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Williamsburg girls finish runner-up at home invite
DeMeulenaere sets personal best in 400 hurdles; now ranked second in 1A
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WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg girls track and field team had to wait longer then most to open their outdoor season, after a canceled meet last week.
The Raiders made the most of it, finishing runner-up with 89 team points, behind Class 4A Cedar Rapids Prairie’s 126 at the Williamsburg Co-Ed Invitational Tuesday.
It was a quality field of 15 girls and 15 boys teams.
“We wanted to shoot for a good team score tonight,” Williamsburg girls coach Nick Nordheim said. “My philosophy for home meets is to always try and set up for good team scores.”
Ava Hocker, returning state medalist, brought home a victory in the 400-meter in a time of 59.24 and added a third-place finish in the 200.
Hocker was also on the sprint medley relay quartet that appeared to finish runner-up in a great time — until the Raiders were disqualified.
The Raiders’ girls scored points across the board, and building depth is important when it comes to competing in the WaMaC and Class 3A.
Ailea Wetjen put up a personal best in the 100, placing third. She was runner-up in the 200 and ran with the placing 4x200 and 4x100 relay teams.
Freshman Ellie Nielsen, currently in the top 10 in the state in high jump, finished second, clearing five feet, two inches.
The distance medley quartet of Taylor Sanchez, Kennedy Skaggs, Ellie Nielsen and Aubree Wilde also finished second.
“We saw a lot of good things on the night, and there was some surprises,” Nordheim said. “It was a fun night.”
The Belle Plaine girls also kicked off their season after their home meet was canceled last week.
The Plainsmen scored only one team point in the mostly 3A/4A field.
That point came from an eighth-place finish from Denisyn Adams in the discus, who set a personal best with a throw off 100 feet, 11 inches.
Freshman Annika Hultquist nearly placed in the long jump, coming in ninth.
On the boys’ side, Belle Plaine continued its strong start to the season.
The Plainsmen scored 42 points as the smallest team in the field and saw several high placements.
The distance medley quartet of Lane Vokoun, Aidan Timm, Lucas Eichhorn and Sam DeMeulenaere won the slow heat by a wide margin.
Their time of 3:42.88, which ranks fifth in 1A, held off Cedar Rapids Prairie’s winning time in heat two.
“Being from a town of 2,000 it feels really good to beat a school that has 2,000 people in it,“ DeMeulenaere said. ”Our ultimate goal is to get to the Drake Relays.“
DeMeulenaere ran four races and placed no lower then third in any of them.
The highlight of the night for DeMeulenaere came in the 400 hurdles, where he set a new personal best in 56.92 to finish second behind Benton Community’s Owen Von Ahsen.
“I hadn’t ran it yet this year, so I went into it saying I’m just going to compete,” said DeMeulenaere. “That dude from Benton really gets after it.”
DeMeulenaere now ranks second in 1A.
The Plainsmen also placed third in the shuttle hurdle and finished runner-up in the 4x400 to close off the night.
“We all push each other, and it has been showing up at meets,” DeMeulenaere said. “It is super exciting we are beating times this early in the season.”
The Williamsburg boys started the day off with a splash, winning the sprint medley in a time of 1:34.31 with the quartet of Albert Bamrick, Grady Wetjen, Rayce Heitman and Grant Hocker.
The mark puts them at second in 3A as of Tuesday and third in the entire state.
Heitman did not race again, as a precaution, but should be fine moving forward, Heitman said.
Grant Hocker also set a personal best in the 200, placing fourth in 23.40.
The Raiders scored 29 points as a team to finish 11th.
Malachai Williams and Dylan Weisskopf both placed in the shot put.
Williams threw a personal best by three feet in his 50 feet, 5 1/2 inch heave. Only a sophomore, Williams has a lot of potential.
Weisskopf, in his first year throwing shot put, finished eighth.
Adam Arp added third-place finishes in the 100 and 200 wheelchair.
The Raiders were fourth in the 4x400 to finish off the night.
“The Raiders’ boys, who are a young team overall, will look to continue to grow and develop as the season gets going,“ coach Matt Matthes said.
Athletes in several events hit Drake Relays blue standards, and some gave the top performances in the state in this short track and field season.
