Running with the Pack

Nashua-Plainfield’s Weiss repeats as 100 hurdles runner-up, anchors Husky relays to fourth-place finishes

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

DES MOINES — If this were softball, Nashua-Plainfield senior Dallas Weiss would be considered a utility player.

In the realm of track and field, she should be more aptly referred to as a “multi” tasker.

Weiss can throw, jump, sprint and hurdle … the latter two she did quite well at the Iowa High School Track and Field Championships during the Saturday finals at Drake Stadium.

In the Class 1A girls 100-meter hurdles, Weiss earned her second-straight runner-up finish with a time of 15.38 seconds — Sioux Central’s Kenzie Keune repeated as state champion with a time of 15.24

Kaylee Eggers, another N-P senior, was also in the finals and placed seventh (16.51).

Earlier, Weiss and Eggers ran and hopped the 4-by-100-meter shuttle hurdle relay final with teammates Brianna Bienemann and Abby Lumley, and — with a big push from Weiss in the final leg — won their finals heat with a time of 1:09.07 before placing fourth overall.

Keune anchor the leg of Sioux Central’s winning team (1:06.86).

Weiss will continue her track and field career at Minnesota State Mankato, where she plans to start long jumping again — Weiss had been a state qualifier in the long jump as an underclassmen.

“But my coach told me I should give it up this year to concentrate on the 4-by-100 relay,” Weiss said. “And the decision has paid off.”

Seeded 12th, the N-P quartet of lead-off runner Genevieve Reams, Eggers, Briley Fisher and anchor Weiss, recorded the second-fastest time in the preliminaries. In the finals, the Huskies placed fourth (51.4 seconds) while setting a school record.

Montezuma won the race with a time of 50.62 seconds.

“This is third time we’ve been down here,” Eggers said of N-P’s 4-by-100 relay, “but we didn’t expect to do this good. We were just out here to have fun knowing that this would be our last race together. Making it to the finals made it more fun.”

During the latter part of the regular season, Weiss was inactive until the state-qualifying tournament. That cleared the way for Eggers — a frequent runner-up whenever competing in the same 100 hurdle event with Weiss — to roll off a succession of victories.

Nonetheless, she was not one to complain when Weiss returned to action.

“Getting to run in the same final with Dallas is something I’ll never forget,” Eggers said. “Our school has never had two athletes in the same final.

“Competing with all these amazing athletes down here is an amazing experience.”

To start the final day of the tournament, Nashau-Plainfield’s 800 sprint medley relay team of Reams, Eggers, Weiss and Fisher placed 17th with a time of 1:56.00. Elkader Central placed first (1:51.09).

In final Class 1A girls team standings, the Huskies tied West Fork for 15th place with 20 points. West Hancock placed first (50 pts.).