DES MOINES — The Grundy Center girls took nine entries to the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships and scored 20.5 points.

The Spartans, with no seniors in the state meet lineup, finished ninth in Class 2A.

Year by year, Grundy Center continues to climb.

The Spartans set season-best times in all four events Saturday at Drake Stadium, adding a school-record performance for good measure. Grace Storjohann finished third in the 800-meter run and led off for the third-place 4×400-meter relay that broke its own school record to cap off a strong showing by the Spartans.

Storjohann, who was fourth in the 800 as a freshman and unable to compete at state as a sophomore due to illness, left it all on the track.

“I think our high returning rate really shows that we’re gonna be capable of this next year again,” she said. “And I just think that we also have a lot of fun with this team, so I’m glad we can continue with mostly this group next year.”

Grundy Center had just two seniors on its entire roster this season, while eight underclassmen gained state meet experience or returned to Des Moines for the finale for the second or third time.

Storjohann posted a personal-best time in the 800, earning bronze in 2 minutes, 14.52 seconds. It’s the 14th-fastest time in Iowa this season, and it helped Storjohann improve from being seeded eighth with her qualifying time of 2:23:27.

Tipton senior Noelle Steines set the 2A state meet record with her winning time of 2:11.49, while Emmetsburg junior Rachel Schany (2:14.49) snuck past Storjohann at the finish line, edging her by three-hundredths of a second for the silver. Forest City senior Bethany Warren was fourth in 2:14.64.

“Last year I qualified for state in the 800 but I wasn’t able to run because I was really sick,” she said. “I actually had to forfeit all my events at state and couldn’t run for a month. So I didn’t know if I would ever really be fast again, so this is just such a great opportunity for me to have the big comeback.

“We have a lot of great girls in our field and I knew it was going to be tough, but I came out of it with a PR and that’s what matters.”

Storjohann placed 11th in the 800 at the Drake Relays with her previous personal-best time of 2:15.63, and her return to the blue oval yielded another drop.

“A PR always feels great,” she said. “My PR is actually from the Drake Relays so it just really feels good to even be able to run faster than that. It shows what I can do next year.”

The Grundy Center 4×400 foursome of Storjohann, Raelyn Steinmeyer, Karlee Lynch and Maddy Hendershot will have its eyes on next year as well after qualifying third and finishing third at state with a new school record time of 3:58.20.

“We’re just really close, so that just helps us a lot,” said Steinmeyer, a sophomore. “We just kept improving as the season went on, so I feel like that’ll help us out next year too.”

The Spartan quartet, anchored by the sophomore Hendershot, broke a 15-year-old mark (4:01.68) in the 4×400 preliminaries on Thursday to earn the second seed at 3:59.71.

Hendershot got the baton in third and kept it there, nearly tracking down Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont for second while simultaneously holding off Van Meter in fourth. Pella Christian won in 3:55.54, E-B-F was second at 3:57.32, and Van Meter was fourth in 3:59.58.

“It was hard because I also knew that the person behind me was coming right behind me, and we really wanted to get on the podium so I knew knew I had to go,” Hendershot said. “It was a good feeling. I liked having to chase them, it made my time go faster and the team’s time faster.

“I was telling myself ‘you just need to give it your all now since it’s your last one, and they’re going to be coming for you, so you gotta go.'”

Fellow North Iowa Cedar League teams South Hardin and Jesup placed fifth (4:04.81) and eighth (4:06.45), respectively.

“This is a really high competing class and the overall competition just pushes us to be better,” said Lynch, a junior. “I’m grateful for that.

“I’m excited for next year, and this just shows how good we can be. We have room to grow, even though we met our expectations this year, we could just set them higher for next year.”

Hendershot got four events to state for her first trip to Des Moines, including three relays. She was ninth in the 400 on Thursday, and the 4×100 finished 18th in Friday’s preliminaries.

The sprint medley relay took 10th to start Saturday’s proceedings, and the 4×400’s third-place performance ended them.

Sophomore Ava Heeren ran the opening leg for the Spartans’ sprint medley, and she followed with a 100-meter dash of her own. The medley team of Heeren, Lynch, Storjohann and Hendershot placed 10th with a season-best time of 1:51.58, but it wasn’t the performance they had in mind to kick off the final day at state.

“To be honest, they didn’t even know it was our season-best,” Hendershot said of her relay-mates. “I told them ‘I think we PR’ed out of it’ which kind of lightened the mood because we’d never ran that time, but we were upset because we were supposed to win that heat.”

Heeren qualified for the 100-meter dash as the 20th seed but exploded out of Thursday’s preliminaries with the fifth-fastest time of 12.51. In Saturday’s finals, Heeren said she got out well and took three-hundredths off her time to place sixth in 12.48.

“I just came into it wanting to do my very best,” she said. “I was hoping for a PR and that’s what I got. That’s all I wanted.

“It means a lot. Being seeded 20th after districts and making it to the finals, it’s such a great experience. I’m so grateful.”

Pella Christian sophomore Rachel Kacmarynski broke the state meet record to win the 100 in 11.92. Mid-Prairie freshman Jeorgia Evans was second in 12.09. Third-place finisher Jerzee Knight of Clarinda (12.13) was the only senior in the eight-girl final.

“I feel like I got out really good,” Heeren said. “I was really happy with my start. And having the sprint medley before and having that start and knowing it was one of my better starts, it gave me a lot more confidence coming into this race.”

It should help build momentum going into next season, too. With 20.5 points, the Spartans scored more at state than the program had since 2010, when Grundy Center got 28 points to tie for fifth place in Class 1A.