Cole, Martin regional champs for runner-up Comets; Feller qualifies for state in long jump

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

McKayla Cole’s quest for a triple crown was initially spoiled by a photo finish.

The Charles City junior had already punched her ticket to Des Moines for the state finals when she opened the Class 3A Charles City Regional Meet winning the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 54.36 seconds, well ahead of runner-up Lily Horst of Vinton-Shellberg.

Cole had qualified for that same race last year, and placed eighth at state. But she has said that her favorite distance is the 800 run.

Or it was.

“I don’t know, it used to be my favorite race but now I think I’m making the transition to be more of a distance runner,” Cole said after taking third in the 800, finishing thisclose behind winner Jenna Galligan of Decorah and Bristi Gerber of Vinton-Shellberg, who both timed at 2:22.86.

Cole’s time was 2:22.98.

“They just pushed harder than I did,” said Cole, who also qualified for the 800 last year but will have to wait to see if she makes the cut this year.

The top two finishers at regionals (girls) and districts (boys) get automatic state berths. Those who record top 8 finishes among all the regionals/districts in their class also qualify.

“I might make it again … we’ll have to see,” Cole said.

Later, Cole placed second in the 1,500 run (5:03.38) less than two seconds behind Vinton-Shellberg’s Grace Horst to qualify in that event.

Charles City’s other regional champion was junior Sara Martin in the shot put.

“I’m very excited about going to state,” Martin said after her first-place throw of 37 feet, 9 ½ inches.

“I thought I threw OKAY … it could have been better,” said Martin, who later placed fifth in the discus right behind sophomore teammate Sydney Loeckle, who placed fifth.

Overall, the Comet girls placed second in the eight-team regional meet, edging third-place Waverly-Shell Rock by a half point (101.5 to 101.)

Decorah, paced by six individual champions — Rose Gullekson (100), Kayla Quandahl (200), Katie Perez (400), Jenna Galligan (800), Olivia Sandvig (100 hurdles) and Katie Nimrod (400 hurdles) — finished well ahead of the field with 179 team points.

In the Class 3A Charles City District Meet, Charles City senior Shane Feller qualified in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, ¾ inches behind champion Tyler Bartz of Vinton-Shellberg (20 feet, 1 ½ inches).

Feller was hoping fellow CC senior Brandon Bluhm, who finished a half inch behind him in third, would also eventually qualify.

“We just don’t have a very friendly pit,” Feller said of the Charles City’s long jump landing area. “No one ever gets a PR here.”

Feller, who was a relay state qualifier last year, may have a chance to qualify in the 100-meter dash (he placed third with a time of 11.55 second), and in the 4-by-100 relay as he with teammates Bryce Foxen, Tyler Brockney and Bluhm placed third with a time of 45.18 seconds.

Foxen may also have legitimate shot in the 110 high hurdles. Against Center Point Urbana’s Logan Sarchett and JoJo Frost, who finished first and second respectively, Foxen ran an otherwise impressive third-place time of 15.83.

“We’re hoping to get Bryce in, we’re hoping Brandon gets in … our 4-by-100 is on the bubble. We’re just going to have to wait and see,” Charles City boys head coach Ryan Rahmiller said. “Our association likes to tell the media not to publish times and distances in the paper after the state qualifiers as they don’t want coaches to get a jump on who’s made it before it’s officially posted on Friday afternoon

“But you know they always publish them anyway, so us coaches are going to be scrambling to look up the websites to see if we have any more guys going down.”

With a recently installed scoreboard, state-of-the-art timing system, and an upgraded public address system, Charles City was awarded its bid to host both the regional and district meets. Somewhat unexpected, both meets were done before 9 p.m.

That may have been a little too fast for Feller, who had just participated in his final athletic event at Charles City’s track and football field.

“It’s hard to imagine not running here … not playing here anymore,” said Feller, who was the MVP for the Comets football team this past fall. He’s set to continue his football career at Drake University.

“I’ll never forget this place,” Feller said.

And Rahmiller will never forget him, or the rest of his graduating seniors.

“I had this group since they were in seventh grade when I used to coach at the middle school,” Rahmiller said. “They are a special group of kids.”

Vinton-Shellberg won the meet handily with 156.5 team points followed by Northeast Iowa Conference champs Decorah (128.5) and defending state champs Center Point Urbana (100.5).

Charles City finished eighth (63).

“Looking on paper what we were going up against, we knew that this was going to be a tough meet,” Rahmiller said. “We gave it our best shot, and I’m proud of our guys.”