2026 Iowa High School State Track & Field Championships

Friday May 22, Drake Stadium, Des Moines, Iowa

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the final report for Friday's session of the Iowa High School State Track & Field Championships from Drake

Stadium, covering the Class 2A & 3A competition which began at 2:30 p.m. 

DAY TWO ATTENDANCE: 15,267 (Ranks No. 6 for Friday session)

DAY ONE ATTENDANCE: 13,602 (Ranks No. 5 for first-day Thursday attendance)

TWO-DAY TOTAL: 28,869

Weather: 9 a.m. — 57 degrees, overcast skies, winds from southeast to northwest at 10 mph....11 a.m. — 59 degrees, partly sunny skies, winds from southeast to northwest at 11 mph

1 p.m. —   63 degrees, partly cloudy skies, winds from southeast to northwest at 11 mph....2 p.m. —68 degrees, partly sunny skies, winds from southeast to northwest at 12 mph...5 pm — 67 degrees, partly sunny skies, winds from southeast to northwest at 10 mph

...7 p.m. - 67 degrees, hazy skies, winds from southeast to northwest at 9 mph.

For live results:   https://results.wayzatatiming.com/meets/73956/live

Team scoring is complete through 10 events entering Saturday

Girls Class 1A scoring - thru 10 events entering Saturday

Edgewood-Colesburg     39

Pekin                              28

CAM, Anita                    25

Madrid                            24

Mount Ayr                       24

Girls Class 2A scoring - thru 10 events entering Saturday

Spirit Lake                     35

Grundy Center              30

Mid-Prairie, Wellman      27

Van Meter                     23

Tipton                          23

Girls Class 3A scoring - thru 10 events entering Saturday

Pella                            50

Sioux Center               35

Mount Vernon            35

Williamsburg              23

ADM, Adel                 23

Girls Class 4A scoring -  thru 10 events entering Saturday

Waukee Northwest 63.5

Cedar Falls 38.5

Iowa City, City High 38

Ames 35

Ankeny 26

ALL-TIME STATE BESTS SO FAR 

FRIDAY

Girls - 2

Distance Medley Relay — 3:55.44, Ankeny (also 1st Class 4A  relay title since 2022)

4x200 Relay — 1:37.77, Waukee Northwest

THURSDAY

Girls 4x800 Relay – 8:58.01, Waukee Northwest

U.S. NATIONAL TOP 10 TIMES:

Girls — 3

Ankeny ran the No. 2 top national high school time in distance medley  this season — 3:55.44

Cedar Falls ran the No. 9 top national high school time in distance medley  this season — 4:02.49

Waukee Northwest ran the No. 10 top national high school time in distance medley  this season — 4:02.69

Thursday - 2

Girls 

Waukee Northwest ran the No. 8 top national high school time this season in the 4x800 relay (8:58.01)

STATE MEET RECORDS: 

24 total (17 girls, 7 boys) entering Saturday

FRIDAY: 11 (9 girls, 2 boys)

Girls — 9 (4 afternoon session, five morning sessions)

—Class 3A Distance Medley Relay-4:00.09-Sioux Center. Old record 4:03.14, Fairfield, 2006.
—Class 3A Long Jump—19-7 ¾, Aiden Gosselink, Grinnell. Old record 19-3 1/2, Reese Brownlee, Clear Lake, 2024.
—Class 2A 4x200 Relay-1:39.70, Pella Christian. Old record 1:39.72, Pella Christian, 2024.
—Class 2A 4x100 Relay-48.10, Pella Christian. Old record 48.22, Pella Christian, 2025.
—Class 4A Distance Medley Relay-3:55.44, Ankeny.  Old record 3:59.67, Waukee Northwest, 2025.

—Class 4A 4x200 Relay-1:37.77, Waukee Northwest. Old record 1:38.55, Waukee Northwest, 2025.

—Class 4A 400 Hurdles-1:00.11, Jana Maharry, Waukee. Old record, 1:00.15, Payton Wensel, Linn-Mar, 2018.

—Class 4A 4x100 Relay-47.07, Waukee Northwest. Old record 47.22, Waukee Northwest, 2024.

—Class 1A 400 Hurdles -1:01.28, Ada Hansen, CAM. Old record 1:02.14, Sara Stoakes, North Tama, 2009.

THURSDAY - 13

Girls — 8 (3 morning, 5 afternoon session)

—Class 2A 100 Prelims — 11.80, Rachel Kacmarynski, Pella Christian. Old record 11.81, Kelly Grobstich, Davenport Assumption, 2025 prelims

—Class 2A 200 Prelims — 24.31, Rachel Kacmarynski, Pella Christian. Old record 24.49, Hannah Willms, Dike-New Hartford, 2009 prelims

—Class 2A 4x800 Relay – 9:17.25, Grundy Center. Old record 9:24.76, Western Christian, 2019.

