As Sarah Plock ‘15, conquered her last hurdle in the 400 meter hurdles Saturday afternoon, she was neck and neck for first place with Pleasant Valley. In the last 20 meters she sprinted ahead of the competition, finishing with a time of 62.385 seconds. Winning her race, she claimed her second Drake flag for the 400 hurdles in her high school career.

“Coming into it I knew it was going to be a tough race,” Plock said, “physically it’s just a 400 with hurdles in the way, it’s just your mind gets in the way. Your mind breaks down faster than you do physically so it’s just hard to stay mentally focused.”

Plock also raced in the 100 meter dash and the 4×200 meter relay. She placed 9th in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.77 seconds.

The 4×200 relay team, run by Delaney Johnson ‘16, Sarah Plock, Hazel Crew ‘15, and Kiera Washpun ‘14 placed fourth with a time of 1:44.08.

“Our 4×200 went in 8th, we finished fourth, and had one of the top 10 times in the school’s history,” Joe Graf, City’s head girls track and field coach said.

Washpun also participated in the long jump, and 4×100 meter relay. She placed 2nd in the long jump with a jump of 18’ 4.75’’.

“With Kiera placing second in the long jump and leading it for a long time, that was a great finish for her,” Graf said, “I think Kiera’s going to bust another 18’ 6” or higher, I’m looking for her to do that.”

Another relay team that competed was the 4×400 team run by Maddie Deprenger ‘16, Soumba Traore ‘14, Hazel Crew, and Sarah Plock took 16th with a time of 4:06.89.

The sprint medley team placed 24th with a time of 1:56.57.  The team consisted of Delaney Johnson, Hazel Crew, Lauryn Alderson ‘14, and Fanta Traore ‘16.

“The sprint med probably didn’t finish the way they intended to but competed well, just all our relays competed well, especially the 4×100,” Graf said.

The 4×100 team run by Delaney Johnson, Lauryn Alderson, Bryn Hanrahan ‘17, and Kiera Washpun, placed 35th with a time of 51.37 seconds.

Thursday afternoon Ellen Carman ‘14, ran in the 3000 and finished 17th, with a time of 10:34.68.

“Ellen’s going to do great in whatever races she’s in,” Graf said, “ the potential is there to really do well in everything we possibly can.”

Carman also started the 4×800 run by Molly Shepherd ‘15, Mary Arch ‘17, and Morgan Sammons ‘14 placing 14th, running 9:51.50.

“I think specifically the 4×800 has a chance of placing this year at state,” Sammons said.  “Hopefully I’ll be on the team and hopefully I can help make that happen, but I think we have a good chance if we get all our times down.”

With state in less than three and half weeks the team continues to train for improvement and use Drake as a learning tool for success.

“Drake is a good dress rehearsal for the state meet.” said Graf. “It’s kind of a chess game and you kind of fill in the pieces and see what you can do to maximize the points we can score at state.”