In a season with two team state championships, and both done in remarkably impressive fashion, there was no doubt what the top two stories from 2020-21 would be from Pella High School. Call it a tie for first, 1 vs 1A, or what you will, but one of the titles was going to be “No. 2” on an incredible countdown.

On May 22nd, Pella’s track and field team completed perhaps the best season in program history to claim the school’s 4th ever boys state championship, and third 3A team title since 2013. They did so edging an ADM team that had a remarkable weekend with six individual event wins to push the Dutch and the points standings to a decision in the final race of the weekend on Championship Saturday.

It was a wild weekend that started slower than anticipated, with some missed opportunities for points on Thursday. However, a school record performance and dominating showing by the 4×800 relay of Chase Lauman, Karl Miller, Josiah Wittenberg, and Tony Schmitz gave the team the first of three individual championship wins of the three-day meet.

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Despite a lower-than-hoped 3rd place finish in the discus for top seeded Kody Huisman that same day, the Drake Relays shot put champion bounced back as only he could, dominating the field to earn a 3A title on Friday the 21st.

KODY HUISMAN FULL INTERVIEW

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While Schmitz, Miller, or Huisman could be considered a candidate for MVP of the weekend, Dutch hurdler Gage Huyser had a difference making performance, outperforming his seed to earn a 3rd place finish in the 400 meter hurdles, teaming with Nolan Clayberg, Brandon Winegardner, and Reece Thoreson to break a school record and place 2nd in the shuttle hurdles, and placing 4th and 5th with Clayberg in the 110 hurdles to score more critical points in the homestretch.

FULL INTERVIEW WITH HUYSER/CLAYBERG:

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Pella’s 4×400 relay of Jackson Rozenboom, Thoreson, Schmitz, and Miller pulled away in the final race with a state championship to be decided by the group who placed ahead of the other between ADM and the Dutch. Miller screamed in joy across the finish line to clinch an individual relay championship and the 3A title.

FULL INTERVIEW WITH 4×400:

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