For those athletes unable to finish in the top two of an event in district competition on Thursday, the IHSAA and IGHSAU accept the next eight best results to fill the field of competition for the Iowa State Track & Field Championships in Des Moines. As a result, several area athletes have earned trips to the blue track at Drake Stadium.
In Class 3A, Spirit Lake Park’s Taylor Sieperda adds the 400-meter dash to her list of events as a result of running a 59.53 this week. Sieperda had already qualified in the 200-meters. Dondi Schmidt, who won the 1500-meters, will also now run in the 3000-meters after a qualifying time of 11:18.04. Jenna McCoy will join her teammate Emma Dau in the long jump, as her third-place distance of 16’4.75″ was part of the next eight best distances.
Joining the Class 2A field, will be Okoboji’s lone female representative, Darby Jones. The sophomore makes it back-to-back appearances at state in the high jump with a leap of 5’0″. Jacob Sauter adds his name to the Okoboji boys list of state qualifiers. He will compete in the shot put after Thursday’s distance of 48’5″.
