Raider girls end season with two state medals

DES MOINES — It has been MacKenzie Schmitz’s goal since her freshman year to win a medal at the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships.

She was forced to watch her teammates at the state meet as a sophomore because of a knee injury and then last year, then Schmitz’s relay teams left Drake Stadium without any hardware during her junior campaign.

Schmitz had two final chances to bring back medals Saturday when she teamed up with fellow senior Maddy Poage and juniors Bridget Hurley and Toni Spencer in the 4x100-meter relay and the sprint medley relay.

The foursome already knew Saturday they were leaving with at least one medal after sneaking into the finals of the 4x100 on Friday with the eighth and final qualifying time.

But that wasn’t enough. The Raiders wanted more.

Coming into the meet with a top-five time, CMB took sixth in the sprint medley relay to nab a second medal and then finished off the day by moving all the way up to fourth in the 4x100 relay.

For Schmitz, it was a strong finish to a bumpy track career.

“It’s always been my goal to earn a state medal and I have had to wait until my senior year to do it,” Schmitz said. “It’s exciting, and we also broke the school record at the same time.”

The foursome already had the school’s sprint medley relay record but set a new mark when Hurley’s anchor leg stopped the clock in 1 minute, 52.58 seconds.

Des Moines Christian was .09 seconds faster to keep CMB out of the top five, but all four runners were excited about capturing another medal on the weekend.

“It’s my fourth time running on this track, and I don’t think we could go out any better,” Poage said. “We get to bring home two medals, and I got to run with three amazing girls. I wouldn’t want to run with anybody else.”

Saint Ansgar won the sprint medley relay with a time of 1:48.20.

The Raiders expected to medal in the sprint medley. But coming in as the 24th and final qualifying team in the 4x100, they had a goal of just not finishing last and setting a new personal record.

They accomplished that and so much more.

The foursome advanced to Saturday's final by grabbing the final qualifying spot in 51.42.
Already meeting expectations, Poage and the rest of the Raiders tried to climb even further to the top.

“We weren’t sure if we were going to even make state,” said Poage, a two-time state qualifier. “We were on the bubble and didn’t run close to our best time at districts. Coming into the meet last, we didn’t have a lot of expectations except not to get last. We wanted to run a PR, but we came in here and conquered and moved up a lot of spots.”

The Raiders moved all the way up to fourth in the finals, running another personal-best time of 51.33.

“We didn’t see this coming. We were happy to qualify for state again, but to finish fourth is super amazing,” Spencer said. “I know it means a lot to the seniors.”

For Schmitz, it meant a lot to just be able to run one last time on the blue oval.

“Having to watch my sophomore year was tough. But I was able to get here twice and this year we got a medal so I guess you could say last year was just a warm up,” Schmitz said. “We ran our two best times of the season here. I never thought track was one of my favorite sports, but I think it is now. It’s going to be a little sad not to be able to run anymore.”

Clarinda won the 4x100 with a time of 50.44. Osage was next at 50.76 followed by Roland-Story in 50.82.

CMB freshman Brianda Bane also competed in her first state meet Friday.

Bane finished 22nd in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:13.32.