Shuttle hurdlers fall; Martinez just misses 100 finals

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BY ETHAN LILLARD
PCC SPORTS

DES MOINES - After running in the second heat of the girls class 3A 4x100-shuttle hurdle relay Thursday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, each girl on Fort Madison's team took time to give each other a hug, knowing their season had come to an end.

The Bloodhound team of Reyna Lampe, Taylor Barnes, Olivia Williams and Raquel Schneider, finished in 4th place with a 1:12.21 in the 2nd heat of the Class 3A shuttle hurdle relay event at the 2019 Iowa State Track meet.

Central Lee's shuttle hurdle team of Hailey Tweedy, Abby Wellman, Sydney Jones and Zoe Eschman were saddled with the same fate finishing fourth in the second heat of the girls 2A shuttle hurdle prelims with a time of 1:14.47.

Even at Fort Madison's 1:10.37 mark at the state qualifier Friday, the girls would still not have qualified as they would have needed a 1:07.84 to get to Saturday's finals.

"I feel like we didn't run as well as we did Friday at districts, but we still ran pretty well," Fort Madison senior Olivia Williams said. "We usually run 1:15 and we still beat that."

Central Lee's Abby Wellman runs past Sydney Jones as Jones takes off in the 2nd heat of the 2A girls Shuttle Hurdle relay prelims Thursday in Des Moines. The girls failed to qualify for Saturday's finals finishing fourth in their heat. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC
Fort Madison freshman Raquel Schneider flies over a hurdle in the Bloodhounds 3A girls shuttle hurdle preliminaries. The Hounds finished fourth in their heat and missed putting up a qualifying time for Saturday's final. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

With Williams standing as the lone senior for the Hounds 4x100 shuttle hurdle team, the rest of the squad is confident they will be at Drake Stadium together next season.

"It really was an experience," sophomore Lampe said. "We'll be back next year. We're going to work hard next season and place higher."

Central Lee's Tweedy said the goal for the squad was to come up and represent Central Lee well.

"We just wanted to come up here, not get disqualified and make Central Lee proud," Tweedy said.

"We didn't run our best race, but I think we represented the school well."

Keokuk's Tyjai Mueller cleared his first leap in the Class 3A high jump at 5'9", but then kept favoring his left leg. He said he's been having meniscus issues throughout the year. Ar each leap, he would roll gently off the mat and limp back to a seat.

Mueller cleared his leap at 5'9", but then struck out at 5'11" as he struggled with the leg.

"I've been having meniscus problems on and off through the year," Mueller said. "Today's it's just really bad for me so I don't have any power or drive or anything, but I didn't let that stop me from trying to compete. I tried to push through and I couldn't get 5'11.

Mueller's struggle with the leg was evident looking back at his state qualifying leap of 6'2" at districts last week. He said now it was time to be cheerleader for the other's still competing.

"It was really great seeing all the athletes and competitors around the state of Iowa. It was awesome. I'm looking forward to watching everyone else compete in their jumps and races."

The Chief's then sent junior Braylon Martinez to the blocks in the 100-meter dash preliminaries. Martinez took second in the first heat with an 11.39, but missed qualifying for Saturday's finals by just .08 seconds with the cutoff being 11.31. SB-Luton's Jorma Schwedler had the day's fastest time running in Martinez' heat with a 10.87.

Braylon Martinez (far right) motors to a 2nd-place finish in the first heat of the boys 3A 100-meter dash preliminaries Thursday afternoon at the 2019 Iowa State Track meet in Des Moines. Martinez missed qualifying by .08 seconds. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Martinez said he had trouble getting going.

"My start was bad coming out of the blocks," Martinez said. "I knew I got out bad and then I started pushing. It wasn't until about half way through the race that I felt I caught my stride."

Martinez has had a stellar year qualifying for the Drake Relays and now for the state meet. He will take to the blue oval tomorrow as part of the Chiefs 4x200 relay team and will also compete in the boys 3A long jump on Friday.

The Chief's Lindsay Campbell ran in the girls 3A 100 in a separate heat from teammate Miracle Ailes, who qualified for the finals on Saturday. Campbell took 5th in the first heat with a 13.20. The qualifying cutoff was 12.87.

Keokuk's Miracle Ailes breaks the line in the 100-meter dash 3A preliminaries Thursday afternoon. Ailes won the heat and qualified for Saturday's finals. Ailes also qualified in the 200 and won the 3A championship in the girls high jump. Photo by Ethan Lillard/PCC

On tap for Friday, the Keokuk Chiefs team of Martinez, Dylan Jeffers, Corey Skinner and Anthony Potratz will run in the 4x200 relay at about 12:15. Martinez will take off in the long jump at 9 a.m. and Ailes will handle the long jump for the girls beginning at 11:30.

Fort Madison junior Quentin Schneider will go up against the best in the state in the 400 hurdles at approximately 11:30. Schneider's sister Brett placed in the same event last year.

PCC Editor Chuck Vandenberg contributed to this report

Keokuk's Lindsay Campbell, right, completes a fifth place run in the 100-meter girls 3A preliminary heats Thursday afternoon. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC


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