DES MOINES — The Ottumwa track squads headed to Des Moines East on Monday and took part in the CIML Metro Conference meet.

The Bulldogs boys finished third with 87 points and the Ottumwa girls team wound up fifth with 59 points.

Des Moines Roosevelt swept the meet.

The highlight of the evening for Bulldog fans was the boys 400 dash as Ottumwa occupied the top two spots.

The race was about as close as it could get as juniors Clint Utter and Tim Easton dueled to see who would cross the finish line first.

Utter prevailed with a winning time of 51.43, to Easton’s 51.47.

“It was nice to see the red and white cross the finish line 1-2,” said Ottumwa head coach Jim Nickerson. “It was a great race.”

Easton also finished second in the high jump with a leap of 5-10.

Ottumwa senior Jordan Conley finished second in the 110 hurdles (15.28).

Ottumwa’s shuttle hurdle relay team of Cody Houk, Tyler Craff, Jacob Morrissey and Conley also finished second. So did OHS’ 4x400 relay, which was comprised of Utter, P.J. Shaeffer, Arnoldo Montoya and Easton.

“It wasn’t our best time in the 4x400, by any means. We were tried to get as many points as we could and ran our guys in as many things as possible. We did the right thing,” said Nickerson.

Ottumwa freshman Sarah Ryan placed second in the long jump with a leap of 16-2.75.

Ottumwa’s 4x800 relay of Courtney Wagner, Michelle Gray, Victoria Swanstrom and Liz Rosales Heilmann ran to a runner-up time of 11:09.21.

Ottumwa’s shuttle hurdle relay of Katherine Person, Kendra Spurgeon, Kelsey Kelly-Celania and Kaitlin McElroy ran a very respectable time of 1:07.58 to finish second. Ottumwa girls head coach Steve Green stated that his Bulldogs lost to a meet record for first place in that event.

Ottumwa freshman Allison Sedore ran three personal-best times in her relay events.