The Marshalltown boys track and field team is running the gauntlet these next two weeks.

The Bobcats claimed the runner-up spot at the 70th running of the Kenny Dean Relays at Leonard Cole Field in Marshalltown on Thursday night.

MHS scored 93 points, finishing ahead of Bondurant-Farrar (71) and Southeast Polk (68). Ankeny Centennial cruised to the team title with 185 1/2 points.

It’s the second of six events the Bobcats will compete in between now and the end of next week.

“They exceeded what I thought they were going to do,” MHS head coach Bob Gilbertson said. “I thought going in that third would be great. And granted, I think some teams ran a little light tonight, but we didn’t run a full lineup either, so I’m really proud of our team effort tonight.”

Marshalltown won four events on Thursday.

Parker Gooding, Carter Nunn, Preston Johnson and John Moellers won the 4×800-meter relay in 8 minutes, 23.89 seconds.

“We’ve been waiting to run that 4-by-8 this year, have them all healthy to run that race,” Gilbertson said. “In hindsight, I would’ve probably changed the order around since [Southeast Polk] sent out a fast guy to start like that, but all the guys ran well and I’m excited to see them do it again, hopefully in a little less wind to get a bit faster and put us in a position to think about that event for state.

The distance medley quartet of Aiden Smitherman, Talon Halsted, Carson Wright and Kade Randall claimed gold after a Randall kick on the anchor leg pushed the Bobcats past Bondurant-Farrar by two tenths of a second; Marshalltown finished in 3:56.74 and Bondurant-Farrar in 3:56.94.

“That was a little unexpected,” Gilbertson said. “Carson had a great 400 leg to get us back into contention, best time of the year for him by far, and Kade just ran a very smart race – he’s coming off swim season and I’ve been working those swimmers a little differently to get them back into it but he had a lot of good racing tactics to come back from behind and get it.”

Marshalltown also won two individual events on Thursday, starting with Myles Goldman crossing the line first in the two-mile run in 10:45.84. Smitherman added a first-place time in the 400 hurdles at 59.25.

“[Smitherman] ran that race for the first time at Ames on Tuesday, made a couple errors in that race and corrected that tonight,” Gilbertson said. “He’s excited with that time, breaking a minute in only his second time running it.”

Smitherman added a runner-up finish in the long jump. Carter Nunn and Parker Gooding added silver medals in the 1,600 and 800, respectively.

Marshalltown heads to the Jim Duncan Invitational at Drake Stadium on Saturday.

“It’s hard to make sure the guys are fresh enough to get to work here,” Gilbertson said. “We didn’t do a lot in practice yesterday and we won’t do much on Friday – the competition is their workouts. We’re hoping to come out of this stretch relatively healthy, get some good competition and get some better results, better efforts.”

Timmothy Chandonia led South Tama with a runner-up finish in the shot put with a top throw of 51 feet, 8.5 inches. Chandonia was also fourth in the discus. On the track, South Tama’s 4×200 relay of Cody Blocker, Michael Henry, Tyrus Clegg and Nick Upah finished third with a time of 1:37.75.

70th Kenny Dean Relays

Team Standings — 1. Ankeny Centennial 185.5, 2. Marshalltown 93, 3. Bondurant-Farrar 71, 4. Southeast Polk 68, 5. Mason City 50.5, 6. Fort Dodge 50, 7. Des Moines Lincoln 38, 8. South Tama 23.

EVENT RESULTS

(top 3 only)

Shot put — 1. Max Dickinson, AC, 53-1.5; 2. Timmothy Chandonia, STC, 51-8.5; 3. Cade Meyer, MC, 51-5.

Discus — 1. Darius Davenport, DML, 154-6; 2. Caleb Larson, AC, 154-5; 3. Ty Sanchez-Evans, MC, 145-7.

High jump — 1. Isaac Buhr, MC, 5-8; 2. Jaxon Volk, AC, 5-6; T-3. Dalton Eckley, FD, 5-4; T-3. Drake Gersema, MHS, 5-4.

Long jump — 1. Andrew Kurtz, B-F, 20-7; 2. Aiden Smitherman, MHS, 20-3; 3. Jeremiah Bassett, AC, 20-0.

Sprint medley — 1. AC (Jackson, Heither, Jones, Vander Weerdt), 1:36.12; 2. FD 1:41.36; 3. MHS 1:43.92.

3,200 — 1. Myles Goldman, MHS, 10:45.84; 2. Elian Funes, DML, 10:56.91; 3. Cooper Steeples, B-F, 11:29.13.

4×800 — 1. MHS (Gooding, Nunn, Johnson, Moellers), 8:23.89; 2. AC 8:41.11; 3. FD 8:49.37.

Shuttle hurdle — 1. AC (Matheny, George, Woods, Nelson), 1:01.53; 2. SEP 1:04.38; 3. B-F 1:08.28.

100 — 1. Braeden Jackson, AC, 11.07; 2. Noah Daniel, FD, 11.15; 3. Fredrick Tarasid-Tarawally, SEP, 11.21.

Distance medley — 1. MHS (Smitherman, Halsted, Wright, Randall), 3:56.74; 2. B-F 3:56.94; 3. AC 3:57.75.

400 — 1. Cohen Moll, AC, 52.40; 2. Kyler Jones, AC, 53.53; 3. Rayshawn Kelley, DML, 54.56.

4×200 — 1. AC (Reed, Young, Anderson, Neith), 1:32.27; 2. SEP 1:34.35; 3. STC 1:37.75.

110 hurdles — 1. Cael Woods, AC, 14.94; 2. Javel Lee, MC, 15.48; 3. Bentley Brennick, SEP, 15.94.

800 — 1. Jack Rieck, B-F, 2:08.61; 2. Parker Gooding, MHS, 2:09.28; 3. Nyle Davis, B-F, 2:09.79.

200 — 1. Cael Woods, AC, 22.12; 2. Caleb Reed, AC, 22.48; 3. Rylan Kingrey, FD, 23.46.

400 hurdles — 1. Aiden Smitherman, MHS, 59.25; 2. Jackson Halfhill, B-F, 1:00.28; 3. Gavin Matheny, AC, 1:00.38.

1,600 — 1. Brady Sanger, B-F, 4:38.00; 2. Carter Nunn, MHS, 4:44.93; 3. Sean Thomas, AC, 4:49.58.

4×100 — 1. AC (McGhee, Reed, Neith, Jackson), 42.31; 2. SEP 42.82; 3. MC 44.16.

4×400 — 1. AC (Jones, Heither, Ross, Anderson), 3:36.14; 2. SEP 3:41.99; 3. MHS 3:43.50.