T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown senior Aiden Smitherman hits the midway point of the 400-meter hurdles during Friday’s Class 4A race at the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships inside Drake Stadium in Des Moines. Smitherman finished in a personal-best time of 56.46 seconds to place 15th for the Bobcats.

DES MOINES — Aiden Smitherman took full advantage of his last chance to be a Bobcat.

The Marshalltown High School senior stayed the course after a disappointing start to the day and took more than one second off his personal record in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing 15th in Friday’s Class 4A race at the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium.

Smitherman entered having ran his personal-best time of 56.46 at the state-qualifying meet at Waukee Northwest a week earlier, but the Blue Oval brought out the best he had one final time. He moved up from being seeded 22nd and scored his new personal record of 55.42, nearly winning the first heat with a strong finish.

“I knew I was going to PR the whole time,” he said after the race. “In the back of my mind I knew I was going to get 55-low, 55-mid.

“After running the distance medley, I didn’t feel that fast, but after hearing my split it was still pretty good. I knew if I kept running like that, if I could run like that over hurdles, I could get a good time.”

Smitherman, who transferred to Marshalltown from South Hardin for his sophomore year, nearly chased down Indianola’s Hank Gorder at the front of the first heat of the 400 hurdles. Smitherman ran most of the race in fourth place before emptying the tank over the final 200 meters. He passed a pair of runners on the homestretch and had Gorder in his sights.

“There’s a little bit of wind on the backstretch, so that helped out a little bit, and once I hit that 200 mark I just gave it the rest of everything that I’ve got and I just go all out,” Smitherman said. “It felt really good to pass guys on the homestretch. When I got over that last hurdle, I started catching up to that guy in first and I felt really good. I thought I was going to beat him.”

Eleven of the 24 qualifiers ran personal-best times in the event, but only one dropped as much time as Smitherman (1.04 seconds). Indianola’s Easton McGraw took 1.12 seconds off his time to clock in at 52.30, finishing in second place.

“It made me feel like I’m running faster because I’m beating people,” Smitherman said of running in the first and slowest heat. “I got it out of the way right away so I didn’t have to sit there and watch everybody else run and worry about not running as good as them.”

Gorder won the heat and finished 14th in 55.39. Bettendorf’s Gage Tucker took the 4A state title in 51.92 — the third-fastest time in the country this year.

Smitherman’s sharp incline in his final race was unfortunately the only such trend during the day for the Bobcats. Marshalltown’s distance medley relay team of Declan Greene, Zak Wilder, Smitherman and Preston Johnson entered qualified with the fifth-seeded time in 4A, but a lineup change from the state-qualifying meet set the Bobcats back on Friday.

Marshalltown was unable to match its seed time of 3:32.02 and took 17th place with a time of 3:36.89.

It was the state meet debut and finale for Greene and Wilder, who ran the 200-meter portions of the race but couldn’t keep pace with the third and fastest heat.

“It wasn’t our best race, but we just tried to finish strong and do what we could with the gap we gave up,” Greene said. “We ran faster at districts by about four seconds, but we had to take some guys out of that lineup for other issues, so that kinda affected it a bit.

“We ran as hard as we could.”

The distance medley was Marshalltown’s highest-seeded state qualifier, even ranking ahead of Johnson in the 3,200-meter run (sixth) and the 1,600 (seventh).

Johnson, who finished sixth in Thursday’s 3,200, will run the 1,600 on Saturday afternoon.

“I was super grateful to be able to be here with the guys,” Johnson said. “This was my first relay at a big race, so it was really cool to have that experience.

“I went out a little bit too fast trying to catch up — I don’t know the exact splits — but I definitely felt that in the second lap. I’m just really grateful to be here and I’m glad that we got an opportunity to run this relay at state.”

Last year’s Bobcat squad reached state in the distance medley as well, finishing 21st in 3:39.92.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE – Marshalltown senior Declan Greene breaks out of the starting blocks with the baton during Friday’s Class 4A distance medley relay race at the state meet in Des Moines.