DES MOINES — If you looked down to the infield at the Mason City boys team after the running of the Class 4A boys 4×800-meter relay, you’d have thought it won the race.
All four of the team’s members were high-fiving and first pumping immediately after the race. The reason: The Mohawks placed an unexpected seventh place and will bring home a medal.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Mason City senior Andrew Sloan, who led off the race. “We’ve been slowly climbing all season. We barely qualified for Drake, and placing in state, this is beyond my dreams.”
Sloan kept the 4×8 team near the lead pack, John Enright kept it close as well, Brad Petersen had them sitting in seventh in their heat when he got the handoff to anchor Cody Harmon, who caught and passed Linn-Mar and gave the Mohawks sixth place in the heat.
When Harmon got the baton, the only thing running through his mind was “finish.”
“It’s state. You’re running one event. Go (all) out,” Harmon said.
The Mohawks ran a season-best time of 7 minutes, 59.95 seconds, which was about eight seconds faster than the time they ran at the district meet. They knew if they were to medal on Thursday, the state-qualifying time had to be trimmed.
They got a boost before the meet when former Mohawk Lincoln Vorba gave the team the white track suits from the 2011 team that placed fifth.
Coach Jed Vorba also switched the order, flip-flopping Petersen and Harmon’s position.
“We were coming in thinking, ‘Oh yeah let’s break 8:05 and maybe we’ll place, maybe not, but we’ll give it our best shot,’ ” Enright said. “I looked up at the scoreboard and saw 7:59 and it put a big chill through my veins.”
After the race, Sloan called it “the perfect way to go out his senior year.”
The three others are juniors and will be back next year and hungry for even more.
“It just means a stepping stone to the top for next year,” Petersen said. “We’re going to be missing our senior Sloan. He’s put in a lot of work, he’s a great leader for the team, but I think if we continue to work and continue to get better, we’re going to step up as seniors.”
Added coach Vorba, “It was just an unbelievable, outstanding race.”
In the discus, senior Javen Swann placed 19th with a throw of 135 feet, 5 inches.
For the Mason City girls, freshman Makenzie Meyer placed 10th in the 400-meter dash in her first run at the state meet. Meyer finished with a time of 58.80 seconds.
“I think it went pretty well,” Meyer said. “I was expecting a little bit more, but I kind of died a bit there and the end. My legs were pretty dead.
“Now I have more experience. I know that I’m going to get the jitters. Hopefully, since I run in the sprint medley and the 4×4, I’ll be able to pace myself a little bit more.”
The Mohawks’ shuttle hurdle team of Abbi Schupanitz, Danielle DeRoy, Jenni King and Morgan Vorba placed third in their heat with a time of 1:12.59 and failed to qualify for Saturday’s final.
“It’s as good as we’ve ran in the past, but it’s a good way to go out,” Vorba said.
Vorba will compete in the long jump on Friday and will be a member of the sprint medley team on Saturday.
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