AMES — Nodaway Valley brought nine girls to the Mike Henderson Middle School State Track Meet on May 6 and came away wih a third-place finish in the eighth-grade small school rankings while posting several noteworthy performances in the meet held at the Ames High School track.
The Wolverines were just behind Panorama with 38 points, as Panorama finished with 39. Emmetsburg won the eighth-grade small schools class with 56 points.
Nodaway Valley had notable performances from seventh and eighth-graders.
Jena Yonker, Maddax DeVault, Macy Kuhns and Lexi Shike completed the 4x200 in a state meet record time of 1:54.44 to take the title and lead the Wolverine girls to their second consecutive 4x200 eighth-grade meet title. That time also beat the large school winning times.
Coach Gary Thompson noted the Wolverines had solid efforts in the race.
“They were against a very fast team in Van Meter. The Wolverines got a great leadoff leg by Jena Yonker, she handed off to Maddax, who held the lead going against a strong wind,” Thompson said. “She then handed off to Macy who flew around the track, the girls all knew that Van Meter had an amazing anchor. But we have a pretty good anchor ourselves in Lexi, then probably the toughest, most outstanding play of the day was to come next. With the lead and pressure knowing we had to get out fast Lexi leaves just a fraction of a second early but not too early for Macy to leap forward and dive to hand off the baton to Lexi.”
Shike ran a strong anchor, leading to the win.
“Lexi in dramatic fashion also, holds off the closing Van Meter runner when everyone at the meet thought she was going to get caught,” Thompson said.
Shike earned a state championship in the 100 hurdles. She was the champ a year ago as a seventh-grader in the 200 hurdles.
Yonker, who Thompson noted has battled injuries all season, ran the 200 hurdles for the first time and did so in a third-place time of 32.61 seconds.
Whitney Lamb was the first medalist of the day with a fourth-place shot put throw of 26 feet, 4.5 inches.
All of this, at the culmination of a Pride of Iowa conference championship winning season left Thompson proud.
The following is a list of school records broken by the Wolverines this season.
Long Jump — Lexi Shike, 15-5.
Shuttle Hurdle — Macy Kuhns, Maddax DeVault, Corinne Bond, Lexi Shike, 1:12.75.
4x200 Relay — Jena Yonker, Maddax DeVault, Macy Kuhns, Lexi Shike, 1:54.44, *State 1A/2A 8th Grade Meet Record
100 meter Hurdles — Lexi Shike, 16.65.
Sprint Medley — 2:04.55 Jena Yonker, Natalie Yonker, Lexi Shike, Maddax DeVault
200 meter Hurdles — Lexi Shike, 30.28.
4x100 relay — 55.29 Jena Yonker, Maddax Devault, Natalie Yonker, Lexi Shike
4x400 relay — 4:36.91 Jena Yonker, Macy Kuhns, Lexi Shike, Maddax DeVault