Washington seniors, Garrett feted

WASHINGTON — Demon seniors knew they would be feted Thursday at the Washington Relays coed track meet, but there was a surprise honor for another Washington Demon.

Karla Garrett, Washington’s athletic secretary, was honored for “outstanding service and dedication” by the Iowa track officials for her many years of volunteering.

“We used to add up scores with a paper and pencil,” said Garrett when asked how many years she has been volunteering.

Garrett is a Washington graduate and loves working behind the scenes, “because I like the kids. I want the best for them. That’s when I’m the happiest.”

Senior Kael Adam was happy he took advantage of the night to win the discus with a toss of 137 feet, 9 inches. It was better than Tuesday’s result, but his best was at an earlier meet with a 142 distance.

Washington coach Steve Roth ribbed Adam that a vacation to the Ozarks was the reason for Tuesday’s result.

“No practice on vacation, then practicing hard when I got back, I guess might have been the difference,” Adam said. It was 20 feet of difference.

Fairfield’s Kaden Mickels put some distance between himself and second-place in the anchor leg of the 4x800 relay, winning that race with the Trojans best time of the year; 8 minutes, 54.86 seconds. The final two legs’ splits were at 2:12 by Gavin VanVeen and 2:11 by Mickels.

Mickels had never run an 800 in under 2:16 before but a Liberty runner was right behind him, “until I laid out on 200 to go. I guess I kind of triggered something.”

Area winners:

Washington’s Ethan Patterson, high jump, 5-10; Kael Adam, discus, 137-9; Elijah Morris, 400, 50.95; Lance Sobaski, 1600, 9:55.71; 800 relay, 1:37.72, Sam Ackerman, Reece Mayer, Wyatt Stout, Aidan Ulin; 400 relay, 45.36, Spencer Sotelo, Stout, Jacob Miller, Patterson; 1600 relay, 3:34.33, Patterson, Morris, Cameron Vonpanya, Sobaski;

Fairfield’s Anna Dunlap, 100, 13.18; 800 relay, 1:51.02, Danielle Breen, Dunlap, Kelsey Pacha, Mallory Lyon; distance medley, 4:02.08, Dallen Rippey, Tate Richardson, Ryan Higgins, Forrest; 3200 relay, 8:54.86, Alex Forrest, Ben Boatright, Gavin VanVeen, Kaden Mickels;

Mt. Pleasant’s Jadan Brumbaugh, shot, 41-6 ½; Cooper Pullis, shot, 48-6; Grace Kelley, discus, 117-11; Bryce Wilson, 110 hurdles, 15.9; Will Davidson, 400 hurdles, 59.59; shuttle hurdle, 1:11.51, Allie Westercamp, Jenna Gilmnore, Kenna Lamm, Karsyn Lamm; 400 relay, 52.53, Bailey Jalas, Josie Gilmore, Karsyn Lamm, Kenna Lamm

GIRLS TEAM SCORES — 1) Iowa City Liberty 160, 2) Mt. Pleasant 118, 3) Tipton 92, 4) Fairfield 73, 5) Keokuk 53, 6) Fort Madison 51, 7) Washington 46, 8) Wapello 42, 9) North Cedar 30, 10) Burlington 28, 11) Highland 22, 12) WACO 17, 13) Columbus 4

BOYS TEAM SCORES — 1) Iowa City Liberty 147, 2) Mount Pleasant 133, 3) Washington 128, 4) Fort Madison 114, 5) Fairfield 69, 6) Mid-Prairie 40, 7) Columbus 37, 8) Keokuk 31, 9) WACO 17, 10) Highland 16, 11) Washington JV 9.