Championship Saturday of the 2025 Iowa High School Track and Field Championships brought some of the best weather, and some of the best performances that the Blue Oval in Des Moines has ever seen.
For the KQRadio area, South Hamilton junior Kolby Hodnefield book-ended his 2025 State Meet with a win in the Class 1A 200m Dash in a time of 21.78 seconds, capturing his 2nd individual title of the meet.
“I was just focusing after those first two races,” Hodnefield said. “Got in the Fieldhouse, cooled down and got rested. I came out of the blocks bad in the 100, but I knew the 200 was my race.”
Hodnefield placed 3rd nearly an hour prior in the 1A 100 in a time of 10.99, while anchoring the Hawks Sprint Medley to a 2nd place finish in a time of 1:32.97 with the team of Nick Severseike-Braden Young-Tanner Twedt-Kolby Hodnefield, as Woodbine won the 1A Title out of Heat 2 in 1:32.52. Senior Nick Severseike concluded his career as Hawk by finishing 21st in the 1A 800 in a time of 2:04.79.
The Hawks, expecting to finish 4th, picked up a welcomed surprise as Woodbine disqualified out of the 1A Boys 4×400 to allow South Hamilton to finish 3rd in the 1A Meet with 35 points.
“It was a very successful three days for us,” head coach Kyle Galetich said. “We ran well, we’ve worked hard all year and that hard work payed off in the end. There were probably a few races where we didn’t really run our best, but in the end by finishing third, we’ll take it.”
It would be a historic day at the Blue Oval, as Western Dubuque junior Quentin Nauman would make American history, let alone Iowa history. Nauman set an all-time best in the 800, running 1:49.41 to win the 3A race, before becoming the first high school athlete in state history to break 4 minutes in the 1600m run, running 3:59.60 to win the 3A race. Nauman became the first athlete in United States history to run a sub-1:50 800 and a sub-4 minute mile in the same track meet.
Roland-Story would put together a fantastic day, beginning with a 2nd-place finish in the 2A Girls Sprint Medley in a school-record time of 1:50.00 with the team of Adalyn Sporleder-Brookelyn Jondle-Kennedy Petersen. That would soon be followed by the Norsemen shuttle hurdle place 2nd in Class 2A in a time of 1:05.51 with the team of Brookelyn Jondle-Maddis Lucas-Taylor Rechkemmer-Selah Helgeson.
“We knew it was going to be a hard race, we knew the other girls were really good,” The senior Helgeson said. “I think we performed really well, a PR with a new school record so I think we’re all proud of ourselves.
In the between, Roland-Story senior Evan Voga would place 16th in the 2A Boys 800m Run in a time of 1:58.76, as Kam Lande led into the afternoon session with a 5th-place finish in the 2A Girls 200 with a time of 25.57. Evan Voga then placed 23rd in the 1600m run in a time of 4:40.18, before 3 Norsemen seniors left their final mark on Roland-Story athletics, as the Girls 4×100 placed 4th in a time of 49.30 with the team of Adalyn Sporleder-Kennedy Petersen-Brookelyn Jondle-Kamryn Lande.
LISTEN: Norsemen Seniors discuss their final race after 2A Girls 4×100
Roland-Story’s girls would place 7th in 2A with 28 points. Other KQRadio team scores saw Clarion-Goldfield-Dows tie for 23rd in the 2A girls with 8 points, Eagle Grove tied for 49th in the 2A girls with 3 points, while Roland-Story boys tied for 47th in 2A with 2 points.