In the spring of 2019, one week prior to the Drake Relays and 2 weeks before his passing, I visited with IATC Hall of Fame Coach, and IATC Hall of Fame Committee member John Raffensperger.
As I was leaving, Raff said to me, Mike, please do me a favor and ask the committee to someday consider Jason Ringena for the induction into the Hall of Fame.
Our Hall of Fame is beyond exceptional, and the list of worthy candidates seems to grow longer and more talented each year.
I remembered Jason Ringena from his days at City High, but not to the degree I needed to.
It didn’t require a lot of time researching his accolades to realize this was just not a favor to Raff, this was something that needed to happen. This young man had achieved more great things on the track in 4 years than many schools ever do.
When Ringena was a Little Hawk in the mid 90’s, athletes could not compete in more than 3 running events per meet and relays were worth more points than individual events. He qualified to state 12 times and medaled 12 times, 9 of them gold. He was a 9 time Drake Relays qualifier, 9 time medalist and 7 time champion. At Drake in 1997 he won gold in the 100 meters, the 4×200, 4×400 and was awarded Male Athlete of the Meet honors.
He ran on a 4×1 in 1996 that still holds the Iowa All Time best of 41.33. His 21.57 in the 200 is #19 All Time and he has been on a 4×2 that ran 1:26.40 and a 4×4 that clocked 3:18.30.
I asked Jason what a few of the highlights of his track career at City High were, and this is what he came up with:
As a freshman he got to lead off the state winning 4×2 with another decent sprinter by the name of Tim Dwight, on the anchor.
As a sophomore at the ’95 Drake Relays he ran the 2nd leg in the 4×4 prelims, and after running well, Raff put him on the anchor in the final. Ames countered with their ace, Dustin Avey.
It was as close as it could be with Avey making up 5-6 meters. After 10 minutes or more of meet officials studying the finish photo, City High was awarded the win.
At the state meet in ’97 he was the anchor on the 4×4. They had trouble with the 3 to 4 exchange and ended up dropping the baton: he had to run a 48 second split to go from last to barely qualifying for the final. He anchored the final in 47 and change and they won by 2 seconds.
Jason played a key role in City High winning the state team title all 4 of his high school seasons, and was also an outstanding football player, helping the Little Hawks win it all in the fall of 1996. He attended Missouri State University on a football scholarship, was an All Missouri Valley performer and graduated with a degree in Industrial Management.
He is the son of Sue and Eric and a younger brother to Ben and Ethan.
Jason works at Terracon, a construction consulting company in Des Moines. He and Jessica, his wife of nearly 20 years have 3 daughters, Evyn, Graysen and Logan and live in Urbandale.