Jalen Rima leads C.R. Prairie to 4A district title

IOWA CITY — There's still one thing left for Cedar Rapids Prairie senior Jalen Rima to do at the state track meet in Des Moines.

He was the pied piper in the 200-meter and 400-meter dash last year, winning those events, but came home fifth in his third — and, at the time, new — event, the 100-meters. If his matter-of-fact, individual-event-sweeping performance at the state qualifying meet at Iowa City West on Thursday night is any indication, there's only one result acceptable on the blue oval at Drake next week.

Victory.

'It was a pretty good day,' Rima said. 'Last year, the 100 was kind of a last-second thing. I've spent a lot more time with it this year. I'm not very good out of the blocks, so that's what we've been working on all year.

'And once I'm fresh, I want to run low 48 (in 400) and better my time in the 200 from a 21.5 to get lower. I just want to PR at state. That's what I have to do to win my events. My times are at the top now, so if I PR there, I can get it.'

Rima led a Prairie Hawks team that took the team title with 136 points, ahead of Linn-Mar at 116.5 and Iowa City West in third at 115.

He set a PR for this season in his 400-meter victory at 48.71 seconds, but slowed down a bit in the other two, dealing with windy conditions. Times on Thursday night weren't of major concern, though, it was mostly about taking care of business — with the real goal still ahead.

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Rima also anchored Prairie's winning 4x100 relay, meaning he'll have at least four events at state. It's a situation he's familiar with, so there shouldn't be any difficulty juggling the workload for one more week.

'I'm kind of used to it because they started putting me in four events starting in sophomore year,' Rima said. 'It was mostly 400s before, so it's a lot easier now, what I'm doing.'

Prairie Coach Bill Schwarz laughed when asked how he managed Rima's event load coming into the state-qualifying meet. He said it took some time to decide where they wanted the future Northern Iowa football player, but settled on the 4x100 relay as his fourth event.

'He's got such amazing speed that we feel like he's a strength no matter where he goes. He enjoys all three of his events,' Schwarz said. 'It was a huge struggle for us, and as a staff we went over a number of scenarios of where we could use him. He deserved the opportunity to have the stage in the three open events.'

In terms of the team victory, Rima led the victory lap around the quarter-mile at Trojan Field, as his coach looked on with pride.

Prairie's district title came with a few bumps in the road, but ultimately saw four different individual champions, the one relay win, six total individual qualifiers and three in relays.

'There were a lot of really great performances. This whole district is loaded, and I think we'll get more than our fair share of qualifiers out of this district compared to others,' Schwarz said. 'There were a couple points and a couple moments of adversity on our way, but the kids responded and as the evening wore on they got strong. They showed a champion heart.'

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Elsewhere, the Iowa City West girls took the team title with 170 points, ahead of Linn-Mar with 146 and Western Dubuque with 107.5.

West was led by Valerie Welch, who won the 100 and 400 hurdle events, as well as anchored the shuttle-hurdle relay victory. Linn-Mar was led, once again, by Stephanie Jenks, who got wins in the 800-meter, 1,500 meter and 3,000 meter runs, and qualified in 400 hurdles.

