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Wednesday,
May 1, 2002
Little
Hawks cruise in Mississippi
By
Andy Hamilton
Iowa
City Press-Citizen
DUBUQUE - Asked about his team during the Mississippi Divisional
meet Tuesday, City High coach Terry Coleman said, "we're
a mess right now."
We
should all have such a mess.
Battling
a combination of injuries, illness and fatigue, the Little
Hawks didn't bother putting their best lineup together.
There was no need for it, either.
Three
days removed from an impressive performance at the Drake
Relays, City asked for very little from its stars. Even
at that, the Little Hawks still ran away with the conference
title, winning eight events and scoring 144 points. Cedar
Rapids Prairie finished a distant second with 89 points.
"We're
just fortunate to have some field events, some sprints,
some middle distance," Coleman said, "I mean, we've got
everything going for us this year."
The
Little Hawk depth was on display Tuesday as City set out
to get ready for Monday's state-qualifying district meet
by limiting its top runners to one or two events.
"That's
the great thing about our team, we've got so much depth,"
said City junior Meggan Reed, who won the 800 and anchored
the 4x400 team to victory. "We've got a ton of great girls
on our team that can come in and fill spots (and) a lot
of teams don't have the depth to do that."
Most
teams don't have the top-level talent to match the Little
Hawks, either. City reinforced itself as the team to beat
in Class 3A this past weekend by winning the 4x800, shuttle
hurdle relay and getting a victory from Jennie Funk in
the 3,000. The Little Hawks also placed second in the
4x400, third in the sprint medley relay and fifth in the
4x100.
That
performance and City's thoughts on its return trip to
Drake Stadium for the state meet made Tuesday seem anti-climatic.
"It
makes this meet seem a little less important, but you've
got to remind yourself that every meet is important because
it's a chance to improve," said Elizabeth Matzen, who
won the 200. "Each meet is a chance to improve one notch
greater. If you look at it that way, this meet is important
and we want to try to keep building so at state we can
run very well."
The
Little Hawks ran well all of last year, going undefeated
through the regular season only to finish one point behind
West High.
"The
state meet is what sticks in your head," Reed said. "To
lose by one point, it was really hard for us, but that
just makes us want it all the more this year. We're concentrating
on getting through all the meets and being able to finish
it this year."
Along
with individual victories Tuesday from Matzen and Reed,
City's Katy Fraga won the 400 hurdles and Funk won the
1,500.
The
Little Hawk team of Katie Funk, Katie Krei, Betsy Ellsmore
and Maggie Leyendecker won the 4x800. Fraga, Emily Triplett,
Tara Whiting and Maya Monitto-Webber, the same group that
won the Drake title, won the shuttle hurdle relay.
Heaven
Tutson, Monitto-Webber, Camille Jordan and Monica Mims
teamed up to take the sprint medley relay. Krei, Kelsie
Full, Nelle Trefz and Reed ran away with the 4x400.
Those
relays, along with a couple others that City will load
up with its stars, could take the Little Hawks to their
ultimate goal.
"There's
one goal right now, and that's to win the state title,"
Coleman said. "They showed last weekend that when we put
everything together and we run at those top-level meets,
we're ready to go. We're still hoping to improve in some
things, but from here on in, there's one thing that we're
focused on and that's winning the state title. And that's
going to happen.
"When
it comes to state, we're going to hammer those relays
and we're going to get eight and 10 points out of as many
of those as we can. And whatever we get out of individual
events in things like the 3,000 and 1,500 are going to
be piled on top. We're very focused and we know what we
want to do and we're going to get it done."
Team
scores - 1. City High 144; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie
89; 3. Dubuque Hempstead 82; 4. Cedar Rapids Jefferson
68; 5. Dubuque Senior 57; 6. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 52;
7. Waterloo West 11.
Individual
winners, City place-winners
Long
jump - 1. Tonya Ansel (DS) 16-3; 5. Megan Hichwa (C) 14-9.
High
jump - 1. Rachel Sippy (CRP) 5-41/4; 3. (tie) Jessie Branstetter
(C), Abby Furlong (C) 4-10.
Shot
put - 1. Morgen Edwards (CRJ) 40-51/4; 2. Jessica Elliott
(C) 38-11 1/2.
Discus
- Edwards (CRJ) 142-10; 2. Elliott (C) 124-7.
3,000
- 1. Brenda Funk (CRK) 11:01.56; 3. Rachel Manuel (C)
11:11.00; 4. Erilynn Russo (C) 11:46.37.
4x800
- 1. City (Katie Funk, Katie Krei, Betsy Ellsmore, Maggie
Leyendecker) 9:53.21.
Shuttle
hurdle relay - 1. City (Emily Triplett, Tara Whiting,
Katy Fraga, Maya Monitto-Webber) 1:04.68.
Distance
medley relay - 1. Dubuque Senior (Lacey Siegert, Ashley
Liddle, Carrie Jenaman, Meghan Simpson) 4:26.99; 2. City
(Katie Lynch, Tiffiney Belmont, Monica Mims, Aly Boyd)
4:28.35.
100
- 1. Lynnette Wilson (CRK) 13.00.
400
- 1. Wilson (CRK) 1:00.54; 2. Kelsie Full (C) 1:01.22.
4x200
- 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie (Danielle Salwey, Laura Carver,
Jasmin Leonard, Debbie Akerly) 1:48.45; 4. City (Elizabeth
Matzen, Ashton Strickland, Patrice Jones, Heaven Tutson)
1:49.81.
100
hurdles - 1. Cali Lyons (DH) 15.87; 3. Whiting (C) 16.21;
6. Brenda Giavanelli (C) 16.95.
800
- 1. Meggan Reed (C) 2:21.01; 2. Nelle Trefz (C) 2:21.70.
200
- 1. Matzen (C) 26.62.
400
hurdles - 1. Fraga (C) 1:06.84; 3. Ali Kirsch (C) 1:10.83.
Sprint
medley relay - 1. City (Tutson, Monitto-Webber, Camille
Jordan, Mims) 1:53.56.
1,500
- 1. Jennie Funk (C) 4:46.33; 3. Ellsmore (C) 5:08.76.
4x100
- 1. Cedar Rapids Jefferson (Katie Cooper, Tara Fry, Leslie
Tiedtke, Ashley Havlicek) 51.05; 3. City (Tutson, Monitto-Webber,
Triplett, Whiting) 51.86.
4x400
- 1. City (Krei, Full, Trefz, Reed) 4:06.12.
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