River Kings host MAC Championships; Central DeWitt takes second
May 3—The Clinton River Kings welcomed the Mississippi Athletic Conference to the River King and Queen Sports Complex on Thursday evening.
Finishing ninth out of 10 teams, the Kings tallied 40 total points. Pleasant Valley was the overall MAC Champion with Central DeWitt placing second, Bettendorf third, North Scott fourth and Davenport Central fifth.
The Kings had a nice performance in the distance medley, taking fourth place behind Joshua Orr, Jakobe Worrels, Kaleb Soppe and Ed Weiner. They combined for a 3:50.20.
Tytus Wright, Terry Liggins, Jordan Coleman and Bryant Lee later got the Kings another fourth place finish, this time in the 4x200 meter run with a time of 1:30.76.
Their best finish however was in the 4x100 meter relay with Wright, Bryant, Liggins and Coleman finishing in third place with a time of 44.01 to just beat out Davenport Central.
The Kings did well in the field events, getting a fifth place finish from Donavyn Pladna in the long jump. They also had a handful of sixth place finishes including one from Kinnick Belitz in the discus throw with a 140-08 and one from Ben Brown in shot put with a 46-01.
Central DeWitt had another great team performance, led by Iowa State commit Tristan Rheingans who was a MAC Champion in both the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.48 seconds and in the 400 meter hurdles with a 55.21 performance.
Distance running is one of the Sabers strong suits which pairs nicely with their strong hurdles. Brady Freeman, Kyle Olson, Ben Zimmer and Caleb Olson were able to grab first in the 4x800 meter relay with a time of 8:11.86.
Rheingans also helped the Sabers take second in the 800-meter sprint medley along with Colton Sullivan, Michael Palmer and Alex Brown. Ayden McManus, Jameson Gregoire, Cal Kueter and Abe Krukow were able to snag a second-place finish later in the evening in the 4x110 shuttle hurdle relay behind a 1:02.48.
Will Ginter did well for the Sabers in the 400-meter dash, running the race in 50.99 seconds to earn another second-place finish. Caleb Olson succeeded in the 800-meter run, finishing in 1:59.38 for the runner up placement.
Finally, Brown earned the final second-place finish of the day for Central DeWitt, running a 22.23 second 200 meter dash. The Sabers also took third in both the distance medley and the 4x400 meter relay.
State qualifiers are next Thursday and the Sabers will be at Solon while Clinton will be at Dubuque Senior.
