By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Gabe Caruthers repeated the question out loud as he pondered his response.

“What’s going on with this team?” Caruthers repeated.

The short answer for what is going on with Caruthers and his West High teammates is that they are winning. A lot.

West High won its fourth straight meet on Saturday, cruising to the team title at the 12-team Hollingsworth Relays on a sunny afternoon at Trojan Field.

“It’s a big deal because West High hasn’t won very many meets the past few seasons,” Caruthers said. “I think this year is going to be a lot different for us, we are going to win a lot. It means a lot to our guys, our morale is up high and everybody really feels like they are doing a great job and it’s because they are.”

Caruthers won the 200 and anchored the West High sprint medley relay team that won in a meet-record time of 1:35.36.

West High won four events and was second in four others while rolling up 115.5 points to finish 36.5 points in front of runner-up Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

The team title for West High came one year after a fifth-place Hollingsworth Relays finish, more than 53 points out of first place.

“One of our big goals of the season was to win this meet just being in front of our home crowd it’s a big deal especially for our senior class,” West High senior Derek Nugent said. “I just remember sophomore year we were last so it’s a really big deal and its shown how much we have improved.”

The improvement for West High has been as swift as it has been dramatic.

Last season West High won one meet.

So far this season West High is unbeaten, claiming the team title at each of its first four meets after Saturday’s title.

“Last year we caught one win, this year we’ve already won four meets, more than tripled our wins already and I think it has to do with we didn’t graduate a lot of our best guys,” Caruthers said. “Austin West, Max Hill guys like that. We have a lot of guys that are still here.”

Those guys and plenty of others helped West High pull away from the field on Saturday as the Trojans showed off their depth.

West High had top three finishes in 11 events and had two placewinners in half of the 12 individual events.

“We had great efforts, we were a couple of men down today and the kids just responded,” West High coach TJ Craig said. “They really wanted to win this meet and when you have that kind of attitude and that kind of togetherness you can go a lot of places and that’s the neat thing about this squad.”  

On a day when seven meet records were set it was the steady performance from West High that won the team title.

Austin West won the 400 hurdles in 55.67 and Jared Sams-Merriwether cleared 6-2 to win the high jump.

It was everything else that West High did that helped them pull away from the field.

Nugent (1:57.47) and Jeff Garbutt (2:01.33) finished second and third in the 800 and Kolby Greiner and Ali Ali placed third and fourth respectively in both the 1,600 and 3,200.

“It means a lot, it kind of proves that all of our work pays off,” West said of winning the team title. “Winning individual events and double placing really help us get wins so that is what we are going for but it is all for the team.”

West High got runner-up finishes from its shuttle hurdle relay team and its 4×400 team and a third-place finish from its distance medley foursome.

Senior Blake Ealy finished third in the discus with a toss of 148-5 as West High scored points in all but five events.

“We were really looking forward to it because as a senior we had never won this meet and we were on a string of three straight wins so we didn’t want that to end here,” Ealy said. “We are showing that we are a team out here and we are all connected together and we just keep pushing ourselves higher and higher.”

Luke Ira paced Solon with a runner-up finish in the 110 high hurdles in 15.62 and added a fifth-place mark in the long jump.

Solon finished tied for 10th with Cedar Rapids Xavier with 14 points.

“These kind of meets are really good for him because it takes him to a different level and gets him realizing what his potential is,” Solon coach Mark Sovers said of Ira. “This kind of meet shows him where he is at and gives him a little bit of confidence moving forward so he can set his goals a little higher moving forward.”

Hollingsworth Relays

Team scores – 1. West High 115.5; 2. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 79; 3. Western Dubuque 71; 4. Linn-Mar 66; 5. Pleasant Valley 63; 6. Johnston 61; 7. Cedar Falls 50; 8. Davenport Central 23; 9. Cedar Rapids Washington 17; 10. Solon 14; 10. Cedar Rapids Xavier 14; 12. Muscatine 10.5.

Individual Results

100 – 1. G Bennett (WD) 11.19; 2. Johnny Pater (JOH) 11.22; 3. Kevin Kurth (DC) 11.23; 4. Max Steffen (WD) 11.33; 5. Anthony Coleman (JOH) 11.35; 6. Matt Timmer (CF) 11.37.

200 – 1. Gabe Caruthers (ICW) 22.91; 2. Zak Packingham (CRK) 22.99; 3. Blake Jones (CRK) 23.22; 4. Gannon Svestka (JOH) 23.22; 5. Andrew Dostal (CRW) 23.35; 6. Brayden Wright (CRW) 23.42.

400 – 1. KeShawn Baker (PV) 49.99; 2. Seb Gearhart (CF) 51.28; 3. Will Reemtsma (DC) 52.25; 4. Chris Low (ICW) 52.52; 5. Colin Klatt (CF) 53.69; 6. Ben Royer (PV) 54.45.