—Class 3A 3,000 – 9:27.31, Evelyn Moeller, Mount Vernon. Old record 9:38.82, Paityn Noe, Ballard, 2023.

—Class 3A 4x800 Relay — 9:14.43, Sioux Center. Old record 9:14.60, Gilbert, 2025.

—Class 4A 4x800 Relay – 8:58.01, Waukee Northwest. Old record 8:59.53, Pleasant Valley, 2024.

—Class 4A 100 Shuttle Hurdle Relay – 1:00.11, West Des Moines Valley (prelims). Old record 1:00.40, West Des Moines Valley, 2025 (prelims).

—Class 1A 3,000 – 9:37.39, Chloe Glosser, Pekin. Old record 9:42.04, Lili Denton, Council Bluffs St. Albert, 2025.

REPEAT CHAMPIONS        

GIRLS

Abby Mecklenburg of Linn-Mar won the Class 4A long jump for the third straight year.
Kylee Hill of Burlington won her third straight shot put title, Class 3A this year, Class 4A the two previous years.
Pella Christian won the Class 2A 4x200 relay for the third straight year

 Waukee Northwest won the Class 4A 4x200 relay for the fourth straight year.        

Council Bluffs St. Albert won the Class 1A distance medley relay for the second straight year.

Ada Hansen of CAM won the Class 1A 400 hurdles for the second straight year.

MULTIPLE WINNERS

GIRLS

Two Titles

Karlee Lynch, Maddy Hendershot and Grace Storjohann, Grundy Center, Class 2A 4x800 relay and DMR

Kolby Oldenkamp, Sioux Center, Class 3A 4x800 relay and DMR
Bailey Vos, Pella Christian, Class 2A 400, 4x200 relay
Kylee Hill of Burlington, Class 3A shot put, discus
Ada Hansen, CAM, Class 1A 400 and 400 hurdles 

GIRLS FRIDAY MORNING NOTES 

Lili, Lili, Lili

Council Bluffs St. Albert’s Lili Denton picked up her fifth state championship when she anchored her team to its second straight victory in the Class 1A distance medley relay. Denton was in third place, 3 seconds behind, when she got the baton for her 800-meter carry. She made up that deficit quickly and got the Saintes to the finish in 4:08.87 with a 2:13.68 carry. A University of Texas recruit, Denton has raced 14 times at the state meet— never finishing lower than fifth. She was second in the 3,000 on Thursday  after winning that event in 2024 and 2025. She’ll go for her third straight title in the 1500 on Saturday.

Sizzling Marks In The Medley

Ankeny ran the state’s fastest time ever in winning the Class 4A distance medley relay and three teams chasing the winner also joined the top 25. The Ankeny foursome, anchored by senior Makenna Madetzke, ran a sizzling 3:55.67 to run away with the championship and post the No. 2 time in the country this year.  The previous all-time best was 3:55.67 by Davenport Assumption in in 2017. Ankeny erased the meet record of 3:59.67 that Waukee Northwest set last year as Madetzke brought her team home in 2:10.09. Cedar Falls (4:02.49) moves into the all-time list at No. 14, Northwest (4:02.69) is 16th and Ankeny Centennial (4:02.85) is now 18th.

Making History At On The Blue Oval

Rylee Atkinson, Lilee Boriskey, Kaitlyn Hahn and Faith Dugan just created some history for their school. They carried Edgewood-Colesburg to the Class 1A championship in the 4x200 relay, the school’s first state championship in a running event and just the second title in any kind of event at the state track meet. They finished in 1:44.33 for a solid margin over second-place West Fork, which ran 1:45.11. Ed-Co’s only other state champion in track and field was Sharon Leslein in the 1969 high jump.

 Another Relay, Another All-Time Best For Northwest

It’s getting so that the only team Waukee Northwest can outdo anymore is itself. Northwest sped to an all-time best in winning the Class 4A 4x200 relay for the fourth straight year, running 1:37.77, and the Wolves displaced themselves as both the all-time leader and state record holder. They set the old meet record at 1:38.55 in winning last year and established the previous all-time best of 1:38.40 at the Drake Relays last month. What’s interesting is that the two runners on the middle legs, sisters Avery and Logan Vogt, are better known as volleyball players and led Northwest to the Class 5A title in that sport last fall.  On Thursday, Northwest  eclipsed its previous all-times best in winning the 4x800 relay.

Not long after that race, Northwest broke its own record in the 4x100 relay. The Wolves ran 47.07 in winning their preliminary heat, eclipsing the meet record of 47.22 they set two years ago.

Record Runs In The 400 Hurdles

Both first-session races in the 400 hurdles produced records and in both cases, the state champions broke records held by IGHSAU Hall of Famers. Waukee’s Jana Maharry won the Class 4A race in 1:00.11, just under the record of 1:00.15 that Linn-Mar’s Payton Wensel set in 2018. Wensel will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday. Class 1A, CAM’s Ada Hansen won the 400 hurdles for the second straight year. Her time of 1:01.28 broke the record of 1:02.14 that Hall of Famer Sara Stoakes from North Tama set back in 2009.       

