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Washington Evening Journal
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New London, Columbus lead 1A charge
Tiger boys prevail for 4X100 championship, tie with Wildcats for 5th
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
DES MOINES — When it came to the sprints and hurdles at the 2025 Iowa High School State Track and Field Meet, there weren’t many teams as active as the New London and Columbus boys.
The Tigers and Wildcats utilized Saturday’s running finals to jump into the Top-5 in Class 1A. Both teams scored 30 points to tie for fifth place.
The big score of the weekend was in the boys’ 4X100 relay, where New London shined, outrunning Columbus, as well as eventual state-champion Lisbon, to earn the Class 1A title.
The quartet of Cale Westerbeck, Gavin Strawhacker, Brigham Porter and London Franklin crossed the tape in 42.50 seconds to nip Lisbon by .31 seconds.
“It was very, very emotional,” said Franklin, who anchored the team to the line. “We’ve really done the unthinkable.“
New London was in one of the fastest area’s of Iowa all year for sprint competition, and that paid off when it mattered the most.
“Coming into this meet, we had a clear mind that Lisbon and Columbus were our only competition,” said Porter. “Racing Lisbon and Columbus all year just showed how much potential we had.”
The 4X100 squad peaked at the right time, qualifying first the night before to set themselves up in the middle lanes, right next to Lisbon, who qualified second.
“In the first meet, we were pretty slow,” said Strawhacker. “After that, we got faster and faster and faster.”
The quartet nearly beat Lisbon in the 4X200 as well, but landed in second place. That gave the team 18 points just in those two events. Franklin’s second-place finish in the long jump and fifth-place finish in the 100-meter dash added 12 points to the total.
Perhaps the most impressive part of all, is that no seniors were involved in the state meet for New London, which means the Tigers can set their sites even higher next spring.
“Going in to this race, we were coming for that meet record,” said Westerbeck. “We fell short, but we have high hopes for next year.”
Columbus’ Juan Chairez, Alexander Rees, Lamar Ceant and Riley Kaalberg finished fourth in the 4X100. Ceant and Rees went seventh and eighth in the 200-meter dash, but the team was able to score most of its points in the hurdle events.
The shuttle hurdle quartet of Kaalberg, Jonathan Miranda, Rees and Ceant dominated the first section of Saturday’s finals, crossing in 1:00.25. The team watched in anticipation as the second section ran, unfortunately seeing ACGC cross in 59.94 to take the title.
“I thought we ran perfect,” said Kaalberg. “We broke our own school record, and we expected that was going to be it, but we knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
Ceant and Rees finished second and fourth in the 110-meter high hurdle finals, adding 13 total points to Columbus’ total. The Wildcats scored 29 of the team’s 30 points in the hurdle events, with an eighth-place 3200 by Ty Muniz being the outlier.
Another Class 1A team that found success in the relays was Van Buren County. The Warriors were Top-6 in three events, including a third-place finish in the distance medley from the quartet of Izaak Loeffler, Bryce Newcomb, Kayden Simmons and Lincoln Bainbridge.
“It’s hard to feel good at the state meet with all these nerves, and with everybody so fast,” Loeffler said. “I was just trying to get out of the blocks and give the baton to Kayden and Lincoln, because that’s where most of this race is made.”
Loeffler and Newcomb did what they needed to do, turning it over to the distance guys in good position.
“My goal was to just give the baton to the distance guys and let them cook,” Newcomb said. “Just don’t drop it, stay confident and run well.”
The same four runners finished fourth place in the 4X400. Bryce Moquin joined Simmons, Loeffler and Bainbridge to take sixth in the sprint medley.
The Pekin boys took home some relay points as well. The 4X200 team of Robert Brown, Nolan Glick, Riley Smith and Will Adam took fifth, and the shuttle hurdle squad of Brown, Henry Adam, Kasey Davis and Will Adam finished sixth.
AREA 1A BOYS’ TEAMS
5. Columbus 30
5. New London 30
17. Winfield-Mount Union 15
18. Van Buren County 14
26. Hillcrest Academy 10.5
31. Pekin 9
41. WACO 4
AREA 1A GIRLS’ TEAMS
10. Pekin 27
48. Winfield-Mount Union 2
52. WACO 1