800 – 1. Tyler Olson (MUS) 1:57.04; 2. Derek Nugent (ICW) 1:57.47; 3. Jeff Garbutt (ICW) 2:01.33; 4. Beau Van Berkum (CRX) 2:02.61; 5. Ryan Murphy (LM) 2:02.64; 6. Max Locher (CRW) 2:05.11.

1,600 – 1. Patrick Bose (JOH) 4:29.0; 2. Anthony Pena (PV) 4:29.42; 3. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 4:30.8; 4. Ali Ali (ICW) 4:34.98; 5. Mark Conway (PV) 4:38.68; 6. Joe Schaefer (JOH) 4:42.2.

3,200 – 1. Sam Schillinger (CF) 9:18.11; 2. Ryan Murphy (LM) 9:30.84; 3. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 9:37.39; 4. Ali Ali (ICW) 9:41.79; 5. Brandon Conrad (CF) 10:15.18; 6. Gavin Smith (PV) 10:18.53.  

110 hurdles – 1. Zeal Baker (LM) 15.24; 2. Luke Ira (SOL) 15.62; 3. Trent Davis (LM) 15.63; 4. Keeler Dix (CRK) 15.79; 5. David Louviere (CF) 16.73; 6. Danny Recker (WD) 16.87.

400 hurdles – 1. Austin West (ICW) 55.67; 2. Nick House (LM) 56.51; 3. Blake Bergstrom (JOH) 57.23; 4. Cole Mabry (ICW) 58.75; 5. Trent Davis (LM) 59.06; 6. Matthew Knox (CRK) 59.34.

Shuttle hurdle – 1. Linn-Mar 59.46; 2. West High (Cole Mabry, Javonte Williams, Caden Fedeler, Austin West) 1:00.77; 3. Cedar Falls 1:01.99; 4. Cedar Rapids Washington 1:02.32; 5. Johnston 1:02.46; 6. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:03.28.

Sprint medley – 1. West High (Devlin Lockman, Trumell Roberts, Austin West, Gabe Caruthers) 1:35.36; 2. Cedar Falls 1:37.12; 3. Linn-Mar 1:38.8; 4. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:39.61; 5. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 1:41.19; 6. Pleasant Valley 1:41.36.

Distance medley – 1. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 3:41.09; 2. Pleasant Valley 3:48.17; 3. West High (Devlin Lockman, Dillon Doyle, Nick Johnson, Yousif Salama) 3:50.96; 4, Western Dubuque 3:51.91; 5. Linn-Mar 3:53.86; 6. Cedar Falls 3:54.88.

4×100 – 1. Western Dubuque 42.6; 2. Johnston 43.1; 3. Cedar Rapids Washington 43.85; 4. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 44.16; 5. West High (Matthew Huff, Trumell Roberts, Devlin Lockman, Austin West) 45.18; 6. Davenport Central 45.66.

4×200 – 1. Western Dubuque 1:28.31; 2. Johnston 1:30.68; 3. Cedar Rapids Xavier 1:34.57; 4. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 1:35.78; 5. Linn-Mar 1:36.59; 6. Cedar Rapids Washington 1:36.78.

4×400 – 1. Western Dubuque 3:25.49; 2. West High (Derek Nugent, Chris Low, Gabe Caruthers, Nate Jelinek) 3:27.69; 3. Cedar Falls 3:29.24; 4. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 3:32.57; 5. Johnston 3:36.71; 6. Cedar Rapids Washington 3:40.55.

4×800 – 1. Pleasant Valley 8:10.99; 2. Johnston 8:12.65; 3. Linn-Mar 8:17.29; 4. Cedar Rapids Xavier 8:18.51; 5. Western Dubuque 8:19.9; 6. Cedar Rapids Washington 8:26.75.

Long jump – 1. Kevin Kurth (DC) 22-0 ¼; 2. Malik Haynes (CRK) 21-5 ¼; 3. KeShawn Baker (PV) 21-3 ¾; 4. Jaidyn Williams (LM) 20-10; 5. Luke Ira (SOL) 20-8 ¼; 6. Lopez Scott (JOH) 20-2 ½.

High jump – 1. Jared Sam-Merriwether (ICW) 6-2; 2. Malik Haynes (CRK) 6-0; 2. Grant Kelchen (WD) 6-0; 4. Max Cremer (PV) 5-10; 4. Nathan Drahos (CRK) 5-10; 6. Dillon Doyle (ICW) 5-8; 6. Jason Gray (MUS) 5-8.

Discus – 1. Jackson Coker (CRK) 177-10; 2. Cody Snyder (PV) 165-4; 3. Blake Ealy (ICW) 148-5; 4. Andrew Sandvold (CF) 142-7; 5. William Blaser (WD) 140-11; 6. Landon Green (ICW) 140-10.

Shot put – 1. William Blaser (WD) 60-10; 2. Jackson Coker (CRK) 59-9 ½; 3. Cody Snyder (PV) 52-2 ¼; 4. Coal Flansburg (SOL) 51-5 ½; 5. Landon Green (ICW) 47-8; 6. Tyler Bacon (JOH) 46-9 ½.