ADM girls relay team powers past opponents at Iowa state track meet

ADM entered the girls 4x200-meter relay with the top qualifying time in Class 3A, running the event in 1 minute, 43.85 seconds to make it to the finals of the Iowa high school state track and field meet.

The Tigers — Aniston Tollari, Jada Grove, Josi Dufoe and Makayla Crannell — lived up to the hype. ADM ran the 4x200 in 1 minute, 42.9 seconds to secure at least one state title.

"It feels really good," Crannell said. "We have the 4x100 later today too, so this is great momentum moving into that and it just gave us good energy for the rest of the day."

Dufoe and Crannell competed for the Tigers in the preliminary round of the 4x100-meter relay on Friday evening and ADM punched its ticket to Saturday afternoon's finals with the fastest time in 3A (48.92). Running the 4x200 relay first may have helped them for the shorter distance, acting as a high-stakes, warmup run of sorts.

Tollari, Grove, Dufoe and Crannell are confident in their abilities, regardless of the distance of the race.

"I think we’ve done a really good job all season of preparing for this," Crannell said. "It feels really good to watch it pay off in the end."

To win their relay event, the Tigers needed to run the fastest time in their final heat. But that doesn't mean the top three finishers always come from the "fastest" heat. Solon competed in a different heat than ADM and finished third.

The Tigers don't dwell on their opponents' time too much, though.

"We kind of just talked about how we’ve been running this all season," Dufoe said. "We just wanted to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’re a really close team and with each other, so I think it just means a lot having each other's backs. We trust (one another) with their leg and we just have fun when we’re running."

Crannell will have two more chances to run on her own; she qualified in both the 100-meter dash (fifth) and 200-meter dash (first). The finals for both events take place on Saturday.

But for now, she's taking in the moment of a guaranteed state title and sharing it with her teammates.

"I love all these girls," Crannell said. "I’m so glad that we got to share this together and it meant a lot. It was really fun."

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at [email protected] or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.