Saturday, May 8, 2004

City High second in Valley

By Susan Harman
Iowa City Press-Citizen

DUBUQUE - Cedar Falls stamped itself as a state title contender and took away City High's conference title Friday at chilly Dalzell Field.

The Tigers won nine events including four relays to edge City by three points for the Valley Division crown in the Mississippi Valley Conference. Cedar Falls outscored City High by 15 points in the four field events.

"They killed us in the field events," City High coach Terry Coleman said. "They won three of them. We ran ahead of them in the running events, but we got outcoached."

Coleman took responsibility for the result, saying that he might not have put the right people in the right places to fend off a Tiger team that was so strong in the sprints.

"The coaching staff did not do what it needed to do for this meet," he said. "We thought we had a lineup together that could do it. Obviously it did not. The kids that were out there gave everything they had. Most of the blame for this one is on me."

City High has won 15 of the last 18 conference titles, and just a week ago won the MVC Super meet on the same track. Those kinds of results create high expectations, and Coleman said this should shake any kind of complacency that might come with those expectations.

"Really, what does it take to win a championship?" he asked rhetorically. "It takes everybody. We had some people who did really, really well, but it takes more than some."

The start of the meet was delayed an hour by lightning and rain.

The 3,000 meters was within five minutes of starting when the lightning came, but City High's Jennie Funk and Claire Anciaux had no trouble restarting their motors. Funk was the winner in 10 minutes, 29.83 seconds, as expected, and Anciaux was a strong third in a personal-best time of 10:58.33.

"(The delay) wasn't really a problem because we decided we needed to keep warming up and keep our muscles warm," Anciaux said. "We came out earlier than all the other teams to warm up. It shows how tough and dedicated we are."

Anciaux said she's not a fan of cold weather and surprised herself with the effort in which she nearly tracked down Cedar Falls' Samantha Nygren for second.

"I feel confident because I at least closed the gap a little," Anciaux said. "I think we did what we wanted to."

City won the 4x800 relay with Sarah Dietz, Drew Foreman, Ruhee Arora and Sarah Ziegenhorn. Only Ziegenhorn ran on City's Drake Relays champion 4x800 unit. Foreman gave the Little Hawks the lead right away in her leg, and the two final runners extended it.

Cedar Falls came back with an upset in the shuttle hurdle relay. City High has the second-best time in class 4A this season, but the Tigers were able to hold off the Little Hawks team of Veronica Rydze, Annie Fraga, Molly Sabers and Emily Triplett by .09 seconds.

Triplett began the anchor about a hurdle behind.

"I didn't know how far back I was," she said.

One more stride and Triplett would have hit the string first. Cedar Falls improved its season-best time by .43 seconds.

City High struck back and won the distance medley with Kailin McLane, Megan Hichwa, Kelsey Mims and Maggie Leyendecker in 4:22.08. City High had the lead after the two 200-meter legs, and Mims extended it. Leyendecker did a great job of holding off a challenge by Cedar Falls anchor Caylin Cervetti.

Cedar Falls held serve by winning the 400 meters behind Liz Bradfield, and the 4x200 relay. The Tigers were 4A leaders in both events. Bradfield also won the 200 meters, ran a key leg on the winning sprint medley and was second in the long jump. She was named the Valley Division athlete of the year. Ashley Barkema won the 400 hurdles, as expected.

City High's Nelle Trefz didn't run until more than halfway through the meet when she won the 800 meters, defeating Cedar Rapids Xavier's Erin Penticoff. Funk was third to give City needed points.

"You have to give yourself a little extra time to warm up (in the cold)," Trefz said. "It was kind of strange waiting this long to run.

"I love racing with (Penticoff). I think we both wanted to run a fast race, and it's always nice to have someone out there to push you along and work together."

Trefz took the lead on the second 400 and never let Penticoff get into contention.

Trefz later won the 1,500 meters over Penticoff, who finished with a rush, moving from fifth place to second in the final 100 meters.

City High finished the meet winning the 4x400 relay with Leyendecker, Ashton Strickland, Krista Wiegert and Elize Mozena.

MVC Valley Divisional
Team scores – 1. Cedar Falls 147; 2. City High 144; 3. Cedar Rapids Washington 80; 4. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 57; 5. Dubuque Senior 29; 6. Dubuque Wahlert 28; 7. Cedar Rapids Xavier 24.
Winners, local place-winners
Shot put – 1. Joslyn Siems (CF) 39-5.25; 4. Sarah Anciaux (City) 36-6.5; 6. Corrie Wagner (City) 36-3.
Discus – 1. Laurie Trifone (DW)122-8; 6. Sarah Anciaux (City) 98-4.
Long Jump – 1. LaNeisha Waller (CRW) 18-3; 3. Valerie Mozena (City) 16-0.
High Jump – 1. Emily White (CF) 5-1; 3. Krista Wiegert (City) 4-10; 4. (tie) Samantha Sidwell (City) 4-8.
3,000 – 1. Jennie Funk (City) 10:29.83; 3. Clair Anciaux (City) 10:58.33.
4x800 – 1. City High (Sara Dietz, Drew Foreman, Ruhee Arora, Sarah Ziegenhorn) 10:08.95.
Shuttle hurdle relay – 1. Cedar Falls (Lisa Doeden, Emily White, Grace Schlader, Brynn Lantz) 1:04.87; 2. City High (Veronica Rydze, Annie Fraga, Molly Sabers, Emily Triplett) 1:04.96.
Distance medley relay – 1. City High (Kailin McLane, Megan Hichwa, Kelsey Mims, Maggie Leyendecker) 4:22.08.
100 – 1. LaNeisha Waller (CRW) 12.15; 3. Camille Jordan (City) 12.62; 6. Signe Mueller (City) 13.30.
400 – 1. Liz Bradfield (CF) 57.97; 3. Elize Mozena (City) 1:02.19; 4. Krista Wiegert (City) 1:04.08.
4x200 – 1. Cedar Falls (Ashley Barkema, Mattie Thompson, Daniella Barkema, Shatrece Burt) 1:46.53; 2. City High (Ashton Strickland, Patrice Jones, Kerry Kamber, Virginia Dreier) 1:47.37.
100 hurdles – 1. LaNeisha Waller (CRW) 14.53; 2. Emily Triplett (City) 14.87.
800 – 1. Nelle Trefz (City) 2:20.01; 3. Jennie Funk (City) 2:25.71.
200 – 1. Liz Bradfield (CF) 25.19; 2. Camille Jordan (City) 26.04.
400 hurdles – 1. Ashley Barkema (CF) 1:08.43, 2. Molly Sabers (City) 1:09.06; 4. Kelsey Mims (City) 1:11.92.
Sprint medley – 1. Cedar Falls (Danielle Barkema, Mattie Thompson, Liz Bradfield, Brynn Lantz) 1:51.33; 2. City High (Valerie Mozema, Kilee Evans, Kerry Kamber, Virginia Drier) 1:53.56.
1,500 – 1. Nelle Trefz (City) 4:47.09; 5. Ruhee Arora (City) 5:08.06.
4x100 – 1. Cedar Falls (Ashley Barkema, Mattie Thompson, Danielle Barkema, Shatree Burt) 50.53; 3. City High (Emily Triplett, Cory Wagner, Signe Mueller, Camille Jordan) 51.05.
4x400 – 1. City High (Maggie Leyendecker, Ashton Strickland, Krista Wiegert, Elize Mozena) 4:07.98.