Kiki Connell places 12th in 3000 at state

Press Staff Report

DES MOINES — Charles City freshman Kiki Connell placed 12th in the Class 3A girls 3000-meter run with a time of 11 minutes, 5.03 seconds, Thursday during the first day of the State Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium.

Earlier this year at the same site, Connell competed in the same event as a Drake Relays qualifier.

The winner of the Drake Relays race, Crestwood standout Ellie Friesen, also won Thursday’s race with a blistering time of 10:15.43, almost 20 ahead of runner-up Adrianna Katcher of Center Point-Urbana.

Connell, whose brother Gavin Connell ran in the Class 3A boys 3200 on Thursday, will also run in the 1500 race on Saturday.

Charles City’s 4-by-800 girls relay team of Gillian King, Whitney Martin, Sami Heyer and Marley Hagarty, placed 21st with a time of 10:23.49.

In one of the final events of the day, the Comet 4-by-100 shuttle hurdle relay team of Lynn Hoeft, Tayler Schmidt, Alex Litterer and Sadie Ruzicka failed to advance past the preliminaries due to a disqualification.

Among the other local athletes competing on Thursday was North Butler’s Nicole Heeren, who placed 10th in the Class 1A girls shot put with a throw of 36 feet, 2 3/4 inches. Heeren placed second in the event last year, and is the defending Class 1A champion in the discus, which she will compete in on Friday.

Morgan Arjes, another North Butler senior, placed 14th in the Class 1A girls 400 (1:02.13) in her second-straight state appearance.