Wolverines win three medals at state track

DES MOINES - The East Mills boys track team placed 25th at the Iowa State Track and Field Meet in Des Moines this past weekend.

East Mills’ Travis Tupper (left) was eighth in the 200-meters and ninth in the 400-meters at state.

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Fremont-Mills’ Kelsey Hurley (second from left) placed fifth in the 200-meters and added a second-place medal in the high jump.

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Mount Ayr was the boys Class 1A team champion with 77 points.

The Wolverines qualified in five events and came home with medals in three, finishing with nine team points.

“We had a goal of a medal in a relay and an individual event and we got a total of three so I’m very pleased,” said East Mills coach Claude Lang. “We knew we wouldn’t likely be in the team race like we were the last few years but this was a great weekend and a great experience for this team.”

East Mills’ Sam Rew was the team’s top place winner, finishing fourth in the Class 1A high jump with a school record leap of 6 feet, 4 inches. Mitchell Martin of Danville won gold after topping 6 feet, 7 inches.

“He came into this season with three goals: jump five-eight, get his name on a state meet T-shirt and get interviewed,” Lang said. “He topped five-eight at the first meet of the year and I told him, ‘You might want to change your goals.’”

Rew, after barely scratching the surface of his potential as a sophomore, battled all the way to the finals in the Class 1A high jump.

“I knew once he went over six-two, I knew he was in the mix. The fact he got six-four was amazing,” Lang said.

Travis Tupper qualified in two individual events and ran on both of the Wolverines relays. Tupper, a senior, reached the 200-meter finals by just .002 of a second where he placed eighth.

“He got off to a real good start and ran his own race,” Lang said. “I thought he could be eighth or ninth and he made it to the finals in eighth so we were happy. One of our goals coming in was making the finals and getting him a medal.”

Tupper added a ninth-place finish in the 400-meters with a time of 52.03.

The Wolverines’ 4x100-meter relay team of Colton Story, Colby Jennings, Cavin Darnold and anchored by Tupper ran a season-best 44.55 to placed sixth in the finals.

“In the prelims we knew we needed to win our heat and we did that. We held on as the seventh place in the finals,” said Lang. The Wolverines’ hadn’t broken 45 seconds in the event until districts and capped their fifth place medals with the school’s second fastest time ever.

“We could have had little better hand offs but I was really pleased with how we ran,” Lang said.

Tupper also anchored the 4x400-meter relay team of Noah Meyer, Michael Story and Jennings than placed 14th in 3:35.86.

Fremont-Mills finished with four team points to place 34th.

The Knights’ Spencer Phillips placed fifth in the discus with a top throw of 150 feet, 11 inches. The junior added a 17th-place finish in the shot put with a top toss of 44 feet, 8.5 inches.

Fremont-Mills’ freshman Parker Powers was 11th in the high jump with a top leap of 6 feet, 2 inches.

Kelsey Hurley medaled in a pair of individual events and paced the Fremont-Mills girls to a 15th finish at state.

The Knights finished with 15 points. North Linn won the team title with 57 points.

Hurley, a junior, placed fifth in the 200-meters with a time of 26.95 and followed that up with another medal in the high jump. Hurley placed second to champion Caitlin Applegate of G-M-G with a top leap of 5 feet 2 inches.

Hurley was 15th in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash and did not make the finals.

The Knights’ shuttle hurdle relay team of Kalyn Madison, Madison Powers, Andrea McClary and Taryn Williams placed sixth in 1:08.58.

The distance medley ream of Madison, Powers, Hurley and Macy Williams was eighth in 4:22.09.

Taryn Williams, Madison, Powers and Macy Williams combined for 23rd place finish in the sprint medley.

Taryn Williams added an 11th place finish in the long with a top leap of 14 feet, 10 inches and Macy Williams was 15th in the 800-meters.