Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Call it the postseason, championship season or the home stretch it doesn’t matter.

The final few weeks of the track and field season is what every athlete waits for.

Whatever you want to call it West High has been waiting for it for a while.

“I’ve had this picture in my head since seventh grade,” West High senior Todd Rent said. “I’ve had a picture in my head of a team that could come together and win the state qualifier and be a competitor to win the state meet and bring something home that we haven’t done in a long time at West.”

Rent started to see that picture get a little clearer on Thursday night.

West High looked every bit like a state title contender on Thursday putting together a dominating effort while winning the team title at the Class 4A state qualifying meet on a damp evening at Raffensperger Track at City High.

“These guys, as a senior class, they really want to get a trophy (at state) and that’s been a big goal,” West High coach TJ Craig said. “Conference (last week) was step one, this was step two and that’s going to be our goal next week.”

Since well before it finished fifth at the 4A state meet last season the Trojans have viewed themselves as title contenders.

After its effort on Thursday many around the state will look at West High as a serious challenger for the 4A team crown next week in Des Moines.

West High won 10 events on Thursday, had 16 entries auto qualify for state and racked up 203 points to finish 40 in front of runner-up Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The Trojans finished first and second in three individual events and won four relay titles while finishing runner-up in another relay.

“It’s the leadup it’s the planning and the last week has been brutal for that but to have it all come together with 203 points is unbelievable,” Craig said. “There are 16 events that we are probably qualified in and the 4×4 will be on the edge and that’s a testament to the kids and the coaches and it’s a lot of fun.”

Izaiah Loveless won titles in the 100 and 200 and anchored West High to wins in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.

The senior standout was one of four Trojans to win four golds on Thursday.

“Getting closer to state has gotten me really excited and juiced up to improve myself and improve our team and get better at state,” Loveless said. “We are just going to get better every day.”
Loveless won the 100 in 10.69 and added a win the 200 in 21.45.

He joined four-event winners Rent and Mason Woods and sophomore Julian Manson on the Trojans’ 4×200 relay team that won in 1:27.58.

Loveless chased down Cedar Rapids Prairie anchor Maurice Turner over the final 50 meters to give the Trojans a win in the 4×100 in a time of 42.04.

“It’s not just me at the end it’s all of us,” Loveless said. “These guys put in as much work as I do at practice, we push each other every day and it’s a great connection.”

Rent, Woods, Manson and Moustafa Tiea won the sprint medley in 1:32.31 and Rent, Woods, Brice Wahe and Sam Showers won the distance medley in a time of 3:35.87.

“We just felt everything come together,” Rent said. “We just keep running.”

Tiea won titles in the 400 and 800 and added a runner-up finish in the 1,600 while Aidan Jacobsen won the 400 hurdles and was runner-up in the 400.

Showers (800) and Waleed Ibrahim (400 hurdles) had runner-up finishes for the Trojans which also finished runner-up in the shuttle hurdle relay.

West High got a boost in the field events from sophomore Colin Whitters who continued his strong late-season push winning the shot put and finishing second in the discus.

Whitters won the shot put with a mark of 55-6 ½ and was runner-up in the discus with a toss of 161-6.

“We’ve had people do calculations and estimates and if we can get points from the throws and the other field events we should do great,” Whitters said. “Our runners have been great and they’ve been pushing me to because we all want to win.”

City High had one automatic qualifier in junior Bernard Grant who cleared 6-1 to finish runner-up in the high jump.

Class 4A State Qualifier

At City High 

Team scores – 1. West High 203; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 163; 3. City High 109; 4. Pleasant Valley 100; 5. Muscatine 61; 6. Burlington 53; 7. Davenport Central 34; 8. Waterloo East 14

Individual results (Automatic qualifiers; area placers)

Shot put – 1. Colin Whitters (ICW) 55-6 ½; 2. Joey VanWetzinga (PV) 52-4 ½; 3. Kendall Woodson (ICW) 50-4 ½; 5. Jalyn Ford (ICH) 48-5 ½; 6. Tyler Rindels (ICH) 47-10 ¾

Discus – 1. Haydn Stockdale (CRP) 163-8; 2. Colin Whitters (ICW) 161-6; 3. Raphael Etuma (ICH) 149-3; 4. Winner Ndjibu (ICW) 148-10; 8. Tyler Rindels (ICH) 138-4

