DES MOINES — Cold and damp conditions faced all the athletes competing Saturday in the Drake Relays, with the Panorama girls sending both their shuttle hurdle and 4×100 relays onto a famed Blue Oval under gray skies.
The lanes were still wet when the shuttle hurdle competition began at 8 a.m. Panorama ran a qualifying time of 1 minute, 9.55 at the 2018 state meet to reach the finals, where a 1:09.5 secured fifth place.
On Saturday the Panthers finished in 1:09.83, and while that was 12th in the all-class meet, it was an improvement of four places over their pre-meet seed.
Shey Storesund and Abbi Brown ran the first two legs, with Lydia Knapp running the third section while Morgan Johnk was the anchor. Knapp was stepping in as a replacement for junior Payton Douglass, who suffered a knee injury in soccer practice April 19, with surgery required.
Head coach Greg Thompson had only been able to work with Knapp on hurdle duties Wednesday and again Friday, as Knapp was busy Thursday placing third in the discus competition at Drake.
Knapp had not run the shuttle in competition since April 4, but Thompson was confident the next week would bring Knapp up to speed with the others.
Also in action Saturday was the 4×100 unit of Bailey Beckman, Hope Arganbright, Kassidy Bremer and Johnk. The foursome was 43rd in 51.78 seconds, an improvement of three spots over their seeded position.
Panorama will host the WCAC meet Tuesday when action resumes for the Panthers.
