By Bob Bakken
MaxPreps.com
State Track: Miller Ends With 15 Titles
Team and individual champions were crowned last weekend during the combined Iowa boys and girls state track and field meet held in Des Moines.
On the boys' side, Britt-West Hancock won the team title in Class 1A, Monticello claimed the Class 2A honors, Cedar Rapids Xavier won in Class 3A, and the Class 4A champion was Iowa City West.
The girls' team champions were Traer-North Tama in Class 1A, Tipton in Class 2A (fourth straight team title), Van Horne-Benton Community in Class 3A, and the 4A winner was Iowa City West, the only school to win both boys and girls state team titles at the same meet.
One of the stars of the three-day meet was Tipton's Ashley Miller, who was involved in winning four events and finished her high school state track career with a record 15 state titles in 15 tries. Miller won the Class 2A championships in the 800 and 1500 meters and was also part of titles in the 4x800 meter relay and the distance relay. During her career, Miller won all seven individual races she competed in and eight relay races.
Not to outdone by Miller was wheelchair athlete Tasha DeGroote of Aplington-Parkersburg, who claimed her 15th state championship just moments after Miller did Saturday, sweeping all four wheelchair events.
Saturday's attendance of 15,160 brought the three-day total to nearly 54,000 inside Drake Stadium.
Golf: 1A, 2A, 3A Titles to be Decided
Iowa boys state golf championships are being determined in Classes 1A, 2A, and 3A this weekend.
The 3A finals are being contested at Spirit Hollow Golf Course in Burlington.
Sophomore Braden Gaal of Washington had the lowest qualifying score of players not involved in team competition with a 73. Atlantic and Pella bring the lowest qualifying team score into the tournament at 308.
Finals in Class 2A are being played at the Lake Panorama National Resort in Panora.
Hampton-Dumont brings the low team score in 2A at 306, which was a 17-hole team score because one of the holes in their district meet was unplayable. Senior Jason Harvey of Clarion-Goldfield had the low individual qualifying score of players not involved in team play with a 17-hole total of 74.
On the Class 1A side, Mason City Newman qualified with the low team score of 312. Sophomore Jon Tink of Walnut Ridge Baptist Academy in Waterloo had the low qualifying score of players not involved in team play at 70.
Soccer: Boys Sub-states
Thursday is the date for Iowa boys soccer teams to determine who goes to the state tournament.
Sub-state finals will decide the teams to play in the 2A and 1A finals.
Matchups in 2A sub-state finals will include unranked Fort Dodge against Sioux City East, Dubuque Senior at Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Washington at Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Bettendorf against Davenport North at Eldridge, Iowa City West against Burlington at Muscatine, Newton at Ankeny, Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson against West Des Moines Dowling at Waukee, and Urbandale at West Des Moines Valley.
The 1A sub-state finals pit Spencer at Denison-Schleswig, Waterloo Columbus against Decorah at Waverly-Shell Rock, Prince of Peace meet Dubuque Wahlert at Central Clinton, Solon meets Cedar Rapids Xavier at Iowa City Regina, Columbus Junction at Fort Madison, Centerville plays at Pella, Perry meets Norwalk at Dallas Center-Grimes, and two Council Bluffs schools, St. Albert and Lewis Central, travel to meet at Nodaway Valley in their sub-state final.
Watch What You Say
The West Waterloo boys soccer team learned a hard lesson during a recent regional tournament match with Dubuque Senior. The lesson: watch what you say.
When Warhawk goalkeeper Alex Frank misread a ball and the result gave the Rams a corner kick, he reacted by saying something he shouldn't have. What was said was overheard by the referee, who gave the goalkeeper a "red card," meaning a game ejection for Frank.
While the words meant the loss of Frank for the remainder of the game, it also meant the end of the season for the Wahawks. The red card was the fourth received by the team during the season, and Iowa High School Athletic Association rules disqualify any team from tournament competition for four red cards over the course of the year. Thus, after a 10-minute delay for a rules interpretation phone call to the Association office in Boone, the match was ended and Dubuque Senior advanced in the tournament by a forfeit.
"I had to call the association, and they said it's automatically done, right then and there," West athletic director Jeff Frost told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. "It's a bad situation for everybody and a tough way for our seniors to go out, but the rules are the rules. Even if we would have continued playing, the state would have stepped in anyway and made us forfeit the game."
The IHSAA instituted the four-red card rule heading into the 2005 season. The Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union does not have a similar rule.
West's season ended abruptly with a record of 5-12.