DES MOINES – It looked as though the Fort Madison Bloodhound boys and girls would have a good day of it placing in two of the first three events of the morning.
Sophomore Avery Rump captured 5th place in the 3000-meter run setting a personal best at 10:27.75, and then junior Kenden Bowie hit a personal best leap of 6’7” in the boys' 3A high jump.
Rump settled in with the field of 24 runners, which is more than she’s used to running with, and pushed her way into the top seven before the first two turns on the blue oval at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
She said running with the fastest girls in the state helped her improve seven places since her freshman year in 2023.
“All I did was I kind of saw the girl in front of me and I thought I could get her. So I stayed with them and that kinda helps boost my time because running with people that are super fast like these girls helps me,” Rump said.
Rump surpassed her expectations for the meet in both time and finish.
“I was hoping for a 10:30 so I’m super proud and happy with myself,” she said.
“I just wanted to stay steady and keep going and try to be as fast as I can be. Run my own race, but yet keep an eye on those in front of me. I was just hoping to place this year. I didn’t know if I could do that or not but I wanted to do better than last year’s 12th.”
Bowie certainly brought the drama along with the resounding success. The junior cleared his jumps at 6’3”, 6’5”, and 6’7” all on his final attempt. The 6’7” was the best leap he’s had all season, besting two jumps of 6’6” earlier.
Trying to clear 6’9” and get into the top three, Bowie tried to get the crowd into the event by clapping to start his run up. He missed all three of the 6’9” attempts, but on the last just clipped the bar with the back of his legs.
“I just missed that. I kicked my legs up just a little late,” he said.
“This feels like the perfect day. It felt good to know there were people out there that were encouraging me.”
Bowie would stop and discuss each jump with assistant coach Jordan Meierotto, who said after the event, “That’s a pretty good day”.
The Hound said Meierotto would encourage him, but after clearing 6’5”, she told him to just have fun.
“After that jump that I got again on my third try, she said I was stressing her out playing around,” he said with a chuckle.
Bowie said he’s setting his sights on next year and possibly 7-feet.
“I had no idea how far I would get. Obviously, I’m happy I’m top five, but I feel like I could have done better. I pulled my legs a little late on the last 6’9”. I need to keep doing what I’m doing and get better and I feel like I can get 7 feet next year.
The boys' shuttle hurdle team of Adam Sobczak, Gavin Callahan, Kiawante Smith, and Henry Wiseman returned from last year’s state meet intact and ran a 1:00.62 which was sixth best and a qualifying time for Saturday’s final. However, an early start on the third leg disqualified the Hounds, along with six other 3A boys' teams in the morning session’s final running event.
Wiseman said right after the event, if the time was good enough, the Hounds would improve on that on Saturday.
“We could get in with that, but we know we can run better and if we do get into the finals, we’ll do better. We’re right there,” he said.
“If we can get in the finals, I know we can run better. It’s different out here, a different environment and everyone is watching you”.
Callahan said the team was more settled this year.
“We knew what to expect this year. We’ve had more time to get the team running faster. We didn’t do anything different, we kept what we knew was working from last year and just improved from there,” Callahan said.
The Hounds walked off the event to watch the sixth and final heat of the morning session on the big screen at the stadium’s northeast end. When the times were posted the Hounds had qualified, but on the way off the infield an announcement came over asking coach Keith Helling to come speak with track officials where it was learned the Hounds had been disqualified.
Wiseman and Smith will both run in the 110 high hurdles in Friday’s morning session at approximately 10:50 a.m.
Junior Brylie Lorence will throw the shot on Friday morning starting at 9 a.m. She finished 17th in the girls’ 3A discus competition with a throw of 107’1” Thursday morning. The 4x100 boys’ team of Sobczak, Lamar Dayton, Haygen Segoviano, and Dear will run at about 1:20 a.m. Friday morning.
Brandon Klein will compete in the 100, 200, and 400-meter wheelchair events, and the wheelchair shotput all on Saturday.
The boys' distance medley of Segoviano, Dear, Peyton Lambert, and Nolan Guzman will run at approximately 10 a.m. Friday.
Sophomore Mara Smith will run in the open 800 for the Lady Hounds on Saturday at about 10:50 a.m. and Rump will run in the 1500 at about 2:30 p.m.
Back to Thursday, the girls' 4x800 team of McKayla Schinstock, Mara Smith, Avery Rump, and Addison Rump finished 10th with a time of 9:56.85 despite Schinstock cramping up down the last stretch and Smith falling onto the track just after the handoff to Avery Rump, after picking up three spots.
Mason McLey finished 21st in the boys’ open 400 with a 53.52, while Central Lee’s Grant Myhre finished in 52.40 (20th overall) and the 4x800 relay team of Lambert, McLey, Riley Tripp, and Nolan Guzman finished 18th with 8:20.40. Dear missed qualifying in the 100- and 200-meter dashes but set personal bests in both with an 11:02 in the 100 (10th overall) and a 22.32 in the 200 (13th overall).
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