Your Prep Sports

The Drake Relays offer a chance for prep track athletes to measure themselves mid-season against the best in the state of Iowa regardless of class.

That challenge often brings out season, career, program and all-time bests.

The City High relay teams weren’t going to let a little bit of bad weather stop them from churning out top times this weekend.

Despite cool temperatures and consistent rain the Little Hawks posted season-best times in three different relays on Friday at Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

“We had a lot of good things this weekend,” Moore said. “We have things we need to work on and we have to do that work but I think we saw a little bit this weekend the things that we can do.”

One of those performances came Saturday as City High placed fifth in the 4×800 in a season-best time of 8:05.87.

The foursome of Jim McMillan, James Momberg JP Rethwisch, Daniel Brown trimmed nearly five seconds of their qualifying time and jumped seven spots after entering with the 12th best time in the state this season.

It was part of a strong relay week for the Little Hawks that saw the City High 4×100 team that qualified with the 28th best time finish 10th in a season-best time of 43.79, nearly half a second faster than its previous best.

“That is the first time those four have run together,” City High coach Mike Moore said. “That was a full half second drop and that was quite a 4×100 field, those top eight teams were all quality and to finish 10th that was pretty good. Obviously we are going to have to tighten some things up but that is a team that could be a placewinner at state.”

City High added an eighth-place finish in the 4×400 on Saturday in a time of 3:25.99.

Zach Jones, Lucas Firmstone, Jack Roggeveen and Brown ran their best time of the season by nearly three full seconds in the 4×400 prelims, clocking a 3:22.9 to reach the finals.

“Only one of those guys had a pr out of those four,” Moore said of the 4×400 team. “That is a team that we certainly think can place higher than eighth at state. We believe they can be a top-four type team, it’s easy to say that but I believe the potential is there for something special.”

Austin West provide a strong finish to the Drake Relays for West High with a third-place finish in the 400 hurdles in 54.53.

Center Point-Urbana senior JoJo Frost won the title in 53.7 and Cole Willert of Saint Ansgar was second in 53.99.

Saturday’s Boys Individual Results

(Event Top-5 Placers; Area athletes)

Boys 4×800 – 1. Waukee 7:56.94; 2. Urbandale 7:58.82; 3. Mount Vernon 8:01.51; 4. Cedar Rapids Prairie 8:04.29; 5. City High (Jim McMillan, James Momberg JP Rethwisch, Daniel Brown) 8:05.87; 9. West High (Jeff Garbutt, Kolby Greiner, Ethan McAreavy, Derek Nugent) 8:09.89.

Boys Shuttle Hurdle Relay – 1. Ankeny Centennial 56.73; 2. Carlisle 57.48; 3. West Des Moines Valley 58.28; 4. Waukee 58.3; 9. West High (Cole Mabry, Austin West, Caden Fedeler, Max Hill) 59.32.

Boys 400 hurdles – 1. JoJo Frost (Center Point-Urbana) 53.7; 2. Cole Willert (Saint Ansgar) 53.99; 3. Austin West (West High) 54.53; 4. Demari Nicholson (Bettendorf) 54.71; 5. Zach Schulte (Central Lee) 55.02;

Boys 1,600 – 1. Ryan Murphy (Linn-Mar) 4:20.221; 2. Sam Schillinger (Cedar Falls) 4:20.227; 3. Gable Sieperda (Central Lyon) 4:21.61; 4. Camden Cox (Ankeny Centennial) 4:22.43; 5. Riley Bauer (North Union) 4:22.7; 10. Kolby Greiner (West High) 4:30.03;

Boys 4×100 – 1. Western Dubuque 42.41; 2. Davenport North 42.75; 3. Johnston 42.94; 4. West Burlington/Notre Dame 43.22; 5. Ames 43.25; 10. City High (Zach Jones, Rajay Rodney, Rex Thompson, Vance Dillon) 43.79; 69. West High (Kimball Henstrom, Jackson Steburg, Landon Green, Devlin Lockman) 49.68.

Boys 4×400 – 1. Bettendorf 3:20.61; 2. Waukee 3:20.7; 3. West Des Moines Valley 3:21.93; 4. Sergeant Bluff-Luton 3:21.97; 5. Western Dubuque 3:22.29; 8. City High (Daniel Brown, Zach Jones, Lucas Firmstone, Jack Roggeveen) 3:25.99.