With soccer starting their postseason runs, and baseball and softball teams taking their first swings this week, all eyes were on Dallas Center-Grimes’ track & field stars this past week. (Events covered May 21-26)
Girls Track
After getting blanked from the scoreboard last year, the Mustangs surged to ninth place at this year’s state track meet in Des Moines over the past weekend, scoring 29 points after four top-five finishes including one individual title win.
Coming into the meet as the No. 2 runner in the event, sophomore Piper Messerly ran a career-best 9 minutes 52.08 seconds in the 3,000-meter run. Floating between second and third place through the first 2600 meters, Messerly overtook Cedar Falls’ top seed on the final lap and crossed the tape with four seconds to spare.
The opposite happened in the 1,500, with Messerly being passed on the final leg by Cedar Falls’ freshman. With Messerly going into her junior year, it looks like a prime rivalry for the next couple of seasons. And sticking within the same household, her sister Madison Messerly walked out as the fourth place high-jumper with a height of 5-foot-4 as a freshman.
She was joined as a freshman by Leighton Stanford running in both the 400-meter dash and hurdles, with 15th and ninth place finishes.
On the opposite end of the experience, senior Maddy Stevens’ DCG career drew to a close with a personal record 2:14.66 in the 800-meter run for eighth place.
Boys Track
The Mustangs moved up this year’s leaderboard at the state track meet, placing 15th in Class 4A with 17 points after scoring nine for 21st place in 2024. Competition proved stiff across the board, considering DCG’s roster registered nine personal records but peaked in third place.
After running a best-ever 14.17 seconds in the prelims, Darien Walker held the time to beat in the 110-meter hurdles finals. Two of his opponents on Saturday then broke the state meet record, while Walker took seventh place at 14.42 seconds, working on the slightest of margins as he walked in with a previous top time of 14.49 seconds.
Also making a PR but passed by other record-setters, Elias Arbuckle closed out his illustrious career with a third place finish in the 3,200 meter run, clocked at 9:03.68. That was a 17 second improvement over his ninth place run last year.
The team’s best relay performance came from the distance medley with Chase Heitland, Ethan Carlson, Hudson Rude and Jack Meggison with a time of 3:26.91 for third place.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Dallas Center-Grimes track teams move up ranks, Messerly wins 3000 crown
Reporting by Sean Cordy / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
