By Mark Schafer | The News-Review
DES MOINES – Coming down to the final 400 meters it was time to see just how strong her foot was feeling.
For most of April an achilles injury had limited the runs of Pekin junior Chloe Glosser. She had run some distance races, but nothing to the competition she was seeing at the Blue Oval during her run in the 3,000 meter race during the Drake Relays.
When the bell for the final lap rang the Pekin runner, sporting green sunglasses had settled into the top pack. While she didn’t want to injury herself more, she also knew that the only way to test how strong her healing had been was to run at full speed. So that’s exactly what she did.
“I always try to take about 10 hard steps with about 500 meters left in the race,” Glosser explained after her run on Thursday. “Those 10 hard steps gets me in the mindset a little earlier for the last lap, and that’s what I needed. I was able to catch two of the girls in front of me during those steps. Then I saw the third place girl and I chased her down until about 200 to go, I was able to pass her on the home stretch. I just felt like I was dying, but I was going as fast as I could that final lap. My legs are jello now.”
Despite having jello-like legs at the end of the race Glosser was able to hold her head up. Not only had her foot and ankle held up, Glosser was able to finish third overall in the 3,000 meter run with a time of 9:57.37.
“I am so happy with that time,” Glosser said. “I have had a minor injury with my achilles for a while, so I’ve had to cross train with lower distances a lot. That has been hard mentally. I was happy I qualified. I knew that whatever I did in the race, I just had to be patient and whatever God had planned for me he would provide, but being patient isn’t easy for me to do.”
While it may not be easy for her to be patient, the patience paid off for Glosser. With the third place finish she was the second-fastest runner in class 1A competition. Second place finisher, Lili Denton of St. Albert was the only faster 1A girl. Cedar Falls runner Charlie Gall was the winner of the race.
“This finish makes me excited to see where I will end up in May,” Glosser said as she prepares to qualify for the State meet later on in the season.
Glosser’s teammate, and another Pekin junior, Anna Hadley overcame her own obstacles as she finished sixth in the discus event.
The very first throw of Hadley was an almost perfect arch that landed 135-feet-10-inches away from the launch site.
For Hadley that would be her best throw of the competition, and it also helped her get out of a rut she had felt herself be in for the last few meets.
“I have been in a slump lately with discus, I just haven’t seemed to get to the 135-foot mark lately, so it was nice to have a first throw go that far,” Hadley said after her eventual sixth-place finish. “That was a good start because it proved to me that I could hit where I wanted to hit and it got me ready for the next throws. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get throws that good for the rest of the meet.”
After her first throw Hadley was in third place.
Her second throw was 128-feet her best mark kept her in fourth place after the second round of throws were done. Her third throw landed 132-feet away from the launch site, she slid back to sixth, but that was still good enough to qualify her for the finals.
The first throw of the final round seemed to get Hadley back into the thick of things. A launch of 134-feet-3-inches didn’t improve her position, or on her best throw, but it seemed to be a step in the right direction.
However, her next two throws landed out of bounds. She had to settle for sixth place overall in the competition.
Delilah Subsin of Ottumwa was the discus champion with a throw of 156-feet-9-inches.
While Hadley’s discus throw landed her in sixth place in the Drake Relays, among class 1A competition she still has the longest throw of the year. She also beat out all the other 1A competition at the Drake Relays event.
“For 1A girls, even though I was at the top of the standings, it is still great to see that us smaller schools can compete with even the 4A schools,” Hadley said. “We can show them that we can compete with them at their level.”
Friday morning Hadley returned to the Drake Relays to throw in the shot put.
She would finish 15th overall with a best throw of 36-feet-9.75-inches. Charlee Morton of Hampton-Dumont-CAL won the shot put event with a throw of 46-feet-9.25-inches.
Saturday English Valleys senior Gage Heyne ran at the Drake Relays in the 1,600 meter run. He finished 21st overall with a time of 4:41.72. After the first lap Heyne was in third, and seemed primed to have a good run, but from the second lap on he started to drift back in the pack. He finished 11 seconds off the 20th place finisher.
Quentin Nauman of Western Dubuque won the race with a time of 4:05.17.
Photos by Mark Schafer
