Reynolds run supreme

DES MOINES — Mount Ayr sophomore Ryce Reynolds knew as soon as he crossed the finish line with arms extended that he won his first state championship.

With a personal record and school record of 49.22 seconds in the single lap event, .53 seconds faster than Theo Moseman of Lawton-Bronson, Reynolds earned a gold medal in the 400 meter dash on Thursday.

“I can’t imagine a better feeling in the world,” Reynolds said. “I crossed that finish line and it was just instant feeling of joy and pride. I couldn’t have been prouder of myself this season.

Reynolds’ time, had he run in class 4A, would’ve been good for runner-up honors to Ankeny’s Tyrese Miller who ran a 48.71 lap time.

“You kind of look up to them in a way,” Reynolds said. “Like, how can I run that or how can I do that better?”

From start to finish in the single lap event, Reynolds ran about 18.18 mph.

“We do 40s throughout the school year to get your top miles an hour, flying 10s all that stuff,” Reynolds said. “My top miles an hour is 20.3 or 20.2. That’s amazing I can keep that up for a full 400.”

Friday morning saw more electricity from the Raider speedster as again Reynolds won a gold medal in the same distance, but standing in Reynolds’ way were 10 hurdles at 30″ in height.

“As a sophomore, I’d be proud if I was running the times I am as a senior,” Reynolds said.

On a day that was about 25 degrees cooler, and conditions that were on again off again sprinkles, Reynolds PR’d with a time of 53.03 seconds.

“The weather is a little bit different today than it was yesterday,” Reynolds said. “Different for the better. Running in the heat kind of zaps you, the sun zaps you and then just sitting in that all day was tough to go out and do what I did in the 400.”

Reynolds, who didn’t focus intently on hurdles prior to this season for a couple years was shy when it came to taking part in the event.

“I did a little bit of hurdle work in middle school but I didn’t have an eighth grade season due to COVID,” Reynolds said. “Coming into my freshman year, I had always heard that the 400 hurdles was the worst race there is. I was definetly timid to tell coach I did run hurdles in middle school, knowing he might put me in that race. It’s a great race and I love it.”

“This right here,” Reynolds added regarding perfect weather conditions. “No wind, it’s nice enough to run and I’m not sweating or anything.”

Raiderette senior Ady, who is the older sister to Ryce, brought back three silver medals to Ringgold County.

Reynolds placed second in the Sprint Medley Relay (along with Kaylie Shields, Payten Lambert and Jaxy Knight), the 200 meter dash and the 400 meter dash.

Reynolds opened her championships with a 58.28 second time in the open 400.

“Definetly a love hate,” Reynolds said of her relationship with the event.

Mount Ayr coach Brad Elliott was excited with all things on day one, including the shuttle hurdle who finished 11th with a time of 1:11.24.

“Shuttle hurdle was nice, that was a great time for us,” Elliott said. “We improved our position two spots. Excellent race for those girls (Madalynn Stewart, Kacee Klommhaus, Tegan Streit and Ryleigh Haveman), They dropped time throughout the season. We knew we needed to run a season best to even have a shot at competing up here.”

Creston’s lone qualifier was the boys distance medley relay, comprised of Casen Dryden, Payton Conley, Xander Drake and Brandon Briley, which finished sixth in their heat and 21st overall with a time of 3:50.06.

“We’re lucky that we made it here,” Conley said. “We put in a lot of work all season to get to this point. It’s not the outcome we wanted, but we tried our best and that’s all that matters.”

Pride of Iowa schools

Despite having a single state champion at state, the Lenox Tigers had many earn their stripes at state, as well.

The “Bleached Boyz” quartet of Gabe Funk, Conner Fitzgerald, Trenton Beck and Johnathan Weaver placed third in their Shuttle Hurdle Preliminary and won it all on Saturday with a time of 1:00.39.

“I wanted to give Fitzgerald shot to get the lead, I just had to get out fast,” Funk said.

Funk, who is a freshman, and both Fitzgerald and Weaver, seniors, both got to enjoy their first state title at vastly different points in the high school career.

“I haven’t (won a state title),” Weaver said. “It feels great to end my career with a title.”

Junior Cadence Douglas, who won the state title last year, won a silver medal after a seven round jump off to North Union’s Sam Nielsen.

The record for jump offs, nine, lives to see another year.

“I’m still excited because I got my PR today,” Douglas said. “I can always come back next year.”

Douglas set a personal record of 5-3, and narrowly missed setting a school record at 5-4.

Freshman Sadie Cox had a busy weekend with a 27.88 200 meter dash, a PR of 1:01.51 in the 400 meter dash, 15-9.75 in the long jump and a 1:58.19 in the sprint medley relay with her teammates Gabby Robles, Zoey Reed and Brooklyn Ecklin.

Ecklin also ran in the 100 Meter Dash, where she finished 21st with a time of 13.879.

Samson Adams tied for 14th in the high jump with Southwest Valley’s Marshall Knapp with a height of 5-10.

Devin Whipple finished 17th in the discus throw, and had a best toss of 133-8.

East Union senior Wyatt Carlson finished fifth in the long jump with a best leap of 21-3.

“I broke the school record today by quite a bit, eight inches I’d say,” Carlson said. “I think the record was set in the 1980s.”

Carlson, a Central College baseball commit, did track and field as well as golf this spring.

“I did both each day,” Carlson said. “Golf during school when I have open blocks and track after.”

Emma Cooper, a sophomore Timberwolf, made history at the Blue Oval for her high school as the first girls medalist in Southwest Valley history.

Cooper’s second jump, a 16-3.75, landed her a sixth place medal.

“I’m just really happy to be here,” Cooper said. “Long jump was great, I didn’t expect to medal, so medaling means a lot to me.”

In the open 100, Cooper finished 22nd with a PR of 13.93.

“The 100, I knew I wasn’t going to medal but it was a really good experience,” Cooper said.

Her coach, Jason Hults, is very proud of her attitude and effort.

“She jumped really well all day, and was very consistent on the board, with just one scratch on her second jump in the finals,” Hults said. “I was very proud of her and how she handled all the distractions that come with making it the the state track meet for the first time. She was very focused all week in practice and had a great attitude going in to the meet.”

Maroonette qualifies

Diagonal, the smallest public school in the state that doesn’t share a track and field team with another school, saw Taylor Lumbard finish 19th in the shot put with a throw of 33-03.

Lumbard, a junior, is the first state qualifier from Diagonal since Maddie Lohmann qualified in 2016.

“It’s crazy, all the support from everyone, obviously it doesn’t happen very often because it’s been six years,” Lumbard said.

Many Diagonal community members, all wearing maroon shirts with an outline of someone throwing shot on the front of the shirt, were in attendance.

Lumbard didn’t get a shirt when Lohmann qualified but finally has one with her name on it.

“I love it,” Lumbard said. “Especially because I have a coach who is like we worked for this and it doesn’t have his name on it but he definitely helped me get here. It shows that I worked for this.”

Walking over to the throwing events location, there was a Thomas Saf-T-Liner® C2 bus that read Diagonal Community School District on the side.

“After I threw, just the middle schoolers that came on the bus the ‘Yeah Taylor, you got it!,’ the support from them knowing I have everyone’s support because everyone came was great,” Lumbard said.

At Diagonal, the throwing program took a step up this spring with the installment of an actual place to practice.

“This year we finally installed a shot put ring,” head coach Zach Robinson said. “The community support helped us build that this year. As you can tell it’s panned out for our athlete in Lumbard.”