Richardson, Russell grab pair of state medals, lead Baxter at state track meet

DES MOINES — Matt Richardson put his arms in the air and crossed the finish line of the Class 1A 3,200-meter run with a big smile on his face.

The Baxter senior smashed his school record and finished inside the top eight for the first time in his career.

And then he completed his big weekend with a second third-place finish in the 1,600 two days later.

“I just thought about all the work over the past four years and what a way to end it,” Richardson said about putting his arms in the air. “I was just really excited.”

The excitement came after posting a career-best and school-record time of 9 minutes, 33.52 seconds in the 3,200.

It was good enough for third and he ran with North Iowa’s Gavin Grunhovd and English Valleys’ Gage Heyne for most of the race.

That trio finished 1-2-3 in both distance races and Baxter sophomore Max Handorf grabbed his first state medal on Saturday when he crossed the finish line fourth in the 1,600.

“I think I probably should have just went with the group of three in front instead of staying behind Matthew Shaul,” Handorf said after the 1,600. “I had a lot left. I think I could have been on the podium if I did that. Other than that, great race.”

Richardson and Handorf grabbed the only three state medals for the Baxter boys during the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium.

The Baxter girls were headlined by junior Camryn Russell, who grabbed her first state medals in both the long jump and the 100 hurdles.

“It feels good,” Russell said. “I saw (Richardson) medaled so I had to get one, too.”

Richardson and Handorf competed in the 3,200 on Thursday. They also both ran on the 4x800 relay team that day and Makayla True competed in the 3,000.

Baxter’s shuttle hurdle relay team took to the blue oval late Thursday night but advanced to Saturday’s final in seventh.

Richardson’s third-place finish in the 3,200 was clocked in 9:33.52. Handorf placed 11th in 9:53.75. The final medal time was 9:51.26 and Grunhovd (9:22.99) and Heyne (9:29.86) went 1-2.

“Last year I went out too fast. I used a moderate pace this year and tried to stick with the lead pack as much as I could,” Richardson said. “(Grunhovd) broke off so I just tried to stay with (Heyne) the rest of the way. It worked out pretty good. He got me the last 50 meters.”

Before the boys ran in the 3,200, True competed in the 1A girls 3,000. She was 21st overall with 11:47.78.

The final state medal time was 10:52.89 and the 1A 3,000 state champion was Lili Denton of Council Bluffs St. Albert. She won the race in 9:42.04.

“She went out wanting to run aggressively and improve her incoming seed,” Baxter head girls track and field coach Josh Russell said.

“I thought she ran well against tough competition.”

Handorf and Richardson teamed up with a pair freshmen in the 4x800 relay. The quartet of Maddux Tuhn, Handorf, Hayden Burdess and Richardson placed 17th in 8:38.23. They needed a time better than 8:23.49 to earn a state medal and Oakland Riverside won the race in 8:01.86.

Sidney Hibbs competed at the state meet for the first time in the 100 and placed 22nd in 13.5 seconds. The top eight times in all preliminary events advance to Saturday’s finals.

Baxter’s girls competed in the shuttle hurdle relay in one of Thursday’s final races. The Bolts used Kamdyn Krampe, Kendall Brummel, Grace Anderegg and Camryn Russell to place seventh in the prelims.

The quartet posted a season-best and school-record time of 1:10.22 but did not earn a medal after being disqualified in Saturday’s final.

“The goal was to be competing on Saturday in the finals and they achieved that,” Coach Russell said. “All four girls had solid splits leading to a great run in the prelims to set a new school record and we really felt good about our chances in the finals to improve our seed time. That race is chaos and it bit us in the finals. We had one of our runners clip a hurdle and stumble causing us to DQ.

“Unfortunately, that is part of the race sometimes. While the outcome on Saturday stings, I’m confident our hurdlers will be back next year and grow from the experience from this weekend.”

Camryn Russell and Eli Dee both participated in the long jump on Thursday.

Russell scored her first state medal after a sixth-place finish. A leap of 16 feet, 3 1/4 inches got her into the finals and a 16-8 1/4 on her final attempt moved her up to sixth.

