Waukon boys track team claims top-half finishes in five of eight events among Class 2A State Track and Field Meet elite


Pair of top-10 finishes in four State events ... Waukon boys track and field senior Braxton Stewart elevates over the bar in the Class 2A high jump competition at the State Track and Field Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines Friday, May 20, clearing 6’2” to finish in a tie for ninth place among the Class 2A leaping elite. Competing infour individual events at this year’s season grand finale, Stewart also finished ninth in the Class 2A 400 meter hurdles in a time of 56.17 seconds, soared 20’1.25” to finish 18th in the Class 2A long jump and also ran to an 11th-place finish in the Class 2A 400 meter dash with a clocking of 51.07 seconds. Photo courtesy of Nate Troy, Cresco Times Plain Dealer.

The grand finale of the 2022 Iowa high school boys track and field season saw the Waukon boys track and field team qualified in eight events for the State Track Meet Thursday through Saturday, May 19-21 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. Those eight events involved seven Indian competitors, three of which were repeat performers from last spring and four of which are slated to return as underclassmen next season. Although none of those events found the team scoreboard with top-eight finishes, a couple neared that landmark and more than half of them resulted in finishes within the top half of their respective Class 2A fields of elite competitors.

A busy Thursday schedule saw four-event qualifier and returning State Meet veteran senior Braxton Stewart get things started for the track Tribe, but in his first-ever qualification in the long jump early that afternoon. Needing a top-eight result in three preliminary attempts to advance to the finals in the 24-jumper field, Stewart landed about a foot shy of that final qualifying mark that ended up at 21’0.75” this year.

Instead, Stewart unleashed jumps of his event-best 20’1.25” and 19’3.75” before scratching on an all-out effort on his final preliminary attempt, his first effort landing him in 18th place, less than a half-inch out of two places higher. This year’s Class 2A long jump state championship was won by Hinton junior Beau DeRocher with his leap of 22’4.75”.

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