Comet relay team grateful for getting chance to compete

By John Burbridge

DES MOINES — So Charles City’s 4-by-800 girls relay team is going to help a few Des Moines-area restaurant proprietors pay for their kids’ college education.

It will be a fitting end in reference to how the journey began.

“We were sitting at school during lunch when we started getting text messages,” Comet junior Kennedi Rowlands said. “We all started celebrating and hugging each other in the cafeteria.”

Last week at the state-qualifying meet in Charles City, Rowlands, senior Hanna Bjelica, junior Bailey Mitchell and freshman Whitney Martin didn’t place in the top two for an automatic bid for the Iowa State High School Track and Field Championships, but were competitive enough to make the qualifying cut.

“We just had to wait for a while,” said Rowlands, who qualified as a freshman in the 4-by-800 with Bjelica a part of that team.

On Thursday at Drake Stadium, the Comet relay placed eighth in its finals heat and 11th overall with a time of 10 minutes, 6.42 seconds.

Davenport-Assumption dominated the race with a first-place time of 9:22.20

“We didn’t run our best race,” Mitchell said, “still, it was great to get down here.”

Though no member of the team will compete in any more events for the rest of weekend, it doesn’t mean they don’t have anything on their agenda.

“We’re going to get together and eat lots and lots of pasta,” Bjelica said.

“And do a lot of shopping,” Rowlands added.

Earlier, Charles City’s 4-by-100 shuttle hurdle relay team of Brianna Carey, Tayler Schmidt, Shay Carolan and Sadie Ruzicka placed 11th with a time of 1:08.93.

Pella won the Class 3A shuttle relay with a time of 1:03.48.