DES MOINES — With about 150 meters left, Austin West made a discovery that was somewhat surprising and extremely promising.
Darien Porter had stopped pulling away from him.
“He was inside me, and (the margin) just kind of stayed there,” said West, a senior at Iowa City West. “Either he was saving it for the end, or I was going to start reeling him in.”
Turns out, it was the latter.
West caught — then eventually passed — the Bettendorf star and captured the Class 4A boys’ 400-meter title at the state track and field meet Thursday at Drake Stadium. West was clocked in 47.94 seconds, Porter in 47.99.
“It was pretty much all guts,” West said. “I knew (Porter) had a great time coming in, but I had enough to go get him.”
Individual titles by West and Johnathan Gannon (discus) put the Trojans in first place at the conclusion of the first session. Iowa City West has 23 points after five events. Waukee is second with 21, followed by Pleasant Valley and West Des Moines Dowling (16 each).
“It’s good momentum for us,” West said.
Four of the top seven discus throwers were from the area, led by Gannon (178 feet, 6 inches) and Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Cam Jones (175-1).
“In the discus, it’s a lot of small things that can make a big difference,” Gannon said. “A couple of little things out of the back of the ring can really change my throw, and that really helped.”
Iowa City High’s foursome of Jimmy Momberg, Daniel Brown, Lucas Firmstone and John Paul Rethwisch controlled the 3,200-meter relay throughout and won it in 7:49.41.
“Unless you’re a freak athlete, running is in your head,” said Firmstone, who was running 2:10 splits as recently as a few weeks ago, but came through with a 1:57.8 dandy Thursday. “The chemistry wasn’t there earlier this season, but today we did what we knew what we could do.”
“We knew we had a chance to win, and we fought for each other,” Rethwisch said. “A lot of it was confidence, and we knew we could do it.”
STATE TRACK & FIELD: 4A BOYS
Teams (top 10) — 1. Iowa City West 23, 2. Waukee 21, 3. (tie) Pleasant Valley and West Des Moines Dowling 16, 5. West Des Moines Valley 14, 6. Johnston 13, 7. Ames 12, 8. Cedar Rapids Prairie 11, 9. (tie) Iowa City High and Waterloo East 10.
High jump — 1. Jacee Clark (Waterloo East), 6-8; 2. Japannah Kellogg (Ames), 6-7; 3. Owen Minshall (Waukee), 6-7; 4. Aguek Deng (West Des Moines Valley), 6-5; 5. Trayvon Williams (West Des Moines Valley), 6-5; 6. Trey Hutcheson (Linn-Mar), 6-3; 7. Keenan Hollingshed (Davenport North), 6-3; 8. Wilson Lenerz (Waukee), 6-3.
Discus — 1. Jonathan Gannon (Iowa City West), 178-6; 2. Cam Jones (Cedar Rapids Kennedy), 175-1; 3. Sam Hanna (Pleasant Valley), 174-11; 4. Zach Morrison (Waukee), 172-2; 5. Logan Jones (Lewis Central), 172-0; 6. Riley Higgins (Linn-Mar), 170-4; 7. Kaden Schilling (Cedar Rapids Prairie), 167-1; 8. Keegan Larson (Cedar Falls), 163-6.
3,200 — 1. Konnor Commer (Pleasant Valley), 9:15.79; 2. Matthew Carmody (West Des Moines Dowling), 9:17.39; 3. Tim Sindt (Ankeny), 9:19.38; 4. Tom Altier (Johnston), 9:27.14; 5. Merga Gemeda (Sioux City North), 9:28.83; 6. Jack Pendergast (Cedar Rapids Prairie), 9:34.18; 7. Jalen Hildebrand (Dubuque Senior), 9:36.37; 8. Kolby Greiner (Iowa City West), 9:40.67.
3,200 relay — 1. Iowa City High (Momberg, Brown, Firmstone, Rethwisch), 7:49.41; 2. Johnston, 7:51.26; 3. Cedar Rapids Prairie, 7:52.36; 4. Urbandale, 7:58.16; 5. Ames, 7:58.39; 6. West Des Moines Dowling, 7:59.09; 7. Linn-Mar, 7:59.29; 8. West Des Moines Valley, 8:01.07.
400 — 1. Austin West (Iowa City West), 47.94; 2. Darien Porter (Bettendorf), 47.99; 3. Sam Yeaway (Waukee), 48.60; 4. Charlie Johnson (West Des Moines Dowling), 48.64; 5. Jacob Keller (West Des Moines Valley), 6. Zach Eaton (Waukee), 49.90; 7. Gabe Caruthers (Iowa City West), 49.91; 8. Jakob Courbat (Cedar Falls), 50.00.
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