SOLON — With wins in four events, and seconds in eight more Solon takes a crowd to the 2024 Girls State High School Track and Field Meet this week at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
Across Iowa last Thursday, winners and runners-up at eight Class 3A state qualifying meets locked up automatic berths in the May 16-18 State Meet. The eight ‘next best’ statewide finishes in each event filled out the 3A field. For Solon? “Everyone showed up, ready to compete. Overall, it was a great team effort all the way, field events through running events,” reviewed Solon coach Jessica Hotek. “Every one of our girls really showed up, did their job, and took care of business.”
Emphasis at the State Qualifier is often less on the team scores as it is the girls who push through to the state meet. Still, those point totals reflect who did well across the board. Solon led the schools qualifying with 178 points. From there it went Marion 124, Maquoketa 119, Williamsburg 92, Oskaloosa 76, Benton 45, Central DeWitt 44, and Cedar Rapids Xavier 28.
Solon’s climb to the top began right away in the field events. “Abi (Felton) qualified for state in both shot (throwing 36’-4”, second) and discus (109’-8”, also second),” notes Hotek. “Last year it was just discus, so that was huge for her to qualify for both in her senior year. She worked really well in the off season to get there. That was really awesome.”
Hailey Miller goes to State with first place in the long jump (16’-7”). Not every Solon point winner makes the trip, but it points to the strength of the lineup. Jerzey Haluska finished third (15’-3-1/2”). “It didn’t qualify but she still had a great night. Lilly Towne tied her ‘PR’ in the high jump (5’-1”), also great,” said Hotek. Sixth place went to Sophia Miles at 4’-6”. Kate Shafer was third in the shot-put tossing it 34’-1”.
All seven relay events produced regional qualifiers for the Lady Spartans. That is something which shows up big once they show up at ‘State.’ “Just the way that the schedule is,” points out Hotek. “In the qualifier some events are back-to-back. For instance, the 100 hurdles are right after the 4×200 relay. It’s hard for a girl to do both. It just doesn’t allow for much recovery time. At the State Meet though, it’s across three days. That allows us to make some changes, to load things up a little more, to hopefully score some more points and place a little higher.”
The May 9 regional finishes also featured a second place (1:50.00) sprint medley finish from Piper Stahle, Avery Kellen, Mia Duckett and Kobi Lietz. In the 4×800 (2nd place, 9:50.42), the baton went from Ava Rolwes to Grace Hoeper to Falyn Svalstad to Anna Quillin. Winning the shuttle hurdle relay were Mia Stahle, Trea Eidahl, Zoey Grimm and Aly Stahle. For the distance medley the stick went Mia to Aly Stahle, to Quillin, then Rolwes.
In the 400 hurdles Trea Eidahl was fifth (1:12.39). Piper Stahle ran the 200 dash (27.78) for fifth. In the 400, Haluska came across (1:03.10) in fourth place. Aly (15.66) and Mia (16.16) Stahle were first and fourth in the 100 hurdles. Gracie Federspiel (2:34.09) was fourth in the 800 with Svalstad (2:47.46) seventh.
The 4×200 featured Piper Stahle, Marin Ashbacker, Lietz, and Duckett in another second place (1:46.74) finish. Duckett anchored the 4×100 to second (49.98) after carries from Aly to Mia to Piper Stahle. Haluska, Svalstad, Hoeper and Lietz closed the meet with a winning 4:04.08 pace in the 4×400 relay.
Ahead of the trip to State, rounding out the Lady Spartan medal haul were Sydney Dee 2nd (5:01.11) in the 1500 meters. Mia Fordice (5:17.53) took fifth. Dee was second, (11:22.02) in the 3000. Duckett ran second (12.50) in the 100, with Avery Kellen 13.33 (fourth place).
State Meet information
Thursday, May 16-Saturday, May 18 at Drake University in Des Moines
Tickets – Available online at www.iahsaa.org/tickets, $10/day.
Gates open at 7:30 a.m., events start at 9:00 a.m.
IGHSAU State Meet Central – https://ighsau.org/news/state-track-and-field-tournament-central/, including live results and livestream.
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Chris Umscheid

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