Last Wednesday, May 20th, the bus loaded up with City High’s girls’ track and field team, ready to depart for Des Moines, Iowa, to compete in the Iowa State Track Meet. The team started their travel off right by team bonding at Texas Road House for dinner, then continuing on their way to the ‘Blue Oval’ in Des Moines.
The three-day meet started with the Discus on Thursday, May 21st. The dynamic duo of Hannah Braun ’26 and Rachel Haack ’26 started the meet off on a good track with gold and bronze in the discus. Braun ’26 threw a distance of 150 feet flat to be crowned as the state champion in the discus. This was a personal best, and she is now ranked number five in the Iowa Outdoor High School Rankings. Coming close in third place, Rachel Haack, with a throw of 142 feet and eight inches, secured bronze. Braun ’26 is grateful to end the season the way she did with her best friend and teammate, Haack ’26.
“Ending the season on the podium with my best friend and teammate is something that many schools and teams could never achieve, so I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished this season. This season and team will always be in the history books, and I’m so proud to be a part of it,” Braun ’26 cheers after her last high school meet at Drake Stadium.
Turning it over to the hurdles, on the same day, the shuttle hurdle relay team ran a time of one minute and 6.75 seconds, which will qualify them for the finals on Saturday, May 23rd. Willow Schultz ’27, running the fourth and final leg of the shuttle hurdle relay, would also compete in multiple other events as a leader on the sprinting team, as well as Maeve Bowen-Burt ’28. The hurdling duo of Bowen-Burt ’28 and Shultz ’27 placed second and seventh; Bowen-Burt ’28 scored eight points by placing second and ran a time of one minute and 1.61 seconds. Not far behind, Shultz ’27 placed seventh with a time of one minute and 3.04 seconds, scoring two points for the team. Both times were personal bests and ranked in the top ten for Iowa Outdoor High School Rankings and for City High’s top ten list of 400-meter hurdles.
More highlights from Thursday include Abigail Burns’ ’26 3000-meter race. Burns ’26 was seeded ninth before the meet. As she raced, she beat her seed and ran a time of nine minutes and 54.37 seconds to place sixth, also scoring three points for the team. This was a personal best for Burns ’26 and placed her eighth on the Iowa Outdoor High School Rankings for the 3000-meter race. On Saturday, Burns ’26 also placed in the Iowa Outdoor High School Rankings. Burns ’26 raced and placed tenth in the 1500-meter race with a time of 4:35.24, scoring five points for the team again. Scoring a total of eight points.
On Friday, May 22nd, and Saturday, May 23rd, the girls’ track and field team ran the 800-meter sprint medley relay and the 1600-meter distance medley relay. Both relays are now ranked in the top 15 of the state in the Iowa Outdoor High School Rankings. The 800-meter relay race was run by Dede Aboussa-Folly ’26 to start, then Jaydah Kent ’29, Ellie Fraga ’27, and Bowen-Burt ’28 to anchor the relay. The four ran a time of one minute and 46.51 seconds. The four who ran the 1600-meter relay race also had a prior race to this 1600-meter relay race. The four were Aboussa-Folley ’26 to start, Bowen-Burt ’28, Fraga ’27, and Burns ’26 to anchor; they ran a season’s best by almost five seconds at state.
Over the 2026 track and field season, multiple seniors competed and scored big points for the team throughout the season, all the way up to State Track. As this year’s graduating seniors, the upcoming juniors and seniors know they will have to step up and continue to lead the City High girls’ track and field team.
