The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

The Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn girls' track and field team came away from the 2021 state championships with medals in three events as well as two new school records and season-best performances in three events.

Junior Jasmine Lux earned medals in three events – the 400 meter dash, the 4x100 meter relay and the sprint medley relay – at the state track and field championships at Drake Stadium last Thursday through Saturday.

In the 400 meter dash on Thursday, Lux lowered the school record she had set and then reset in the past few weeks. She ran 1:00.31 to place fourth and earned a state medal. Lux also ran the preliminary of the 200 meter dash, placing 17th (:27.42). She had been seeded 22nd going into the race.

Hawk coach Nicole Dorhout credited Lux with showing an incredible amount of poise during the season.

"Jasmine has been an extremely dedicated, focused member of our team this year," she said. "She had goals – one of which was to break the school record – and she did what was necessary to achieve that goal. I am so proud of her effort."

On Friday, the quartet of sophomore Emily Mutombo, freshman Abigail Otto, junior Lydia Harders and Lux ran their best time of the year (:51.98) to qualify for the finals of the 4x100 meter relay.

Dorhout said she was hopeful that the quartet would qualify for the finals but didn't take anything for granted.

"This squad had run a huge season-best time at state qualifying so I knew things were going in the right direction, but their qualifying time placed them 11th in the field at state. The Top 8 make the finals so we knew they would need to run even faster, which they did."

On Saturday, the same four athletes ran the finals of the sprint medley relay and the 4x100 meter relay. In the sprint medley, the squad finished seventh (earning a medal) and set a new school record. Their time of 1:53.30 broke the old record of 1:53.34 set in 2001 by Teri Snyder, Lisa Epping, April Taylor and Shanna Vetter.

Dorhout had high praise for the squad.

"To get into state, this group had to improve their time and they did that by 4.5 seconds at the state qualifying meet," she said. "On top of that, we knew they would need to run even faster to place at state. They took almost another second off that previous time and got the medal they were chasing. It was fantastic."

In the 4x100 finals the Hawks, who had qualified in the eighth-place spot in preliminaries, placed fifth (:53.65) and earned another set of medals.

"The team showed tremendous poise during that race, as it had been pouring rain for about 45 minutes and the track had standing water on it," Dorhout said. "They didn't let anything distract them from their goal which was to place, and they did it."

Dorhout was also happy with the way the entire team finished the season.

LAURA LUX/GALUXY PHOTO

Jasmine Lux runs during the 200 meter dash prelims at the state meet. She finished 17th overall.

"We had eight personal-bests at the state qualifying meet, which was fantastic," she said. "Even those who did not qualify for state had their best performances at the end of the year. We always tell the team, 'It's not how you start but how you finish' and they definitely took that mantra to heart. I'm really proud of them."

Seniors on this year's squad were Paige Gehrke, Hailey Grotluschen, Taya Mason and Megan Recher.

Dorhout expressed her appreciation to all who have supported the track and field program during her time with the program.

"This is my last year at H-M-S, and it was a great way to go out," she said. "In the 16 years I've coached here, I've been so fortunate to work with great kids, coaches and supporters of the team. It's been the honor of my life to work with all the different kids and I will miss them terribly. I wish them the best in the future."