The Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships took place this weekend at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, with plenty of Iowa signees, commits, and recruiting targets in action across all four classes of competition.
We discussed which athletes with Iowa ties would be in action a week ago, so let’s dig into the results.
4A
100
Louden Grimsley, Sioux City East – 11th, 10.85
200
Julian Manson, Iowa City West – 23rd, 22.96
4×100
IC West (Mason Woods, Manson) – 10th, 42.33
Southeast Polk (Sam Zelenovich) – 11th, 42.40
Sioux City East (Grimsley) – 19th, 43.18
4×200
Ankeny Centennial (Braeden Jackson) – 1st, 1:26.20
IC West (Woods, Manson) – 3rd, 1:27.17
Sioux City East (Grimsley) – 17th, 1:30.25
Sprint Medley
IC West (Woods, Manson) – 9th, 1:32.88
Urbandale (Elijah Hoyt) – DQ
Distance Medley
SEP (Zelenovich) – 3rd, 3:27.00
IC West (Woods) – 5th, 3:28.54
Urbandale (Hoyt) – 7th, 3:28.73
Shot Put
Colin Whitters, IC West – 7th, 51-07.75
Joey Vanwetzinga, Pleasant Valley – 6th, 52-01.25
Discus
Whitters, IC West – 8th, 156-01
Notes
The only Iowa signee in action among the 4A prospects was Pleasant Valley’s Joey Vanwetzinga, a Class of 2025 recruit who verbally committed to Iowa last summer; he finished 6th in the shot put this weekend.
The most notable other Iowa-associated athletes in action were Mason Woods and Julian Manson, a pair of prospects from Iowa City West who each have fathers on the Iowa staff (LeVar Woods and Jason Manson, respectively). Woods is a three-star athlete in the Class of 2025, while Manson is currently an unrated athlete in the Class of 2026; Woods has an Iowa offer, while Manson has Iowa interest at this time. They competed in several different individual and relay sprint events, highlighted by a third-place finish in the 4×200.
Braeden Jackson, an unrated RB recruit and possible PWO target for Iowa in the Class of 2025, helped Ankeny Centennial claim a state championship in the 4×200 relay.
3A
100
Brevin Doll, ADM – 1st, 10.82
Will Hawthorne, Gilbert – 8th, 11.45
200
Doll, ADM – 1st, 21.50
400
Rayce Heitman, Williamsburg – 5th, 49.62
Jaxson McIntire, Clear Lake – 22nd, 54.00
4×100
ADM (Doll) – 2nd, 41.90
Western Dubuque (Grant Glausser) – 5th, 42.69
Williamsburg (Heitman) – 9th, 42.93
Gilbert (Hawthorne) – 17th, 44.08
4×200
ADM (Doll) – 1st, 1:25:55
Western Dubuque (Glausser) – 9th, 1:29.66
4×400
Williamsburg (Heitman) – 16th, 3:29.73
Sprint Medley
Williamsburg (Heitman) – 2nd, 1:31.97
Gilbert (Hawthorne) – 21st, 1:37.87
High Jump
Derek Weisskopf, Williamsburg – 4th, 6’7″
Shot Put
Weisskopf, Williamsburg – 8th, 53-01.00
Discus
Weisskopf, Williamsburg – 2nd, 179-08
Notes
The star of the 2A ranks — and arguably of the entire weekend — was ADM’s Brevin Doll, who scorched the track with state championships in the 100m and 200m individual events as well as the 4×200 relay — and also helped ADM to a second-place finish in the 4×100 relay for good measure. ADM finished behind Harlan in the 4×100 finals at 41.90, though their 41.33 in prelims would have taken the crown with ease.
Doll had the fastest finals run in the 100m (10.82) across all classes — and that was nothing compared to the state record he set of 10.40 in the prelims. Doll also had the fastest finals run in the 200m (21.50) across all classes, but like the 100m, his prelim time of 21.10 was even faster. Doll made up for missing last year’s state tournament due to injury and then some with his performances this weekend; he was absolutely flying all weekend long.
Doll signed with Iowa last fall and is set to be a running back when he joins the team this summer.
The other notable 3A athlete in action was Williamsburg’s Derek Weisskopf, a 2024 signee who will join the program as a linebacker this summer. Weisskopf wasn’t able three-peat as a state champion in the high jump, finishing in fourth place this year. He also finished second in the discus.
The athlete who topped Weisskopf for the state championship in the discus also has some Iowa ties as it happens — Solon senior Ben Kampman claimed the state title in the discus this year. Kampman is the son of former Iowa star defensive lineman Aaron Kampman. While Ben had some interest from Iowa, he did not receive an offer and committed to Duke last fall on a track scholarship.
