Leslie Taylor And Team Shines At State

 The Mt Pleasant Girls Track Team made the most of the 4 events they placed in at the State Track Championships in Des Moines, winning 3 of them and finishing in 6th Place in Class 3A with 37 points.

Leading the way was Leslie Taylor who won the long jump and 100 M hurdles and ran the lead-off leg on the winning shuttle hurdle relay team. Her three gold medals is the best performance at State since Lindsey Boldt won 4 events in 2006. In Friday's action, Taylor took the lead in the long jump going 17'-1" on her second jump. She then had to go run in the 4 x 100 relay and when she came back went 17' 1 1/2 " on her first jump in finals to secure the gold. She was the only girl to go over 17' in Class 3A.

After qualifying first in prelims on Thursday and setting a new State Meet record in the process, the shuttle hurdle relay of Taylor, Hannah Becker, Kaitlin Jones, and Kelsi Phipps came back on Saturday in the finals and ran 1:04.6, their fastest time of the year and lowering their own mark set 48 hours earlier. This was sweet vindication for the spill taken at Drake and proved they belong in the conversation for best shuttle hurdle relay in Iowa. Only 4A Champion Waukee had a better time at State and this time is 9th on the All-Time list. Both Taylor and Phipps had to come back an hour later and vie for the 100 meter hurdle crown. Taylor got off to a quick start and held off the field for her 3rd gold medal of the Meet. After leading qualifying, Phipps', the only Freshman to make the 100 hurdle finals, had a strong finish but it wasn't quite enough to catch the leaders and she had to settle for 3rd. The other place winner was the 4 x 800 relay of Natalie Myers, Taryne Shull, Natalie Ita, and Chloe Haffarnan who finished 8th.

The goal now is to find a few more scoring events and move up into the top 3 for next year. With 14 of the 16 State Meet qualifiers coming back and all the point scorers returning, next year should be very exciting again for Mt Pleasant Girls track.