Weno breaks Storm Lake record, takes second in Class 3A 400
Weno ran 47.79 to finish second in the Class 3A 400 and reset Storm Lake’s standard, while Heilman added a third-place jump.
Garbieno Weno left Drake Stadium with more than a state runner-up medal. The Storm Lake senior ran 47.79 seconds in the Class 3A 400 meters at the 2026 Iowa High School State Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, breaking the Storm Lake school record of 49.06 seconds and giving the Tornadoes a finish that will reshape expectations for the program.
Clear Lake’s Kolby Hodnefield won the race in 47.48, but Weno’s personal best still put him second in one of the meet’s premier events. That result mattered beyond the podium. Weno had said he did not especially like the 400, but he made it count when it mattered most, closing his Storm Lake career with the fastest lap in school history and a mark that now sets the standard for the next group of sprinters.
Weno’s state finish capped a late-season surge that had already changed the record book and the conference standings. On May 8, he swept the 100, 200 and 400 meters at the last-ever Lakes Conference boys meet, winning the 100 in 10.77 seconds, the 200 in 21.93 and the 400 in 49.14. A few weeks earlier, on April 22, he ran 21.8 in the 200 meters, breaking a 54-year-old Storm Lake record and standing as the fourth-fastest time in Iowa that season.
Storm Lake’s boys team also finished runner-up at that conference meet with 96 points, a sign that Weno’s individual surge came as part of a broader competitive climb. At Drake Stadium, Joel Ramirez-Parra placed 19th in the 3,200 meters in 10:01.37 and Alex Ortega was 24th in 10:22.63, giving Storm Lake additional state meet appearances even as Weno produced the headline result.
Ridge View matched that level of impact on the field side. Derek Heilman placed third in the long jump at 21 feet, 11 inches, only four inches behind the winning mark of 22-3. Heilman had already set a new school record of 22-2 to win the long jump at the MVAOCOU Invitational on May 1, another sign that his state medal was part of a steady rise rather than a one-day flash.
The Raptors also got a 15th-place finish from their 4x800 relay in 8:21.2, Kreighton Krager was 22nd in the 100 meters in 11.47, and Lucos Wernimont placed 22nd in the 3,200 meters in 10:08.98. Together, the results from Storm Lake and Ridge View showed Buena Vista County athletes competing with the state’s best in both sprint and field events, while Weno and Heilman left behind marks that will be measured for years in their programs.
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