Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – After a warm opening day of the state track meet on Thursday the action continues to heat up on the blue oval inside Drake Stadium on Friday.

Five more events go final in all four classes on Friday with Classes 2A and 3A again starting things off in the morning on the final day that features two separate sessions.

Field events wrap up on Friday and while on the track state titles are up for grabs in the distance medley and 4×200 relays and 400 hurdles.

With so much going on Your Prep Sports provides a guide for some of the top action to watch featuring area action.

Don’t miss these five things on Friday.

Schaeckenbach Takes Aim at Hurdle Title

City High has had two athletes win state titles in the 400 hurdles and both finished with a pair of state championships in the event.

Caroline Schaeckenbach will try to add her first 400 hurdle time on Friday.

The Drake Relays runner-up in the 400 hurdles, Schaeckenbach enters as the 4A leader in the event with a time of 1:04.05.

Schaeckenbach’s time is more than a second faster than the next best time in 4A this season from Southeast Polk sophomore Grace Larkins.

The junior will attempt to join Teesa Price who won 400 hurdle titles in 1998 and 1999 and Sarah Plock who won back-to-back 4A titles in 2014 and 2015 as City High’s 400 hurdle champs.

History for Liberty High?

Liberty High came home empty handed from its first state track and field meet last spring.

The Lightning are intent to leave Drake Stadium with some hardware this time around.

Liberty High has a pair of athletes capable of picking up the first state medals in school history on Friday with juniors Drake Woody and JaQuel Davis both expected to be in the medal hunt.

Woody enters with the seventh-best time in 4A in the 400 hurdles this season at 54.65 with the third and seventh-seeded runners in the 400 hurdle field separated by .54.

A four-event qualifier Woody won the 400 hurdle title at the district meet last week in 54.97, the sixth fastest among 4A qualifiers.

Davis just missed earning a medal in his state meet debut last season placing ninth in the long jump at the Class 3A meet.

This spring Davis owns the third best jump in 4A at 22-7 ¼ and was a Drake Relays qualifier.

Green Back to Defend Shot Put Title

Landon Green doesn’t enter with as the leader in the boys shot put and the West High senior doesn’t exactly stand out size wise among the state’s top throwers.

Green has demonstrated throughout his prep career he is not to be underestimated.

The defending 4A shot put champ, Green returns to Drake Stadium to defend his title after winning with a career-best toss of 58-5 a year ago.

Green entered fourth last season before improving his previous career best by more than two feet with his winning throw.

Green enters with the fourth-best throw in 4A again this season at 56-7 ½.

Iowa State football recruit Jacob Remsburg of West Des Moines Valley has the best throw in 4A at 60-1 ¼. 

A Second Shot for Severt

There are great stories of perseverance and overcoming adversity at every state track and field meet.

Few of those stories are better than what Katie Severt did last week.

A knee injury sustained last month sidelined Severt for nearly a month and threatened to prematurely end the prep career for the West High senior.

Severt didn’t just return for the state qualifying meet last week, she won the long jump after two practices of learning how to jump off her opposite leg.

The district title gave Severt a second chance at a state title in season she once feared was over.

Severt owns the seventh-best jump in 4A this season at 17-10 and her winning jump of 17-2 ¼ last Thursday was the sixth best mark from 4A state qualifiers.

Evans Looks to Go Out On Top

The plan for every athlete is to be at the best as their career comes to a close.

Regina senior Jaedynn Evans has executed that plan to near perfection this season.

Evans cleared a career-best 5-5 in the high jump at the state qualifier last week, three inches higher than her previous best.

Sioux Center sophomore Jacie Vander Waal is the only athlete in the 2A high jump competition on Friday that has cleared 5-6 this season.

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