After an outstanding track & field season thus far, the Jaguar boys’ track & field team headed to Ogden for their class 2A state qualifying state meet in hopes of finishing in the top two spots to earn a trip the Blue Oval in Des Moines at Drake stadium the following weekend. When the final race crossed the finish line Thursday, Southeast Valley knew they had at least 6 events headed to state after a 1^st or 2^nd place finish. After the official qualifiers were released on Friday, the Jaguars learned two more events would be going to state as well based on the next “best 8” performance protocol for qualifying for the state meet.

               The night started off strong for Southeast Valley when in the first race of the night in the sprint medley relay, the quartet of Dreyvon Steadman, Logan Jaeschke, Kayden Showers and Alex Burger ran a 1:35.87 to hold off to other teams and win the event; qualifying them for state. The second event of the night to qualify for the state meet was the shuttle hurdle team of Alex Burger, Casey Hanson, Kolton Ollinger and Colin Johnson. Coming back in the final leg of the relay from third place, the team finished 2^nd overall in a time of 1:03.24. 

               Between the shuttle hurdle relay and the 4 x 200m relay, freshman Keelan Wellman took advantage of small field in the 400m dash. Knowing if he won his heat, he would have a chance to make it to state, Keelan held off two other runners the final 100m dash to win his heat in a personal best time of 54.60. After the times from other heats were combined, Keelan found himself in 2^nd place and a state qualifier.

               After a small setback in the 100m dash, the Jaguars had to rearrange some events quickly before the 4 x 200m relay. Colin Johnson joined Jaeschke, Bryce Harrison and Showers as the lead off in the 4 x 200. The group ran a school record in 1:31.01 to take second place as well, and qualifying Southeast Valley’s fourth event of the night to state.

               Showers after anchoring the 4 x 200m school record team, then turned around in the open 200m dash and took a commanding lead down the back stretch to win the 200m in a time of 22.69 punching his individual ticket to the state meet. The event after the 200m, found Alex Burger and Colin Johnson in a three way battle in the 400m hurdles. Alex Burger ended up running a season best 56.07 to take second place and automatically qualify for state. Colin Johnson’s 3^rd place time of 56.92 had to wait until Friday to find out that his time was also good enough to qualify for the state meet. 

               The final event to qualify for the state meet was the Jaguars 4 x 100m relay team. The Jaguars were lead off by Casey Hanson who stepped in for Dreyvon and joined Jaeschke, Harrison and Showers who ran a 44.02 overall for fourth overall. The time was only .04 from the second place automatic qualifier and after having to wait until Friday, also found out they would be headed to the state track & field meet as well.

               The Jaguars were able to score 83 point overall as a team which put them third place overall. A powerful Roland Story team won the meet with 111 points, followed by MVAOCOU with 103 points.          Other top performers on Thursday night for Jaguars were Owen Nuss who ran a career personal best in the 800m run of 2:06.43 and finished 4^th. Lincoln Akins picked up a pair of places in the 3200m run (11:06.18) 7^th place and a career best in the 1600m run (4:54.74) for 8^th. Alex Burger was 6^th in the 110m high hurdles in 15.94.  Dreyvon Steadman was 7^th in the 100m dash (11.65) and Bryce Harrison was 8^th (11.83)

               The 4 x 400m relay quartet of Bryce Harrison, Owen Nuss, Kolton Ollinger and Logan Jaeschke ran the third fastest time in school history with a 3:34.44 to finish 4^th overall. In the distance medley relay, Kolton Ollinger, Casey Hanson, Drew Dorsey and Ethan Tucker ran 4:08.46 to finish 8^th. Ethan also ran a season best 2:18.61 in the 800m run. Deegan Brandel threw a season best in the discus of 128-02” and made finals. Two other season best times on Thursday were Trennis Stevens in the 400m dash (58.15) and Casey Hanson in the 200m dash (25.23).

               “As a coaching staff we are extremely proud of the way the athletes competed on Thursday night. We faced a little adversity in the middle of the meet and instantly you saw everybody’s breath and life get sucked out. It could have gone two ways at that point, but we gathered them up, told them it was time for others to step up and we could still reach most of our goals for the meet. The team really responded to that challenge and we couldn’t as coaches have asked anymore out of the team then what they did,” commented Coach Nuss. “Now we get those who made it to state ready to compete next weekend.”

               The Jaguars will be competing at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on the Blue Oval, Thursday, May 22^nd, Friday, May 23^rd and Saturday, May 24^th. The schedule of events can be found at www.iahsaa.org as well as a link to purchase tickets for the state meet.