GIRLS RESULTS
Team Scores
1. C.R. Prairie 126, 2. Williamsburg 89, 3. Mount Vernon 78, 4. Mid-Prairie 77, 5. Mount Pleasant 52, 6. Iowa City West 50, 7. Solon 47, 8. Clear Creek Amana 45, 9. Center Point-Urbana 42, 10. Washington 39, 11. Grinnell 35, 12. Benton Community 30, 13. Iowa City Regina 21, 14. Alburnett 15, 15. Williamsburg JV 4, 16. Belle Plaine 1.
Event Winners
Shot put — 1. Ella Ensminger (Mount Pleasant), 38-9
Discus — 1. Libby Dix (Mount Vernon), 139-10
High jump — 1. Lyla Canny (C.R. Prairie), 5-2
Long jump — 1. Aiden Gosselink (Grinnell), 17-11
Sprint medley — 1. C.R. Prairie (Russell, Cooper, Hunter, Wiley), 1:50.87
3,000 — 1. Stella Rose (C.R. Prairie), 11:53.00
4x800 — 1. Mid-Prairie (Hostetler, Stutzman, Brokaw, Landstrum), 10:01.11
Shuttle hurdle — 1. Benton Community (Sadler, Werner, Moore, Seeck), 1:09.87
100 — 1. Jeorgia Evans (Mid-Prairie), 12.59
Distance medley — 1. Mid-Prairie (Hershberger, Miller, Miller, Landstrum), 4:32.88
400 — 1. Ava Hocker (Williamsburg), 59.24
4x200 — 1. C.R. Prairie (Hunter, Young, Cooper, Russell), 1:46.14
100 hurdles — 1. Sophia Olivo (I.C. West), 15.57
800 — 1. Evelyn Moeller (Mount Vernon), 2:15.39
200 — 1. Aiden Gosselink (Grinnell), 26.34
400 hurdles — 1. Paisley Joens (C.R. Prairie), 1:07.16
1,500 — 1. Harper Groteluschen (C.R. Prairie), 4:59.50
4x100 — 1. Mount Pleasant (Sanders, Scott, Williamson, White), 50.56
4x400 — 1. Center Point-Urbana (Wade, Katcher, Bowe, Causey), 4:12.56
BOYS RESULTS
Team Scores
1. C.R. Prairie 160, 2. Center Point-Urbana 65, 3. Mid-Prairie 62, 4. (tie) Grinnell and Mount Vernon 60, 6. Benton Community 55, 7. Clear Creek Amana 49, 8. (tie) Belle Plaine and Washington 42, 10. Vinton-Shellsburg 31, 11. Williamsburg 29, 12. Solon 27, 13. Iowa City Regina 25, 14. Mount Pleasant 20, 15. C.R. Washington 14.
Event Winners
Shot put — 1. Greyson Hartman (Washington), 57-4
Discus — 1. Landon Prince (CCA), 182-2
High jump — 1. Eli Patterson (Benton), 6-6
Long jump — 1. T.Y. Pour (C.R. Prairie), 21-7
Sprint medley — 1. Williamsburg (Bamrick, Wetjen, Heitman, Hocker), 1:34.41
3,200 — 1. Emmett Swartzentruber (Mid-Prairie), 9:45.97
4x800 — 1. C.R. Prairie (Johnson, Mulford, Miller, Lee), 8:11.09
Shuttle hurdle — 1. C.R. Prairie (Alexander, Mai, Bush, Boxa), 1:01.19
100 — 1. Kellan Harter (Grinnell), 11.13
Distance medley — 1. Belle Plaine (Vokoun, Timm, Eichhorn, DeMeulenaere), 3:42.88
400 — 1. Nathan Miller (CPU), 49.90
4x200 — 1. C.R. Prairie (Byishimo, Erickson, Cooling, Peterka), 1:30.37
110 hurdles — 1. Quinton Alexander (C.R. Prairie), 14.19
800 — 1. Harrison Laug (Grinnell), 2:02.70
200 — 1. A.J. Maloney (CPU), 23.15
400 hurdles — 1. Owen Von Ahsen (Benton), 55.49
1,600 — 1. Alex Torres (Vinton-Shellsburg), 4:24.63
4x100 — 1. C.R. Prairie (Alexander, Byishimo, Cooling, Kpahn), 43.44
4x400 — 1. C.R. Prairie (Bennis, Roelfs, Erickson, Nove), 3:26.24
