Hyde qualifies for state in four events
Zoey Hyde will represent Central at state in the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter wheelchair races. (Photo by Bev Hamann)
By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register
The district/state qualifying track and field meet at Edgewood-Colesburg on May 9 was “miserable” weather, but “you have to be ready to roll no matter what,” said Central girls track and field coach Martha Bauder.
The Warrior girls rolled to a seventh place finish, rallying through the rain to achieve 11 personal records, six season bests and four wins in the process.
“Despite the weather and circumstances out of our control, our team battled the whole meet and finished with many positives that should carry us on to building a strong season for next year,” Bauder said.
In a season marked by illness and injuries, one of the highlights was Zoey Hyde, who qualified for state in four events. Hyde represented a “brand new endeavor” for the team this season and won all four wheelchair races she competed in at districts, including the 100, 200, 400 and 800, while achieving personal records in the 100 and 400.
Another highlight was Jaydin Dettman, who entered her senior season with “extremely high goals,” Bauder said. Dettman was running times early in the season that would make those goals possible, but in a moment that came to define the Warriors’ 2024 season, Dettman suffered a fracture in her foot in mid-March and had to battle for six weeks just to be able to run at the district meet.
“Most indications were that this would be very unlikely, but she worked tirelessly for those six weeks to maintain as much conditioning as possible, decided to give it a go and battled courageously for fifth in the 400 and the 1500,” Bauder said.
Then there was the performance of the 4x800 relay team of Alexis Thiese, Hannah Friedlein, Audrey Palas and Madylen Gregerson. It was the first time all season the Warriors entered the 4x800, and the foursome were “huge team players,” Bauder said, by agreeing to run. In fact, Gregerson and Palas didn’t run an 800-meter race all season, but the group managed a fifth-place finish for crucial team points.
In other action, Taylor Moser ran in both hurdle events, finishing ninth in the 100-meter and third in the 400, with a personal best 1:12.98.
Isabella Schmidt and Allison Herr finished 19th and 25th, respectively, in the 100-meter dash, and the 200 featured Layla Embretson in 16th and Schmidt 17th. Palas crossed the line 14th in the 400.
In the distance races, Friedlein captured 13th in the 800-meter run and ninth in the 3000.
Central raced to third place in the shuttle hurdle relay, fifth in the 4x400 and sixth in the distance medley. The Warriors also earned a pair of eighth place times in the 4x200 and 4x100 relays.
In the field events, the Warriors competed in three out of four, grabbing a top-10 finish in the long jump with Reese Berns in 9th. Palas came in 12th. Embretson finished third in the discus with a personal record throw of 97-03, and Herr and Schmidt were a respective 22nd and 25th in the shot put.
Hyde will represent the Warriors in four events at the state track and field meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. The 800-meter wheelchair race will begin at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 17. On Saturday, she will race the 100 at 12:40 p.m., 200 at 1:45 p.m. and 400 at 3:15 p.m.
