Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The Eastern Iowa Track and Field Festival was created to give athletes an opportunity to show off.

Did Christian Janis ever take advantage of that opportunity on Saturday.

Janis won the 100 in a new career-best time and anchored a pair of West High relay teams to victories in an impressive performance at sun-drenched Trojan Stadium in Iowa City.

“It’s a big meet there is a lot of competition here and guys were running great,” Janis said. “It’s a great meet, it’s really a chance to show what you can do.

Janis won the 100 in 11.17 edging Nate Maki of Newton who was second in 11.18.

The junior anchored the West High 4×100 and 4×200 relay team to wins and helped West High finish fourth in the 4×400.

“I think Christian is coming into his own, he won the 100 in a really good field and came back in the 4×100 and the 4×200 and still ran his best time in the 4×400 and that just shows he has the heart of a champion and wants to do well for his team.”

Aidan Jacobsen won the 400 hurdles in a Drake Relays blue standard time of 54.78 and Alex McKane ran the seventh fastest 1,600 time in program history in a runner-up finish on a strong day for West High at its home track.

“I just love the competition out here,” Craig said. “There were a lot of great performances across the board and to see all the schools out here competing is just awesome.”

Janis was a big part of the success for West High on Saturday.

He joined Izaiah Loveless, Todd Rent and Nate Gudenkauf, Christian Janis to win the 4×100 relay in 43.21.
Janis anchored the same foursome to a win in the 4×200 in 1:31.64.

“We have a winning mentality,” Janis said. “We want to come out here and compete and have fun.”

Janis won his lone individual event of the day, the 100 in just his second ever attempt at the event.

“This was really all I was thinking about all week,” Janis said. “I’ve been focused on this meet all week.”

McKane finished second to Saint Ansgar senior Riley Witt who ran the fastest time in the state this season in the 1,600 winning in 4:17.84.

The runner-up time of 4:21.16 for McKane is the sixth fastest in Iowa this spring.

City High blazed to the title in the 4×800 with the foursome of Ford Washburn, Truman Thompson, Matt Schaeckenbach and Ammon Smith winning in 7:57.70.

The winning time of the Little Hawks is second fastest in the state this season and a Drake Relays blue standard time.

The City High 4×100 team of Sam Rew, Mike Rew, Ronnie Major and Mengty Tan was runner-up in 43.62 and the Little Hawks’ 4×200 squad of Sam Rew, Isaiah Svoboda, Major and Jovan Harris was second in 1:32.07.

Solon finished runner-up in the shuttle hurdle relay with Nash Kotar, Charlie Brandt, Cole Carney and Brady Mullen clocking a time of 1:05.16.

“We wanted to provide an opportunity for people to get into Drake,” Craig said. “You have all these schools a lot of which have probably never run against each other and come together today and compete for the benefit of making the Drake relays.

Eastern Iowa Track and Field Festival

At West High  

Individual event winners; area placewinners

Shot put – 1. Austin Busch (South Hamilton) 59-1 1/2; 6. Ostyn Friday (City High) 48-11; 7. TaeShon McDaniels (City High) 48-8 ½

Discus – 1. Walker Whalen (Indianola) 202-1; 5. TaeShon McDaniels (City High) 158-1; 7. Adam Smith (Solon) 149-7

Long jump – 1. Kole Becker (Lisbon) 22-6; 4. Ronnie Major (City High) 20-11 ¼

High jump – 1. Kade Benjamin (New London) 6-2; 4. Oaken Foster 5-10; 6. Daniel Robinson (West High) 5-8

100 – 1. Christian Janis (West High) 11.17; 5. Todd Rent (West High) 11.44

200 – 1. Nate Maki (Newton) 23.03; 4. Blake Timmons (Solon) 23.77

400 – 1. River Patterson (Fairfield) 50.41

800 – 1. Jayden Dickson (Earlham) 1:58.54; 6. Moustafa Tiea (West High) 2:04.43

1,600 – 1. Riley Witt (Saint Ansgar) 4:17.84; 2. Alex McKane (West High) 4:21.16

3,200 – 1. Eli Larson (Center Point-Urbana) 9:39.22; 4. Seth Cheney (West High) 9:58.12; 6. Noah Carey (City High) 10:07.55; 7. Parker Max (City High) 10:08.96

110 hurdles – 1. Kole Becker (Lisbon) 14.89; 3. Brady Mullen (Solon) 15.59

400 hurdles – 1. Aidan Jacobsen (West High) 54.78

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Underwood 1:02.07; 2. Solon (Nash Kotar, Charlie Brandt, Cole Carney, Brady Mullen) 1:05.16; 5. City High (Austin Rindels, Phillip Kaplan, Ian Moore, Isaiah Svoboda) 1:06.23; 7. West High (Clayton Bopp, Anuj Jani, Seth Overton, Quinn Abbott) 1:07.91

Sprint medley relay – 1. Grinnell 1:37.88; 5. West High (Aidan Wohlers, Barry Diallo, Clayton Bopp, Asher Overholt) 1:43.01

Distance medley relay – 1. Dubuque Hempstead 3:39.53; 6. West High (Aidan Wohlers, Barry Diallo, Brice Wahe, Moustaga Tiea) 3:47.89

4×100 – 1. West High (Izaiah Loveless, Todd Rent, Nate Gudenkauf, Christian Janis) 43.21; 2. City High (Sam Rew, Mike Rew, Ronnie Major, Mengty Tan) 43.62; 8. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Blake Timmons, Austin Knight, Michael Pipolo) 45.18

4×200 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Izaiah Loveless, Nate Gudenkauf, Christian Janis) 1:31.64; 2. City High (Sam Rew, Isaiah Svoboda, Ronnie Major, Jovan Harris) 1:32.07; 7. Solon (Trin Eidahl, Jeremy Bachus, Grant Gerdin, Blake Timmons) 1:34.8

4×400 – 1. Earlham 3:28.46; 4. West High (Thayer Abu-Hiljeh, Christian Janis, Izaiah Loveless, Todd Rent) 3:32.09; 5. Solon (Jeremy Bachus, Blake Timmons, Rhett Mesch, Jacob Timmons) 3:35.76; 8. West Branch (Kinnick Boelk, Oliver Palmer, Evan Striegel, Carver Boelk) 3:41.94

4×800 – 1. City High (Ford Washburn, Truman Thompson, Matt Schaeckenbach, Ammon Smith) 7:57.70

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