Mar. 11—AMES — High jumpers stole the show for area teams on Friday during the IATC Indoor Track and Field championship meet.

Albia sophomore Ryan Little came within an inch of winning the Class 2A boys high jump title while meeting the 'blue standard' to earn a trip to the 2023 Drake Relays, clearing three straight jumps without a miss including his first attempt at 6-5. Despite setting a personal record clearing 6-5, Little ultimately lost a jump off for the state indoor title to Clarinda senior Isaac Jones bringing home eight of Albia's 13 points in the meet.

The Blue Demons finished in a tie for 15th place in the 2A boys portion of the state indoor meet with Central Decatur. Ethan Stalzer picked up four more points for Albia, finishing fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:05.11 before anchoring an eighth-place finish for the Blue Demons in the 4x400 relay completing a run of 3:42.03 with Ethan Yarkosky, Dominike Deevers and Christopher McDonald to close out the 2A portion of the meet.

Little wasn't the only area high jumper to challenge for a championship on Friday. In the Class 3A boys competition, Fairfield sophomore Ryan Giberson cleared four of his first five jumps including clearing 5-11 on his first attempt before ultimately settling for second place missing three attempts at clearing 6-1.

The Trojans finished 17th overall as a team with 11 points. Ben Boatright, Riley Perkins, Dayton Mauck and Dallen Rippey placed seventh in the 4x800 relay posting an early-season best time of 9:12.6 while Kevin Dorothy, Gilberson, Ian Aplara and Dylan Adam finished ninth in the shuttle hurdle relay in 39.19 seconds.

Back in 2A, the Cardinal Comets got four points from Alec Rachford to finish in a tie for 29th with Dike-New Hartford. Rachford finished fifth in the shot put with a personal-best throw of 47 feet and 1.25 inches.

The Centerville boys also competed in the 2A portion of the IATC state indoor meet on Friday. Griffin Weber, Drennan Moorman, Jack White and Euan Lechtenberg scored the highest finish of the day for the Big Reds crossing the finish line 21st overall in the distance medley in 4:18.1.

In Class 1A, the Pekin boys scored 12 points on Friday to finish 17th overall. Brady McWhirter battled for a win of his own for the Panthers, bringing home eight points by finishing second to Woodbine junior Landon Bendgen in the 3,200-meter run in 10:24.979.

McWhirter was also part of a seventh-place finish for the Pekin boys in the distance medley joining Jaedon Wolver, Nolan Glick and Sven Dahlstrom to produce a time of 3:55.21. Wolver, Dahlstrom, Kyler Dickey and Will Adam added a seventh-place run for the Panthers in the shuttle hurdle relay crossing the finish line in 38.58 seconds.

The Pekin girls braved the snowy winter weather on Thursday to compete at the Leid Recreation Center on the Iowa State University campus. Chloe Glosser scored a top-10 finish for the Panther girls, placing seventh overall in the 1,500-meter run in 5:03.26.