Hawk girls win 4x100 relay to qualify for state

BELLE PLAINE — Lynnville-Sully’s girls know one foursome will be at the state track meet next week. The Hawks won the 4x100-meter relay at Thursday’s Class 1A state qualifying meet hosted by Belle Plaine.

“We had the best exchanges on the season. The girls ran a very clean race and had a convincing victory,” Lynnville-Sully girls’ head coach Darin Arkema said.

Lydia Akergen, Makenzy Rozendaal, Camryn Russell and Brenna Lanser posted a winning time of 52.63 seconds. The foursome will be competing in next week’s 2017 Iowa High School State Track and Field Championship meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

It is the only automatic qualifier the Hawk girls had in a meet they almost won. BGM claimed the team championship with 82 points with Lynnville-Sully in second with 78 points, Belle Plaine in third with 75.5 points, Grundy Center in fourth with 71 and Montezuma with 69 points for fifth. There were 15 teams competing.

In Class 1A, the top place winner in each event from each qualifying meet advances to the state meet. Then the next 14 best performances statewide from qualifying meets advance.

Lynnville-Sully set two school records, both coming in hurdle events. They had a second-place finish and five third-place finishes. Abby Gruver set the L-S record in the 400-meter hurdles. She ripped off a 1:09.36 to claim second in the 400 hurdles and Ashton Thompson finished seventh in 1:17.03.

Gruver combined with Lanser, Russell and Mallory Loftus to set a school record time of 1:10.54 for third place in the shuttle hurdle relay race. Lanser finished third in the 100 hurdles in 17.45 seconds and Russell was sixth in 18.18 seconds.

The Hawks are in a holding pattern waiting to see if anyone else moves on to the state meet. A complete list of Class 1A state meet qualifiers will be released Friday by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.

“This was an awesome night of competition by the Hawks. The challenge at the beginning of the night was for the girls to get out and be their best,” Arkema said. “They put a focused effort into doing what we do and the necessary things that are going to help us succeed.”

The same foursome from the 4x100 relay teamed up for the 4x200 relay race and finished third in 1 minute, 50.78 seconds.

Loftus was third in the 400 meters in 1:04.82. She also took fourth in the high jump, clearing the bar at 4 feet, 10 inches. Jelissa Rozendaal was fourth in the shot put with a toss of 32-9.

Finishing third was the 4x800 rely team of Haley Breeden, Kennedy Roland, Emily Van Gorp and Thompson in season’s-best time of 11:26.44. The 4x400 relay foursome of Loftus, Hailey Scandridge, Gruver and Breeden was fifth in 4:41.75.

Makayla Rozendaal placed fourth in the 3,000 meters in 12:58.08 and Christine Nikkel finished sixth in 13:24.90. Rozendaal ran sixth in the 1,500 in 5:59.18.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our team, for their hard work through the season, and stepping up in the biggest moment,” Arkema said. “We look forward to hopefully having a good number of events at the state meet participating next weekend. Always a special and exciting three days to conclude the season.”

The all-class state track meet is Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Drake University’s stadium

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
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