John Moellers broke the cardinal rule, but he wasn’t about to get overtaken in his last few strides.

The Marshalltown senior secured state meet qualification by finishing second in two events on Thursday night at the Class 4A state-qualifying meet hosted by the Bobcats at Leonard Cole Field.

He’s the only automatic qualifier for the Bobcats, but they’re expecting more spots to come their way when Friday’s official release is made by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

Marshalltown finished sixth out of eight teams in Thursday’s qualifier, scoring 53 points to rank ahead of Cedar Rapids Jefferson (35) and Ottumwa (20). Ankeny claimed the meet title with 163 points, followed by Cedar Rapids Kennedy (140), Johnston (138), Waukee (117) and Linn-Mar (67).

Moellers fully expects to be joined by sophomore running mate Preston Johnson in both the 3,200- and 1,600-meter events, and he’s hopeful to have the distance medley relay on his race docket for next week at the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

The top two finishers from each of six state-qualifying meets advance to the 4A session, while the next 12 best at-large times and distances in each event move on as well.

Moellers finished second to Ankeny’s Ethan Zuber in both the 3,200 and 1,600, while Johnson was third and fourth in respective races. Moellers finished the 3,200 in 9 minutes, 32.37 seconds, and Johnson clocked in at 9:33.80.

In the mile, Moellers timed in at 4:19.59, and Johnson was fourth at 4:21.60 — both personal-best times.

Johnson didn’t waste much time worrying about his chances at qualifying with an at-large spot.

“I definitely got in,” he said moments after the race. “I’ve been recovering from walking pneumonia so I knew I’d have to do something big today, and it finally clicked. I’m really excited for next week, hopefully I can get that last bit of recovery for something special.”

Johnson even led the 1,600 for a portion of the race, while Moellers was content to ride behind other runners instead of staring down a stern wind on the backstretch. Johnson needed to make some headway before the final kick, he said, so both runners ran their races and were comfortable with their performances.

“With the wind I played it more tactical,” Moellers said. “Going into the last lap I saw Preston and Zuber going at it, so I knew I had to go so I decided to kick and it paid off. I was skeptical but I had to go 3-for-3 for my last year.”

That part remains up in the air, but Moellers wanted to be certain about his place at the end of the race. He looked over both shoulders a couple times during the final 30 meters to assure himself of second place.

Ankeny’s Ike Smith finished in 4:20.95 for third, unable to catch Moellers down the stretch.

“I know you’re not supposed to do it on that last stretch, but I kept looking back,” Moellers said. “I just kept making sure I got that second place. I expected a big kick from the other Ankeny guy, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

The 3,200 was less dramatic down the homestretch, as Zuber pulled away for a win in 9:31.87, Moellers was second in 9:32.37, and Johnson took third in 9:33.80.

“It was a really stacked district,” Johnson said. “I think five of the top nine 3,200-runners were here.”

Johnson was the only Bobcat with returning state meet experience on the roster after qualifying for last year’s 3,200, where he finished 20th. Now he needs some at-large spots, along with any other Marshalltown tracksters who are going to make it to state.

Moellers anchored the distance medley to fifth place with a time of 3:44.40, carrying the final two laps for teammates Evan Anderson, LaMar Johnson and Isacc Ceniceros.

The Bobcats also took fifth in the finale — the 4×400 relay — as well as the shuttle hurdle relay. Kieron Sharp, Aiden Smitherman, Isacc Ceniceros and Carson Wright finished the 4×400 in 3:36.54. The 4×800 relay of Parker Gooding, Carter Nunn, Myles Goldman and Kade Randall came in sixth in 8:56.24.

Owen Eaton popped a personal-best of 48 feet, 3 1/4 inches in the shot put to finish fifth, and teammate Ignacio Macias placed eighth with his personal-record of 46-9 1/2.

Ethan Gorsuch scored seventh in the long jump with his PR of 20-9, and Gorsuch added another personal-best with his eighth-place finish in the 110-meter high hurdles (16.40). Gorsuch added a personal-best split in the shuttle hurdle relay, teaming with Fernando Garcia, Carson Daters and Wright for fifth in 1:13.89.

“I felt it yesterday,” Gorsuch said. “I went through the motions of just knowing what I was going to do today and how I was going to do it and I just went out there and executed it.”

In just his second year of track and field, Gorsuch was one of the seniors head coach Bob Gilbertson pointed to for their leadership and performance in the final home meet of the season.

“Our seniors should be highly proud of what they did tonight,” Gilbertson said. “Knowing that it was going to be a super-hard place to qualify, you’ve gotta go somewhere and you’re gonna have to run well. We knew we were probably going to have to, for a lot of spots, qualify at-large, so when you’re running against quality competition they’re gonna push you to run faster, do better, compete harder.

“I felt that we accounted ourselves pretty well.”

The Bobcats got additional personal-bests from Nunn and Gooding, who finished 11th and 12th in the 800 in 2:05.73 and 2:06.03, respectively.

Camron Holmes and Jayden Lavender set PRs in placing 13th and 14th in the 100, and Elicha Mboungou and Lavender set new bests in taking 14th and 15th in the 200.

Bobcat girls show potential

The Marshalltown girls finished last out of eight teams, but the Bobcats pointed toward the future with Thursday’s performances. With only two seniors and three juniors in his state-qualifying lineup, head coach Chad Pietig said his squad should have no regrets from this meet.

“We talked about this being a big learning experience for the future,” he said, “learning how to deal with the pressure, to deal with all the things that come with being a state qualifier. Overall I think we’re pretty happy with what we saw, especially from our young kids.”

Freshman sprinter Grace Christensen tallied the only individual point-scoring performance by placing sixth in the 100-meter dash with a personal-best time of 12.76 seconds. Her previous best was 12.94.

She will have a shot at qualifying at-large, but nothing will be official until Friday.

“I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight wondering,” she said, “but I’m just glad that I put out my best effort and if I go, then that’s great, and if not, that’s OK because I know I did my best.”

Christensen’s start out of the blocks was the key to her performance, Pietig said.

“That was her best start of the year,” he said. “She had a couple good days of starts in practice. So explosive, and when she hit that start I knew we had something.”

Christensen also anchored for the 4×400 relay team of Erandy Ibarra Madrigal, Millie Heitmann, Leia Hernandez and Christensen, which was sixth in 4:31.50.

The 4×800 foursome of Drea Ceren, Heitmann, Mallory Meyeraan and Anessa Morrison also placed sixth, while the 4×100 (Christensen, Camille Ceren, Mayaliz Heredia de Luna, Grace Spitzli) and shuttle hurdle (Chloe Hoogensen, Spitzli, Kamryn Price, Anela Villarreal) teams took seventh.

Marshalltown finished with 16 points. Ankeny claimed the title with 159, Waukee was second (144), followed by Johnston (139), Linn-Mar (105), Cedar Rapids Kennedy (97), Ottumwa (52), Cedar Rapids Jefferson (26) and the Bobcats.

“There’s a lot of positives,” Pietig said. “We’re not gonna come out of here with a lot of team points, but there’s a lot of positives because our young kids performed on a very big stage and they performed to the best of their ability.”