Long jump – 1. T.Y. Pour (CRP) 22-7 ¾; 2. Keshawn Wyldon (BUR) 22-4; 4. Aidan Jacobsen (ICW) 21-3 ¾; 5. Isaac Washpun (ICH) 21-0 ½

High jump – 1. Jonathan Tillman (PV) 6-3; 2. Bernard Grant (ICH) 6-1; 3. Jeremiah Madlock (ICH) 6-0; 4. Daniel Robinson (ICW) 5-10; 4. Mason Middleton (ICW) 5-10

100 – 1. Izaiah Loveless (ICW) 10.69; 2. Maurice Turner (CRP) 10.98; 6. Jermaine Holmes (ICH) 11.37

200 – 1. Izaiah Loveless (ICW) 21.45; 2. Maurice Turner (CRP) 21.78; 3. Julian Manson (ICW) 21.95; 6. Jeremiah Madlock (ICH) 22.87

400 – 1. Moustafa Tiea (ICW) 49.96; 2. Aidan Jacobsen (ICW) 50.26; 8. Logan Halter (ICH) 54.98

800 – 1. Moustafa Tiea (ICW) 1:56.97; 2. Sam Showers (ICW) 1:58.16; 3. Emmett Palmberg (ICH) 2:01.15; 4. Maxwell McDowell (ICH) 2:02.37

1,600 – 1. Carl Rekow (PV) 4:21.63; 2. Moustafa Tiea (ICW) 4:21.66; 5. George Karr (ICH) 4:37.16; 6. Owyn Noble (ICH) 4:39.35; 7. Michael Lee (ICW) 4:41.46

3,200 – 1. Carl Rekow (PV) 9:42.12; 2. Nicholaus Lee (CRP) 9:43.25; 4. Linus McRoberts (ICH) 9:58.59; 6. Caleb Benson (ICW) 10:00.79; 7. David Randall (ICH) 10:09.3; 8. Robert Stong (ICW) 10:34.18

110 hurdles – 1. Quinton Alexander (CRP) 13.99; 2. Salomon Cordero (BUR) 14.95; 3. Dominic Roe (ICH) 15.18; 4. Waleed Ibrahim (ICW) 15.22; 6. Isaac Washpun (ICH) 15.24

400 hurdles – 1. Aidan Jacobsen (ICW) 54.46; 2. Waleed Ibrahim (ICW) 55.94; 2. Phillip Kaplan (ICH) 56.48

4×100 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Mason Woods, Julian Manson, Izaiah Loveless) 42.04; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 42.14; 4. City High (Jermaine Holmes, Dominic Roe, Deon Brown, Isaac Washpun) 44.42

4×200 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Mason Woods, Julian Manson, Izaiah Loveless) 1:27.58; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:28.23; 5. City High (Jermaine Holmes, Deon Brown, Phillip Kaplan, Jeremiah Madlock) 1:31.54

4×400 – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 3:23.77; 2. Muscatine 3:24.92; 3. West High (Waleed Ibrahim, Sam Showers, Dara Olaleye, Brice Wahe) 3:30.38; 6. City High (Blaine Heick, Logan Halter, Mustafa Noreldaim, Maxwell McDowell) 3:40.14

4×800 – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 8:04.44; 2. Davenport Central 8:05.46; 4. City High (Emmett Palmberg, Adam Schaefer, George Karr, Maxwell McDowell) 8:10.93; 5. West High (Sam Showers, Michael Lee, Maxwell Bruss, Brice Wahe) 8:11.64

Sprint medley – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Mason Woods, Julian Manson, Moustafa Tiea) 1:32.31; 2. Muscatine 1:33.11; 4. City High (Jermaine Holmes, Deon Brown, Phillip Kaplan, Jeremiah Madlock) 1:35.35

Distance medley – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Mason Woods, Brice Wahe, Sam Showers) 3:35.87; 2. Pleasant Valley 3:38.5; 6. City High (Adan Carbajal, Blaine Heick, Owyn Noble, Ben Platte) 3:54.16

Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 1:01.15; 2. West High (Aidan Jacobsen, Cade Towler, Waleed Ibrahim, Ely Smock) 1:01.75; 4. City High (Isaac Washpun, Phillip Kaplan, Bernard Grant, Dominic Roe) 1:03.87

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