Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Much of the first month of the track and field season for West High was filled with split squad meets and spotty weather.

After a few weeks of waiting West High finally found its opportunity to put things together on Saturday.

West High got individual titles from four different athletes and claimed six event titles under sunny skies at its own Hollingsworth Relays at Trojan Stadium in Iowa City.

“I think that sums up our team is we’ve just been waiting for a nice day to come together and compete together and that’s exactly what happened,” West High coach TJ Craig said. “We’ve just been waiting to compete and a lot of guys have been waiting to kind of step out in front and do things and we saw that in multiple events today.”

Christian Janis, Alex McKane, Thayer Abu-Hiljeh and Aidan Jacobsen all won individual titles and the Trojans claimed relay crowns in both the distance medley and 4×100 on a day that saw temperatures rise into the mid 50s.

“It felt really good to have a great day to compete, especially at home,” Janis said. “Hollingsworth Relays is a big deal to our coaches and a big deal to the community so it felt really good to be able to compete and be at the top.”

Perhaps no Trojan made more of the opportunity presented on Saturday than Janis.

Janis won the 200 and was on both of West High’s winning relays on Saturday in what was an impressive afternoon for the junior.

“We have a lot of young guys that are really developing well and that’s a credit to our coaches,” Janis said. “We like to go out and compete every day and all the runners are very good about competing with each other and I think that gives us a little edge.”

Janis won the 200 in 22.59 and ran a 200-meter leg on the Trojans’ distance medley relay team that won in 3:38.6.

He ran the anchor on the 4×100 team that also featured Todd Rent, Izaiah Loveless and Nate Gudenkauf to a win in a season-best time of 43.56.

“We finally just got our fourth guy back and that made everything better,” Janis said. “We were all feeling good today and we had a great day and the pieces kind of came together.”

Janis capped his busy day anchoring the 4×400 team to a third-place finish.

McKane was equally impressive on Saturday running the 800-meter leg of the winning distance medley relay team and setting a meet record in the 3,200.

“It’s pretty cool,” McKane said of the meet record. “I’m happy with my time. Defiintely we have a little pride coming out here racing on our home track and our home meet and it’s fun to be in front of a home crowd.”

In just his second crack at the 3,200 this season McKane clocked a 9:23.18, finishing a little more than three seconds in front of Linn-Mar’s Hayden Kuhn.

“I’m happy with that time,” McKane said. “I’m stepping in the right direction but I have a lot of time to drop and a lot of tactical racing to do.”

Abu-Hiljeh won the 400 in a time of 52.92 for West High and Jacobsen won the 400 hurdles in 55.84.

West High also got a runner-up finish from freshman Moustafa Tiea in the 1,600 and its sprint medley relay team.

The Solon shuttle hurdle relay team of Nash Kottar, Charlie Brandt, Cole Carney and Brady Mullen was runner-up in 1:05.44 and the Spartans were third in the distance medley relay.

Hollingsworth Relays

At West High

Individual event winners/area placewinners

Discus – 1. McKade Jelinek (L-M) 179-6; 4. Ben Kampman (SOL) 138-8; 5. Adam Smith (SOL) 134-7

Shot put – 1. Nolan Recker (MUS) 56-4; 6. Adam Smith (SOL) 43-10; 7. Chris Colgan (ICW) 43-8

High jump – 1. TJ Jackson (L-M) 6-4; 4. Oaken Foster (SOL) 5-10; 5. Braden Gladwin (ICW) 5-10

Long jump – 1. Jay Gatto (ANA) 22-2 ¼; 3. Aidan Jacobsen (ICW) 20-9 ¾; 5. Kylin Crittenden (ICW) 20-1

100 – 1. Beau Flander (EV) 11.1; 4. Todd Rent (ICW) 11.3; 5. Brayden Moore (SOL) 11.5; 7. Blake Timmons (SOL) 11.6; 8. Barry Diallo (ICW) 11.8

200 – 1. Christian Janis (ICW) 22.59; 3. Izaiah Loveless (ICW) 22.82; 7. Jacob Timmons (SOL) 24.46; 8. Grant Gerdin (SOL) 24.47

400 – 1. Thayer Abu-Hiljeh (ICW) 52.92; 5. Mason Van Waning (ICW) 54.38

800 – 1. Clay Gustafson (ADM) 2:02.17; 3. Seth Cheney (ICW) 2:06.12; 4. Michael Yeomans (SOL) 2:06.7; 6. Anel Vukovic (ICW) 2:10.49

1,600 – 1. Shane Erb (MAR) 4:28.54; 2. Moustafa Tiea (ICW) 4:35.55; 5. Michael Lee (ICW) 4:46.98

3,200 – 1. Alex McKane (ICW) 9:23.18; 4. Seth Cheney (ICW) 9:53.77;

110 hurdles – 1. Nicholas Gorsich (L-M) 15.89; 4. Brady Mullen (SOL) 16.24; 7. Nash Kottar (SOL) 16.91

400 hurdles – 1. Aidan Jacobsen (ICW) 55.84

Sprint medley relay – 1. Denver 1:37.81; 2. West High (Izaiah Loveless, Todd Rent, Mason Woods, Moustafa Tiea) 1:38.62; 6. Solon (Jake Quillin, Austin Knight, Michael Pipolo, Jacob Timmons) 1:41.19

Distance medley relay – 1. West High (Izaiah Loveless, Christian Janis, Aidan Jacobsen, Alex McKane) 3:38.6; 3. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Michael Pipolo, Jeremy Bachus, Ty Becicka) 3:47.5

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Linn-Mar 1:03.38; 2. Solon (Nash Kottar, Charlie Brandt, Cole Carney, Brady Mullen) 1:05.44; 6. West High (Quinn Abbott, Jesus Marungo-Murillo, Anuj Jani, Seth Overton) 1:10.87

4×100 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Izaiah Loveless, Nate Gudenkauf, Christian Janis) 43.56; 4. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Jeremy Bachus, Austin Knight, Michael Pipolo)

4×200 – 1. Denver 1:31.67; 4. West High (Nate Gudenkauf, Aidan Wohlers, Barry Diallo, Kylin Crittenden) 1:36.76; 7. Solon (Zach Capper, Grant Gerdin, Blake Timmons, Jake Quillin) 1:37.76

4×400 – 1. Denver 3:33.1; 3. West High (Thayer Abu-Hiljeh, Mason Van Waning, Alex McKane, Christian Janis) 3:36.08; 6. Solon (Michael Yeomans, Rhyse Wear, Jake Quillin, Grant Gerdin) 3:45.04

4×800 – 1. ADM 8:20.02; 4. West High (Mason Van Waning, James Dickens, Anel Vukovic, Sam Showers) 8:53.52

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