West High Wins Two Relay Titles on Big Day Two at Class 4A State Track and Field Meet

West High

Ryan Murken Follow @rmmurken Aidan Jacobsen, Boys Track and Field, Christian Janis, Izaiah Loveless, Todd Rent, West High May 19, 2023

Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – For West High the opening day of the state track meet was a lot of waiting and not many points.

Actually, no points.

West High wasted no time making up ground and piling up points on Friday.

The Trojans won titles in both relays on Friday and got an individual runner-up finish from junior Aidan Jacobsen in the 400 hurdles in a 28-point Friday that vaulted West High to fifth in the 4A team standings.

"It was brutal watching yesterday," Jacobsen said. "It was tough because there was great competition and we weren't in a lot of things. We knew we had to come out today and pick up a lot of ground and we got 28 points."

Despite not scoring a point in five events on Thursday the Trojans weren't panicked.

West High knows where it's strengths lie and on Friday they put them on display.

West High opened Friday by winning the distance medley relay and added a title in the 4×200 relay.

"A lot of our stuff yesterday was prelims and most of our workload was going to be today and tomorrow in the finals so we were just waiting to get our shot," West High senior Christian Janis said. "We started it with a state championship."

West High got rolling early Friday as the foursome of Janis, Todd Rent, Izaiah Loveless and Moustafa Tiea won the distance medley in 3:27.73.

"When we got back to the hotel (yesterday) it was kind of upsetting when our coach showed us we had zero points and we knew we had work to do," Loveless said. "Those zero points pushed us."

West High won the Drake Relays title in the distance medley last month with Rent and Loveless running 200-meter legs and Aidan Jacobsen on the 400-leg.

On Friday it was Janis and Rent that got West High rolling on the 200-meter legs before Loveless took the Trojans to the front of the pack with a strong 400 leg.

"I felt like the first 200 was really slow but my teammate TJ told me and I had to go and I got to the 100 and I knew I still had a kick left," Loveless said. "I just kicked it the rest of the way and gave it to my anchor."

Johnston anchor Carson Lane closed the gap on Tiea and took the lead at the 200 meter mark.

Tiea, however made his own late surge.

"I thought if we gave (Tiea) a good enough lead it would be over," Loveless said. "He kind of worried me on the last 100 I thought he was going to run out of gas but he just kicked it in."

Tiea surged past Lane in the final 100 meters to give West High the win, while Johnston was runner-up in 3:28.18.

"I was trying to control it, I had to go with him but I didn't want to do anything out of mind," Tiea said. "At 100 I could see he wasn't really keeping the same pace as the surge so I just tried to use that moment to go. It was will power at that point. I just wanted to cross the line first."

West High continued its stellar day with a historic win in the 4×200.

The foursome of Janis, Jacobsen, Rent and Loveless ran the second fastest time in state history winning in 1:26.69.

"We don't have the mentality that we are going to come and it's going to get handed to us," Rent said. "We practice hard, we have hard workouts and we know we have to come and run hard no matter who is in front or behind us."

The time was nearly a full second faster than Johnston which was runner-up in 1:27:56 and bested the 1:26.91 that the Trojans ran at the state qualifier last week.

"I thought it was possible because we ran 1:26.91 at districts and I knew coming out here we could run way faster," Loveless said. "We did and I am so happy. We’ve improved so much since the start of the year."

Jacobsen closed the strong day for West High with a runner-up in the 400 hurdles.

The junior finished in 52.63 behind only champion Nicholas Gorsich of Linn-Mar who won in 51.8.

"I knew he beat me to the fifth hurdle and it's hard to beat him coming home," Jacobsen said. "Really what we talked about was making a move on the turn and closing the door and I knew when he had me at the eighth it was going to be really hard to catch him."

State Track and Field Meet

At Drake Stadium in Des Moines

Team scores (top 10; area teams) – 1. Johnston 47; 2. Linn-Mar 45; 3. City High 41; 4. Ankeny 30; 5. West High 28; 6. West Des Moines Dowling 25; 7. Waukee Northwest 16; 8. Norwalk 15; 9. Cedar Falls 14; 10. Mason City 12

Individual events (winner; area participants)

Long jump – 1. Abu Sama (Southeast Polk) 22-11; 4. Ronnie Major (City High) 21-0 ¾; 19. Kylin Crittenden (West High) 19-7 ¾; 24. Shamar Benton (City High) 16-0 ¼

Shot put – 1. Cohen Pfohl (Dubuque Senior) 57-5

400 hurdles – 1. Nicholas Gorsich (Linn-Mar) 51.8; 2. Aidan Jacobsen (West High) 52.63; 7. Matt Schaeckenbach (City High) 54.79; 12. Maxwell Thompson (Liberty High) 56.03

4×200 – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Christian Janis, Aidan Jacobsen, Izaiah Loveless) 1:26.69; 15. City High (Jeremiah Madlock, Deon Brown, Ronnie Major, Truman Thompson) 1:30.69

Distance medley – 1. West High (Todd Rent, Christian Janis, Izaiah Loveless, Moustafa Tiea) 3:27.73; 4. City High (Sam Rew, Ronnie Major, Jeremiah Madlock, Ayman Noreldaim) 3:30.34; 7. Liberty High (Jalen Wieck, Da’Shon Fisher, Carter Meyers, Aidan Decker) 3:34.11

Team scores (top 10; area teams) – 1. Mount Ayr 30; 2. Akron-Westfield 20; 2. Lisbon 20; 4. Columbus 19; 5. Lawton-Bronson 18; 6. Council Bluffs St. Albert 15; 6. Lynnville-Sully 15; 8. Woodbine 12; 8. New London 12; 10. Madrid 11; 10. Winfield-Mount Union 11

Individual events (winner; area participants)

High jump – 1. Kade Benjamin (New London) 6-7

Discus – 1. Ian Blowe (Akron-Westfield) 161-8; 11. Drew Streb (Regina) 136-10

400 hurdles – 1. Ryce Reynolds (Mount Ayr) 52.7

4×200 – 1. Lawton-Bronson 1:28.7

Distance medley – 1. Mount Ayr 3:34.14

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