By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Standouts like Valerie Welch, Bailey Nock, Chandler Haight and Leah Dusterhoft have the capability of helping West High win a lot of meets this season.

For the Women of Troy to claim the biggest meet this season they are going to need help from everyone else on the roster and that is exactly what West High got on Tuesday.

West High won 10 events, finished first and second in five events and cruised to the team title at its own Women of Troy Relays on an overcast afternoon at West High.

The Women of Troy placed in the top three in all but one individual events and had two placewinners in nine of 12 individual events while finishing with 188 team points, double the total for runner-up Linn-Mar.  

City High finished with 84.33 points to edge Cedar Rapids Prairie by 3.33 points for third place.

“We talk a lot about Val and Bailey and Chandler but we know for us to win we need Kitra (Bell) and Peyton (Steva) and Gabby (Skopec) and those kids to be just as good,” West High coach Mike Parker said. ““That is what we know we will need to do to get us to where we want to be. Everything is leading toward the end meet and we will need second people to be able to contend for points.”

The West High standouts led the way on Tuesday.

Welch won three individual events claiming titles in the long jump, 400 hurdles and won the 100 hurdles in a meet-record time of 14.73.

She was also part of the winning West High shuttle hurdle relay team.

“I thought it went really well,” Welch said. “We won a bunch of events and got second, third, fourth in a bunch of events. We were all strong and had a lot of good races across the field.

Nock did her part to lead the way, running away from the field to win both the 800 and 1,500.

The junior won the 800 in 2:21.6 and came back to take the 1,500 in 4:50.77.

“When I have events close together with only a few events in between I try to not let that get to my head,” Nock said. “I try to run the 800 and then switch right to the 1,500. I didn’t let how I felt after the 800 get in the way I just switched right into getting ready for the 1,500.”  

In four of the five events won by Welch and Nock a West High teammate was second.

Olivia Moore was runner-up in the 800 and Gabby Skopec was second in the 1,500 to go with a title in the 3,000 in a meet time of 10:33.81.

“It was hard for me to watch Val finish those 400 meter hurdles because I will never get to coach Val here again,” Parker said. “When Gabby won the 3,000 I said I will never get to coach her again here and they both set meet records so I’m excited for them that their name will still live on after this.”

Steva was second to Welch in the 100 hurdles and Bell was runner-up in the long jump.

Bell was also runner-up in the 200 behind Linn-Mar junior Payton Wensel won set a meet record with a time of 25.69.

Steva and Bell were both members of the West High shuttle hurdle relay team that won and the Women of Troy 4×100 relay team that placed second.

“She has never hurdled in her life and we asked her to commit to the hurdles and she had the second fastest split of us just a little behind Val,” Parker said of Bell. “We look for her to continue to develop really well in that.”  
Dusterhoft won the discus and Haight won the shot put as West High won three of the four field events.

Haight added a runner-up finish in the discus, one of six individual runner-up finish for West High.

“That is something that is an important part of our team is our field events and we won three of the four field events,” Parker said. “It was a great team effort.”

City High won the 4×200 relay and had top-three performances in three other relays en route to its third place team finish.

The foursome of Emma Clark, Sydney DePrenger, Azzura Sartini-Rideout and Emma Cooper won the 4×200 in 1:49.99 and the same group finished second in the sprint medley and third in the 4×100.

City High also got a runner-up finish in the 4×800 and had individual runner-up finishes from Merryl Green in the 400 hurdles and Luci Murphy in the shot put.

“We wanted to put our best product out there in the 4×100, sprint medley and 4×200 to utilizie those four girls specifically,” City High coach Joe Graff. “It was a good day for those three relays and a lot of other great things happened that were unexpected as well.”

Women of Troy Relays

Team Scores – 1. West High 188; 2. Linn-Mar 94; 3. City High 84.33; 4. Cedar Rapids Prairie 81; 5. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 62.33; 6. Muscatine 30.33; 7. Cedar Rapids Xavier 25; 8. Burlington 22.

Individual Results

100 – 1. Jill Bennett (LM) 12.36; 2. Cheyenne Mitchell (CRK) 12.89; 3. Katie Severt (ICW) 13.01; 4. Angel Baylark (BUR) 13.02; 5. Raenice Hilderbrand (CRP) 13.13; 6. Brittni Lloyd (MUS) 13.17.

200 – 1. Payton Wensel (LM) 25.69; 2. Kitra Bell (ICW) 26.84; 3. Callie Anderson (BUR) 26.88; 4. Cheyenne Mitchell (CRK) 26.94; 5. Katie Severt (ICW) 27.2; 6. Jenna Ross (CRP) 28.14.

400 – 1. Emma Copeland (CRP) 1:05.03; 2. Carlee Smith (CRK) 1:06.37; 3. Elizabeth Davis (ICW) 1:07.77; 4. Elisa Abram (ICW) 1:09.14; 5. Rose Svatek (CRK) 1:09.61; 6. Rylee Blake (MUS) 1:10.11.  

800 – 1. Bailey Nock (ICW) 2:21.6; 2. Olivia Moore (ICW) 2:29.67; 3. Carli Reittinger (CRP) 2:33.71; 4. Brooklyn Button (CRK) 2:36.17; 5. Ally Hicks (LM) 2:38.91; 6. Addy Smith (ICH) 2:45.59.

