DES MOINES — The Perry boys track team qualified a pair of events for the state meet, and both were in action on a warm and sunny Thursday at Drake Stadium.
Senior Kaleb Olejniczak ran in the third heat of the 400 dash, with the final standings based on time, not placings in each heat.
Olejniczak had entered as the eighth seed overall with a clocking of 51.45 seconds. He posted a new lifetime best by running a 50.98, but that time placed 12th overall.
“I am proud of both of our guys,” Perry head coach Ben Coy said. “Kaleb ran his best-ever 400, and we knew going in it was going to be tough to medal (top eight). I know what mattered to him was to run well and go under 51 (seconds) and he did that.”
Dougan, a junior, was competing in the preliminaries of the 100 dash for the second consecutive season. He was 23rd, in 11.81, last season and entered as the 24th and final seed at 11.73. Running into a bit of a headwind, he crossed in 11.76, 23rd overall.
“Kato had a good year for us, and I was happy to see him make it to state again,” Coy said. “He will be a senior next year and we will be looking to him as one of our leaders for sure.”