She also had marks of 15-7 1/4 and 15-10 in the prelims and leaps of 15-9 1/4 and 16-1 1/4 in the finals.

Ella Whitney of Wayne won the state title with a leap of 17-5 3/4 and Madrid’s Paige Richards was the runner-up with a jump of 17-5 1/4.

“I just tried to run really fast and not hold back,” Camryn Russell said about needing a big jump in the prelims to advance and a big jump in the finals to move up the standings. “I knew I could do it. I just had to actually do it.

“I feel like when I need a big jump I go out faster so to make sure I didn’t scratch I went back a half a shoe to give myself more room.”

Dee placed 19th in the 1A boys long jump. His best leap was 19-5 3/4. He fouled once and had another jump of 18-11.

The Bolts opened Friday with the boys distance medley relay. A dropped baton on the first exchange set Baxter back and it finished 23rd with a time of 3:49.33.

That quartet was Lincoln Betterton, Logan Rainsbarger, Dee and Richardson.

Rainsbarger competed in the 110 high hurdles shortly after Camryn Russell was in the 100 hurdles.

Russell qualified for the finals with a 16.06 in the prelims. She was seventh and eighth went 16.07. In the finals, Russell stayed seventh with a 16.22.

This was the first time since 2021 the girls team scored points at the state meet and they scored the most since 2018.

“She was clutch in long jump,” Coach Russell said about Camryn Russell. “Her back was against the wall to make it out of prelims and again to earn a medal. Each time she responded with a jump to get what she needed. She had two solid races in the 100 hurdles and to come away with a medal in that race was one of her season goals. All the 1A hurdle events were deep this year so to be able to make finals at all was a testament to her efforts all year.”

Rainsbarger’s time in the prelims of the 110 highs was 16.04. He finished 22nd and needed a 15.15 to advance to the finals.

Camryn Russell and Avery Wonders completed Friday’s slate. Russell was 22nd in the 400 hurdles and Wonders placed 20th in the high jump.

Russell was clocked in a career-best 1:09.6. She needed a 1:06.66 to grab a top-eight medal and Ada Hansen of CAM won the race in 1:02.97.

Wonders cleared 4-10 in the high jump. Nine jumpers hit 5-0 but only four earned a state medal. HLV/TC’s Ema Roberts won her second straight state title with a leap of 5-9 1/2.

Richardson and Handorf completed their big weekends on Saturday.

Handorf started the day with a 10th-place finish in the 800. He now has the school record after becoming the first Bolt to go under 2 minutes in the event.

His time was 1:58.97 but needed a 1:58.03 to grab the final state medal. Winfield-Mount Union’s Kohlby Newsom won the race in 1:53.83.

“My plan was to split it up into 400s,” Handorf said. “The first 400 I wanted to go out in 58 seconds exactly. I was able to do that. Then at the 200 mark, I looked up at the clock and saw 1:27. I just had to finish that. I must have closed in 32ish. My goal coming in was to break 2:00 and get that record.

“(Richardson) told me I could have them after he graduates, but I’m just glad I got one before he left. I love to compete with him.”

Richardson and Handorf both set career-best times in the 1,600. They ran with the lead pack the entire way and finished third and fourth, respectively.

Richardson was third in a school-record time of 4:21.35 and Handorf’s fourth-place time was clocked in 4:24.97.

Grunhovd (4:17.81) and Heyne (4:19) were 1-2 again.

“It feels great. I’ve always wanted a state medal,” Handorf said. “This was a great way to finish the season.”

Notes: The Baxter girls can bring back three athletes from the shuttle hurdle relay as Brummel is exiting the district for Marshalltown next season. The boys 4x800 relay team loses Richardson and the distance medley quartet graduates Richardson and Rainsbarger. … Richardson said if someone would have told freshman year Matt that he would win two medals and place third in both the 1,600 and 3,200 at state his senior year, he would not have believed them. “He would think you’re stupid,” Richardson said. “There’s no way I thought I could do it back then. This feels awesome.”