Linn-Mar’s 90 not quite enough

DES MOINES - Expecting a woe-is-us sob story from the Linn-Mar Lions after their quest for Metro history came up short? Sorry to disappoint.

'We gave it our best effort. We gave it everything we could,” Amber Decker said. 'We did something Linn-Mar has never done.”

Led by Stephanie Jenks' all-time Iowa best effort in the 1,500-meter run, Linn-Mar piled up 90 points at the state track and field meet. But Pleasant Valley scored 99 and grabbed the Class 4A girls' team title Saturday at Drake Stadium.

'I'm really, really proud,” said senior Maddie Saville. 'My freshman year, I think we scored five points. I never imagined we would come so far.”

The Lions entered Saturday with the lead, but Pleasant Valley was a little too deep. As a result, the first girls' state championship for a Metro school will have to wait at least another year.

Linn-Mar's runner-up finish is the best by a Metro school since Cedar Rapids Jefferson was second in 1981.

Already the holder of the 3,000 all-time Iowa best, Jenks put another record in her collection, cooking through the 1,500 in 4 minutes, 27.76 seconds.

The former mark was 4:28.30, set by Katie Flood of West Des Moines Dowling in 2010. The state-meet record was 4:29.97, by Shelby Houlihan of Sioux City East in 2011.

'Katie and Shelby, they were my idols growing up,” said Jenks, who won the 800 earlier in the day in 2:11.09. 'I saw the scoreboard and I was 13 seconds from the record, and I thought I was too far out. But I kept digging.”

Jenks, a junior who won three titles this week and has eight in her career, will compete in a high school girls' invitational mile at the Prefontaine Invitational next week at Eugene, Ore.

Cedar Rapids Jefferson's Abilene Ranschau earned a pair of titles Saturday. The first came as a solo job, winning the 100-meter hurdles in 14.96 seconds (Valerie Welch of Iowa City West was next, in 15.06).

'My coach calls me a big, tough sprinter, because I do stuff other people won't do,” Ranschau said.

Like what?

'Like jump over things.”

Ranschau said she felt 'nice and loose, ready to go” before the race.

'In warmups, I knew I was ready when I was going through my trail-leg and lead-leg drills,” she said.

The weekend was a mixed bag for Jefferson's blazing sprinters. After an all-time Iowa best in the 800 relay on Friday, the J-Hawks settled for second in 1:45.06 in the sprint medley relay - Pleasant Valley set an all-time Iowa record of 1:44.89.

Those same J-Hawks - Lucy Schneekloth, Ranschau, Morgan Meese and Jasmine Blue - claimed the 400 relay in 47.97, but weren't overwhelmed with the accomplishment.

'It's kind of bittersweet,” said Meese, a senior along with Schneekloth. 'I wish we had one more year together. We'd been working all season for the last three days. We wanted to win that sprint medley, but with the time we ran, we can't be too upset.”

Linn-Mar was second to Pleasant Valley in the 1,600 relay. The Spartans ran 3:53.52; the Lions 3:55.10.

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