5. Waukee 36; 6. West Des Moines Valley 35; 6. City High 35; 8. Liberty High 31; 9. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 28; 10. Sioux City North 26; 27. West High 6

Individual results (event winners; area competitors)

100 – 1. Mikey McClain (West Des Moines Dowling) 10.79; 7. Isaac Rohret (City High) 11.17

200 – 1. Mikey McClain (West Des Moines Dowling) 21.59; 7. Luke Meyers (Liberty High) 22.77

800 – 1. Aniey Akok (Ames) 1:52.95; 3. Ammon Smith (City High) 1:55.39; 7. Truman Thompson (City High) 1:56.8; 15. Gavin Keeney (Liberty High) 1:58.88; 18. Caden Noeller (West High) 1:59.76; 23. Caleb Schillinger (Liberty High) 2:01.77

1,600 – 1. Bowen Gryp (Liberty High) 4:19.02; 7. Alex McKane (West High) 4:25.88; 9. Jack Kinzer (Liberty High) 4:27.8; 13. Ford Washburn (City High) 4:30.72

110 hurdles – 1. Adam Wright (West Des Moines Dowling) 14.51

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 57.73

Sprint medley relay – 1. Ankeny Centennial 1:31.72; 3. City High (Sam Rew, Ronnie Major, Isaac Rohret, Jovan Harris) 1:32.61; 18. West High (Izaiah Loveless, Trey King, Fabian Brown, Daquan Johnson) 1:36.53

4×100 relay – 1. Southeast Polk 42.35; 7. City High (Sam Rew, Jovan Harris, Ronnie Major, Isaac Rohret) 43.32

4×400 relay – 1. Cedar Falls 3:15.85; 8. Liberty High (Luke Meyers, Gavin Keeney, Jack Kinzer, Bowen Gryp) 3:31.15

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