DES MOINES — Seniors Sid Vancil and Reece Dunlap were joined by sophomore Kato Dougan in competing Thursday on the opening day of the Class 3A State Track Meet at Drake Stadium.
Vancil entered the 400 dash seeded 14th in 1 minute, 2.6 seconds. Vancil remained in the 14th spot, but had plenty of reason to smile, as her clocking of 1:01.23 set a new lifetime best in the event, which Carla Kay of Assumption won in 56.09.
“That was my goal,” Vancil said of lowering her time. “Coach (Matt) Hardy said I should just focus on having a stronger first 200 and getting out right away and I felt I did a better job of that today.”
Vancil ran in lane seven of her heat, and while not complaining, admitted she would have rather been farther inside.
“I like having to chase people, and today I just had the girl in (lane) eight in front of me, and I couldn’t see the other girls,” she said. “I knew I was running a good time, because usually I will have a little more energy at the end, but today I was feeling the pain over that last 100 meters.”
Vancil has appeared in individual and relay events at the state meet as a freshman, a junior and now a senior, and her one remaining event is the attainment of a personal quest.
“I have wanted to run in the 800 down here since I was a freshman and I am so glad I made it,” she said. “This (the 400) was a good warm-up for me, and I really want to run my best race Saturday.”
The senior will be looking to improve her qualifying time of 2:28.32 and will do so from lane one of the first heat, which is scheduled to run shortly after 10:30 a.m.
Fellow PHS senior Dunlap also ran a 400 dash Thursday from lane seven, winning heat one in 51.57, a drop from his 22nd seeded qualifying time of 53.23. He finished 15th overall, with Glenwood’s Nate Kennedy winning the title in 48.28.
Dougan ran in lane one of the second of three 100 dash preliminaries and crossed the line in 11.89 ticks, which did not advance to the finals and was 23rd overall.
Dougan will join Brandon Kenyon, Kaleb Olejniczak and Zachary Thompson at 5:40 today for the timed finals of the distance medley relay. The Bluejay 4×400 will also be in action in a preliminary heat at 7:40 p.m. Olejniczak, Thompson, Dunlap and Kenyon will tote the wand for Perry in the event.
