Comets sprint to Des Moines

Bluhm, Jordan, Martin win state-qualifying titles for Comets

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

WAVERLY — Zion Jordan went into the Class 3A Track and Field State Qualifying Meet with a positive attitude.

“I had a positive attitude all this week,” the Charles City senior said.

But the world tends to mess with positive attitudes whenever it feels they’ve been sustained too long. And Jordan’s “Happy Place” was soon challenged.

“When we didn’t win the 4-by-200, I was a little angry,” Zion said of the Comets’ third-place finish. “But I just kept it inside of me, and took it out on this race.”

That was the 200-meter dash, and battling against a talented field, Jordan surged in the final 60 meters to win with a first-place time of 22.78 seconds —  a personal best.

“I just felt good today,” said Jordan, who earlier was thisclose to getting an automatic state berth in the 100-meter dash as his heat-winning time of 11.35 seconds was bettered by Vinton-Shellburg’s Will Dudley second-place time of 11.34.

Jordan, like several competitors finishing out of the top-2, may still qualify in the 100 if his time is among the top eight statewide excluding automatic qualifiers.

Accompanying Jordan downstate is fellow Comet senior Brandon Bluhm, who improved nearly a foot in the long jump with a first-place leap of 22 feet, 3 ¾ inches, besting Vinton-Shellburg’s Tyler Bartz by a half inch.

A hamstring injury prevented Bluhm from competing at the Northeast Iowa Conference Meet held the week before at the same Waverly-Shell Rock site. After the preliminary round, Bluhm seemed shy of 100 percent.

“My first three jumps were just at 19 feet,” Bluhm said, “but it was good enough to qualify for the next round.”

In the final round, Bluhm heeded to the advice of his coach and moved back his approach five feet.

“I’m used to starting at 97 feet away,” said Bluhm, who will be making his first state appearance after coming up short of qualifying last year. “I’ll probably start further back at state.”

Charles City girls throwers Sara Martin and Sydney Loeckle picked up where they left off last week while recording personal-best throws and panning gold medal performances.

Martin, a state qualifier in the shot put last year, will compete in both the shot and discus in Des Moines after taking first in both events at W-SR.

In the shot put, Martin recorded a throw of 40 feet, ½ inch — the first time she surpassed 40 feet in her career and a little closer to Charles City’s school record of 40 feet, 4 inches, which Martin has said she wants to break before she graduates.

She will have one more chance next week.

Martin first-place discus throw of 126 feet, 3 ½ inches is a personal improvement of more than 9 feet. Loeckle qualified for state for with a second-place personal-best throw of 120 feet, 11 inches.

There were several nervous Charles City coaches and supporters in the stands when Comet senior Katie Foster lined up for the first of her two individual sprint races. A second-place state finisher in the 200 as a sophomore, Foster has battled some bad luck since then as a knee injury and subsequent surgery sidelined her last season, and a recent illness has hampered her to where she couldn’t compete at the Drake Relays after qualifying in two events and was only cleared for competition earlier this week after sitting out the conference meet.

In the 100-meter dash, Foster was edged at the line by Crestwood’s Katie Saner for second place (12.74 to 12.76) — Anna Garwood of Union was first (12.45).

Garwood would also win the 200 (25.30), but Foster was able to punch a definite ticket to Drake Stadium with a second-place time of 26.17.

Charles City girls, who placed second in team standings (103.5 points) behind Decorah (162), also earned an automatic bid in the 4-by-800 relay.

With Decorah well in the lead, it came down to Charles City and Waverly-Shell Rock for the second-place spot. After Comets Whitney Martin, Gillian King and Sami Heyer secured the second slot for the final leg, it was up to freshman Mackenzy Bilharz to maintain it.

No pressure there.

“I wasn’t sure if I had enough to catch her,” Bilharz said about when Go-Hawk Jayme Willemssen passed her going into the final lap, “but I knew I had to.”

And that’s what she did as Bilharz overtook Willemssen in the final 200 meters sending her and her teammates to state.

Also going to state is the Comets 4-by-100 girls shuttle relay team of Brianna Carey, Tayler Schmidt, Lynn Hoeft, Sadie Ruzicka, Alex Litterer and Sami Heyer, whose third-place time of 1 minute, 7.24 seconds is a CCHS school record.