×

BCLUW girls punch two tickets to state

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • BCLUW thrower Erin Asche, left, smiles as her name is called as the winner of the shot put at the Class 1A state-qualifying meet at BGM on Thursday. Asche automatically qualified for the state meet next week with her win.

BROOKLYN — The BCLUW girls track and field team entered the Class 1A state qualifying meet at BGM on Thursday as the favorite to win a few of the events and earn automatic qualifications, and the Comets were able to make good on a couple of those seedings.

Erin Asche in the shot put had the top mark heading into the qualifying and she carried that into the meet, taking first and an automatic state bid with a throw of 33 feet, 8 3/4 inches.

After hearing her name announced as the event winner, Asche said it was a dream come true.

“This is probably one of the best moments of my life so far,” she said with a huge grin.

Asche’s throw wasn’t her furthest of the season, though she didn’t need a toss over 34 feet to win, but she said she definitely still has some left in the tank for the state meet.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • BCLUW’s Olivia Hughes clears the hurdle on the anchor leg of the shuttle hurdle relay during the Class 1A state-qualifying meet Thursday at BGM High School in Brooklyn. The Comets’ relay quartet of Kiersten Kruse, Payton Pekarek, Lizzie Garber and Hughes finished in a time of 1 minute, 8.30 seconds to win the event and qualify for state.

“It was probably not my best that I could have done but I thought I did pretty well overall,” she said.

The girls shuttle hurdle team wasn’t expected to come away on top, however, as they entered state qualifying with the third-best time at the BGM site. Times run in the season are only good for seeding though, and the team of Kiersten Kruse, Lizzie Garber, Olivia Hughes and Payton Pekarek ran their best race of the season to take gold with their best time of the season.

“We really wanted to run a 1:10 tonight because it was really good weather and we knew we could push ourselves harder than we have been before,” Garber said. “We were really focusing on our own lane, running our own time, not worrying about other people and that was what we did. We stayed focused on ourselves and ran our best.”

The girls didn’t just come in under 1:10, they actually finished in the 1 minute, 8 second territory, which Pekarek said was just “amazing.”

“Our mindset was to run your race. It’s your lane, your race, just run,” Pekarek said. “We kind of let the third-place thought go and knew we could do it.”

While those two tickets were punched automatically, there were plenty of other performances from BCLUW as well as GMG, Colo-NESCO, North Tama and Meskwaki in attendance that could earn a state qualification. Kerrigan Hatch finished in second in the discus for the Comets, while Lauryn Hill was second in the high jump.

Wolverines senior Kyla Wilkening closed out her final state qualifying meet with two second-place finishes in the 3,000 and 1,500, with both of her times coming as personal records for the season.

“I think this went pretty well for being my last state qualifying meet,” Wilkening said. “I just went out and ran as hard as I could for today and I am happy with what I did.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today