Bloodhounds set all kinds of marks at state qualifier

We just kinda pulled it out of our butt. I’m not gonna lie. Our goal was to win districts and get to state and we did it.”

Mara Smith, FMHS sophomore

MOUNT PLEASANT – The Fort Madison boys' and girls' track teams got off to a strong start at the Class 3A Mt. Pleasant District qualifier Thursday evening, and then just kept it going.
Sophomore Lady Hound Avery Rump qualified for the IGHSAU/IHSAA State Track and Field meet next week in Des Moines in four events.
She won the 3000-meter run and the 1500-meter run, and anchored a very strong 3^rd leg of the 4x800 relay team that set a PR for the event with a 9:57.23. Rump won the 1500 with a time of 5:00.73, and the 3000 with a 11:02.12, a full 16.6 seconds ahead of the field. She also anchored the distance medley team that earned a spot with a second-place finish.
Brylie Lorence won the shotput in the girls' event with a 38’0.25” heave, besting the field by 2’2.25”. Lorence was 3^rd in the discus at 107’9”, which could qualify based on that mark among other non-qualifers across the state.
Mara Smith qualified on a second-place finish in the 800-meter run with her season-best 2:21.04. Washington’s Iris Dahl won the event with a 2:19.99. Smith also ran a similar split in the 4x800, running the second leg behind Makayla Schinstock and in front of Avery and Addison Rump.
That group hadn’t been under 10 minutes all season and Smith said it was just the motivation of going to state. That’s all she had to explain the speedy times in the cool and rainy evening air.
“Our goal was to win districts and get to state and we did it, Smith said. I was just thinking 'pain' in my head. That’s what one of my teammates told me to think and I just embraced it. It helped me to have people in front of me to chase.
Addison Rump had Washington distance warrior Dahl behind her on the final leg of the 4x800 and that was something that motivated her.
“I knew she was back there somewhere and I wanted to keep the lead that our team got,” Addison said.
“I was really scared that I was going to be the one to lose that, so it motivated me to stay in first. I wasn’t really looking at the clock, but I saw it about 50 yards away and it was 9:30 and thought, ‘Hey, that’s really fast.”
Avery, who had come off the 3000 about 20 minutes before the 4x800 said she was feeling a little pain after the 3000 but didn’t want to let her team down. Rump was just about in a full sprint on her first lap of the 3^rd leg.
“It felt like I was in pain. I think we just wanted to run really fast tonight. We wanted to be district champs so that really motivated us,” she said.
“It almost felt more difficult than normal running the 3000 before, because I was hurting a little bit after that. But I drank some water between the two and a little Gatorade so I think that helped.”
The girls' 1600-meter distance medley also earned a spot at the state meet with another PR of 4:23.01 surpassing their best mark of the season by a full nine seconds. That time put up by Lillian Gelsthorpe, Olivia Buckner, Smith, and Avery Rump would be in the top 26 in the state as of yesterday.
The Hounds’ Kenden Bowie qualified for Thursday’s state meet with a 6’3” jump in the high jump. Bowie said last week that he struggled to jump in the rain, but was able to fight that off and hold off a Fairfield rally in the higher leaps to capture second place.
Bowie said he was excited to qualify in his first year ever jumping, but said he was disappointed in his performance.
“Sometimes it irritates me because I have a good jump and then I go back down and have to work myself up again,” he said.
“But I feel like I have a 6’5” or 6’6” in me. I’m excited about going Thursday, but I’m still kinda focused on here today. I think I could have done a lot better.”
Bowie’s jump at the 6’2” mark was cleared easily and could have been his best jump of the day.
The Hounds' Brandon Klein also qualified for state in the wheelchair shotput with a throw of more than 18 feet.  He also took 2nd in the 100, 200, and 400-meter races.
Julian Dear won the 100-meter dash and qualified for state with a time of 11:14, his fastest time of the year. Then he turned around and won the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.52 also qualifying him for next week’s state tournament.
Mason McLey captured the top spot and a qualifying time in the 400-meter dash with a 53.12. Henry Wiseman’s 15.27 in the 110 meter hurdles could qualify after all times are turned in from Thursday’s sectionals.
The 4x100 relay team of Adam Sobczak, Dayton Lamar, Hayden Segoviano, and Dear will compete at state with a 44.24. The 4x200 meter relay team of Segoviano, Gavin Callahan, Marcus Guzman, and Lamar finished third with a 1:33.81 and that time will have to wait to be determined if it is a qualifying time. The 4x800 team of Peyton Lambert, Mason McLey, Riley Tripp, and Nolan Guzman finished 4^th but in a time of 8:15.67 just .28 seconds off 2^nd place and could qualify in one of the remaining time spots.
The boys' shuttle hurdle relay team of Sobczak, Callahan, Kiawante Smith, and Wiseman qualified for a 2^nd-place finish with a 1:00.66 behind Clear Creek-Amana.
The girls finished fifth overall out of eight teams in the district, while the boys captured 2nd place with 119 points behind Clear Creek-Amana.