By Becky Walz,
For Turkey Valley senior Jalyssa Blazek, her senior season couldn’t have ended in any better.
In her third trip to state, the veteran was determined to bring home gold from the Blue Oval at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. In fact, she brought home two and scored all of Turkey Valley’s points.
Overall, the Lady Trojans collected 20 points and finished 20th in the team standings. Winning the crown with 59 points was Nashua-Plainfield. In the boys’ team race, it was New London crowned the champion with 68 points. Turkey Valley garnered just two points and finished 46th.
Going out with a bang.
For Turkey Valley senior Jalyssa Blazek, her senior season couldn’t have ended in any better.
In her third trip to state, the veteran was determined to bring home gold from the Blue Oval at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. In fact, she brought home two and scored all of Turkey Valley’s points.
Overall, the Lady Trojans collected 20 points and finished 20th in the team standings. Winning the crown with 59 points was Nashua-Plainfield. In the boys’ team race, it was New London crowned the champion with 68 points. Turkey Valley garnered just two points and finished 46th.
“Words can’t even describe how the state meet went. It was one last go-around for the group that I came in with four years ago. This group of girls have been consistent in the weight room in the offseason and pushed themselves day in and day out during practice. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to work with over the last four seasons,” said TV girls’ coach Dalton Hackman.
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Double gold for Blazek
“One advantage my coach likes to point out is most of those girls have never ran a 100 or 200,” Jalyssa Blazek said after winning her second title Saturday. “And when it comes down to that last lap, it’s down to a 100 or a 200, so I do think it gave me an advantage there.”
Saturday, the Iowa recruit defended her top seed status in the 800-meter run, not to mention breaking her own school record (2:20.32, set last year at state) and besting her personal best time by five seconds at 2:15.83.
“All I could think about was this is my time, this is my turn,” Blazek said. “I wanted that so badly. I just shot for it and it took a lot of gut to get there.”
Later she raced her way to the front by lap two of the 1500-meter race to claim victory in 4:46.63, once again breaking her own school record set at the qualifying race at 4:54.51.
The two golds mark the first running titles for a female in Turkey Valley’s history. The only other to win gold at the state track meet was Laura Kriener in 1988 in the shot put.
“It sounds cheesy, but all my hopes and dreams have come true,” the senior said after winning her second race Saturday. “I am so astonished by my hard work paying off this well. I know I’ve had some good years in the past, but this is definitely going to be a great one.”
“It has been nothing but incredible to be able to work with an athlete like Jalyssa over the last four years. I take none of the credit when it comes to this kid. She pushed herself to be the best she could be from day one and all I did was talk her through things and give her some pointers along the way. She had what it took, set her mind to it and made my life easy,” concluded Coach Hackman.
More competitors
The 4×400 relay of Chase Hayek, Ryan Franzen, Noah Hanson and Dylan Reicks also posted points for the boys. Posting a preliminary time of 3:31.52, the quartet finished seventh in Saturday’s finals in 3:35.05. Also on the track for the Trojan boys was the 4×800 relay. Thursday morning the foursome of Russell Nieman, Franzen, Hanson and Reicks combined for a time of 8:36.85, good for 13th. The distance medley relay was on the Blue Oval Friday morning, finishing in 3:45.32 in 16th place. Members of the relay were Hayek, Marcus Herold, Reicks and Hanson.
The girls also had a distance medley relay team on the track at Drake. Seniors Kara Reicks, Josie Weber, Kourtney Schmitt and Blazek crossed the finish line 11th in 4:27.27. Blazek had a fourth race — the 100-meter dash where she stopped the clock at 13.77 seconds in 18th place. Junior Jacqlyn Schmitt made her state debut in the discus, finishing 23rd with a throw of 89 feet 6 inches.
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