Olivia Hansen sprints her way to a second place finish in the 200 meter dash. Hansen qualified for state in one individual events and three relays. Daric Whipple sheared almost two seconds off of his previous PR in the 400 meter hurdles to qualify for the state track meet in Des Moines next week. Paton-Churdan's Jake Carey set a new school record in the 800 meter run  and will return to the state meet in that event next week. Carey will find out tomorrow whether he will also be eligible to run the 400 meter race.

County track teams not quite certain of all state qualifiers

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com
All of the 3A state qualifying meets were held on May 14, but since there were a few 1A and 2A districts that postponed until May 15, those teams will have to wait another day to know all of the participants that have earned their way to the Drake blue oval. In Class 3A, first and second place finishers qualify for 16 of the spots in each event. The remaining eight spots in each event are filled with the next eight best performances in the state after all the automatic qualifiers have been penciled in. There are 12 teams in each 1A district, so the first place finisher gets the automatic bid, and then the top 12 performances statewide complete the list of qualifiers for each event.  
 The rain was steady rain for most of the night, and it was and very muddy at the 3A track districts in Atlantic on May 14, but the Greene County girls qualified eight events for the state track meet in Des Moines next week by placing first or second in them. The squad couldn’t quite pull off their second consecutive district title, but had a great night despite the inclement weather. The Glenwood girls were the district champions scoring 147 points, but the Greene County girls were close behind with 142. Other team scores were Harlan 112, Creston 107, Winterset 82, Denison-Schleswig 67, Atlantic 46, and Carroll 25.
Eme Johnson finished first in the 100 hurdles (:15.99), and Megan Durbin was also a district champion in the high jump (5’ 1”). Other automatic qualifiers by virtue of placing second were Olivia Hansen in the 200 meter dash (:26.59), Nadia Fisher in the high jump (5’ 0”),  Emma Saddoris in the long jump (16’ 8”), the 4 x 200 relay of Hannah Stein, Emma Saddoris, Emily Christensen, and Hansen (1:49.04), the sprint medley relay with Mollie Sorber, Saddoris, Christensen, and Hansen (1:53.75), and the shuttle hurdle relay of Sorber, Fisher, Sarah Sandage, and Johnson (1:09.15). t
Late this morning, the Iowa High School Athletic Union listed three more Greene County girls events that qualified by being next top eight performances. Eme Johnson will run in the 400 meter hurdles, Hannah Onken earned a spot in the discus, and the 4 x 100 meter relay with Sorber, Saddoris, Christensen, and Hansen will be the eleventh event for the Ram girls.
The Ram boys placed fifth at the meet and had four events place first or second. Senior Alex Rasmussen won both the discus (141’ 7”) and shot put  (47’ 1”) competitions. Greene County’s other automatic qualifiers were Max Neese in the 100 meter dash (:11.86), and Daric Whipple in the 400 meter hurdles (:55.84). Whipple sheared almost two seconds off of his previous best time to challenge the first place runner, from Atlantic who won by 33 hundredths of a second. The boys had four other events “on the bubble”, but now have been notified that all of them qualified. Max Neese will also run the 200 meter dash, the 4 x 100 relay team of Dylan McConnell, Dalton Weber, Dylan Hamilton, and Neese has earned a spot, and the shuttle hurdle relay team of McConnell, Joe Doran, Whipple, and Tyler Beger will also participate.
Glenwood was the team champion at the district competition, winning over Atlantic 132-110. Other team scores were Harlan 109, Carroll 107, Greene County 80, Creston 56, Winterset 49, Denison-Schleswig 45.
Paton-Churdan coach Chris Stimson reported that his squad had one automatic qualifier. Jake Carey set a new PR in the 800 meter run (2:03.03) and broke a school record that was previously set by Steve Happe in 1972. Carey will find out tomorrow whether he qualifies in the 400 meter dash.

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