Wamac track and field powerhouses congregate at Tiffin

Ryan Whitman has tried to project a favorite for the boys' portion of the Wamac Conference track and field meet Thursday.

He can't.

'It's really hard to crunch the numbers and look at it,' said Whitman, the coach at Mount Vernon. 'There are five or six teams, if things break right, they could be conference champions.'

Conference and divisional meets will be held throughout the area Thursday. For the Mississippi Valley Conference, that means four meets at four different sites.

Mississippi Division meets are at Waterloo (boys) and Cedar Rapids Xavier (girls). Valley Division competition is at Cedar Falls (boys) and Kingston Stadium (girls).

The Valley Division girls' meet features heavyweights Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Dubuque Wahlert.

Meanwhile, the other area leagues — the Wamac, River Valley and Tri-Rivers — run true conference meets, with boys and girls both at the same site.

The Wamac is at Tiffin, the RVC at West Branch, the TRC at Central City.

Wamac teams have captured the last two Class 3A state championships. Solon won it in 2014, Center Point-Urbana followed in 2015.

'I don't know if we have the depth to compete (at the Wamac meet),' said Amy Marshall, who coaches both the boys and girls at CPU. 'But we're certainly going to put a nice lineup on the track.'

Wamac individuals and relays lead Class 3A in 10 of 19 events. That includes CPU's JoJo Frost in the 110- and 400-meter hurdles and the 400-meter dash and Mount Vernon's Tristan Wirfs in both throws.

Wirfs was the Drake Relays shot put champion at 60 feet, 11 1/2 inches, and was the runner-up in the discus at 181-0.

'It's just going to be a really fun meet to watch,' Whitman said. 'You're going to have to run your best in any event if you want to win it.'

Monticello's boys and Cascade's girls are the favorites at the River Valley meet, with the Lisbon boys and the North Linn girls the picks in the Tri-Rivers.

Lisbon is the defending 1A state champion.

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com