Comet junior Ian Collins soars to 1st in high jump, 2nd in long jump; UNI-bound Kiki Connell 6th in 1500 at Drake Relays

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

DES MOINES — Ian Collins says his likes the “cool atmosphere” in and around Drake Stadium’s Blue Oval.

He apparently likes the upper atmosphere there, too.

The Charles City junior matched his personal record as well as his Comet school record when topping off at 6 feet, 7 inches in the high jump at Thursday’s Drake Relays.

The last time Collins cleared that height was nearly two years ago at the same site when his school-record-setting jump was good enough for second place among Class 3A boys at the 2019 State Track and Field Championships.

This time around it earned Collins a coveted Drake Relays title.

“I expected to do well, but it’s still exciting when you actually win,” said Collins, who cleared 6-7 on his third attempt.

Noah James of Treynor and Tate Zalasky of Ames High School both cleared 6-5 before going 0-for-3 on 6-7.

With the field down to one, Collins had three attempts at 6-9 with nothing more than his own school record on the line.

“I almost made my first attempt, but my next two I didn’t come close,” Collins said. “My legs were too tired.”

And with good reason. Several hours before, Collins competed in the long jump — an event he took up just this season.

On his fifth jump, Collins soared 22 feet, 11 inches, which had him in first place going into the final sixth jump.

But Cooper DeJean, senior at Odebolt-Arthur-Battle Creek-Ida Grove (OABCIG), jumped 22 feet, 11 1/4 inches on his final attempt as Collins had to settle for second place.

“I was there watching his last jump, and I thought I won … I thought I had him by at least a half inch,” said Collins, who also holds Charles City’s record in the LJ — 23 feet, 1/2 inch — achieved in the first outdoor meet of the season, “but when they measured, he had me by a fourth.”

Collins also watched his younger sister Keely Collins compete in the girls high jump earlier in the morning.

Though the Comet freshman no-heighted with the bar set rather high (5 feet) at the start, Keely Collins said she enjoyed competing at Drake Stadium for the first time as she and her sibling are the first brother-sister Drake Relays qualifiers for the same meet in Charles City history.

“Both just have tremendous natural ability and a great work ethic,” said Charles City assistant coach Eric Hoefer, who works with the Comet jumpers.

“When you love the event that you’re in … when your heart is into it like Ian and Keely’s, good things are going to happen.”

Ian Collins was not the only Comet who had a busy day at the Drake Relays.

University of Northern Iowa-bound senior Kiki Connell ran in both the female 800- and 1,500-meter runs and somehow was able to record a personal-record time of 4 minutes, 47.09 seconds in the latter race, good enough for sixth place after running the 800 less than a half hour before.

“Kiki was tripped and fell going into the second lap of the 800 … but that may have been a blessing in disguise,” Charles City girls head coach Amanda Rahmiller said. “She finished the race, but she was out of running at that point so she may have been able to save herself a little for the 1,500.”

Connell, however, said she ran the final lap hard though she was unable to catch anyone on way to placing 24th in the 800 with a time of 2:24.19.

“I fell pretty hard when I thought I had a good chance at a personal record,” Connell said. “But, yeah, maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

“It wasn’t anyone fault except my own. But then I felt so grateful that I had a chance to run another race. So I battled back, got myself cleaned up, and 20 minutes later got back on the track.”

Connell, who qualified for Drake in the 3,000 as a freshman, was a no-doubt qualifier in the 1,500 well before last Thursday’s (April 15) deadline.

But her season-best time in the 800 achieved on deadline day was .06th of a second away from getting the final 16th spot.

“What likely happened is that one of the girls who also qualified in the 1,500 decided to drop out of the 800 to focus more on the later race, so Kiki got in,” Rahmiller said. “At state, you get more of a turnaround time if you run both races. But this is Kiki’s senior year, and she wants to make the most of it, so she ran both.”

Connell believes Thursday’s Drake experience may pay off during state.

“That I could run that well (in the 1,500) while being fatigued gives me confidence that I can do even better with more time between races,” she said.

It’s more than a two-hour drive to Des Moines. It’s also a 20-minute drive to Nashua, and part of the reason why Charles City throwers Tino Tamayo and Carly Stevenson were able to make Thursday’s trip to Drake is because of the offseason commutes they made to Nashua-Plainfield to practice on the school’s throwing circle when one wasn’t available at Charles City.

At the Relays, senior Stevenson — a 2019 state qualifier in the discus — placed 21st in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 11 3/4 inches.

“I’m proud to represent my school,” said Stevenson, who will be throwing for Wartburg College next year. “(The Drake Relays) are a lot like being at state, except there weren’t as many people here due to the pandemic. But the competition was just as good.”

Tamayo said he had an “off day” while finishing 21st in the discus with a top throw of 141 feet, 6 inches.

“My best throw could have been my second attempt,” said Tamayo, who was Charles City’s first male Drake Relays qualifier in the discus since 1974, “but I opened up too soon and I hit the cage. It felt good (leaving the hand), but it didn’t go very far.

“I hope to get another shot next year,” said Tamayo, a junior who was a state qualifier in the shuttle hurdle relay as a freshman.