LOUISBURG — Emery Driskel is headed back to Wichita in grand style.
The Iola High junior racked up a pair of Class 4A regional gold medals in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, thus securing slots in both events in this weekend’s state track meet.
She also qualified for both as a sophomore.
“I’m excited,” Driskel said.
The 100-meter victory was a bit of a surprise, because Driskel was second in her preliminary heat, and third best among all qualifiers. “But I felt good going into the final,” she said.
Driskel took the lead early in the 100 final, winning in 16.38 seconds. She didn’t take the lead in the 300 hurdles until the last hurdle.
Her double gold led the way for the Iola contingent at host Louisburg High School. Driskel was Iola’s only girl to earn a state berth.
Those who finish fourth in their respective events qualify for state.
“Darci Collins had a near miss,” IHS head coach Marv Smith said. Collins’ shot put was three inches out of a fifth-place finish, and 20 inches out of fourth. Instead, she was relegated to seventh.
Meanwhile, Abigail Taylor was held out of the 1600-meter run — her specialty — because of the brutal competition.
“The Louisburg regional had eight of the top 10 distance runners from the state,” Smith said, noting Taylor’s seventh-place time of 11 minutes, 58 seconds normally is enough to earn a medal at state.
“Not only did this girl not qualify, she didn’t even score a point in the regional,” Smith said.
Taylor, instead, led off the Fillies’ 4×800-meter relay team — again, versus a tough field. The Fillies quartet finished sixth with Taylor joined by Megan Klubek, Shannon Vogel and Jo Lohman. Lohman was nipped at the line by Anderson County’s anchor runner, the Pioneer League 800 meters champion.
TWO FAMILIAR faces led the way for the Iola boys. Tyler Powelson, who qualified in the 1600 last year as a junior, did the same on Friday by placing second at regionals.
Powelson’s time of 4:42.67 was .8 seconds off the winning time.
“It took a 100-yard sprint at the end to overtake another runner to get the runner-up spot,” Smith noted.
