Two Chiefs and a Hound medal Friday

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

DES MOINES - Keokuk High School's Miracle Ailes added to her 2019 medal count, while teammate Braylon Edwards and Fort Madison's Quentin Schneider grabbed their first medal ever during Friday action at the 2019 Iowa State Track meet.

Schneider pulled away around the final corner on the blue oval at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on his way to a 55.62 time in the Class 3A 400-hurdles.

The time was a personal best for Schneider on a cool, rainy day that started an hour late due to inclement weather. It was his first trip to state since his freshman year where he ran with the Bloodhounds distance medley team.

Keokuk's Braylon Martinez lands on his first attempt in the boys 3A long jump Friday afternoon at the Iowa State Track Meet in Des Moines. Martinez finished in 7th place overall. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

"It felt really good," he said "It was raining and it didn't really affect me. I told myself that it was affecting everyone the same way so just go out and run."

Schneider said he felt if he could win his heat, he would have a decent shot a medaling. He had the top time through two of the three 3A heats, and after the race, turned to watch the final heat come down the back stretch with times in the 54-second range. He then looked to the video board and watched times come off and saw his time was 7th best, prompting a wide smile.

"That was my goal, I wanted to just come up here and place. I wanted to win the heat so that was I tried to do. I knew if won the heat, I could probably catch a place," he said.

"I just wanted to give it my all. It was my last race of the year and I gave it everything I had."

Ailes, just a sophomore, said her counting was off a bit in the finals of the long jump, but she was looking forward to working on the event in the off-season and having better results next year.

The Chiefs' Miracle Ailes takes off on her second attempt in the girls 3A long jump. Ailes best jump was 16'5" good enough for a fourth place medal on Friday. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Dubuque Wahlert's Aliyah Carter set a new meet record on her first jump of her flight with 18' 8.5".

During the finals Ailes took off on her last two leaps prior to the board and ended up with sub 16-foot jumps.

"I'm not supposed to look down and I was counting in my head and I think I just got off on my counting," she said.

"But I'm going to keep working on this in camps during the summer and off-season and I think next year can be a very good year for me in this event."

Ailes won the girls 3A state high jump event on Thursday and will be searching for a couple more medals in Saturday where she will compete in the finals of the 100 and 200-meter dash beginning at 11:45. The Saturday schedule has been moved up to an 8 a.m start time instead of 9 to avoid additional inclement weather.

Martinez made to the finals after qualifying in the top 8 in the 3A boys long jump with a leap of 20' 3.25" in the first flight, which was long enough to win the flight and qualify him for the finals. He fouled on his second two leaps, but of which were under 20'.

The Keokuk boys 4x200 team of Martinez, Cory Skinner, Dylan Jeffers and Anthony Potratz, didn't medal after finishing 6th in the second heat with a time of 1:33.73, about a second off their fastest time of the season. The 8th place team, Harlan, medaled with a 1:32.7

Keokuk's Anthony Potratz takes a hand off from Dylan Jeffers on the final leg of the 3A boys 4x200 relay in a heavy rain Friday at Drake Stadium as part of the 2019 Iowa State Track and Field Meet in Des Moines. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

"It just didn't work out for us, said Potratz, who ran the final leg of relay for the Chiefs. "The only thing that changes is there's people in front of us here and I just think I gotta go catch 'em now. That's the only thing that changes...we just have to chase them here."

Skinner said the team's best time of the year was 1:32.70, and they would have needed that performance to medal.

"This is definitely an atmosphere change. These are teams we've never seen before... and they run fast," Skinner said.

Saturday's events have been moved up one hour due to incoming inclement weather so Ailes will compete for the 100-meter dash title at approximately 11:50 a.m. and the 200-meter dash at about 1 p.m.

Fort Madison's Matt Hellige will be running in the boys 3A mile run with a projected start time of 1:25 p.m.

2019 Iowa State Track meet, Braylon Martinez, Des Moines, iowa, Keokuk, Miracle Ailes, Pen City Current, quentin schneider

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