Future Iowa roommates Audrey Biermann, Gabby Cortez pick up a Drake Relays flag apiece

DES MOINES — Audrey Biermann and Gabby Cortez will be teammates next year at the University of Iowa.

Roommates, too.

Just imagine some of the late-night dorm-room tales they’ll tell.

Remember that time Audrey anchored the sprint medley relay with a sub-54 leg?

Remember when Gabby answered in the open 400, a few hours later?

“Gabby’s awesome,” Biermann said Friday in the aftermath of the sprint-medley title at the Drake Relays. “I love her already.

“Next year, we’re going to be wearing the same jerseys and it’s going to be awesome.”

For now, enjoy them for what they are ... brilliant high school competitors. They’ll move on to their next chapter soon enough.

Biermann capped Western Dubuque’s sprint-medley triumph in the first girls’ Drake Relays Cup event Friday morning; Ava Ramler, Sammy Recker, Brynn Walters and Biermann were clocked in 1 minute, 46.01 seconds.

Ryann Decker, Asia Russell, Sarah Jordan and Cortez ran 1:47.79 for runner-up Cedar Rapids Prairie.

“I didn’t think Drake was that big of a deal, but we did it,” Walters said. “I was blown away when I saw (Audrey) coming down the stretch.”

Biermann anchored in 53.99 seconds.

“I saw Brynn coming around the corner, and I knew I was going to get the baton before Gabby,” Biermann said. “It gave me confidence that it was going to be a good race.

“I heard her coming, and it made me push harder.”

After the race, Cortez said the result “is going to motivate me for the open 400,” and about 7 1/2 hours (and a couple of catnaps) later, she delivered.

Cortez held off Carlisle’s Ainsley Erzen for the 400 title, running in 56.15 seconds. Erzen finished in 56.18.

“I thought Ainsley got me,” Cortez said. “She was coming at the very end.

“This didn’t feel real. It’s an amazing feeling”

Cortez won two state championships last year. But this was her first Drake flag.

“A lot of it was fixing my mentality,” she said. “That’s more important than physical training. When you get to events like this, mental strength is really important. In the past, I kind of got in my own head and didn’t run my own race.”

English Valleys sophomore Kennedy Axmear pulled the biggest surprise of the Drake high school competition, male or female.

Entering as the No. 11 seed, Axmear won the discus with a fling of 131 feet, 6 inches.

“It hasn’t quite hit me yet. Really, I just wanted to make the finals and finish in the top nine,” she said. “It’s very exciting. I wasn’t coming in here as the top thrower.”

But she left as a champion.

“I kept myself relaxed,” she said. “Usually I get myself all nervous. I treated this as a practice meet.”

Axmear entered the finals in third place, but took the lead for good on her fourth throw.

Iowa City High’s Ani Wedemeyer was third in the 800 meters, finishing in 2:11.16. She was 5-hundredths of a second behind runner-up Clare Kelly of Van Meter.

“I’m really happy with the PR, but (placing) third kind of sucks,” said Wedemeyer, a freshman. “Two quick steps at the end would have made a big difference.”

Erzen was the 800 winner in 2:09.39. Carlisle also got a title from Isabelle Noring in the long jump (18 feet, 1 1/2 inches).

Mackenzie Carney and Natalie Harris of Waukee Northwest went 1-2 in the 100-meter hurdles, and teamed up to win the 800-meter relay.

Holly Duax of Sioux City West was the 100-meter champion.

Drake Relays: Friday’s Girls Results

Discus — 1. Kennedy Axmear (English Valleys), 131-6; 2. Kileigh Lachacz (Dallas Center-Grimes), 129-2; 3. Faith DeRonde (Oskaloosa), 127-11; 4. Breanna Hackman (Nashua-Plainfield), 127-4; 5. Kerrigan Pope (Pekin), 124-9; 6. Lilly Duff (Marshalltown), 124-7; 7. Hannah Baier (Ankeny), 122-2; 8. Taylor Luscomb (Center Point-Urbana), 121-6.

Long jump — 1. Isabelle Noring (Carlisle), 18-1 1/2; 2. 2. Holly Duax (Sioux City West), 17-10 3/4; 3. Molly Joyce (Algona Garrigan), 17-5 1/2; 4. Maleah Walker (Oskaloosa), 17-4 3/4; 5. Reese Brownlee (Clear Lake), 17-3 1/2; 6. Aubree Bell (KP-WC), 17-3; 7. Olivia Tollari (Adel ADM), 17-2 3/4; 8. Carlee Rochford (New Hampton), 16-8.

Sprint medley relay — 1. Western Dubuque (Ramler, Recker, Walters, Biermann), 1:46.01; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie, 1:47.79; 3. Dubuque Wahlert, 1:48.21; 4. Norwalk, 1:48.56; 5. Mid-Prairie, 1:48.97; 6. Ames, 1:49.14; 7. Carlisle, 1:49.32; 8. Waukee Northwest, 1:49.38.

100 hurdles — 1. Mackenzie Carney (Waukee Northwest), 14.43; 2. Natalie Harris (Waukee Northwest), 14.60; 3. Ellie Rickertsen (Northeast), 14.97; 4. Addisyn Terpstra (Newton), 15.09; 5. Darci Wiseman (Winterset), 15.66; 6. Ali Frandsen (Ames), 15.69; 7. Esaba Okwaramoi (West Des Moines Dowling), 15.73; 8. Macy Daufeldt (West Liberty), 15.84.

800 relay — 1. Waukee Northwest (Winter, Carney, Engels, Harris), 1:42.18; 2. Adel ADM, 1:43.62; 3. Ames, 1:44.60; 4. Davenport Assumption, 1:44.99; 5. Solon, 1:45.21; 6. Dubuque Wahlert, 1:45.27; 7. Pella, 1:45.71; 8. Madrid, 1:46.17.

800 — 1. Ainsley Erzen (Carlisle), 2:09.39; 2. Clare Kelly (Van Meter), 2:12.11; 3. Ani Wedemeyer (Iowa City High), 2:12.16; 4. Alli Macke (Ankeny), 2:13.45; 5. Jaidyn Sellers (Panorama), 2:14.09; 6. Kaia Bieker (Harlan), 2:14.21; 7. Emma Bock (Solon), 2:14.33; 8. Ashlyn Keeney (Iowa City Liberty), 2:15.06.

100 — 1. Holly Duax (Sioux City West), 12.42; 2. Claire Farrell (Norwalk), 12.58; 3. Jessica Kyne (Des Moines Hoover), 12.74; 4. Jaidyn Sellers (Panorama), 12.81; 5. Audrey Biermann (Western Dubuque), 12.82; 6. Aubree Bell (KP-WC), 12.91; 7. Avery Horner (Bettendorf), 12.98; 8. Lily Juhnke (Sioux City West), 13.04.

400 — 1. Gabby Cortez (Cedar Rapids Prairie), 56.15; 2. Ainsley Erzen (Carlisle), 56.18; 3. Claire Farrell (Norwalk), 56.39; 4. Mitzi Evans (Mid-Prairie), 56.98; 5. Rylee Steffen (Dubuque Wahlert), 57.05; 6. Audrey Biermann (Western Dubuque), 57.14; 7. Ani Wedemeyer (Iowa City High), 57.21; 8. Emma Bock (Solon), 57.31.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com