Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High wasn’t at full strength Thursday for the annual Forwald Relays.

The Little Hawks still managed to flex their muscle in a big way at their home meet.

Operating at less than full strength due to injuries and illness the Little Hawks won six events and added four runner-up finishes while claiming the team title at the 50^th Forwald Relays on a cool and breezy evening at Raffensperger Track in Iowa City.

“I just like the fact that we have built a team that can withstand a little adversity,” City High coach Mike Moore said. “We have some injuries, Ammon (Smith) was sick and only ran one race today and we were still fine. We put together a solid performance.”

Even at less than 100 percent City High showed why it should be considered a major player in Class 4A over the next few weeks.

Seniors Ford Washburn and Matt Schaeckenbach each won a pair of individual titles as City High won its third consecutive Forwald Relays team title.

“We are missing quite a few parts,” Schaeckenbach said. “Once we get everybody back and ready to take a full workload it’s going to be madness.”

In his only race of the night Smith won the 800 and City High added a title in the sprint medley relay.

Truman Thompson had a pair of runner-up finishes to teammates in the 800 and 3,200 as City High finished with 145 points to outdistance runner-up West High by 46 points.

Linn-Mar was third with 83 and Pleasant Valley was fourth with 79 while Solon finished seventh with 69 points and Liberty High was eighth with 52.

“We aren’t there yet, we don’t have all of our pieces yet but we are getting there and I was very satisfied tonight,” Moore said. “I understand a lot of these teams looked at the weather this week and said Tuesday night is better than Thursday so they didn’t really attack this meet but overall how could you not be happy with this kind of night.”

Washburn and Schaeckenbach stole the show in their final Forwald appearances.

Schaeckenbach won the high jump clearing 6-5 and added a title in the 100 hurdles in 14.89.

He also clocked a 54.89 in the 400 hurdles to finish fourth in an impressive race that was won by Nicholas Gorsich of Linn-Mar in 52.02.

“It’s always fun and you want to win your home meet but there is just something special about Forwald,” Schaeckenbach said. “It feels awesome to get a win because we had a drought for a few years and so it feels good to reclaim some titles.”

City High hadn’t won a Forwald title since 2014 before claiming the crown in 2021.

Thanks to Washburn and Schaeckenbach the Little Hawks have won three in a row.

“It’s probably the biggest meet behind state for our coach,” Washburn said. “For two weeks leading up to it all he’s talking about is Forwald. It’s really special, it’s awesome running on your home track and there was a really big crowd tonight. It just feels great.”

Washburn won a title in the 3,200 in 9:04.28 and won the 1,600 setting a personal best time in the 1,600 at 4:10.91 which is the fastest in the state this season.

His time of 9:04.28

“I am really happy, I was hoping to run a little faster but with the windy conditions and by myself it was really hard to push the second and third lap,” Washburn said. “I know I could have run faster tonight.”

The City High sprint medley relay team of Deon Brown, Sam Rew, Jeremiah Madlock and Ayman Noreldaim won in 1:37.38 and Smith won the 800 in 1:56.59.

City High was runner-up in the distance medley and 4×100 relays.

“We are going in the right direction,” Moore said. “We have some work to do but tonight was really good.”

West High swept the short sprints and added a title in the 4×100 relay in it’s runner-up finish.

Izaiah Loveless won the 100 in 10.87 and Todd Rent won the 200 in 22.44.

Rent and Loveless joined Daniel Robinson and Christian Janis in winning the 4×100 in 42.94.

Aidan Jacobsen clocked a 53.36 while finishing runner-up to Gorsich in the 400 hurdles and Moustafa Tiea was runner-up in the 400 in 49.95.

Solon had impressive performances from the throwing duo of Adam Smith and Ben Kampman while racking up 69 points.

Smith won the discus with a mark of 171-0 while Kampman was runner-up with a throw of 168-3.

Smith was runner-up in the shot put with a toss of 49-3 ¼.

The Liberty High foursome of Jalen Wieck, Cody Nichols, Carter Meyers and Aidan Decker won the distance medley in 3:37.49.

Forwald Relays

At City High  

Team scores – 1. City High 145; 2. West High 99; 3. Linn-Mar 83; 4. Pleasant Valley 79; 4. West Des Moines Valley 79; 6. Cedar Rapids Prairie 76; 7. Solon 69; 8. Liberty High 52; 9. Marion 43; 10. Ames 16

Individual results (event winners; area placewinners)

Discus – 1. Adam Smith (SOL) 171-0; 2. Ben Kampman (SOL) 168-3; 3. Michael Etuma (ICH) 162-0; 4. Colin Whitters (ICW) 155-10

Shot put – 1. Sam Watts (L-M) 52-9 ½; 2. Adam Smith (SOL) 49-3 ¼; 3. Marcus Richard (SOL) 47-1 ¼

Long jump – 1. Alex Mota (MAR) 21-1 ¼; 2. Da’Shon Fisher (ICL) 19-9 ¾; 5. Ronnie Major (ICH) 19-0;

