“A Week of Winning” Senior Janis Goes 4-for-4 in Relay Gold on Strong Week for West High
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DES MOINES – The final meet of the career for West High senior Christian Janis wasn’t just a fitting end.
It was a perfect finish.
As in 4-for-4 perfect.
Janis anchored West High to titles in the shuttle hurdle and 4×100 relays on Saturday helping the Trojans close the Class 4A state track and field meet with four relay titles.
“It’s just a week of winning I guess,” Janis said.
There is no guessing about it.
Janis and his Trojan teammates were dominant in the relays over the final two days of the 4A state meet.
After running on the winning 4×200 and distance medley on Friday Janis put the finishing touches on a four-gold meet with two more relay titles on Saturday.
“This is an amazing feeling,” Janis said. “Running these relays….A lot of teams say they are family but I feel like we really take that to the next level.”
West High needed big-time anchor carries from its senior leader to win the third and fourth relay titles of the meet.
Janis anchored the shuttle hurdle relay team to a title in 58.19, surging past Linn-Mar anchor William Grant in the final few meters.
“No knock to Linn-Mar they are a really good shuttle team, all of them are really good hurdles but that was my target, he was in front of me and I had to go get him,” Janis said. “I clipped a hurdle mid-race and I lost a little bit of ground and I had to make it up. At that point it was just a matter of who wanted it more.”
Janis teamed with Aidan Jacobsen, Quinn Abbott and Jesus Marungo-Murillo to run the eighth fastest shuttle hurdle time in state history.
The shuttle hurdle win was the most improbable relay title of the week for the Trojans who entered the state meet with the fourth fastest time in 4A this season.
That didn’t mean West High lost faith.
“This whole time the build up to this race everybody expected the big teams to win it and we believed we could win it the whole time,” Jacobsen said. “I think this one does the mean most just because in the 4×200 we were the top seed by a second but to win this one it means so much to win it when everyone counted us out.”
Abbott, Marungo-Murillo and Janis were on the West High that qualifying team that finished 17th a year ago in 1:04.16.
That experience was a motivator for the remaining three who added the versatile Janis as the senior anchor.
“Last year we were like ranked 13th and dead last in our heat and this year we flipped it around,” Marungo-Murillo said. “We worked so hard, no one believed in us, we just kept grinding and we believed in ourselves and that’s what got the job done.”
Janis saved perhaps his best for last as West High won the 4×100 in 41.833 just edging Johnston who was runner-up in 41.89.
“I didn’t know if I got him or not, as soon as I finished I turned around and looked at the board,” Janis said. “I saw our name come up…..fireworks.”
Janis took the baton from teammate Daniel Robinson and quickly blazed to the front of the 4×100 field.
“I gave it to him and that’s all he does is hunt people down,” Robinson said. “That’s what he’s about. Christian Janis, he hunts them down, that’s what he does.”
Janis eventually outleaded Johnston anchor JJ Shaw at the finish line.
“It was so close at the end I was just starring at the clock as he finished,” West High junior Izaiah Loveless said. “I was hoping or it, I was praying, I was crossing my fingers and everything.”
Loveless, Janis and Todd Rent were both part of the Trojans two relay wins on Friday as well as the 4×100 win.
“I said this after every relay we don’t come in and expect anything to get handed to us,” Rent said. “We came and we knew we had to put in the work and run hard, Christian didn’t stop running until he caught the guy at the end.”
With two relay titles and a runner-up finish from Loveless in the 200 West High finished fifth in the 4A team standings with 62 points.
Loveless was second in the 200 Miles Thompson of Cedar Rapids Washington in a time of 21.52 before running on the winning 4×100 team.
“I am so grateful that didn’t end my track season, I got another chance to do something big and this just the beginning,” Loveless said. “We are going to prove something next year and we are going to come back even stronger.”
