DES MOINES — It’s been the same group of girls all season long; Quinn Armentrout, Jerzey Haluska, Grace Hoeper, and Kobie Lietz. Those four make up a dominant 4×400-meter relay team. One that has won multiple races, qualified for state by winning their district race at Mount Vernon, and raced at the Drake Relays. But on Friday, their season together came to an end.
With a chance to run for a state title on the line – and a beautiful, still sunny day – they were destined to shed a couple more seconds off their time. Solon dropped a hair over three seconds off their time from the district meet, running a 4:03.61.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Lietz. “I’m just glad I have the opportunity to do what I just did.”
Unfortunately for the Lady Spartans, their competition also took advantage of the high stakes day. Mount Vernon jumped Solon by a mere three-tenths of a second and five other teams ahead of them ran their season best. The Lady Spartan’s time was good enough for tenth place, only two spots away from running in the finals.
The race capped off a day of strictly relays for the Lady Spartans, plus Kate Shafer throwing the shotput. Shafer had already placed fourth in the discus on Thursday but was hungry for more as she opened the long day of events. Yesterday, discus was thrown in an empty field outside of the confines of Drake Stadium, away from the massive crowd. But today, all eyes were on Shafer as she threw the shotput for her first time at the state meet.
“[Shotput] is definitely a lot more nerve-racking,” said Shafer, “I’ve never competed with this big of a crowd. Warmups for my first and second throw was pretty scary because everyone is staring at you.”
Once Shafer grew comfortable in the new environment, she tossed the shot 36’-1”. The throw was good enough for third place in her flight, which put her in the running to throw on Saturday for a state title. However, the second flight quickly knocked her off the podium and Shafer ended the morning with a 14th-place finish.
“I was really hoping to make finals today or even PR, which didn’t happen,” Shafer smiled, “But I can’t be too upset with myself because I still did pretty good.”
The 1600-meter distance medley followed right after Shafer as Solon tried to put together a solid team-wide effort in the morning. Piper Stahle led off , then handed it off to Aly Stahle as the two 200-meter legs of the medley. Grace Hoeper took the 400-meter leg and Falyn Svalstad finished the race with an 800-meter run. It was the most loaded race of the day for 3A. The Lady Spartans placed 16th finishing in 4:20.06, but 11 teams that finished in front of them placed in the top 100 high school times in the country (prior to the Iowa 1A and 4A races).
The girls’ 4×200-meter relay team ran the 20th fastest time in Iowa, but again, the team faced stiff competition that ran their best. The relay team – ran by Piper Stahle, Marin Ashbacker, Kobi Lietz, and Aly Stahle – placed 11th, finishing in 1:43.87. Seven teams in front of them ran their season best, including four top ten times in Iowa (prior to the 1A and 4A races).
“I love it. I love being on a team,” said Aly Stahle, still out of breath from her anchor leg. “Solon too, it’s such a close-knit community and you get to know everyone, which helps build that connection too.”
The weekend is not quite over yet for the Lady Spartans. One more race remains; the 800 meter sprint medley. Piper Stahle, Ashbacker, Lietz, and Haluska will compete Saturday at 9:25 a.m.
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