GIRLS AFTERNOON SESSION NOTES
Easy Time For Linn-Mar Jumper
Linn-Mar’s Abby Mecklenburg didn’t have to expend much energy to win her third straight Class 4A long jump championship. Mecklenburg went 19 feet on her first attempt and that held up for the title. She went 18-1 on her second jump and then passed on her final four attempts.  Sophia Hatcher of Ames threatened with a jump of 18-11 ¼ on her third try but could not improve on that and settled for second. Mecklenburg is the sixth athlete to win three straight long jump titles and the second in 4A. She also was the Drake Relays champion this year and is the state’s the all-time leader at 20-8 ¼. She’ll continue her track and field career at Iowa State.
 
It’s Pella Christian – Again        
Put a Pella Christian relay team on the track and there’s a good chance you’ll see a record. So it was in the 4x200 relay and the preliminaries of the 4x100 relay. The Eagles broke their own meet record in winning the Class 2A 4x200 for the third straight year, running 1:39.70 with a team of Lexi Terpstra, Bailey Vos, Amaia Agre and Meredith Van Wyk. Van Wyk has anchored all three of those championship units and Vos has won three straight titles in the 400. In the 4x100 prelims, Pella Christian broke its own record with a time of 48.10, running a foursome of Terpstra, Agre, Olivia De Haan and Rachel Kacmarynski, the two-time defending champion in the 100.
 
A State Champion At Last!
Mount Ayr high jumper Aubree Shields has been oh, so close throughout her career. Now, as a senior, she’s finally a state champion. Shields cleared 5-5 to win the title before missing three tries at 5-9 ½, which is the meet record. It was a satisfying victory for Shields, who finished second as a freshman and sophomore and third as a junior.  Lilee Boriskey, who ran on the Edgewood-Colesburg 4x200 relay team that gave the school its first state championship in a running event, cleared 5-4 to finish second.
 
Twenty-Year-Old Record Goes Down
The oldest relay record on the books finally has fallen.  Sioux Center took down Fairfield’s Class 3A record in the distance medley relay when it covered the 1600 meters in 4:00.09, which goes in at No. 5 on the state’s all-time list. The old record of 4:03.14 had stood since 2016. It’s the second record for a Sioux Center relay team in this meet. The Warriors ran 9:14.43 for a meet record in the 4x800 on Thursday. Kolby Oldenkamp ran the second leg on that unit and anchored the medley.
 
Grundy Grinds Out Another Relay Win      
They had to run only half as far this time, but the Grundy Center Spartans got the same result – another Class 2A relay championship. Using three runners from the record-setting 4x800 team on Thursday, Grundy Center returned to the track and won the distance medley relay to open today’s afternoon session. Karlee Lynch, Maddy Hendershot and Grace Storjohann ran on both units and were joined in the medley by leadoff runner Ava Heeren. Storjohann trailed the lead runner by 30 meters when she got the baton for her 800 anchor carry, but she ate up the difference quickly and kept her team safely ahead in bringing the Spartans to the finish in 4:09.01.
 
Three-peat Gives Hill A Sweep        
It’s a three-peat for Burlington’s Kylee Hill in the shot put. And it also it also gives her a sweep of the throwing events in Class 3A. Hill, a junior, threw 46-6 to win by a wide margin after going into the meet as the state leader. Pella’s Katie Scheckel finished second at 43-11 ¼. Hill’s first two shot put titles came when Burlington was a Class 4A school. She had a throw of 52-5 ½ earlier this year, which ranks second on the state’s all-time list, trailing only the great Paulette Mitchell, who threw 53-3 ½ in 1992. Hill won the discus on Thursday with a throw 151-3, which ties for 20th on the all-time list.
 
Another Year, Another Relay Title For Wahlert Catholic
The beat goes on for Dubuque Wahlert Catholic relay teams. With its victory in the Class 3A 4x200, Wahlert has won at least one relay in 14 of the last 15 state meets. The Golden Eagles have captured 27 relay titles in that stretch and they own 33 overall – 10 more than any other school. They won today’s race in 1:41.16, which ranks 20th on the state’s all-time list.
 
At Last, Another Individual Winner For Williamsburg
Williamsburg has enjoyed considerable success in relays at the state track meet through the years, winning 12 titles. But Ava Hocker’s victory in the Class 3A 400 hurdles was just the second championship in an individual running event for a Williamsburg athlete. Hocker blazed to the finish in 1:00.46, which puts her at No. 4 on the state’s all-time list. Williamsburg’s other individual running champion was Molly O’Brien, who won the Class 1A 100 hurdles in 1998. Hocker was the runner-up in the 400 hurdles last year and finished second in the open 400 on Thursday.