More local athletes make state track and field cuts

Staff Report

Charles City senior Zion Jordan was able to channel some of the anger of not having his 4-by-200 relay team win at last Thursday’s state qualifying meet at Waverly-Shell Rock into positive energy to propel him to a victory in the 200-meter dash.

Hopefully, the news of the relay team that also includes Brandon Bluhm, Arjay David, Jaden Foster, Hakeem Sharief and Adam Stewart making the final cut for the state meet won’t take anything off his edge.

Though the Comets finished third at W-SR, their time was among the fastest amid the 3A division statewide excluding the automatic top-two qualifiers.

Zion and Bluhm, who qualified in the long jump with a first-place, personal-best leap of 22 feet, 3 ¾ inches, also qualified in the 100 after missing out on automatic bids.

Foster also made the final cut in the long jump.

For the Comet girls, Katie Foster had the 100 added to her state events after getting an automatic bid in the 200.

After setting a school-record in the 4-by-100 shuttle hurdle relay with a third-place time of 1 minute, 7.24 seconds, the squad of Bianna Carey, Tayler Schmidt, Lynn Hoeft, Sadie Ruzick, Alex Litterer and Sami Heyer made the final cut.

So did sophomore Whitney Martin and senior Sarah Turpen, whose respective fourth-place times in the 1,500 and 3,000 punched their tickets.

Charles City senior Sara Martin will return to state to throw the shot put and make a first-time appearance in the discus after winning both events at the qualifier. Junior Sydney Loeckle will make her first state appearance throwing discus after finishing second to her teammate.

Charles City’s 4-by-800 team of Heyer, Whitney Martin, Alysha Bilharz, Mackenzy Bilharz, Gillian King and Bailey Mitchell qualified with a second-place showing at W-SR.

Rockford will be represented at the state meet starting Thursday. Two-time state medalist and four-time state qualifier Alyssa Staudt is the Class 1A top seed in the high jump.

Junior Sheridan LaCoste, who was a Class 1A cross country runner-up this past fall, qualified for the second time in the 3,000.

Warrior senior Skylar Schmitt qualified in the shot put.

North Butler’s Nicole Heeren qualified in both throwing events for Class 1A, and Morgan Arjes will run the 400 while representing the Bearcats.

Nashua-Plainfield’s 800 Sprint Medley Relay Team of Nathan Dettmer, Nathan Murphy, Levi Enright, Evan Kalainoff, Tristen Brase and Nick Bucknell are state qualifiers for Class 1A Boys.