Returning state qualifiers ready to break outdoors

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Even after setting a school record late last track season, it’s still not time to break up the Charles City girls 4-by-100 shuttle relay.

Though there is one major spot to fill.

During the Class 3A state qualifier at Waverly-Shell Rock, the Comet foursome of Brianna Carey, Lynn Hoeft, Sadie Ruzicka and Tayler Schmidt recorded a first-place time of 1 minute, 7.24 seconds — breaking a school record that Carey and Ruzicka helped set two years before.

At the subsequent State Track Championships, the foursome nearly matched that time in the Class 3A finals of the event with a time of 1:07.37, good enough for seventh place.

“We hope to move up to at least fourth place for this year’s state meet,” Schmidt said. “We haven’t set a time to reach as a goal … we just want to place better at state.”

Schmidt and Ruzicka are both seniors, Hoeft is a junior.

Carey, who was also on Charles City’s 4-by-100 relay team with Ruzicka, and underclassmen Sami Heyer and Alex Litterer that qualified for the Drake Relays, has since graduated.

“Our hurdlers look good,” said Charles City girls head track coach Darren Bohlen, whose team recently participated in the Wartburg Indoor High School Invitational.

Among the Charles City top placers were freshman Kiki Connell, who placed second in the 3,000 with a time of 11 minutes, 1 second; freshman Eina David, who placed second in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 8 inches; freshman Carly Stevenson, who placed fifth in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 2 inches; and Hoeft, who placed fifth in the 55 hurdles with a time of 9.39 seconds.

“Right now, we’re in a better position than we were last year,” said Bohlen, who cited returning senior state-qualifying thrower Sydney Loeckle as among those ahead of schedule.

“I just want to get outside so I could start working on the discus,” Loeckle said.

The aforementioned returning senior state-qualifiers all said that they have grown since the start of their freshman seasons.

“I’ve learned to become a better teammate,” Ruzicka said. “You’ve got to be out there cheering your teammates on, even when it’s not your race.”

“I learned not to beat myself up,” Schmidt said. “In track, you’re going to have good days and bad days.”

And what has Loeckle learned?

“Hard work pays off.”

Another Comet athlete with a good chance of returning to state is junior Whitney Martin, who qualified as a member of the 4-by-800 relay as a freshman, and was an individual state qualifier in the 1,500 last year.

“What I’ve learned so far is that you’ve got to run your own race,” Martin said.