DES MOINES — It had been a morning of almosts and not quites for the Grundy Center girls’ track and field team.

By Friday afternoon, the Spartans were basking in the glow of feats accomplished instead of opportunities missed.

Grundy Center junior Allison Koch tied for third place in the Class 2A high jump and the Spartans’ 4×400-meter relay team smashed a school record on its way to qualifying seeded second for Saturday’s finals at the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships.

The Spartans overcame a rough start to their day when the distance medley team suffered a scary moment as Koch — the second 200-meter runner — tripped and hit the blue oval before she could pass the baton to Karlee Lynch.

In spite of the stumble, the Spartans scored a season-best time of 4 minutes, 21.38 seconds on their way to 16th place in the first event of the day.

Grundy Center sophomore Evelyn Geerdes lined up in the first heat of the 400-meter hurdles, but didn’t get to run the race after being disqualified after a false start.

Shortly thereafter, the Spartans sent their 11th-seeded 4×100-meter relay team of Jocelyn Freed, Maddy Hendershot, Koch and Ava Heeren to the track. No bobbles to speak of, but the Spartans came up short of their seed time and finished 18th in 50.97.

Koch dealt with the pressure of performing at the high jump pit bookending her place on the 4×100 relay and racked up a tie for third place, clearing 5 feet, 4 inches, to match last year’s bronze-medal finish.

Koch was clean over the bar in the early rounds, clearing 4-10, 5 feet and 5-2 on her first attempt before finally needing her third attempt to clear 5-4.

All those successful jumps from earlier heights helped Koch remain in a tie for third place, sharing her step on the podium with Ogden’s Samantha Lass.

Emmetsburg’s Rachel Schany scored the gold by clearing 5-6 on her second try, while West Central Valley’s Willow Ray was second after getting over the bar at 5-4 on her second attempt.

Koch, who tied for 10th in the state high jump as a freshman and tied for third a year ago, wasn’t bothered by having to break away from the high jump pit to take her turn in the 4×100 and instead used it to sharpen her focus.

“I think it can always be difficult when you have to go leave the high jump to go run another event, but I’m lucky enough that I’m not running the 400 hurdles or the 4×4 so I just get to go run a 4×1,” she said. “But I think going and showing up for your teammates, it’s fun to participate in all your events, but then coming back it can be a little bit of a different mind frame because you really have to focus on your routine and your jump.”

After three other jumpers cleared 5-4, Koch steeled her nerves and set out to execute her third and final attempt.

“I had no early misses, which is what ended up getting me in this tie for third, and that’s really what I wanted to focus on was making the early heights on my first attempt,” said Koch. “I think most importantly just focus and relax. If you get yourself all nervous, like ‘oh my gosh it’s my last jump’ then nine times out of 10 you’re going to be so worried and then you’re gonna miss it, so you can’t think this is gonna be your last jump. You just have to focus on that attempt.”

Koch was unable to match her personal-best height of 5-6, but stood tall on the podium for the second year in a row.

The Spartans are hoping to give her company on the medal stand on Saturday. The 4×400 relay team of Grace Storjohann, Raelyn Steinmeyer, Lynch and Hendershot was seeded third for the preliminaries with their district-winning time of 4:04.10, but they blasted that out of the water with Friday’s 3:59.71.

The new school-record time breaks the previous mark established in 2010 by a Spartan quartet that won a state title. Abby Graves, Sarah Frisch, Meghan Krausman and Adrianne Alexia set the mark of 4:01.68, which stood for 15 years.

It was the Spartans’ target when Friday’s preliminary race began. Clocking in under four minutes wasn’t necessarily on the same radar.

“I think it showed we did more than we even thought we were capable of doing,” said Storjohann. “Our goal into this was just to break the record and we shaved five seconds off our PR so that’s crazy. It shows we’re capable of so much more than we know.”

Pella Christian picked up the top spot from the preliminaries with a 3:59.55, joining the Spartans as the only two teams under the four-minute mark.

“It’s definitely gonna push us more seeing we’re not even like a second away from the first-place team,” said Hendershot. “It’s definitely going to push us and make us want to fight for it tomorrow.”

Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, Treynor, Van Meter, Jesup, South Hardin and Tri-Center round out Saturday’s 4×400 final field.

“It’s just really exciting and we’ve been improving all year long so it’s really special to get to experience this feeling,” said Steinmeyer. “This whole year we’ve been improving every single race and I think we’ve just been getting more confident as we changed our lineup and grown more comfortable with it so I think that’s helped a lot.”

The same four runners ran in a different sequence throughout the season, but the two — now three — best times have come in this order, including the best time in school history.

“I’m excited for tomorrow and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other girls,” said Lynch. “This has been just our goal and to finally meet our goal is exciting and I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow.”

The 4×400 finals start at approximately 3:55 p.m.

Schuler settles for eighth

West Marshall senior Kylee Schuler wanted so much more for her final high school high jump competition but ended in eighth place after clearing 5-2 on Friday.

Schuler, who placed 17th at state as a freshman and tied for third along with Koch last spring, cleared 5-2 on her second attempt but couldn’t get the bar to stand still at 5-4.

On her third and final attempt, Schuler’s heel just clipped the bar to deny her advancement. She still earned all-state status for the second year in a row.

Talbert tallies new PR

East Marshall senior Cora Talbert ran in Thursday’s shuttle hurlde relay with the Mustangs for the third year in a row.

On Friday, she stood over the starting blocks for the 100-meter hurdles preliminaries for the first time.

“It was pretty nerve-racking,” she said. “I’ve been working on 100 hurdles just to get here so I was really nervous, and so finally standing in front of the hurdles I was like ‘oh gosh, I’m really here.'”

Talbert took advantage of the opportunity, cutting back her personal-best time from 16.39 with Friday’s 15.96. She placed 12th, unable to advance to Saturday’s finals, but still a marked time improvement to move up from being seeded 19th.

“I hit one (hurdle) with my knee but other than that it was a pretty clean race,” she said. “I’ve been here for three years with the shuttle so I’m used to that, but that’s so different because it’s a team event. I’m used to my team helping me out.”

Talbert was stuck on the inside lane for her preliminary heat, a decidedly different feeling from where she usually runs in the middle lanes.

“I’m used to seeing everyone around me, but I didn’t see anyone until they got in front of me so I was just like ‘OK, I need to go.'”

Talbert will run at Cornell College next year.

“I’m really sad that my high school track season is ending, but I’m glad that I get to go on further in college.”