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2A
100
Graham Eben, Central Lyon – 23rd, 11.45
Jaxon Paulsrud, Cherokee – 16th, 11.33
DJ Vonnahme, Kuemper – DQ
200
Paulsrud, Cherokee – 10th, 22.67
Eben, Central Lyon – 20th, 22.92
4×100
Central Lyon (Eben) – 21st, 44.39
Roland Story (Fiston Carlson) – 14th, 44.01
Shot Put
Preston Ries, Monticello – 4th, 55-05
Mason Knipp, Columbus Catholic – 6th, 52-06.75
Discus
Ries, Monticello – 5th, 160-09
Notes
It was a quiet year for Iowa-affiliated athletes in the 2A ranks. The standout was Monticello’s Preston Ries, who posted a 4th place finish in the shot put and a 5th place finish in the discus. Ries, who signed with Iowa last fall, will come in to Iowa City as a linebacker this fall.
Preferred walk-on Mason Knipp had a 6th place finish in the shot put. Two other preferred walk-ons, Central Lyon’s Graham Even and Kuemper’s DJ Vonnahme, were also in action this weekend.
1A
4×400
Woodbine (Landon Blum) – 10th, 3:30.74
4×800
Woodbine (Blum) – 8th, 8:20.56
Distance Medley
Woodbine (Blum) – 2nd, 3:33.43
High Jump
Woodbine (Blum) – 5th, 6’3″
Notes
Woodbine’s Landon Blum, a 6’5″ wide receiver and Class of 2027 prospect, was the only 1A athlete with Iowa ties in action at the state tournament. Winfield-Mt. Union’s Cam Buffington, the third of Iowa’s 2024 in-state linebackers, did not compete this weekend.
Blum showed off his speed in a number of events, highlighted by helping Woodbine to a 2nd place finish in the distance medley race. Iowa State is the only school to offer Blum thus far, but his recruitment should heat up as his high school career progresses.
Cyclones star Audi Crooks on Iowa State’s loss to Baylor
Iowa State’s Audi Crooks on her team’s first loss of the season to Baylor.
Audi Crooks and Iowa State women’s basketball are officially sweeping the nation.
On Tuesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, the Cyclones’ star and NCAA women’s basketball scoring leader garnered significant praise from the former-NFL-punter-turned-media-personality.
“I’m a huge fan of the way she operates. Huge fan,” McAfee said. “She just gets buckets. That’s literally all she does.
“Did I know anything about Iowa State’s women’s basketball team ever? Nope. But Audi Crooks highlights pop up on my (algorithm), and I say, ‘Boys, immediately, I’m making a song, we’re making a highlight,’ because people are trying to take shots at Audi right now.”
The song and video McAfee referenced was posted on his social media and played on his show before his monologue about Crooks. It features a stylish edit of Crooks points accompanied by what appears to be an AI-generated song with the chorus of, “You’re about to get cooked, by Audi Crooks.”
The “shots” at Crooks that McAfee mentioned refer to a TikTok posted by ESPN with the caption, “Baylor exposed Audi Crooks on defense,” which came in ISU’s first loss of the season on Jan. 4.
Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen talks about Northwestern game
Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen talks about victory at Northwestern on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Evanston, Illinois.
Iowa women’s basketball was lacking some of its vocal leadership on Monday at Northwestern.
Part of that was the fact that Hawkeyes senior Kylie Feuerbach is still sidelined with an ankle injury. Another part was the fact that Chit-Chat Wright was not feeling great.
“No excuse, but Chat’s really sick,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said after the Hawkeyes’ 67-58 victory. “She didn’t have the flu game like (Michael) Jordan. But she’s really sick, like fever. And I think that just threw her. She was really not vocal tonight. So we were kinda searching, because Chat had been coming (as a leader).”
Wright fought through it and played 34 minutes, scoring 12 points and dishing out seven assists.
Jensen confirmed that Feuerbach remains day-to-day. She hasn’t played since getting hurt Dec. 20 vs. UConn.
“I think (our leadership tonight) was by committee,” Jensen said. “It just wasn’t the same person every time. … It’ll be nice to get Kylie back in that lineup.”
Feuerbach, the team’s best perimeter defender, has missed Iowa’s last three games. Jensen said she is pleased overall with how her team has played defensively in Feuerbach’s absence.
“(Against Northwestern) it was more an ‘us’ problem offensively,” Jensen said. “Our defense held. … We turned the ball over 20 times.”
Two people are dead after a Dubuque bar fight escalated, with one man shooting another and then being killed by police.
An officer with the Dubuque Police Department was outside the Odd Fellows bar just before 1 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4, when he witnessed a physical altercation, according to a news release from the Dubuque Police Department.
As the officer exited the patrol vehicle, an adult man allegedly used a handgun to shoot one of the people involved in the fight. The officer fired at the offender, who then ran into the bar.
The victim who was shot first was provided medical treatment by officers at the scene and then transported to MercyOne Hospital in Dubuque.
The offender was treated by police officers inside the bar and then transported to UnityPoint Finley Hospital.
Both were later pronounced dead.
The names of those involved are not being released at this time pending notification of family members.
The incident is being investigated by the Dubuque Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The officer involved was not injured and has been placed on critical incident leave in accordance with the department’s policies.
Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.
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