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Local athletes back in the race after making state cuts

Press photo by John Burbridge Charles City senior Gillian King, shown here running a relay leg during the Northeast Iowa Conference Track Meet, has qualified for state in the 4-by-800 relay with Whitney Martin, Sami Heyer, Marley Hagarty and Mackenzy Bilharz.
Press photo by John Burbridge
Charles City senior Gillian King, shown here running a relay leg during the Northeast Iowa Conference Track Meet, has qualified for state in the 4-by-800 relay with Whitney Martin, Sami Heyer, Marley Hagarty and Mackenzy Bilharz.
By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

The song “That’s Life” made famous by Frank Sinatra has a catchy and proverbial phrase at the end of its chorus.

“… I just pick myself up and get back in the race.”

Charles City sophomore Alex Litterer didn’t sing those lyrics during Thursday’s Class 3A State Track Qualifier at Decorah High School. She lived them — more literally than figuratively.

During the 4-by-100 shuttle hurdle relay, the Charles City Comets’ squad of Lynn Hoeft, Tayler Schmidt, Sadie Ruzicka and Litterer looked poised to make it back down to state where Hoeft, Schmidt, Ruzicka and since graduated Brianna Carey placed seventh last year.

Nearly the end of third leg, the Comets were battling for the lead before Litterer caught too much of the second-to-last hurdle of her leg and fell on the track.

There was a collective gasp among Charles City supporters as it looked like the Comets’ shuttle hurdle relay — traditionally one of the program’s stronger events — was doomed to heartbreak.

But Litterer was able to quickly pick herself up, negotiate the final hurdle, and enable anchor Ruzicka a chance to keep their season alive.

The Comets finished third behind champion Decorah and runner-up Waverly-Shell Rock, and, thus, didn’t get the automatic top-two-finishing berth. But their time — 1 minute, 9.03 seconds — proved to be fast enough for a 15th-seed placement amid the tentative list of 24 state qualifiers.

Ruzicka, who has qualified for state track in all four of her years at Charles City, also qualified as an individual as her third-place time of 16.39 seconds in the 100 hurdles — that was bested by runner-up Grace Syverson of Decorah in a photo-finish — was good enough for the No. 20-seed among qualifiers.

Leaving Decorah, Charles City only had one automatic qualifier — senior Sydney Loeckle, who placed second in the discus with a throw of 115 feet, 11 inches, punching her ticket to a return to Des Moines after qualifying in the event last year.

But even after the meet, Charles City girls head coach Darren Bohlen was confident that Loeckle would be accompanied by several of her teammates. He thought the aforementioned shuttle hurdle relay performance would eventually be good enough, but Bohlen was more certain that freshman Kiki Connell was headed to Des Moine.

He proved to be right as Connell — who placed sixth at the State Cross Country Championships this past fall while running most of the race with one shoe — made the cut with a personal-bes time of 5:06.80 in the 1500 and a time of 10:54.16 in the 3000.

Connell is also listed among the alternates for Charles City’s state-qualifying 4-by-800 relay team that also consists of Gillian King, Whitney Martin, Sami Heyer, Marley Hagarty and Mackenzy Bilharz.

For Charles City senior Gavin Connell, his elusive quest to qualify to state finally yielded positive results as the four-time state cross country qualifier will make his first trip to Des Moines after his fourth-place time of 10:17.48 in the 3200 at Decorah seeded him 16th among the 24 qualifiers.

North Butler senior Nicole Heeren will get a chance to defend her state title in the discus after her third-place throw of 119 feet, 2 inches at the Class 1A State Qualifier at Nashua-Plainfield High School seeded her No. 8 among qualifiers.

Heeren, who also placed second in state last year in the shot put, is seeded in No. 21 in the event.

Morgan Arjes is another North Butler senior returning to state after earning a No. 11 seed in the 400 after placing second (1:02.24) at N-P.

North Butler sophomore Mady Klingenborg earned a No. 21 seed in the 800 run.

Nashua-Plainfield’s 4-by-800 relay team of Kylie Laube, Faith Carpenter, Kaylee Cerwinske, Emma Sinnwell, Aubrey Eick and Chloe Matthews are seeded No. 6 for state.

Cerwinske, Matthews, Britney Holthaus, Alannah Richards, Makenna Nelson and Brianna Bienemann will represent the Huskies in the 1600 distance medley relay, where they are seeded No. 22.

Nashua-Plainfield has qualified a couple of boy relay teams.

The 800 sprint medley relay team of Nathan Dettmer, Tristan Brase, Levi Enright and Evan Kalainoff set a school record while winning the qualifier with a time of 1:38.33. Michael Stille and Johnathan Krull will be also be a part of that team in Des Moines.

The Huskies’ 4-by-800 relay team of Isaac Chambers, Dayton Hansen, Ike Sinnwell, Luke Cerwinske, Austin Bienemann and Mitchell Malven are seeded No. 18 among the qualifiers.

Hansen also qualified in the 1600 run.

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