'Go, go, go' for West's Gehrke

CEDAR FALLS - Jessica Gehrke runs like a prized automobile.  She has the speed of a Porsche and the elegance of a Rolls-Royce. But the Iowa City West junior lacks something those cars possess - cruise control.

“It's always go, go, go,” Gehrke said.

It was no different Tuesday when she displayed her wheels on the UNI-Dome track. Gehrke sped to two individual titles and contributed to a championship relay at the A.D. Dickinson girls state indoor track meet.

“She did a great job,” West Coach Mike Parker said. “Everything she's doing is what we expected of Jessica, and that's to be as good as anybody.”

Even away from competition, she has a similar approach,

“I'm a big competitor in pretty much everything,” Gehrke said. “I still try to have fun no matter what I'm doing.”

The powerful sprinter's explosiveness is matched by few. Parker said it's a “good combination” of natural ability and hard work.

“Obviously, she's just a naturally talented athlete,” Parker said. “That's always good to see, but we have respect for people that train like animals and she does.”

West has had elite competitors with multiple state titles serve as leaders, and Gehrke is playing that role now. Parker said Gehrke hasn't missed one off-season workout and called her a strong leader by example and a good teammate.

“I work as hard as I do as a meet in practice,” Gehrke said. “I always give my all.”

Gehrke's trophy case was missing an individual state title.

She'd shared in team and relay state titles. She captured her first solo crown Tuesday, accelerating to the 60-meter dash title in 7.81 seconds.

She improved her qualifying time by .02 seconds, after being the only runner to break the 8-second mark in prelims.

“I worked really hard for that,” Gehrke said. “I worked on my blocks to get faster and then keep my speed. Keep pushing down the whole runway.”

The full-throttle attitude was displayed when she finished the 60 and almost immediately reported to the long jump area for the final flight.

She wasted little time, jumping 18 feet, 3 1/4 inches on her first attempt.

Waukee's Ar'tiana Black-Scott took the lead with a jump of 18-4 1/2, but Gehrke responded on her final jump with a personal best 18-10.

“It felt great,” Gehrke said. “It was really important for me, because it showed my mental toughness.”

She gathered her thoughts before the final try with a goal of 18-9.

“I just said, ‘Go for it. Do my best,'” Gehrke said. “I really wanted to get that jump in.”

Gehrke anchored the winning 800 relay team with a 24-second split, helping Brooke Ludvicek, Shahana Williams and Morgan Roskos to a time of 1:46.23.

“it was really exciting,” Gehrke said. “I was really ready today. I just felt great.”

Few motors can run as high or hard as Gehrke's. The never-slow-down traits seem natural to her.

“I don't think it's very hard for me because I'm a very competitive person,” Gehrke said. “Especially when I go from event to event and I have that adrenaline, it kind of keeps going the whole day.”

The day was filled with top performances.

A Mount Vernon foursome of Holly Salzbrenner, Emily Ryan, Alex Wilson and Karly Cochrane won the 3,200 relay in 9:30.20. West had raced to a big lead, but the Mustangs raced to the title with an impressive anchor-leg by Cochrane, who caught and passed the Women of Troy.

Dike-New Hartford's Hannah Willms wowed the crowd by winning the high jump at 6-0 1/4, the top prep height in the country this season and in the top 10 at all levels of female competition.