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Vote: Ames Tribune Athletes of the Week for May 6-12

joe randleman, ames tribune
·5 min read

This past week saw Ames-area high school track and field teams compete in state qualifying meets.

Ames ran at the Class 4A qualifying meet in Norwalk, Ballard and Gilbert at the 3A meet in Alleman, Nevada at the 3A meet in Saydel (Des Moines), Roland-Story at the 2A meet in Story City, Collins-Maxwell at the 1A meet in Earlham and Colo-NESCO at the 1A meet in Belle Plaine. Area athletes combined to qualify for state in 86 events.

It also was the opening week of postseason high school golf, and state tennis regional and district meets took play to set up the state singles and doubles tournaments. Area soccer teams also wrapped up the regular season.

Here are the Ames Tribune's female and male Athlete of the Week candidates for the week of May 6-12. AmesTrib.com readers vote to determine the winners, who will be announced at the end of the week.

Girls

Ballard senior Kaitlyn Zugay qualified for the Class 1A state singles tournament in girls tennis for the second year in a row.
Ballard senior Kaitlyn Zugay qualified for the Class 1A state singles tournament in girls tennis for the second year in a row.

Kaitlyn Zugay, Ballard

Zugay qualified for the Class 1A girls state singles tournament for the second year in a row following the 1A Region 2 singles and doubles tournament on May 6 in Atlantic.

Zugay went 4-0 during the tournament with victories over Denison-Schleswig's Kiana Schulz (6-3, 6-3), Council Bluffs St. Albert's Lily Barnes (6-1, 6-1), Shenandoah's Aurora Trowbridge (6-0, 6-1) and Glenwood's Aubrey Mullanix (7-5, 7-5).

Makenna Carlson, Roland-Story

Carlson led the defending 2A state champion Roland-Story girls golf team to a decisive victory at the 2A Region 2B meet at the River Bend Golf Course in Story City on Friday.

Carlson won medalist with an 18-hole score of 84. Roland-Story shot a 352 to beat Kuemper Catholic by 74 strokes and easily advance to the Region 2 meet at Carroll.

Angelica Attinger, Ames

Attinger ran the fastest state-qualifying time for the girls 400-meter hurdles race in 4A during the 4A qualifying track and field meet in Norwalk on May 9.

Attinger won the race at Norwalk in 1:03.84. The second-best qualifying time in 4A was 1:04.42 by Indianola freshman Madison Grover.

Sarah Feddersen, Gilbert

Feddersen is part of three relay teams that had top-two qualifying times in all of 3A and an individual event that ranks in the top five following the 3A qualifying track and field meet at Alleman on May 9.

Feddersen anchored Gilbert to the fastest 3A qualifying time in the girls 4x800-meter relay at 9:40.70 and the second-best 4x400 qualifying time at 4:01.17. She ran the third leg on Gilbert's distance medley team that qualified with the second-fastest qualifying time in 3A at 4:17.34.

Individually, Feddersen qualified fourth in the 800 with a time of 2:20.98.

Jayden Peters, Collins-Maxwell

Peters qualified for state in three individual events and one relay for the Collins-Maxwell girls track and field team at the 1A qualifying meet in Earlham on May 9.

Peters ran the sixth-fastest qualifying time in the 1A girls 3,000 at 10:59.24, the 10th-best qualifying time in the 1,500 at 5:10.77 and the 22nd-best 800 qualifying time at 2:31.73. She anchored Collins-Maxwell to the 14th-best qualifying time in the distance medley at 4:29.97.

Boys

Ames’ Garang Deng crosses the bar during boys high jump in the class 4A State qualifying Co-Ed meet on Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Norwalk, Iowa.
Ames’ Garang Deng crosses the bar during boys high jump in the class 4A State qualifying Co-Ed meet on Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Norwalk, Iowa.

Garang Deng, Ames

Deng qualified for the state track and field meet in the Class 4A boys high jump after placing fourth at the 4A qualifying meet in Norwalk on May 9.

Deng peaked with a jump of six feet even. His jump ranks 12th among 4A qualifiers.

Logan Bleich, Gilbert

Bleich turned in a dominant performance in distance events at the 3A qualifying track and field meet at Alleman on May 9.

Bleich took second in the 3,200 and 1,600 at the 3A qualifying meet in Saydel with respective times of 9:35.48 and 4:26.15. Those times rank second and fourth overall among 3A qualifiers.

Jameson Witt, Ballard

Witt placed second in the open 400 and helped Ballard win the 4x400 and take second in the 4x800 at the 3A qualifying track and field meet at Alleman on May 9.

Witt ran a 50.22 in the 400 and he helped Ballard win the 4x400 in 3:24.87. Ballard's 4x800 time at Alleman was 8:11.89.

Witt ranks fifth among 3A qualifiers in the 400. Ballard is second in the 4x400 and third in the 4x800.

Carter Holland, Nevada

Holland qualified for state individually and he helped the Nevada 4x800 relay team return to the Blue Oval following the 3A qualifying track and field meet at Alleman.

Holland was second in the 800 with a time of 2:03.41. He anchored Nevada to a third-place time of 8:13.09 in the 800, which placed the Cubs third and ranked them sixth among all 3A qualifiers in the event.

Isaac Brown, Collins-Maxwell

Brown qualified for state in both the boys 100 and 200 dash events on May 9 at the 1A qualifying meet in Earlham.

Brown placed second in the 100 and third in the 200 at Earlham. He ran the 100 in 11.44 and the 200 in 23.39.

Joe Randleman covers high school sports for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Vote: Ames Tribune Athletes of the Week for May 6-12