High caliber kids, and high caliber showings

(Editor's Note: This week's edition has been updated to reflect the unintended ommission of Kylie Lumino from the state qualifiers mentioned here. Lumino qualified for the IGHSAU girls state golf meet starting Thursday in Cedar Falls. Pen City Current deeply regrets leaving Kylie out of those listed below.)
 “As long as I had an impact on everyone below me, my community, my friends, my family, I won. It doesn’t matter what the time says.”
A profound statement from a kid who just finished his final senior athletic event in a four-year, three-sport career at Fort Madison High School.
Nolan Guzman had just walked off the track Saturday morning after competing in the finals of the boys' 3A open 800 at the Iowa High School Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
He finished 14th in a pretty lofty field that included one of, arguably, the nation’s best prep middle distance runners in Quentin Naumann of Western Dubuque.
Guzman was humble and almost a little at peace after the final run. The senior set a school record in points at Fort Madison High School with 51 this year in a game at home vs. Keokuk. He also qualified for state in cross country as a sophomore with the Bloodhound boys’ team.
Fellow senior Avery Rump, who also competed in Saturday’s all-class event finals in the girls' 1500, was just as mature and humble in her performances.
Both athletes competed in three events at this year’s state meet. Rump ran in the 3000, the distance medley, and the 1500, Guzman ran in the boys' 4x800, the high jump, and the open 800.
Rump smiled through every lap of the 3000 on Thursday and the 1500 on Friday, letting out whoops of celebration crossing the finish line in both events. Rump said after the 1500 she just wanted to do her best, but enjoyed the final four trips around the blue oval.
She did just that – all smiles and a personal best 4:42.80, good enough for sixth place.
Both Rump and Guzman are examples of what it means to be a Fort Madison Bloodhound. We are wrapped in economically-depressed rural Iowa where tax revenues don’t allow for the advanced facilities that these juggernauts in metro Iowa have. Our athletes know we’re going up against the odds when they go to these places to complete against athletes who craft their specialties year-round. Of course, some are multi-sport athletes, but the majority now pick a craft and fine tune it. And then they have state-of-the-art facilities.
Maybe that dynamic alone makes it a little simpler in approaching state contests, but you can’t help but feel for the Fort Madison kids just a little when times at district are a little sandbagged with athletes just trying to finish in the top two without really having to push times. At state, it’s all about times.
Rump said she’s probably run on the blue oval for the last time. That begs the question, 'so you’re saying there’s a chance?' She was quick to say she was probably done running competitively and now she can focus on her college education and running for the pure joy of it.
With the look on her face all day Saturday, she’ll have no trouble finding the joy in it.
Guzman, on the other hand, is off to the St. Ambrose where he will further his track career, trying to become a decathlete for the Spartans.
Guzman said he would give anything to be able to run with the Hounds one more time, but said he’s at peace with the end of his high school career and is looking forward to the next chapter.
It wasn’t just Guzman and Rump making a showing this year. Central Lee’s Aubrey Weber nearly made the medal board after a 17th seeding out of districts. She set the bar pretty high, throwing into the wind at 120’1” with her first throw and changing some strategies. The top 8 throwers got medals, and she finished 9th. She, too, was profoundly happy with her performance and seemed to realized the rare air of the championships.
Charley Huebner snagged the very last 3A girls' spot in the 400 meter dash and cut the field in half with her 12th-place finish. Huebner was disappointed in her finish, despite having run the event just two times – once at districts, and once at state. She’ll get one more try and watch what she does with that.
We had Riley Tripp, Mara Smith, Addison Rump Avery’s twin sister, a sophomore Henry Ireland who’ll miss his teammates, but build on their foundation, Mason McLey and McKayla Schinstock and Mia Mason. All putting in solid performances and pushing season best numbers. Kylie Lumino qualified with her best ever 81 over 18 holes to make it to the girls state golf tournament this week in Cedar Falls.
The point being that we were once again represented by not only high-quality athletes, but high-quality people. That shouldn’t go without saying - and it won’t.
Now we get to see what happens with Rowan Benda being the first Bloodhound to qualify for state in single's tennis, and we get to see what this year’s Hawks will do at state. It's probably the biggest contingency of state-qualifying athletes from the area in quite some time.
And despite the high caliber athletes they will be seeing in the next few days, you probably won’t find higher caliber kids. And I’m not sure that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at. Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.