Gallery • 9 Photos

Lottie Gidal

Kate Swenning '19 races in the shuttle hurdle relay.

Since 2005, the City High Girls Track and Field team has hosted the Steve Sherwood Relays.

For 11 out of the past 12 years, the City High team has been the champion of its meet, but with a young squad, this year’s team finished second, 37 points behind Bettendorf.

“I thought that we left the meet a better team than [when] we came in…I think there’s room for a great deal of improvement, but we accomplished some great things as well,” Assistant Coach Tom Mittman said.

For many area teams, the Sherwood Relays is the first outdoor meet of the season and an opportunity to ‘get some rust off’ from a winter spent indoors.

“We showed some perseverance in girls that are coming back from injury. We showed some aggressiveness in kids that had been gone which surprised me and made me feel better that they had perhaps done some work over the spring break, and it was good to get some of the rust off for some of the girls that had been gone over spring break,” Mittman said.

Not only was Sherwood a good opportunity for the athletes to regain familiarity with the track, but the officials as well. The officials miscounted how many laps were left in the 3,000 meter run, causing runners to run more than the seven and a half laps of the event. Sophomore Anna Lindower, who placed fourth in the event, was one of those runners.

“The [starter] started on the stretch where we started so he wasn’t by the lap sign and maybe someone just didn’t [adjust the sign], because I was like ‘I swear we have three [laps] left but it said four on the [sign] so I’m gonna listen to the [sign] instead of what I’m telling myself in my oxygen-deprived mind’. I looked at the clock and I thought ‘I should be finishing right now’, but I ran an extra 100 meters,” Lindower ‘19 said.

“That was embarrassing. That’s never happened at City High before. We’re used to that happening elsewhere. I was very embarrassed and felt bad for some [runners running that race for the first time],” Mittman said. “It was a humbling experience and it shows that there is always room for improvement at all levels, [with] coaching as well as with the athletes.”

Senior thrower Luci Murphy displayed improvement by winning the shot put and discus, setting new personal records in both events. Murphy’s 122 foot 7 inch discus throw is now the sixth all-time best at City High.

“I was pretty darn happy. I was jumping all the way to get my discus hand back. I think that the work [I put in] over the winter season was definitely a big part of my [success yesterday]. I just pray beforehand and hope that all goes well,” Murphy said.

Other standout Little Hawk performances at the meet include: Emma Clark ‘19, who won the 100 meter dash and placed second in the 200 meter dash; teammate Emma Cooper ‘19 tied for second in the 100 meter dash; Cyan Vanderhoef ‘17 placed second in the high jump. The 4×200, 4×400, 4×800 meter relays all placed second.

“I think we did really good. There were a lot of PR’s and a lot of great effort shown,” Lindower ‘19 said. “I feel like there was a lot of companionship. It was a great Sherwood Relays and first home meet.”