High jump – 1. Matt Schaeckenbach (ICH) 6-5; 3. Shamar Benton (ICH) 5-11; 5. Daniel Robinson (ICW) 5-9;

100 – 1. Izaiah Loveless (ICW) 10.87; 3. Todd Rent (ICW) 11.09; 4. Da’Shon Fisher (ICL) 11.34; 7. Sam Rew (ICH) 11.46

200 – 1. Todd Rent (ICW) 22.44; 4. Ronnie Major (ICH) 23.26; 5. Jalen Wieck (ICL) 23.52

400 – 1. Tayden Ferguson (L-M) 49.18; 2. Moustafa Tiea (ICW) 49.95; 4. Izaiah Loveless (ICW) 50.86; 5. Jeremiah Madlock (ICH) 51.24; 7. Sutton Koller (ICL) 54.51; 8. Franis Mawanda (ICL) 55

800 – 1. Ammon Smith (ICH) 1:56.59; 2. Truman Thompson (ICH) 1:59.66; 5. Michael Yeomans (SOL) 2:02.52;

1,600 – 1. Ford Washburn (ICH) 4:10.91; 3. Aidan Decker (ICL) 4:25.93; 7. Braeden Marker (ICH) 4:33.03; 8. Brick Kabela (SOL) 4:33.37

3,200 – 1. Ford Washburn (ICH) 9:04.28; 2. Truman Thompson (ICH) 9:27.14

110 hurdles – 1. Matt Schaeckenbach (ICH) 14.89; 7. Quinn Abbott (ICW) 16.08; 8. Jesus Marungo-Murillo (ICW) 16.38

400 hurdles – 1. Nicholas Gorsich (L-M) 52.02; 2. Aidan Jacobsen (ICW) 53.36; 4. Matt Schaeckenbach (ICH) 54.89; 5. Maxwell Thompson (ICL) 56.28

Sprint medley relay – 1. City High (Deon Brown, Sam Rew, Jeremiah Madlock, Ayman Noreldaim) 1:37.38; 4. Solon (Milo Ashbacker, Brett White, Austin Knight, Keenan Kruse) 1:41.05; 5. Liberty High (Aiden Maher, Maxwell Thompson, Dallas Miller, Cale Baldwin) 1:42.04; 7. West High (Harel Gameti, Julian Manson, Carson Teghanemt, Sam Showers) 1:44.44

Distance medley relay – 1. Liberty High (Jalen Wieck, Cody Nichols, Carter Meyers, Aidan Decker) 3:37.49; 2. City High (Isaac Washpun, Oliver Kniss, Phillip Kaplan, Ayman Noreldaim) 3:41.93; 4. Solon (Brayden Moore, Grant Knipper, Rhett Mesch, Grant Bumsted) 3:48.52; 5. West High (Harel Gameti, Julian Manson, Mason Van Waning, Sam Showers) 3:54.05

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Pleasant Valley 59.79; 3. West High (Quinn Abbott, Christian Janis, Jesus Marungo-Murrillo, Aidan Jacobsen) 59.92; 4. City High (Matt Schaeckenbach, Phillip Kaplan, Ian Moore, Isaac Washpun) 1:02.78; 6. Solon (Charlie Brandt, Cole Carney, Keenan Kruse, Nash Kotar) 1:05.67

4×100 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Izaiah Loveless, Daniel Robinson, Christian Janis) 42.94; 2. City High (Deon Brown, Jeremiah Madlock, Ronnie Major, Sam Rew) 44.0; 4. Liberty High (Aiden Maher, Carter Meyers, Jalen Wieck, Da’Shon Fisher) 44.39; 7. Solon (Brayden Moore, Austin Knight, Jeremy Bachus, Blake Timmons) 44.78

4×200 – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:30.73; 3. West High (Todd Rent, Julian Manson, Daniel Robinson, Christian Janis) 1:32.06; 4. Solon (Milo Ashbacker, Austin Knight, Jeremy Bachus, Blake Timmons) 1:32.13; 5. City High (Deon Brown, Connor Cross, Ronnie Major, Sam Rew) 1:32.24; 8. Liberty High (Dallas Miller, Jaden Frantz, Jackson Burnes, Lucas Meyer) 1:35.72

4×400 – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 3:23.04; 2. West High (Mason Van Waning, Aidan Jacobsen, Izaiah Loveless, Moustafa Tiea) 3:23.16; 4. Solon (Jeremy Bachus, Michael Yeomans, Grant Bumsted, Blake Timmons) 3:25.38; 5. City High (Ayman Noreldaim, Connor Cross, Jeremiah Madlock, Truman Thompson) 3:25.72; 7. Liberty High (Carter Meyers, Maxwell Thompson, Cale Baldwin, Cody Nichols) 3:35.39

4×800 – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 8:26.72; 2. Solon (Michael Yeomans, Maddox Shipley, Brick Kabela, Grant Bumsted) 8:32.23; 3. West High (Mason Van Waning, Brice Wahe, Anel Vukovic, James Dickens) 8:42.06

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