Powered by 3 football stars, Ankeny Centennial's 4x200 relay wins Iowa state track title
The Ankeny Centennial boys 4x200 relay team had one goal entering the Iowa high school state track and field meet.
"The main focal point was to make sure the baton didn't slow down," junior Braeden Jackson said.
They knew if they could get their handoffs perfect, they had the potential to do something great. So, they spent the week leading up the the state meet tediously rehearsing the motions and the timing of each one.
The first pass from junior Robert McGhee to Jackson was seamless, allowing Jackson to speed in front of the pack. That didn't stay true for long though.
As Jackson closed in on senior Elijah Porter for the third leg, Porter peered down and realized he had lined up on someone else's old tape. That set him up slightly behind where he should have been, altering the timing the relay had worked on for the past week.
As Porter took off, the Jaguars were still in front, but he felt Cedar Falls, Iowa City West and Ankeny were hot on their tail. As Porter approached senior anchor Connor Welsch, he purposely reached out for Welsch to give him an extra boost, knowing full well he was going down when he did so.
He dropped to the ground and looked up, realizing he was in the lane of another runner behind him. He put his hands around his head and "torpedoed" back into his lane to avoid being trampled on.
When he looked up to see Welsch taking off and racing away with the baton, he knew it was a wrap.
"Even if it cost me, I knew that we'd be waving these blue flags," Porter said.
The Jaguars finished with a 1:26.2 time, third best in Iowa history. Their time was just eight-hundredths of a second behind the Ankeny Hawks' state record set earlier this year. A record that Centennial said they were chasing.
To get here, it took a year's worth of work, starting last track season. After last season, Jackson, Porter and Welsch began football workouts for this fall as some of the state's best prospects.
Jackson is the son of former Buffalo Bills star running back Fred Jackson and is following in his footsteps by playing the same position. Porter was the lead tailback for Centennial in their trip to the class 5A state semifinal and is heading to play Division I football at Northern Illinois. Welsch will be a preferred walk-on at Iowa State after being the Jaguars' star defensive back.
So from last track season to football workouts, then back to track and field, the relay's second, third and fourth legs had quite the chemistry for those crucial handoffs.
"We were with each other all of last summer," Jackson said. "It makes it fun to be around these guys."
McGhee, the opening leg of the relay, is the lone non-football player of the group. He joked that he's the outcast, but his speed as the team's fastest individual 200-meter sprinter makes him a crucial member of this squad.
"I love them," McGhee said of Jackson, Porter and Welsch.
Now, Porter and Welsch have capped off their careers as state champions. Neither Porter or Welsch had done so in any sport before Friday. That made the moment they all shared together that much better.
"We've been chasing the gray hat all year," Welsch said. "To finally get one feels great."
Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ankeny Centennial's 4x200 relay wins state title behind football stars
