Saturday, April 17, 2004

Little Hawk girls win

By Susan Harman
Iowa City Press-Citizen

Jennie Funk dipped into her personal history book and came up with a strategy to combat West High's talented freshman, Sarah Wickman, in the 3,000 meters. Funk went all the way back to the 2001 Forwald Relays when she was a freshman and a big underdog to West star Jeni Frudden.

"My plan was to relive my victory at the (2001) Forwald, and I made my strategy according to that and it came through for me," a happy Funk said Friday night. "But hey, I'm no idiot, I know next Thursday is when it counts (at the Drake Relays) and about a month down the road.

"There's so many girls this year. The Drake 3,000 will be a death match."

Wickman has the fastest time in the state in the 3,000 this spring and was unbeaten going into Friday's Forwald Relays. Funk's best time was nearly a minute slower, and teammate Nelle Trefz was leading the way for City in this event.

Funk decided to run behind Wickman, stride for stride, for 2,700 meters and sprint with 300 left. Funk opened up a lead and finished first in 10:26.48 as City stormed to another Forwald Relays title. City scored 156.3 points, while West High had 128 in the eight-team meet.

Wickman said she expected Funk to begin sprinting at some point.

"I was trying to run my own pace," she said. "Whatever I got was OK for me."

Wickman, although only a freshman - and perhaps not knowing all of the history surrounding this meet - had an eye on the future.

"It's not state, so it doesn't really matter if we don't do that well at these meets," Wickman said.

Calling her past victory over Frudden "a great moment," Funk also knows that this is just one race among several. She knows Frudden came back to win at Drake four years ago.

"While this is nice thing to get my teammates pumped up and ready to go, it certainly holds no psychological advantage for me," Funk said of the victory. "I'm still an underdog. This is a big meet for us, it's our home meet, but it's just bite size of what's to come."

As if to underline that thought, Wickman smoked the field, including Funk, in the 1,500 later in the meet. Trefz won the 800 and anchored City's winning 4x800 relay, so she wasn't exactly on vacation.

West High's Alison Dirks won the high jump with a meet record 5-5. Earlier this week she cleared 5-5 1/4. She is the state 4A leader in the event.

"I've cleared it a few times this year but it was my best last year," Dirks said.

She missed at 5-6. "My parents taped it and it kind of bounced," she said. "I'm hoping pretty soon I can get it."

Her sights are set on the school record of 5-7 1/4. "I just keep working on it, working on technique," Dirks said.

West's Cae Lamb was second with a jump of 5-3.

City High won the shuttle hurdle relay in a meet record time of 1:02.43 with strong third and fourth legs from Annie Fraga and Emily Triplett. That time was two seconds better than the Little Hawks have run this season and betters the best time posted this season by any 4A school by .66 seconds.

"We're really excited about it," Fraga said. "We thought we had a shot. We thought it would be a close one."

Triplett raced away from the field in winning the 100 hurdles in 14.99. Camille Jordan won the 100-meter dash in a neck-and-neck duel with West Des Moines Valley's Audra Robinson. Sarah Anciaux won the shot put for City with a throw of 40 feet, 11/4 inches. Katie Sherry was second in the discus.

City's Valerie Mozena won the long jump with a leap of 16-8 1/4.

West's Lizz Huntley continued her torrid pace in the 400, winning in 59.60 over Valley's Sarah Cunningham. Huntley leads Class 4A in the event and Cunningham is fourth. Amanda Judisch and Huntley were one-two in the 200 meters. Huntley was also third in the long jump.