1,500 – 1. Bailey Nock (ICW) 4:50.77; 2. Gabby Skopec (ICW) 4:56.63; 3. Moriah Morter (MUS) 4:59.02; 4. Hannah Frazee (CRP) 5:01.43; 5. Anna Lindower (ICH) 5:05.66; 6. Katie Tallett (CRX) 5:13.76.

3,000 – 1. Gabby Skopec (ICW) 10:33.81; 2. Katie Tallett (CRX) 10:44.16; 3. Emily Bywater (ICH) 10:49.38; 4. Bridget Brown (ICH) 11:23.82; 5. Claire Ronnebaum (ICW) 11:34.85; 6. Maddy Genskow (LM) 11:37.56.

100 Hurdles – 1. Valerie Welch (ICW) 14.73; 2. Peyton Steva (ICW) 16.07; 3. Theresa Lampe (CRX) 16.37; 4. Natalie McAllister (CRK) 16.86; 5. Anna Millard (CRP) 17.05; 6. Sophia Smith (CRP) 17.12.

400 Hurdles – 1. Valerie Welch (ICW) 1:07.58; 2. Merryl Green (ICH) 1:15.23; 3. Sarah Schmitt (CRP) 1:15.41; 4. Alexis Peterson (CRK) 1:19.33; 5. Shelby Williams (CRK) 1:20.55; 6. Kayla Micek (LM) 1:20.87.

4×100 – 1. Linn-Mar 51.72; 2. West High (Peyton Steva, Kitra Bell, Katie Severt, Ally Bauer) 51.79; 3. City High (Emma Clark, Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Sydney DePrenger, Emma Cooper) 52.12; 4. Cedar Rapids Prairie 52.16; 5. Burlington 53.43; 6. Cedar Rapids Xavier 54.21.

4×200 – 1. City High (Emma Clark, Sydney DePrenger, Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Emma Cooper) 1:49.99; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:50.91; 3. Linn-Mar 1:50.93; 4. Burlington 1:51.66; 5. West High (Simone Willis, Chamya, Taylor Cannon, Ally Bauer) 1:54.59; 6. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:57.38.

4×400 – 1. Linn-Mar 4:12.67; 2. Muscatine 4:18.85; 3. Cedar Rapids Prairie 4:20.62; 4. City High (Naomi Meurice, Lindsey Parrott, Mary Arch, Izzy Jones) 4:22.05; 5. West High (Jessie Skopec, Micaela Gravelin, Simone Willis, Olivia Moore) 4:22.8; 6. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 4:26.28.

4×800 – 1. Linn-Mar 9:46.29; 2. City High (Anna Lindower, Naomi Meurice, Mary Arch, Aly Hecker) 10:06.45; 3. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 10:11.05; 4. Cedar Rapids Prairie 10:27.4; 5. Muscatine 10:46.27; 6. West High (Emma Durian, Annika Jensen, Ellie Gretter, Jessie Skopec) 10:47.09.

Shuttle Hurdle – 1. West High (Peyton Steva, Kitra Bell, Taylor Cannon, Valerie Welch) 1:06.14; 2. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:11.97; 3. Linn-Mar 1:13.41; 4. City High (Brooke Bormann, Kate Swenning, Michelle Jennings, Merryl Green) 1:15.64; 5. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 1:21.95.

Sprint Medley – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:53.76; 2. City High (Emma Cooper, Azzura Sartini-Rideout, Emma Clark, Sydney DePrenger) 1:54.26; 3. West High (Katie Severt, Ally Bauer, Micaela Gravelin, Simoe Willis) 1:58.52; 4. Linn-Mar 1:59.62; 5. Burlington 2:00.59; 6. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2:02.65.

Distance Medley – 1. West High (Ally Bauer, Taylor Cannon, Micaela Gravelin, Olivia Moore) 4:26.4; 2. Muscatine 4:32.07; 3. Linn-Mar 4:44.4; 4. City High (Brooke Bormann, Sydney Fellows, Lindsey Parrott, Izzy Jones) 4:47.2; 5. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 4:58.1.

Long jump – 1. Valerie Welch (ICW) 18-6 ¾; 2. Kitra Bell (ICW) 17-9 ¾; 3. Ariana Rolle (LM) 16-7 ¾; 4. Katie Beer (CRK) 15-11 ½; 5. Dimia Burrell (LM) 15-8 ¾; 6/ Emma Cooper (ICH) 15-7 ¾.

High jump – 1. Skyler Presler (LM) 5-2; 2. Katie Beer (CRK) 5-2; 3. Nicole Miller (CRP) 4-10; 4. Callie Kellett (MUS) 4-6; 4. Cyan Vanderhoef (ICH) 4-6; 4. Sophia Feen (CRK) 4-6.

Shot put – 1. Chandler Haight (ICW) 41-9; 2. Luci Murphy (ICH) 36-6 ¾; 3. Alicia Sill (CRP) 34-1; 4. Makaylin Powers (BUR) 33-2 ½; 5. Gracie McDonald (MUS) 32-10 ½; 6. Leah Dusterhoft (ICW) 32-9 ¾.

Discus – 1. Leah Dusterhoft (ICW) 125-11 ½; 2. Chandler Haight (ICW) 116-5 ½; 3. Luci Murphy (ICH) 109-8; 4. Alicia Sill (CRP) 102-8; 5. Michelle Jennings (ICH) 94-5; 6. Jessica Heims (CRP) 92-1.