The Ballard women's track team finished fourth at the State Qualifying Meet in Carroll on Thursday evening.  The Bombers would score 83.5 points on the night tied with Lewis Central for fourth place.  Glenwood won the meet scoring 137.5 points.

The Bombers would qualify five individuals/relays to the State Meet.  Paityn Noe would win the 3000 M run and the 1500 M run.  Annika Larson would finished second in the 1500 M run to qualify.

The 4x800 M relay team of Larson, Brenna Baumgardner, Ava Richardson, and Noe won and the distance medley team of Noel Boettger, Kate Miller, Katie Tollefson, and Noe took second but set the school record.  The Bombers will wait until later today to see if any other qualifiers advance to the state meet. 

The Bombers are back in action on Thursday - May 18 when they compete at the State Meet in Des Moines.  The meet will start at 9:00 AM.

Comments From Women's Head Coach Scott Barth:

"The weather didn't cooperate, but we battled through the weather and performed pretty well at the SQM at Carroll on Thursday night. 

Our automatic qualifiers on the night were:

• Paityn Noe who took 1st in the 3000 

• Paityn Noe also came in 1st in the 1500 and will be joined at the state meet by Annika LArson who finished in 2nd place in the same event. 

• The 4x800 team of Annika Larson, Brenna Baumgardner, Ava Richardson and Paityn Noe continues to cut time taking 1st in the 4x800 meter relay. 

• The Distance Medley team of Noel Boettger, Kate MIller, Katie Tollefson and Paityn Noe took second in a new school record time of 4:18.00. 

We will have to wait on a list of other potential time qualifiers with:

• Noel Boettger in the 200 meters

• Annika Larson in the 800 meters

• Ava Vance in the 3000 meters

• Shuttle Hurdle Relay of Noel Boettger, Reagan Bartlett, Anya Jorgensen and Ally Baker

• Brynn Wilson in the 400 hurdles

We should know the verdict on those events sometime this morning. It would be great to add these events to our state line-up, but time will tell.  There were lots of other good performances out of some of our younger runners who got their feet wet in their first SQM. Although they did not make it to the blue oval of the state meet, they most certainly showed growth over the course of the season and will make a push heading into 2024."

TEAM SCORES

1. Glenwood, 137.5

2. Carroll, 132

3. Atlantic, 96.5

4. Ballard, 83.5

4. Lewis Central, 83.5

6. Denison, 82

7. Harlan, 66

8. Storm Lake, 60