Although weather conditions on Thursday for day one of the 2017 Coed State Track & Field Championships weren’t ideal at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, it was dry. That’s not the case for the start of day two as the three day event continues. Raccoon Valley Radio will continue to have updates today, tonight, and tomorrow on all three radio stations and on online at raccoonvalleyradio.com.
Class 1A and 4A schools begin at 9 a.m. today with 2A and 3A starting field events at 2 p.m. and running events at 2:40 p.m. Earlham, Coon Rapids-Bayard, and Nodaway Valley will have events in 1A, while West Central Valley, Panorama, ACGC, Woodward-Granger, Woodward Academy, and Van Meter are the 2A schools being covered, ADM, Perry, and Greene County are our 3A schools.
Among Thursday’s highlights for the area was a State Championship for Andrew Stumbo of Ogden, who won the 2A boys 3,200 meter run in 9:28.37. The senior became the first Ogden runner to win a State track & field championship.
Greene County junior Megan Durbin continued her amazing career at Drake Stadium, finishing second in the 3A girls’ high jump at 5′ 7″. Fellow Heart of Iowa Activities Conference athlete Maria Gorham of North Polk was first at 5′ 8″, a new 3A State Meet record. Durbin has finished in first or second place all five times she’s jumped at Drake in her career.
Other place winners from the area on Thursday were Devyn Kemble of Panorama, fourth in the 2A girls’ 400 meter dash; Joey Harkins of Earlham, fourth in the 1A boys’ 400 meter dash; Kate Crawford of ACGC, fifth in the 3,00 meter run; Meagan Blomgren of Van Meter, sixth in the 2A girls’ long jump; Shane Breheny and Brycen Wallace, both of Nodaway Valley, seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 1A boys’ 3,200 meter run; and Earlham’s boys’ 4 x 800 relay of Paxton Groves, Alex Caskey, Thomas Payne, and Jake Willen, seventh in 1A.
Keaton Kester of ADM led area qualifiers in Thursday’s preliminaries. She has the fastest times in the 3A girls 100 and 200 meter dash events going into Saturday’s finals. Harkins of Earlham also qualified for the 1A boys 200 final, and Earlham’s boys made it to Saturday’s final in the shuttle hurdle relay iwth Harrison Miller, Eli Kasap, Caleb Swalla, and Brian Vanderheiden. In 2A, the Van Meter boys qualified for Saturday’s final in the shuttle hurdle relay with Sam Thompson, Noah Hale, Owen Jones, and Tyler Kubiak. Van Meter’s twin sisters, Mackenzie and Meagan Blomgren, both advanced to Staurday’s 100 meter dash final.
Just out of the top eight places on Thursday was Perry sprinter Reece Dunlap, who was ninth in both the 200 meter preliminaries and the 400 meter final. Panorama’s girls shuttle hurdle relay of Maggie Woodvine, Payton Douglass, Maddie Knapp, and Morgan Johnk, were also ninth, just missing a trip to the finals.