RESULTS

Automatic state qualifiers in positions 1-2

Team scores

Boys

1. CR Prairie 136

2. Linn-Mar 116.5

3. IC West 115

4. Iowa City High 90

5. W. Dubuque 83

6. Dubuque Sr 79.5

7. Dub Hempstead 53

8. Burlington 25

Girls

1. Iowa City West 170

2. Linn-Mar 146

3. W. Dubuque 107.5

4. CR Prairie 87.5

5. Iowa City High 73

6. Dub Hempstead 71

7. Dubuque Sr 64

8. Burlington 18

Girls 3,000m run

1. Stephanie Jenks, Linn-Mar; 10:32.04

2. Gabby Skopec, IC West; 10:44.74

Boys 4x800 relay

1. City High 8:06.27

2. Linn-Mar 8:07.42

Girls 4x800 relay

1. IC West 9:42.74

2. Linn-Mar 9:45.17

Boys 3,200m run

1. Ryan Murphy, Linn-Mar; 9:44.70

2. Mark Whalen, Dubuque Sr; 9:45.27

Boys shuttle hurdle relay

1. Linn-Mar 56.44

2. CR Prairie 57.52

Girls shuttle hurdle relay

1. IC West 1:05.24

2. W. Dubuque 1:06.96

Girls 100m

1. Kira Ramsey, Linn-Mar; 13.01

2. Raenice Hilderbrand, CR Prairie; 13.11

Boys 100m

1. Jalen Rima, CR Prairie; 11.12

2. Trevor Northrup, CR Prairie; 11.32

Girls 1,600m relay

1. Linn-Mar 4:15.42

2. IC West 4:15.47

Girls 400m

1. Payton Wensel, Linn-Mar; 57.01

2. Megan Maahs, W. Dubuque; 58.93

Boys 400m

1. Jalen Rima, CR Prairie; 48.71

2. Wali Parks, IC West; 49.24

Girls 4x200 relay

1. Dubuque Sr 1:45.27

2. Iowa City High 1:47.16

Boys 4x200 relay

1. Linn-Mar 1:29.25

2. W Dubuque 1:31.06

Girls 100m hurdles

1. Valerie Welch, IC West; 15.23

2. Elayna Bahl, W. Dubuque; 16.02

Boys 110m high hurdles

1. Joah Wallace, CR Prairie; 14.64

2. Danny Gorsich, Linn-Mar; 15.21

Boys 1,600m

1. Tysen VanDraska, CR Prairie; 4:32.63

2. Ryan Murphy, Linn-Mar; 4:32.89

Girls 800m

1. Stephanie Jenks, Linn-Mar; 2:18.36

2. Bailey Nock, IC West; 2:20.75

Girls 200m

1. Kenzie Soeken, CR Prairie; 26.92

2. Emma Clark, City High; 27.69

Boys 200m

1. Jalen Rima, CR Prairie; 22.06

2. Wali Parks, IC West; 22.63

Girls 400m hurdles

1. Valerie Welch, IC West; 1:05.27

2. Stephanie Jenks, Linn-Mar; 1:05.88

Boys 400m hurdles

1. Collin Seymour, Dubuque Sr; 54.20

2. Shamari Scott, City High; 55.00

Boys 1,600m relay

1. City High 3:37.73

2. CR Prairie 3:38.23

Girls 800m relay

1. Linn-Mar 1:50.91

2. W. Dubuque 1:53.33

Girls 1,500m

1. Stephanie Jenks, Linn-Mar; 4:48.89

2. Gabby Skopec, IC West; 4:54.86

Boys 800m

1. Tysen VanDreska, CR Prairie; 1:59.52

2. Matt Lorenz, CR Prairie; 1:59.70

Girls 4x100 relay

1. CR Prairie 50.17

2. Linn-Mar 50.67

Boys 4x100 relay

1. CR Prairie 42.82

2. W. Dubuque 43.14

Girls 4x400 relay

1. Western Dubuque 4:07.78

2. Dubuque Sr 4:09.20

Boys 4x400 relay

1. IC West 3:24.84

2. W. Dubuque 3:25.64

Boys shot put

1. William Blaser, W. Dubuque; 51-11.75

2. Dallas McFarland, Linn-Mar; 50-8

Girls shot put

1. Chandler Haight, IC West; 42-10.75

2. Zainab Makky, IC West; 41-8.5

Boys discus

1. Micah Martin, City High; 157-07

2. Blake Ealy, IC West; 150-07

Girls discus

1. Leah Dusterhoft, IC West; 127-08

2. Chandler Haight, IC West; 120-04

Boys high jump

1. Marty Borseth, CR Prairie; 6-1

2. Juma Burnett, City High; 6-0

Girls high jump

1. Rose Gamamou, City High; 5-4

2. Grace Gudenkauf, Dubuque Sr; 5-3

Boys long jump

1. DeAngelo Jackson, Dubuque Sr; 22-11.25

2. Tremaine Hoover, IC West; 20-9.75

Girls long jump

1. Valerie Welch, IC West; 18-7.25

2. Ariana Rolle, Linn-Mar; 17-4.5

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com