DES MOINES — John Moellers set the Marshalltown High School record in finishing second in the Class 4A 3,200-meter run at last year’s Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships.

Preston Johnson beat that mark by more than three seconds, and on Thursday he had to settle for sixth place.

Johnson established a new school record in the 3,200 on Thursday at Drake Stadium, clocking in at 8 minutes, 57.29 seconds to beat Moellers’s mark of 9:00.77, but a star-studded 4A field feasted on the inclemently cool conditions to rewrite the record books themselves.

Bettendorf senior AJ Willey won the race in an all-time record 8:49.65, Cedar Rapids Kennedy senior Slader Buckheister beat Thomas Pollard’s mark as well to finish second, and Johnson came away with sixth place on the Blue Oval for his first-ever state meet medal.

Fellow Bobcat senior Carter Nunn came away with a personal-best time of his own, finishing 17th in 9:33.68 to better his mark by more than four seconds as Marshalltown sent a pair of two-milers to state for the third year in a row.

Johnson led the field for two circuits around the track but couldn’t put the needed distance between himself and the pack, and the field tracked him down over the last 1,200 meters. Willey and Buckheister were side-by-side when they overtook Johnson at the completion of the fifth lap, and that’s where they began to pull away.

Sioux City North’s Kuma Gutema took third, Iowa City Liberty’s Keegan Decker claimed fourth, and Johnston’s Jack Crossland passed Johnson for fifth over the final lap.

“Obviously the goal is to go out there and give a win a shot, but I’m feeling good, I gave everything I had and they were better than me,” Johnson said after the race. “I’ve got work to do and I’m looking forward to the next ones and I’m grateful to be able to compete.”

Johnson said his move to the front of the pack near the end of the third lap was prompted by the pace, which he claimed was too slow if he wanted to be able to take the top spot. He held his lead through the first mile mark and had it down the homestretch near the end of the fifth circuit before Willey made his move.

The front four runners went ahead on their own as Johnson and others remained at their pace.

“I just can’t have it be a slow race because we know they can go close in like a 4:20 (second mile) and that’s not how I’m going to win a race right now with how I am physiologically right now,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t afraid to take the lead when Keegan was dropping down to the 68, 69 (seconds) mark. We don’t want it to be a Slader, AJ Willey race, but it ended up being that. At least now we know.”

Johnson will see a lot of the same faces on Saturday for the 1,600, where he’s seeded seventh.

Thursday’s 3,200 was the state meet debut for Nunn, who qualified seeded 23rd and finished 17th with a personal-best time of 9:33.68. The future Central College runner tried to stay connected with the second pack of runners before the race wore on and space was created between them all.

Win, lose or 17th, Nunn was more than content with his new best time.

“I was just happy to make it to state, honestly, because I was 23rd out of 24 with a bad time,” he said. “I was happy to be out here hoping for a PR and that’s what we did.”

Nunn appreciated the conditions mimicking cross country season to help him achieve what he did on this particular day.

“I was really excited to see it was going to be like 55 and cloudy,” he said. “Perfect weather.”

Nunn got back on the track later in the day, too, anchoring the Bobcats’ 4×800 relay. The all-senior Marshalltown quartet of Myles Goldman, Isacc Ceniceros, Kade Randall and Nunn missed out on matching their season-best time (8:20.05) from the state-qualifying meet a week earlier and finished in 23rd in 8:22.48.

“I was really happy to have another race with my teammates, it’s been a great season,” said Randall. “I think we’ve all grown a lot. Really the goal was just to get one more race after the state qualifier, and we gave it our all. It was nice to go out there and compete and show what we had.”

It was the state debut for both Randall and Goldman. Ceniceros was on last year’s 21st-place distance medley relay team.

“This is the first time since we’ve been in high school that we’ve had a 4×8 go to state,” said Goldman, who will run at William Penn. “We just wanted to represent Marshalltown.”

Nunn said the season-best time from a week earlier might have been motivated by the state-qualifying nature of it.

“I think it was the adrenaline of just trying to make it to state,” he said.

Marshalltown’s distance medley this year will run on Friday morning and be anchored by Johnson. The quartet of Declan Greene, Evan Anderson, Aiden Smitherman and Johnson are seeded fifth for the 10 a.m. final. Smitherman has the 400 hurdles later in the day, and Johnson competes in the 1,600 on Saturday.