Area athletes show out at Indoor Track championships

AMES — Success was all around for the area track teams who tried their luck at the Iowa State Indoor championships on Thursday and Friday. The Union coverage area had a boatload of Top-5 finishes and a few individual titles, but it was one team that stole the show.

The New London boys finished at the top of the heap in the Class 1A boys race. The Tigers scored 57 points to win the meet.

The area had two other Top-5 team finishes. The Mid-Prairie girls were fourth in Class 2A, with 46 points, and Pekin took fourth in Class 1A girls, with 38.

The Washington boys were the top Class 3A squad for the area, finishing seventh with 32 points. Fairfield was five spots behind them with 15 points to earn 12th.

On the Class 3A girls side, Fairfield took 11th, with 25 points. Mt. Pleasant was 14th, with 12.

In other team scores, Mid-Prairie was 12th in Class 2A boys, with 19 points. Columbus finished 16th in Class 1A boys, with 15.

New London’s championship came on the backs of three event titles. Kade Benjamin won the high jump with a leap of 6-feet, 6-inches. Carter Allen won the shot put with a throw of 50-04, and the distance medley team of Reean Seberg, Benjamin, Rylan Martin and Seth Bailey took first, in 3 minutes and 44.55 seconds.

The Mid-Prairie girls had three wins on the day. Mitzi Evans was a double-winner, taking the 400-meter run in 57.96 seconds and the 800 in 2:19.99. Sydney Yoder won the 3000, in 10:53.46.

Victories also went to Pekin’s Kerrigan Pope, who threw the girls shot put 34-8 for first place in 1A, and Mid-Prairie’s Cain Brown, who lept 6-07 to win the Class 2A boys high jump.

Washington’s boys’ team had two winners in Class 3A. Defending state champion Elijah Morris own the 400-meter dash in 50.83 seconds, and Lance Sobaski took the 1600-meter run, in 4:41.99.

Morris had to beat out Fairfield’s River Patterson in the 400. Patterson was just behind his Southeast Conference rival, taking silver in 51.25 seconds.

Another state champion from last year, Mt. Pleasant’s Jadan Brumbaugh, started the year out hot as well. She took the Class 3A shot put with a throw of 44-08.

Fairfield’s hurdling duo of Kelsey Pacha and Anna Dunlap bested the field in the 60-meter hurdles. Dunlap was the top qualifier, finishing in 9.43 seconds, to nip Pacha’s time of 9.44. In the finals, however, it was Pacha who took the top spot, crossing the tape in 9.26 seconds. Dunlap took second, in 9.28.