The Norwalk Boys Track Team rewrote the record books in the Iowa High School State Track Meet last week on May 22-24 at Drake Stadium.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association state track meet held at Drake Stadium featured three days of competition from all levels, from 1A to 4A. The Warriors participated in 13 events, ranging from field events, relays, and individual events.
Senior Daniel Roche competed in the 400, 400 hurdles, sprint medley, and 4×400 at state. Following the sprint medley, Roche said this being his last meet made him reflect on things.
“I was thinking about it this whole warm-up today and really thinking about all my past four years, and I’m glad I finally found my sport,” Roche said. “It being my last season, it’s bittersweet because I’m hoping to compete in college this upcoming fall, but I’m going to miss this high school team a lot.”
In the 400, Roche finished ninth in 4A with a time of 49.35. In the 400 hurdles, he finished sixth with a 53.64, breaking his own school record by over a second. Roche also anchored the sprint medley team of Eli Robbins, Jamison Giesemann, and Kaiden Kunze, breaking the school record from 2023.
Junior Kaiden Kunze finished sixth in the 200m with a 22.26 and also finished sixth in the long jump with a 21’10. Kunze said his improvement this season was no surprise thanks to XLR8, a training facility, and a new performance lab in Norwalk, which Kunze’s dad is building.
“Off-season work really put me, I think, above the competition where I needed to be, and I think continuing that this off-season will help a lot,” he said. “With places like the new performance lab in Norwalk and XLR8 []… I think that really helped my success.”
Roche and Kunze weren’t a part of the only relay breaking school records; the 4×100 team of Kadan Borcherding-Johnson, Logan Atherton, Eli Robbins, and Jamison Giesemann ran a 43.03, setting a new school record. Furthermore, the 4×800 team of AJ Mosqueda, Sam Parker, Grant Wallace, and Tony Anania finished fifth at state, 27th in the U.S., and broke the school record by 12 seconds.
Norwalk senior and Kentucky commit Tony Anania was not just a part of the record-breaking 4×800 team, but the distance medley, 800, and 1600 as well. Anania also hoisted the state championship in the 1600m at the Drake Relays and at the state meet last year as a junior. Anania said he hopes to be a memorable Norwalk athlete.
“It would be great to be remembered as probably the best ever,” he said. “I feel like my state title [1600m] last year and my Drake championship last year probably puts me in the conversation.”
Anania said that being the best won’t be a shoo-in either.
“There’s been a lot of other great athletes; I may just be a scrawny distance runner,” he said. “I don’t know – I feel like I should be thrown in there on that Mount Rushmore.”
Anania said he has some mixed feelings about his state experience.
“I mean, I’m happy – I got to compete today and do it for God’s glory, and I think I showed it out there,” Anania said. “Sadness. This is my last time wearing a Norwalk jersey, it definitely sucks. But I’m just grateful I got the opportunity to compete in it one last time.”
