High School Track and Field
The 2023 State Track and Field Meet is complete and here are the highlights from our local teams.
For the Mt. Pleasant boys’ team, Will Davidson grabbed 14 of the Panthers’ 19 points with a 2nd place finish in the 110 meter hurdles, tallying a time of 14.33 seconds, and with a time of 54.13 seconds Davidson finished in 3rd place in the 400 meter hurdles.
The Panthers provided a strong field game with an 8th place finish from Isaac Jerrel in the shot put with a heave of 51 feet 3.25 inches, and a 5th place finish in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet 7.75 inches from Avin Truong.
AJ Bonnensen of Danville finished with a school record in the 3200 meter run and a state championship with a time of 9 minutes and 10 seconds. He followed that up with a 2nd place finish in the 1600 meter run with a time of 4 minutes and 21 seconds.
For the girls’ team of Danville, Alaina Gourley grabbed an 8th place finish in the 400 meter dash with a time of 58.79 seconds.
Winfield-Mt. Union had their own state champion in the long jump as Cam Buffington leaped 21 feet 8 inches to take the win. Gabriel Hemsworth grabbed a point for the Wolves with an 8th place finish in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 55.42 seconds.
The WACO boys’ team was led by Oleh Shtefanchuk’s 3rd place finish in the discus with a throw of 158 feet 2 inches. Simeon Reichenbach took 7th place in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.48 seconds. Reichenbach leaped 20 feet 7.75 inches in the long jump to finish in 6th place.
Kade Benjamin of New London defended his championship in the high jump as he cleared 6 feet 7 inches. Rylan Martin finished in 3rd place for the 800 meter run with a time of 1 minute and 57 seconds. The distance medley team of Boden Pickle, London Franklin, Brigham Porter, and Martin took 7th place with a time of 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
Central Lee’s Thomas Eschman leaped 21 feet 10 inches to grab 6th place for the Hawks.
For the Van Buren County boys’ team, Anthony Duncan had an incredible run as he started the meet with a 3rd place finish in the 400 meter dash with the time of 50.04 seconds. Duncan then finished as the state champion in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 54.97 seconds.
Tyler Stoltz finished in 7th place in the high jump clearing 6 feet 1 inch for the Warriors. Additionally, Wyatt Mertens took 8th place in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet 8.5 inches.
Mediapolis had a history making three days of competition. Anthony Isley grabbed two second place finishes, one in the 200 meter dash with a time of 22.23 seconds and the other in the 400 meter dash with a time of 49.97 seconds.
Logan Rosas finished as the state champion in the 800 meter run with a time of 1 minute and 56 seconds. Owen Schmidgall took 5th place with a time of 1 minute and 58 seconds. Solomon Zaugg tallied 6 points with a 3rd place finish with a time of 4 minutes and 24 seconds in the 1600 meter run.
Cole Lipper, Jackson Hutcheson, Schmidgall, and Isley finished in 4th place with a time of 1 minute and 34 seconds in the sprint medley. The team of Levi Arnold, Rosas, Schmidgall, and Isley took 3rd place in the 4×400 meter relay. Jeff Campbell, Schmidgall, Zaugg, and Rosas grabbed 4th place in the 4×800 meter relay. Lastly, Lipper, Schmidgall, Arnold, and Rosas finished as state champions in the distance medley, tallying another 10 points.
This culminated in the Bulldogs being named Co-Champions with Williamsburg as they tied with 62 points. This is the first Class 2A tie since 2017 and the 4th overall. This also marks the first team state championship for Mediapolis.
High School Soccer
The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team will take on Central DeWitt on the road tomorrow, May 23rd.
The Danville boys’ team will face off against West Liberty in the second round of the postseason tonight.
The Central Lee boys’ team will travel to take on Pella Christian today for the second round of the postseason.
For girls’ soccer, Burlington Notre Dame will take on North Scott and Fort Madison will take on SEC foe Burlington. Both games will be played tomorrow.
High School Golf
The boys’ state tournament will start today with Mason Shelledy of New London playing at Ames Golf and Country Club.
The New London girls’ team and Olivia Hines of Mediapolis will be competing in the state tournament with day one of the two day tournament starting on May 25th.
Deerwood Golf Club will be sponsoring KILJ’s coverage of both state golf events.
High School Baseball
Mt. Pleasant will travel to take on Clear Creek-Amana on May 24th.
High School Softball
Mt. Pleasant will host Holy Trinity Catholic tonight at 5 pm. KILJ will be on the call with pregame at 4:45 pm.
Iowa Wesleyan Athletics
The NAIA National Championship meet will take place on May 24th for outdoor track and field.
This Day in Sports History
1955 – Louis Chiron becomes the oldest driver to compete in Formula 1. He took 6th place in the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix at 55 years old.
1985 – Pete Rose’s 2,108th run passes Hank Aaron as NL run scoring leader.
1990 – Andre Dawson receives a record 5 intentional walks in a game.