T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

DES MOINES — When BCLUW junior Jack Garber lined up in the blocks for the Class 1A 110-meter high hurdles prelims on Friday, it was the first time he had done so since placing fourth in the finals in 2017.

This time around, however, it wasn’t a fourth-place finish Garber was looking for, but a top overall qualification for the finals.

And that was exactly what the talented Comet would achieve, as Garber ran a time of 14.83 seconds in the second heat of the prelims to enter the finals with the top overall time.

This being his third-straight year running at Drake Stadium for the state championships, Garber said he knew what to expect.

“It is a lot less ‘oh my gosh there are so many people here,’ and it’s a lot more ‘I want to look good in front of everyone.’ I am coming in No. 1 and I have to prove to everyone here that I am the guy,” Garber said. “Freshman and sophomore year I came in just thinking ‘don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall,’ but now I came to prove myself.”

After earning that top seed in the 110 hurdle finals, Garber then turned around and earned his first placing of the championships, taking sixth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 55.77. It didn’t seem that was a likely placing for Garber after the first 200 meters, however, as he was solidly at the back of the pack in his heat and needed to make a move.

“I don’t think I went as hard as I could have on the back stretch, but on the home stretch I was able to really get a kick and catch a few guys,” Garber said. “Rounding that last corner I saw the majority of the field ahead of me and I didn’t want to get last so I was able to kick it a lot.”

While Garber admits he’s not as big of a fan of the grueling 400 hurdles as he is the 110 hurdles, he said earning a placing in the 400 version shows his versatility as a track athlete.

“I really tried to be developed as more of an all-around runner more than just a hurdler,” Garber said. “With the 400 hurdles it’s a heck of a lot more running than it is hurdling so I achieved my goal of that.”

AGWSR senior Liam Stubbe also ran a good race in the 400 hurdles, placing 11th in the event with a 56.41.

“I came out here and hit that first curve, hit that really hard and tried to make up some ground,” Stubbe said of his run. “I knew there was a fast group of competitors here and some great competition, so I tried to keep that pace on the back stretch and then I had the inside lane and gained on a couple of people, gave it all I had on that last stretch and the adrenaline kicked in.”

Garber wasn’t the only BCLUW athlete to earn a spot in a finals as well, with the Comets boys 4×100 team of Ben Paper, Connor Thompson, Logan Mann and Troy Dolphin also qualifying for the finals in sixth with a time of 44.63.

Dolphin ran the final leg for BCLUW to secure their spot in the finals, though he said it was still up in the air whether the boys had qualified when the race was complete.

“We weren’t sure but with our time we thought we had a good chance and then it ended up that we did make it in and I was very happy about that,” he said. “I haven’t gotten a medal here before so hopefully we don’t get disqualified or anything and if we don’t then that means we got a medal.”

The Comets 4×200 team of Mann, Thompson, Dolphin and Greg Schmitt also took 14th, while the 4×400 team of Thompson, Schmitt, Mann and Neifer Ralston finished in 22nd.

AGWSR’s boys distance medley team of Luke Starr, Chase Harms, Alec Stahl and Stubbe finished in 19th as well.

On the girls end, BCLUW freshman Lizzie Garber — Jack’s younger sister — made her first individual appearance in the 100 hurdles and placed 11th with a time of 16.53, less than two-tenths of a second away from making it to the finals.

The Comet girls 4×100 relay team of Garber, Kiersten Kruse, Payton Pekarek and Olivia Hughes came away in 24th.

Freshman Katelyn Pfaltzgraff was the lone girls runner for AGWSR on Friday, as she took 18th in the 400 hurdles.

The final day of action at the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships, featuring two realy teams and Jack Garber’s 110 hurdles finals for BCLUW, begins at 9 a.m. today at Drake Stadium.

T-R PHOTO BY STEPHEN KALB-KOENIGSFELD