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Mid-Prairie’s Evans, New London’s Franklin lead area long jumpers at state
Golden Hawk freshman, Tiger junior place second
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
DES MOINES — The Iowa Girls and Boys State Track and Field Championships at Drake University in Des Moines were a hot spot for Union area long jumpers on Thursday and Friday.
Ten area athletes competed in the event across 1A and 2A. No other event had more area competitors.
Out of the eight that participated in the long jump, two walked away with silver medals.
Those two were Mid-Prairie freshman Jeorgia Evans in 2A and New London junior London Franklin in 1A.
Evans and fellow Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk sophomore Thomas Lueck were the first long jumpers to compete. Lueck took part in the 2A boys field and ended up finishing 16th after a jump of 20-03.50.
The 2A girls were the second group of jumpers to go, with Evans at the forefront. She entered the competition with the second best jump as one of only three jumpers to go over 18 feet, clearing 18-05.00 at her best.
Top jumper, senior Taydem Graden of Ogden put the pressure on right away, notching a 18-00.50 first jump.
Evans came within half an inch of the mark on her second jump with an 18-00.00. Evans and Graden ended up being the only jumpers to clear 18 feet on the day, but Evans could never best her second jump.
“It feels really good to be able to compete in front of a great crowd and especially my teammates,” Evans said. “They’ve been cheering for me and very supportive for me through the whole season. It feels really good to be able to come out here and just do well.”
Meanwhile, Graden capped off the competition with an 18-03.50 attempt to seal it.
In the boys’ class 1A field, Franklin entered as the number two ranked competitor. Fellow Southeast Iowa Super Conference and Hillcrest Academy jumper Owen Scott came into the competition as the top jumper. Scott cleared 22-07.75 on the season and Franklin 21-11.25.
Pekin’s Will Adam, WACO’s Hayden Shelman and New London’s Logan Franklin all competed in 1A as well. Adam finished 12th with a 20-03.50, Shelman 14th with a 20-02.75 and Franklin 17th with a 19-08.50.
London Franklin took the lead early on into the second flight. He tied his personal best with a 21-11.25 to give him the top jump of the event so far.
“My plan was to just come in and just go hard,” Franklin said. “Every jump, every step.”
Scott carded a leap of 21-07.00 on his third attempt to slot into second.
The competition stayed in that order until the final jumps. To Franklin and Scott’s dismay, West Hancock sophomore Giovanni Garcia soared with a jump of 22-02.75 to take the lead and that’s how it would end.
“I’m just grateful to be here,” Franklin said. “It’s honestly awesome to come out and do good. I’m just grateful for everything, every moment.”
Despite missing out on the gold, Scott said he’s grateful for just being there.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to be here,” Scott said. “A little disappointed I couldn’t get first, but still made the podium.”
In other long jump results, Winfield-Mt. Union freshman Kynlee Buffington finished seventh with a 16-08.00 in 1A. Fairfield junior Eli Zillman also finished seventh on Friday morning with a mark of 21-09.25 in Class 3A, while teammate Spencer McCready leaped 20.04.25, for 15th.
Mt. Pleasant’s Izzy Sloat and Linzy Striegel also competed in 3A. Sloat finished 12th with a jump of 16-03.25 and Striegel 15-02.50.