State Track and Field Meet
At Drake Stadium in Des Moines
Class 4A
Team scores (top 10; area teams) – 1. Johnston 84; 2. Ankeny 80; 3. City High 79; 4. Linn-Mar 68; 5. West High 62; 6. West Des Moines Dowling 37; 7. Cedar Falls 30; 8. Cedar Rapids Washington 26; 9. Southeast Polk 23; 10. Mason City 21
Individual events (winner; area participants)
100 – 1. Miles Thompson (Cedar Rapids Washington) 10.46
200 – 1. Miles Thompson (Cedar Rapids Washington) 21.02; 2. Izaiah Loveless (West High) 21.52
800 – 1. Gabe Nash (Sioux City North) 1:52.34; 2. Truman Thompson (City High) 1:53.3; 3. Moustafa Tiea (West High) 1:53.63; 4. Ammon Smith (City High) 1:54.19
1,600 – 1. Jackson Heidesch (West Des Moines Dowling) 4:07.18; 2. Ford Washburn (City High) 4:08.27; 11. Aidan Decker (Liberty High) 4:20.05; 17. Ammon Smith (City High) 4:27.95; 22. Nathan Kinzer (Liberty High) 4:35.41
110 hurdles – 1. Nicholas Gorsich (Linn-Mar) 14.54; 3. Matt Schaeckenbach (City High) 14.68; 5. Austin Rindels (City High) 15.02
Shuttle hurdle – 1. West High (Aidan Jacobsen, Jesus Marungo-Murillo, Quinn Abbott, Christian Janis) 58.19; 4. City High (Matt Schaeckenbach, Isaac Washpun, Dominic Roe, Austin Rindels) 59.26
Sprint medley – 1. Johnston 1:30.15; 22. City High (Phillip Kaplan, Deon Brown, Ronnie Major, Connor Cross) 1:36.72
4×100 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Izaiah Loveless, Daniel Robinson, Christian Janis) 41.89
4×400 – 1. Johnston 3:15.26; 7. City High (Ayman Noreldaim, Jeremiah Madlock, Ammon Smith, Truman Thompson) 3:20.27
Class 3A
Team scores (top 10; area teams) – 1. Pella 73; 2. Western Dubuque 63; 3. Harlan 55; 4. North Polk 47; 5. Mount Vernon 40; 6. Central DeWitt 35; 7. Council Bluffs Lewis Central 31; 8. Cedar Rapids Xavier 27; 9. Solon 25; 9. West Burlington/Notre Dame 25
Individual events (winner; area participants)
100 – 1. Will Neuharth (Harlan) 10.68
200 – 1. Will Neuharth (Harlan) 21.53
800 – 1. Chase Lauman (Pella) 1:52.61; 12. Michael Yeomans (Solon) 1:59
1,600 – 1. Chase Lauman (Pella) 4:16.9; 14. Brick Kabela (Solon) 4:31.52
110 hurdles – 1. Grayson Hartman (Cedar Rapids Xavier) 14.16
Shuttle hurdle – 1. Cedar Rapids Xavier 58.94
Sprint medley – 1. Western Dubuque 1:32.31; 8. Solon (Brayden Moore, Austin Knight, Blake Timmons, Jeremy Bachus) 1:34.41
4×100 – 1. Harlan 42.13
4×400 – 1. Mount Vernon 3:18.47; 6. Solon (Rhett Mesch, Blake Timmons, Michael Yeomans, Jeremy Bachus) 3:23.62
Class 2A
Team scores (top 10; area teams) – 1. Mediapolis 62; 2. Williamsburg 62; 3. Des Moines Christian 58; 4. OABCIG 45; 5. Shenandoah 37; 6. Clarinda 30; 7. Okoboji 27; 8. Pella Christian 24; 9. Northeast 20; 10. Red Oak 19
Individual events (winner; area participants)
100 – 1. Talib Bird (Northeast) 10.81
200 – 1. Owen Douglas (Williamsburg) 22.17
800 – 1. Logan Rosas (Mediapolis) 1:56.18
1,600 – 1. Collin Houg (Des Moines Christian) 4:19.07
110 hurdles – 1. Jaden Damiano (Iowa Falls) 14.2
Shuttle hurdle – 1. Prairie City-Monroe 1:00.46
Sprint medley – 1. Shenandoah 1:32.99
4×100 – 1. Williamsburg 42.7
4×400 – 1. Durant 3:22.51
Class 1A
Team scores (top 10; area teams) – 1. Lisbon 60; 2. Columbus 52; 3. Lawton-Bronson 43; 4. Mount Ayr 41; 5. ACGC 33; 6. Lynnville-Sully 29; 7. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 26; 7. Woodbine 26; 9. Lenox 20.5; 10. Akron-Westfield 20
Individual events (winner; area participants)
100 – 1. Austi Kunkle (ACGC) 10.52
200 – 1. Austin Kunkle (ACGC) 21.69
800 – 1. Aaron Lursen (Fort Dodge St. Edmond) 1:56.64; 23. Samuel Welter (Regina) 2:09.75
1,600 – 1. Landon Bendgen (Woodbine) 4:18.92
110 hurdles – 1. Triston Miller (Columbus) 14.35
Shuttle hurdle – 1. Lisbon 59.89
Sprint medley – 1. Lawton-Bronson 1:31.12
4×100 – 1. Lisbon 42.1
4×400 – 1. South Hamilton 3:22.29
Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.
Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.
