ADM girls win first-ever state track title
For the past two seasons, the Tigers were just a few moments away from saying they won ADM’s first-ever girls state track and field title. With two straight runners-up banners, head coach Bart Mueller said he ended last year “telling the girls I’m tired of second place. We can’t get three second places in a row.”
After three days at Drake Stadium at this year’s championship series, Mueller didn’t have to worry about that any longer, as the Tigers hoisted the Class 3A gold trophy Saturday evening.
ADM scored 48 points, beating out MOC-Floyd Valley and Sioux Center by five points.
“It’s amazing how this year went. We thought we had a shot,” Mueller said after winning the title, further applauding the girls on the team. “That’s a big thing, the team aspect, that they have a good time together. Just good competitors.”
Winning her second-straight high jump crown, junior London Warmuth echoed her coach’s thoughts about the team coming together for the win.
“It’s phenomenal, our first championship in school history. And to have it be with these girls, this track team is phenomenal,” Warmuth said.
She added that for herself, winning her second individual title is a “highlight of [her] career” and it’s more motivation to go into her senior year. She improved from 5-foot-7 in the high jump to 5-foot-8 this year, beating the state competition by four inches. That’s the 34th highest mark in the entire U.S.
Also helping provide a boost, Madi James was the team’s next-highest solo scorer with a fifth place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. Coming off a 14th place finish at last year’s championship, James said she felt she had a slow start to the season. She had finished 2023 at 1 minute 9.93 seconds, running nearly two seconds slower at the first outdoor meet of 2024. On Friday, she dropped that all the way to 1:07.13 while teammate Elise Coghlan hit 1:07.90 for eighth place.
“I persevered and made sure that I was doing the workouts to the best of my ability and I was pushing my teammates like I knew that they could get better as well,” James said.
The Tigers, too, persevered through the three day championship series. Mueller said the team and families were projecting during the week to see where they may need help or could surprise the field. And it was the latter, with Mueller saying the team performed higher in places they may not have expected.
One place that wasn’t a surprise, was the shuttle hurdle relay where the team of Haley Nelson, Isabella Smyth, Josi Dufoe and Coghlan won gold. They came into the week slotted second overall, just 0.10 seconds from the top seed. Taking two seconds off their qualifying time at 1:04.20, they put second place in the dust by nearly two seconds.
Also scoring solo points for the Tigers: Kennedy Stanford threw 37-foot-2 ¼ for seventh place in the shot put, 4x100 (fourth place), Lauren Hagedorn hit 120-foot-7 for sixth in the discus, and Aniston Tollari measured 17-foot-4 ¼ in the long jump for sixth place. All three are available to come back in 2025.
Adding to the score, the 4x200, 4x400 and 4x100 relays all placed in the top eight as well. And with just one senior solo qualifier (Jordis Ichelson who was part of the 4x100), the Tigers will assuredly have the target on their back next go-around. Until then, “Just an amazing year,” Coach Mueller said.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: ADM girls win first-ever state track title
