By Miranda Meyer Click for Caption

It's a tight, cramped bunker beneath the stands on the southwest corner of Drake Stadium.

For the girls from Iowa City High, it was home sweet home. The Little Hawks won two relays on a soggy, cold, dark day.

"We train in this kind of weather outside all the time," said Nelle Trefz, a member of the victorious 3,200-meter relay. "This is nothing. The teams that become the best teams just keep going through it."

First, the Little Hawks breezed to the 3,200 crown in 9 minutes 25.35 seconds. Then, they won the Relays' first version of the shuttle hurdle relay. Emily Triplett, Tara Whiting, Katy Fraga and Maya Monitto-Webber claimed the title in 1:03.53, more than a second ahead of their closest chaser.

"It's kind of nice to be the first winner of this event. We kind of joked about winning it, so we'd be the Drake record-holders," Monitto-Webber said. "We found out early in the season they'd be adding this, and I knew we had a good group of girls, so we were excited we'd have this opportunity."

The Little Hawks ran in the last of three heats. Before they started, they knew the time they had to beat -- 1:04.74, by Cedar Falls.

"Yeah, I was watching the clock a little bit," Fraga said.

In the 3,200-meter relay, Monica Mims' first leg of 2:20 put the Little Hawks firmly in control. Trefz, Jennie Funk and Meggan Reed built on that cushion, and they won comfortably over Iowa City West, which finished in 9:39.28 without ace Jeni Frudden, who missed the entire weekend due to an injured hip flexor.

West beat City in last year's 3,200-meter relay.

"That was the lowest low for us," said Funk, who won the 3,000-meter run Thursday. "We always want to push ourselves to the next level. We don't accept second-best at City High."

Atlantic joined the Little Hawks with a pair of relay wins, thanks to the brilliance of Cortney Jacobs. The Trojanns rode the sophomore's 56.3-second anchor leg to win the 1,600-meter relay in 4:03.48.

Because of Saturday's early rain, that event was run in four heats in the morning to bring the day's itinerary back on schedule. Atlantic posted its time in the first heat, then watched other teams fail to reach it.

City High edged Cedar Rapids Prairie in the third heat, and those teams finished second and third overall, in 4:04.26. and 4:04.37, respectively. Iowa City West was fourth, defending champion Linn-Mar was fifth.

Jacobs nearly fell on the anchor leg of the sprint medley relay, then regained her balance and gave Atlantic the win in 1:52.00. Prairie was second in 1:52.82, City High was third in 1:53.04.

"I was trying to get out, and a girl ahead of me slowed down and cut me off," Jacobs said. "Then, somebody behind me caught the back of my foot. I thought I was going down.

"It made me angry. All four of us wanted this race. I wasn't going to let this slip away."

Atlantic won the sprint medley for the second straight year.

Cedar Falls won the 400-meter relay in 49.84 seconds. Cedar Rapids Washington was fourth, City High fifth.

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