Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.

It’s complicated, this Alex and Karen thing.

Alex Gochenour eats, sleeps and drinks track and field. The Logan-Magnolia senior already has won nine state titles and will be attending LSU on a track scholarship.

Karen Hutson enjoys track and field, but the senior also has starred in basketball and volleyball at Logan-Magnolia. She’ll play basketball at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, but she hasn’t shut the door on joining the track program there.

Alex had a chance to become the first high school athlete in the 50 years that girls have competed at the Drake Relays to win three individual championships in one year. But entering the home stretch of the 400-meter hurdles final, she was overtaken by Karen, her teammate.

Earlier in the weekend at Drake, Alex had won the long-jump title despite not competing much in the event this year. Karen entered as one of the favorites but finished sixth and watched as Alex took the victory lap with her championship flag.

“Both of them kind of had their heart broken, and both of them got a flag when they didn’t expect it,” Logan-Magnolia coach Gene Esser said.

Alex and Karen will compete in three events together — the 100, 100 hurdles and 400 hurdles — this weekend back at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. And although they would love senior thrower Kylee Loftus to give them some scoring support, it’s possible that Alex and Karen will lead Lo-Ma to a 2-A team title all by themselves.

“The main thing is, neither one of them likes to lose,” Esser said. “And neither of them lose very much. The fact that they’re on the same team doesn’t really make it any better.”

Logan-Magnolia ranks 193rd in enrollment among Iowa schools which offer track. Alex and Karen have the state’s top two performances — regardless of class — in the 100 hurdles and 400 hurdles this season. In the long jump among all classes, Karen is second and Alex is third.

The only time Karen has lost in any event this year, it’s been to Alex. And vice versa. Naturally, that creates some awkwardness.

“Even at the smaller meets, there’s always that competition between me and Karen,” Alex said.

“It’s a good thing. We may be from the same team, but neither of us is going to lay down. ... It makes us both better.”

Karen, who missed all of last season with a stress fracture in her right leg, admits that Alex is in a tougher spot because she’s won the vast majority of their encounters and has poured most of her athletic life into the sport.

“If she beats me, it’s what’s expected, I guess,” Karen said. “Other way around? A little different.”

Alex said that even though she was dealing with flu and sinus issues during the Drake weekend, she gives all the credit to her teammate for beating her. Later that day, it was Sioux City East’s Shelby Houlihan — not Alex — who became the first Iowa girl to win three individual events in one Drake Relays.

Alex said she has attacked her training with even more vigor since that 400 hurdles loss.

“I never want to lose something that big that meant that much ever again,” she said.

Alex’s fourth event will be the open 200; Karen will opt for the long jump.

Lo-Ma’s only other chances for points lie with Loftus, who has qualified 16th in the shot put and discus. Her season-best effort in the shot put ranks as a tie for ninth in 2-A.

If Loftus is unable to score, Alex and Karen could score a maximum of 74 points.

That’s more than enough to win most years, although the Panthers scored 83 when both were freshmen but still finished 27 behind North Tama in Class 1-A.

This year’s chief challenger could be Hudson High School, which has the top regional qualifying efforts in the 400, 800, 1,600 relay and sprint medley relay, and is second in the 800 relay.

When Alex and Karen were in the seventh and eighth grades they won back-to-back state junior high track titles.

The runner-up both seasons? Hudson.

“I know they’re out to get us,” Esser said. “We’re just hoping we can go out there and perform our best when it counts the most.”

A year ago, Alex became just the third Iowa girl in the 39 years of the state meet to win four individual events in the same meet. Nobody has ever done it twice, and to do it, Alex will have to beat Karen three times.

Karen has beaten Alex at least once this year in all three of their shared events.

Yes, this Alex and Karen thing is a little complicated.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1055, kevin.white@owh.com

twitter.com/KWhiteOWH

« High Schools

Share