West Branch Combines Athletes to Win State Title in 4×200 Relay
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DES MOINES – At a school the size of West Branch there aren’t football players or basketball players or wrestlers.
Instead there are athletes.
And those athletes do more than just athletics.
“At a small school like West Branch you do everything you can,” West Branch senior Lincoln Naber said. “I play the saxophone, I sing in choir, I do all that stuff and then in my free time I do track.”
The West Branch athletes demonstrated on Friday that running tack is definitely one of the activities they can do.
And do very well.
The West Branch foursome of seniors Julian Weckmann, Lincoln Naber, Keaton Gates and Brandon Pedersen blazed to the 4×200 relay title in a time of 1:28.67 on Friday at the 2A state track and field meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
“At West Branch you play football, you run track, you wrestle, you golf, you play basketball or whatever it is,” Gates said. “You are just an athlete at West Branch. These guys are just athletes.”
Weckmann, who attends Scattergood Friends School in West Branch, is a soccer player that took up track for the first time this spring.
He got the Bears off to a strong start on the leadoff leg.
“I am a soccer play, I’ve played soccer my whole life and this is my first time trying track,” Weckmann said. “It was so much fun. This was the best season of my life I loved it.”
Naber, who ran the second leg, is a starter on both the football and basketball teams.
Gates plays football and wrestlers.
Pedersen, who anchored the Bears to their ninth relay title in program history, plays football and basketball.
“That’s the main part just putting the guys that are athletes into the right spots,” Pedersen said. “We know the capability and we know they can get fast when they need to get fast.”
Last year’s 100 meter champion, Pedersen missed the last two meets of the regular season with a quadricep injury.
He returned on Friday and made the most of the opportunity.
“Coming back and coming back with the championship means a lot,” Pedersen said. “Being out with an injury the last couple of meets really just put that fire back in me to make sure that we do what we know we can do.”
West Branch entered with the 16th fastest time from last week’s state qualifying meets after the foursome of Weckmann, Naber, Gates and Garrison Gross ran 1:31.68.
The 1:28.67 on Friday was more than a second faster than the previous best time for the Bears this season of 1:30.22 run back on April 28.
“As a school we have never broken 1:30 before and we beat it by quite a bit so it felt pretty great,” Naber said. “I was excited about the pr I wasn’t even thinking about (winning a title). Brandon didn’t run the last two meets of the year and we finally got him back and our handoffs were clean. We wanted to be up on that podium.”
Saxaphone. Choir. Football. Basketball.
Where does track rank on the activities for Naber?
It’s going higher after Friday.
“I might have to move that to the top of the list now that I’ve got some credentials,” Naber said.
The title was the first ever in the 4×200 for West Branch and the first relay title for the Bears since 2003.
“It’s more about just pring and knowing that we did the little things right,” Pedersen said. “It gave us the result. State champs.”
Class 2A State Meet
At Drake Stadium in Des Moines
Boys Results
Team scores (Top 10; area teams) – 1. Grundy Center 33; 2. Alburnett 24; 3. Spirit Lake 15; 3. Okoboji 15; 3. Pella Christian 15; 3. Aplington-Parkersburg 15; 7. Denver 14; 8. Crestwood 11; 8. Monticello 8; 8. Mediapolis 11; 11. West Branch 10; 25. Regina 6
Individual events (Event winners; area competitors)
400 hurdles – 1. Colin Johnson (Southeast Valley) 52.71; 11. Holt Hinkel (Regina) 56.23; 12. Ty Stout (West Branch) 56.29; 17. Nolan Staker (West Branch) 57.11
4×200 – 1. West Branch (Julian Weckmann, Lincoln Naber, Keaton Gates, Brandon Pedersen) 1:28.67; 3. Regina (Philip Swen, Gabriel Hegelheimer, Hudson Koch, Edwin Gangba) 1:29.25
Distance medley – 1. Spirit Lake 3:27.31
Discus – 1. Lincoln Schneiter (Monticello) 173-5
High jump – 1. Ben McCuddin (I-35) 6-8
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