Forwald Relays
Girls
Team scores - 1. City High 156.3, 2. West High 128, 3. West Des Moines Valley 105, 4. Newton 39, 5. Pleasant Valley 25.3, 6. Indianola 22, 7. Muscatine 18.3, 8. North Scott 11.
Individual events
Shuttle hurdle - 1. City (Rydze, Sabers, Fraga, Triplett) 1:02.43*, 2. Valley 1:04.32, 3. West (Katie Johnson, Kristen Shaffer, Christina Swift, Lindsay Freeman) 1:05.29, 4. Newton 1:07.76, 5. Pleasant Valley 1:12.43, 6. Indianola 1:12.44.
100 - 1. Camille Jordan (C) 12.43, 2. Audra Robinson (V) 12.53, 3. Maddy Harmon (M) 12.67, 4. Amanda Judisch (W) 12.76, 5. Lacy Brunnette (V) 12.81, 6. Katie Johnson (W) 12.84.
3,000 - 1. Jennie Funk (C) 10:26.48, 2. Sarah Wickman (W) 10:27.94, 3. Julia Frudden (W) 10:57.60, 4. Ruhee Arora (C) 11:22.02, 5. Alissa Duffy (V) 11:27.77, 6. Jessica Viner (NS) 11:35.94.
4x800 - 1. City High (Ziegenhorn, Dietz, Foreman, Leyendecker) 9:45.59, 2. WDM Valley 9:49.49, 3. PV 9:49.82, 4. Newton 9:50.23, 5. Indianola 10:29.60, 6. West (Jocelyn Figg, Maggie Mitchell, Jacqui Astor, Christine Skopec) 10:31.28.
High jump - 1. Alison Dirks (W) 5-5,* 2. Cae Lamb (W) and Molli Hermiston (NS) 5-3, 4. Cassandra Clark (N), Lauren Lindaman (V) 5-1, 6. Amy Schuster (I), Paige Hansen (N), Nicole Shihadeh (M), Krista Wiegert (C), and Betsy Hoscheid (PV) 4-9.
Distance medley - 1. City (E. Mozena, Hichwa, Jones, Trefz) 4:19.58, 2. West (Heather Brechtel, Steph Mount, Annie McAleer, Nicole Novak) 4:23.11, 3. Valley 4:24.33, 4. North Scott 4:33.44, 5. Newton 4:38.99, 6. Indianola 4:41.43.
4x200 - 1. City High (Strickland, Krei, Kamber, Dreier) 1:46.33, 2. Valley 1:47.23, 3. Pleasant Valley 1:49.72, 4. Newton 1:50.27, 5. Muscatine 1:50.68, 6. North Scott 1:51.66.
100 hurdles - 1. Emily Triplett (C) 14.99, 2. Lauren Lindaman (V) 15.69, 3. Veronica Rydze (C) 15.85, 4. Lindsay Freeman (W) 16.13, 5. Christina Swift (W) 16.34, 6. Steph Lawrence (I) 16.47.
800 - 1. Nelle Trefz (C) 2:18.04, 2. Claire Hall (W) 2:18.83, 3. Jessica Wiegert (V) 2:18.94, 4. Casey McDermott (N) 2:22.42, 5. Michelle Jensen (V) 2:24.07, 6. Sarah Ziegenhorn (C) 2:24.47.
200 - 1. Amanda Judisch (W) 26.67, 2. Lizz Huntley (W) 26.90, 3. Patrice Jones (C) 27.40, 4. Camille Jordan (C) 27.96, 5. Tabetha McCormick (N) 28.07, 6. Elena Leon (V) 28.64.
Long jump - 1. Valerie Mozena (C) 16-81/4, 2. Kolie Eko (W) 16-3, 3. Lizz Huntley (W) 16-23/4, 4. Maddy Harmon (M) 15-41/2, 5. Kilee Evans (C) 15-41/2, 6. Rachelle Tipton (N) 15-21/2.
400 hurdles - 1. Laura Kirk (V) 1:08.68, 2. Lauren Lindaman (V) 1:08.95, 3. Molly Sabers (C) 1:10.13, 4. Chantelle MacVey (N) 1:11.66, 5. Cassandra Clark (N) 1:12.19, 6. Laura Krumm (C) 1:12.38.
Sprint medley - 1. Valley 1:50.27, 2. City (Triplett, Jordan, Strickland, Krei) 1:50.42, 3. Newton 1:52.82, 4. West (Heather Brechtel, Sarah Minor, Annie McAleer, Steph Mount) 1:57.43, 5. Muscatine 1:58.99, 6. Indianola 2:01.20.
Discus - 1. Jessica Bates (I) 124-9, 2. Katie Sherry (C) 114-0, 3. Steph Koepp (W) 11-9, 4. Elena Leon (V) 111-7, 5. Stef Winslow (PV) 106-7, 6. Sarah Anciaux (C) 104-9.
Shot put - 1. Sarah Anciaux (C) 40-11/4, 2. Jessica Bates (I) 38-4, 3. Danica Haight (W) 38-11/2,, 4. Corrie Wagner (C) 37-101/4, 5. Jane Ebot (W) 35-23/4, 6. Naomi Gonzalez (M) 34-9.
400 - 1. Lizz Huntley (W) 59.69, 2. Sarah Cunningham (V) 1:00.39, 3. Kelsey Mims (C) 1:01.18, 4. Naomi Hillsman (W) 1:02.08, 5. Courtney Lenz (N) 1:02.74, 6. Krista Wiegert (C) 1:02.83.
1,500 - 1. Sarah Wickman (W) 4:43.50, 2. Jennie Funk (C) 4:52.66, 3. Janet Dobyns (W) 4:58.07, 4. Clair Anciaux (C) 5:05.38, 5. Lindy Shaw (V) 5:12.54, 6. Catie Ellingson (I) 5:15.35.
4x100 - 1. Valley 50.03, 2. West (Christina Swift, Lindsay Freeman, Katie Johnson, Amanda Judisch) 51.23, 3. Muscatine 51.34, 4. City (Triplett, Jordan, Strickland, Krei) 51.71, 5. Newton 52.39, 6. Pleasant Valley 52.77.
4x400 - 1. City (Leyendecker, Mims, E. Mozena, Dreier) 4:01.37, 2. Pleasant Valley 4:01.80, 3. West (Naomi Hillsman, Claire Hall, Nicole Novak, Lizz Huntley) 4:01.83, 4. Valley 4:05.40, 5. Newton 4:06.22, 6. Indianola 4:12.85.
* meet record