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The City High girls track and field team has come a long way since the 2017 state meet, in which Emily Bywater ‘17 was the only athlete to score for the team.

One of the first events and the meet’s longest girls event, the 3000m run, went particularly well for Amelia Morrow ‘18. She cut her personal record by 20 seconds with a time of 11:07 and will be one of the two girls from City High to go to state for the 3000m run, which is twice as many as last year.

“Once I remembered that this is senior year, that this could potentially be my last race, I thought, ‘I should maybe step it up,’ and I did. I stuck with it and I think I got my second wind, so I just kinda rode with it,” Morrow said.

The 4x800m was next and received a place of third with an improvement of 3.5 seconds from last year’s district meet and will also be going to Des Moines.

“I raced really well, I competed with others, but I went out a little too fast and that kinda took a toll on me in the end and I know I can race smarter at state,” Anna Lindower ‘19 said. “As a team, we competed amazingly. All four of us really got after it and gave it our best. We had a PR from Cece [Kelly-Harvey ‘21], and Lily [Reynolds ‘21], and a season’s best from Kinsee [Brands ‘18]. I’m just so proud of our hard work and we got a season’s best with our overall time too, with 9:46, so I just can’t wait for state.”

After the 4x800m, the 4x100m shuttle hurdle relay qualified for the first time in several years as an 8th seed, and ran 4.5 seconds faster than last year.

“I think we did a really good job because Jae [Dancer ‘21] was 3-stepping some, and so was Kate [Swenning ‘19], and then we lowered our time from before by about two seconds and got a season’s best,” Caroline Schaeckenbach ‘20 said. “I think we all ran a PR or close to it, too.”

Four events later, the 4x200m qualified for state too, making it the fifth relay for the City High girls at that point in the night to qualify.

“Our 4x200m is doing pretty great. I think we really had a photo-finish at the end of it, so I’m not sure if we got the guaranteed spot like first or second, but our time is fast enough to make it into state, so I feel good about that,” Sydney DePrenger ‘18 said. “At least, that’s what Coach Coleman was telling us. So 4x200m is in.”

The second to last event and second to last event the City High girls qualified in for state was the 4x100m, which beat the team’s time for last year’s district meet as well.

“We went into it as a ‘bubble team’, which means that we were on the edge of qualifying and not qualifying. But we did it! We got first and a PR of 49 seconds. I’m so pumped,” Azzura Sartini-Rideout ‘20 said. “So we’re going to state. I don’t know my time, but I was pushing it. The handoffs were great too, I felt so good. It was a photo-finish of who got first and who got second, but I am just so pumped now.”

The team is sending 18 girls to Des Moines, including all of their relays, to compete at the state meet on Thursday, May 17th to the 19th.