Jefferson adds a second Drake sprint relay title

DES MOINES — One of Bill Calloway's annual mantras for the Cedar Rapids Jefferson girls' track team is 'Three Days In May.'

The three days that concluded April provided memories, success and promise.

Jefferson claimed its second Drake Relays sprint relay title of the weekend Saturday; MiAsia Bergmann, Abilene Ranschau, Autumn Anderson and Jasmine Blue were 400-meter relay victors in 48.16 seconds.

'I'm happy we got that second flag,' Bergmann said.

Jefferson won the 800-meter relay on Friday. Add a runner-up finish in the sprint medley relay and third place in the 1,600 relay, and that's a medal haul.

It also added up to a third-place finish in the inaugural Hy-Vee High School Cup standings. Davenport Assumption won it with 28 points, followed by Waukee (27) and the J-Hawks (24). And that's considering the 800 relay was not factored into the scoring.

Jefferson was seeded second to Dubuque Wahlert in the 400 relay after Friday's preliminaries, but a bad handoff by the Golden Eagles took them out of the hunt, though they did come back to finish third.

'I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, then I thought, where did Wahlert go?'' Ranschau said.

Contestants of the 400 relay had to stand and wait for about five minutes before the beginning of the race. Bergman stood near the blocks and scanned the stands.

'I was just looking for my parents,' she said.

Anderson, Meredith Koenigsfeld, MaKayla Belew and Blue concluded the J-Hawks' weekend with a school-record effort of 3:56.28 in the 1,600 relay. Pleasant Valley edged Assumption for the title in 3:53.44.

'We had some really good times,' Blue said. 'But we still have lots of things to improve.'

After second-place finishes in the 3,000 and 800, Linn-Mar's Stephanie Jenks ensured she wouldn't go home without a title, claiming the 1,500-meter race for the fourth time, in 4:32.02 — four seconds ahead of the field.

'I've been in the athletic training room, all day, every day,' said Jenks, who has been slowed by a tight hamstring muscle, but was in control throughout Saturday's race. 'I think the officials there were getting tired of me. One of them told me, 'Don't come back.''

A University of California recruit, Jenks concludes her Drake career with nine white flags.

'That makes me feel old,' she said. 'To accomplish that is really special.'

Iowa City West junior Valerie Welch concluded a strong weekend (she won the long jump Friday) with second-place finishes in the 400-meter hurdles and the shuttle hurdle relay.

'It's been exhausting, mentally and physically,' said Welch, who ran the 400 hurdles in 1:02.77. Pleasant Valley's Carly Donahue won it in 1:02.13, one of four titles for Donahue this weekend.

'I knew when I was getting to the 250, (Donahue) was coming up and it was going to be a fight like hell for the win.'

Peyton Steva, Kia Noibi, Grace Young and Welch ran on West's shuttle that finished second to Pleasant Valley's Drake-record effort of 1:02.39.

West's 1:02.96 ranks No. 7 all-time in Iowa.

'We were all hoping to put it together in the same race,' Young said.

DRAKE RELAYS: SATURDAY GIRLS RESULTS

(*Drake record)

3,200 relay — 1. Davenport Assumption (Schumacher, King, Adams, Ripslinger), 9:20.49; 2. Urbandale, 9:23.13; 3. Ames, 9:30.01; 4. Waukee, 9:33.09; 5. Linn-Mar, 9:37.10; 6. Iowa City West, 9:37.36; 7. Dubuque Wahlert, 9:38.92; 8. Muscatine, 9:39.24.

Shuttle hurdle relay — 1. Pleasant Valley (Spelhaug, DeGeorge, Park, Donahue), 1:02.39*; 2. Iowa City West, 1:02.96; 3. Des Moines East, 1:05.52; 4. Waukee, 1:06.83.

1,500 — 1. Stephanie Jenks (Linn-Mar), 4:32.02; 2. Julia Noah (Urbandale), 4:36.09; 3. Elyse Prescott (Urbandale), 4:36.78; 4. McKenzie Yanek (Pleasant Valley), 4:39.31; 5. Abby Kohut-Jackson (Ballard), 4;40.72; 6. Julia Schumacher (Davenport Assumption), 4:42.48; 7. Jordan Winke (Albia), 4:42.91; 8. Anna Hostetler (Mid-Prairie), 4:43.65.

400 hurdles — 1. Carly Donahue (Pleasant Valley), 1:02.13; 2. Valerie Welch (Iowa City West), 1:02.77; 3. Skyler Shellmyer (Urbandale), 1:03.11; 4. Molly Dean (Glenwood), 1:03.22; 5. Desirae Moss (Des Moines Roosevelt), 1:04.97; 6. Aleenah Marcucci (Northeast), 1:05.67; 7. Mary Gray (Waukee), 1:06.00; 8. Jayci Vos (Monroe PCM), 1:06.43.

400 relay — 1. Cedar Rapids Jefferson (Bergmann, Ranschau, Anderson, Blue), 48.16; 2. Waukee, 48.39; 3. Dubuque Wahlert, 48.72; 4. Des Moines East, 48.82; 5. Davenport Assumption, 49.56; 6. Ames, 49.62; 7. Bettendorf, 49.92; 8. Des Moines Roosevelt, 50.44.

1,600 relay — 1. Pleasant Valley (Conahue, Spelhaug, Tebbe, Swanson), 3:53.44; 2. Davenport Assumption, 3:53.51; 3. Cedar Rapids Jefferson, 3:56.28; 4. Southeast Polk, 3:57.89; 5. Waukee, 3:58.15; 6. Johnston, 3:59.31; 7. Decorah, 4:02.61; 8. Linn-Mar, 4:05.14.

Hy Vee H.S. Cup standings (top 8) — 1. Davenport Assumption 28, 2. Waukee 27, 3. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 24, 4. Ames 14, 5. Dubuque Wahlert 12, 6. Pleasant Valley 11, 7. (tie) Southeast Polk and Urbandale 8.

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