WICHITA — Emery Driskel met one of her goals this weekend at the Kansas state track meet.
“I made it to finals,” she said.
She didn’t reach her other goal — to finish in the top six of the Class 4A girls 100-meter hurdles — but was pleased, nonetheless.
“It didn’t help that I hit a couple of hurdles,” she said, which significantly cut short her momentum. Driskel finished eighth with a time of 17.02 seconds.
“Emery wasn’t happy with the results, even with the medal,” Iola head coach Marv Smith said. “It’s hard to relax and run in that environment. Typically, she runs in front and isn’t distracted by all that is going on in her peripheral vision.”
Smith hopes Driskel considers her overall year, not just in track, but with her other sports when deciding whether the year was a success.
“After making honorable mention in both volleyball and basketball, earning a state track medal is quite an ending to her junior year,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, IHS senior Tyler Powelson also had a good-news/bad-news finale to his high school career.
Powelson ran 4 minutes, 41.61 seconds in the 1600 meters, his best time this season.
The mark was good for ninth place, one spot from getting on the medal stand.
“I was really wanting to be on the stand,” he said.
Smith thought Powelson had a shot, particularly as the seventh-place runner looked to be struggling on the last lap.
“I thought that was the runner Tyler could catch,” Smith said.
But the eighth-place runner challenged the runner in seventh as both rounded the final turn. Both maintained their speed just enough to hold off Powelson at the line.
“Tyler thought he let them get too far ahead on the third lap,” Smith said.
Smith also took a big-picture approach with Powelson’s finale.
