The members of West High's 4x400 team -- Elise Walz, from left, Lisa Mellecker, Hadiza Sa-Aadu and Kristi Schuette -- celebrate after they finished second in the event to clinch the Class 4A team title Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.   Press-Citizen / Matthew Holst

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DES MOINES -- West High looked right down the barrel of another disappointment at the state track meet and didn't blink. Lisa Mellecker wouldn't allow it.

Trailing City High by one-half point with three events remaining for each team Saturday, Mellecker enabled the Women of Troy to take charge by scoring eight big points on a second-place finish in the 200 meters and then anchored the 4x400 relay to another second-place finish to sew up the title with 67.5 points to City's 62.

"I was so happy when I crossed the finish line," said Mellecker, West's anchor.

The Little Hawks did everything they could to catch West. Even though they won only one event, they placed in 11 others, including all seven relays, and by mid-morning it was clear that the team title was up for grabs between the two Iowa City schools.

"In terms of performing up to where we thought we could, we had one of the best state meets ever," City High coach Terry Coleman said. "There isn't anybody in the state that pegged us to push West to the last event, and these guys just came through in event after event after event and just nailed it.

"We're young, and we're coming back."

City's victory in the opening event, the sprint medley, set up the day. Sydni Koenig, Sarah Anciaux, Signe Mueller and Kelly Krei ran a season-best time of 1 minute, 46 seconds, the fourth best time in the country this season.

The first three gave Krei a lead and the sophomore's strong anchor held off a slew of talented anchors including Waukee's Colette Gnade, Ames' Kersten Thorgaard and Valley's Whitney Sharpe. Gnade was right on Krei's heels the final 100.

"We felt real strong and we have a real strong anchor," Koenig said. "We knew Kelly would pull it off."

Krei told them she'd come through if they got her the baton in first.

"They did their part, so it's only fair that I do mine," Krei said. "I felt her right on my back. I heard the City High people down the stretch. They were yelling, 'Go, go, go.'

"We've been trying to close the gap with West, and this helped out."

That narrowed West's lead to 3.5 points with each team running five more events.

City's third-place finish in the shuttle hurdle to West's seventh-place gave City the first lead of the meet by one-half point. City's hurdlers knew exactly where they stood as they walked off the track.

"We're so into it," City's Molly Sabers said.

"It was nail-biting (time)," West senior Claire Hall said. "But at the same time we had so much confidence that we were finally going to do it."

It was Mellecker's turn in the 200. The field included Cedar Falls' Faith Burt and Ames' Thorgaard. Burt is the leading 4A sprinter, and Thorgaard was the 400 titlist Thursday. Mellecker was the fourth seed.

Burt and Thorgaard got out quickly, but it was Mellecker who had the staying power to hang with Burt to the end.

"That's big," Mellecker said of the eight points she scored. "I just wanted to get points. We're really close to City right now.

"Kersten was right there. She won the (400), and she's incredible. I was kind of running scared of her and Faith. Towards the end I felt really good."

Mellecker said that coach Mike Parker didn't give her any particular instructions, just to go out and do what she could do.

What she did was seize back the momentum.

"That took so much pressure off," West's Elise Walz said.

"It was a big relief for all the team that we didn't have to win the 4x4," Kristi Schuette said.

Eight points put the Women of Troy at 59.5 points to City's 52. Both teams had runners in the 1,500, but neither team was expected to produce much. Samantha Sidwell of City was eighth to score one point, while West's Sarah Wickman just missed scoring with a ninth-place finish.

City had the 4x100 and the 4x400 left while West had the 4x400. City's team of Koenig, Anciaux, Mackenzie Skay and Mueller was seeded seventh but finished fifth for four points, leaving West with a 2.5-point lead. It was down to this: City would have to beat West by two places to win.

It didn't happen because West's first three legs, Hadiza Sa-Aadu, Walz and Schuette presented Mellecker with the baton in first place and more importantly, about 25 meters ahead of City High.

As good as Krei is, it was too much to overcome, especially with the driven Mellecker smelling history.

With the team victory in hand the four ran over to the stands to get hugs from jubilant teammates who leaned over the railing to greet them.

"We weren't even thinking about that, we were just running to win," Mellecker said of the small margin for error.

They knew the whole meet came down to their race, and the Women of Troy had their share of mishaps through the weekend including a dropped baton and a crash at another relay handoff.

"All the falling that was going on this weekend, all of that was going through my head, and I was like, 'I have to stay positive, I have to work hard, I'm not letting go,'" Schuette said. "We knew we could do it. We knew what we were here to do."

Walz on the second leg had been part of the disastrous 4x800 on Thursday, but she never looked back either. Instead she clearly outran the other second legs to give Schuette the lead.

"I just wanted to give Lisa as big a lead as I could, and that's all I was thinking of," Walz said.

"I was really happy that Kelly Krei was back there," Mellecker said, laughing.

Mellecker's week included school-record times in the 200 preliminaries, anchoring the 4x200 to a second record and getting a third in the crucial 4x400.

West showed resilience coming back after scoring a single point in the 4x800 Thursday and not scoring in the distance medley Friday.

"That's how we worked our way through this," Parker said.

The Little Hawks saw their near miss as something to build on.

"We were really proud of ourselves after West would beat us by 40 or more points throughout the season, and we were really quite confident coming in because we had it put together in our best relays," Sabers said. "Individual events did well; relays did well. We were in it."

"We knew that coming in we were the underdogs," City's Kelsey Mims said. "We were kind of excited because we knew we could do well. Having a great day (Friday) and coming down to the 4x4 was just extremely exciting.

"We only had about two seniors this year at state, so we know we're going to be in there again next year. We're not going to be underdogs next year. People may be skeptical, but we've got it."

Reach Susan Harman at 339-7368 or sharman@press-citizen.com.