The Aplington-Parkersburg girls track & field program earned its second state championship of the weekend when the shuttle hurdle relay team finished with a PR of 1:05.39 to take the 2A crown Saturday at Drake Stadium. It was the third championship for the race in program history. Senior Olyvia Bellows.
“It means so much to carry on the tradition from our AP alumni, and I know that they were all at home cheering us on,” Bellows says. “They wanted this for us and I think that we have a great community supporting us and following us in all our sports. And I’m just so happy that we’re carrying on the tradition.”
Senior Kinsey Mohwinkle says it was a championship years in the making, with extra motivation gained from a DQ in the finals in 2023.
“Throughout the entire season, basically we’ve just had it in the back of our mind, like we gotta get to state and we gotta make a statement,” Mohwinkle says. “And then once we finally got down here, we were like, ‘We’re gonna do this.’ And then it just added fuel to our fire and we used it from last year, we used that disappointment, and we just added it to this year’s adrenaline.”
In the first race of the meet on Thursday morning, the team won the preliminary race in 1:05.88, which at the time was also a PR. Sophomore Ava Eddy says that race provided an extra boost of confidence.
“Coming down here Thursday, running a great time, that definitely fueled us,” Eddy says. “We were all just anxious for Saturday. So we all really wanted to run so I mean you can’t ask anything more.”
Freshman Adri Allan says the group felt the community’s support.
“The community has just been so supportive, and even at school I heard that they had it on the entire day.” Allan says. “That’s just awesome to think about how much support they gave us.”
The Falcons placed fifth as a team in Class 2A.
