Local athletes flood Class 1A state field

The athletic abilities of numerous area athletes were on full display in Wayland on Thursday evening.

Four area teams were competing for state track berths at the district track meet hosted by WACO, with each school ending up represented in the Class 1A state field.

Highland led all teams in the area in state qualifications at the meet, with nine events earning the nod to go to Des Moines this week.

On the girls? side of the meet, the Huskies earned four qualifications, with two coming in the relay events.

The 4x100-meter relay team of Sarah Schneider, Kelsey Hora, Sydney Black and Aly Stokes won the meet title on the night, earning the automatic qualification for the state meet.

The 4x200-meter team of Schneider, Stokes, Hora and Kristy Thomann took second and earned an at-large berth to the meet with a time of 1:51.91.

The Huskie girls had a pair of individual qualifiers at the meet as well, with Kelsey Hora earning an at-large bid in the 400-meter dash, and Aly Stokes claiming a bid in the long jump.

On the boys? side of the meet, Highland senior Keiffer Sexton claimed two individual titles on the day to continue his season in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs.

Sexton currently holds the top 3200 time in Class 1A, and sits second in the 1600-meter run, and will have his eye on a pair of state titles when the state meet gets underway on Thursday.

Sexton also helped the 4x400-meter team of Jake Wood, Trey Lasek and James McPherson claim a district title, as well as the distance medley relay team of Wood, Chase Rath and Billy Burton to the meet title and automatic berth.

Burton also earned a berth into the state meet with a mark of 20 feet ? 6.5 inches in the long jump, third in the district.

WACO had numerous state qualifiers at its home track, led by a couple of district titles.

On the boys? side of the meet, Bryce Achen claimed two individual state qualifications, earning spots in the 200-meter dash and the 110-meter hurdles with district titles.

Achen took second in the 100-meter dash, but was unable to earn the qualification for the event due to a headwind.

The Warriors claimed another district title in the shuttle hurdle relay, with Beau Beckler, Jackson Roth, Colton Horak and Achen working together for the crown and the state berth.

On the girls? side of the meet, Mayme Hinh used a toss of 33 feet ? 2.5 inches to claim a meet title and state qualification.

Angel Frier also claimed a meet title with a run of 13.31 seconds in the 100-meter dash to qualify for Thursday?s state meet.

The WACO girls? track team also claimed a pair of second-place finishes in the relays, which translated over to a pair of state berths.

The shuttle hurdle team of McKenna White, Halle Kissell, Kiana Miller and Kasey Sutton ran a 1:12.99 to earn the berth, while the 4x100-meter relay team of Sutton, Kissell, Miller and Frier ran a 53.42.

The Iowa Mennonite track team earned three state qualifications, coming from a pair of district titles.

Junior Drake Brezina sped to a personal-best 52.77 in the 400-meter dash to claim the meet crown and earn his spot in the state meet.

Emma Beachy also clawed her way to the top of the girls? discus field, using a toss of 89 feet ? 11 inches to earn the automatic berth into the state field.

Rubye Ney used a personal-best in the 400-meter hurdles to earn a time of 1:11.12, taking third at the meet. Her mark was good enough to earn a spot in the Class 1A  400-meter hurdles.

Keota had one state qualifier from the meet, with Turner Klein claiming a spot in the 3200-meter run.