Comet returning state T&F qualifiers among top placers at Dickinson Relays

Press Staff Report

CEDAR FALLS — Charles City senior Keely Collins placed second in the high jump with a clear of 5 feet, 4 inches during the Dickinson Relays indoor track and field event held at the UNI-Dome on Monday and Tuesday.

ADM junior London Warmuth won the event with a top height of 5-6 while achieving the “Blue Standard” for automatic qualification in the HS girls HJ for this year’s Drake Relays.

Collins’s height matched that of Indianola freshman Madison Grover, but fewer failed attempts by Collins secured her runner-up status.

Collins is a two-time state runner-up in the Class 3A girls HJ. As a freshman, she set a Comet school record with a clear of 5-6 which she subsequently bested with a jump of 5-7 last season.

Collins is also a multiple Drake Relays qualifier in the event. Collins has mentioned that — in addition to resetting her school record again her final prep season — she wants to place in the top three in the HJ at what would be her final Drake Relays.

Collins doesn’t plan to continue her T&F career in college as she has signed on to play volleyball for Drake University.

The Comet girls had two other athletes place in the Top 10 at the Dickinson Relays — both of whom were qualifiers from the recent State Girls Wrestling Championships.

Junior Leah Stewart, who placed fifth in the 190-pound bracket at state wrestling and is a returning T&F state-qualifier from last season, placed 10th in the shot put with a distance of 36 feet, 1 inch.

Freshman Sophia Calpito placed fifth in the long jump with a flight of 16 feet, 7 1/4 inches.

Comet senior Josiah Cunnings, the defending Class 3A boys long jump champion, competed in the 200-meter dash and placed seventh after being bested by sixth-place finisher Jake Kruger of Dowling Catholic by a thousandth of a second — 23.331 to 23.332.

For the select athletes competing in the event, the Dickinson Relays were the unofficial start of the prep track season ahead of many schools’ “Spring Break” week.

Charles City is scheduled to participate in one more indoor meet — March 19 at Luther College in Decorah — before opening the outdoor season at an invitational hosted by Waverly-Shell Rock on March 28.