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Despite elements, City relay sets mark

By John Riehl
The Gazette
Tuesday, April 02, 2002, 11:19:22 PM


IOWA CITY -- Iowa City High set a meet record in the shuttle hurdle relay at its own Little Hawk Invitational Tuesday evening.

Big deal, right?

Records have fallen with great regularity for City High, which is shooting for its fourth state title in the last six years.

But the shuttle hurdle relay's time of 1:05.88 is fairly remarkable considering the elements -- a temperature in the mid-30s with a blustery wind of 20 miles per hour.

The team also competed without its fastest hurdler, Emily Triplett, who instead ran on the winning sprint medley and 400 relay teams. But Katie Fraga, Virginia Dreier, Tara Whiting and Maya Monitto-Webber were up to the challenge, breaking the 2001 record by almost two seconds.

"The coaches talked about it before the meet," Monitto-Webber said. "I listened to them, but I didn't really know what to expect."

Triplett, Fraga, Dreier and Monitto-Webber all are back from last year's shuttle hurdle team that set the old meet record and finished fourth at state.

"I think we might be pretty good this year," Monitto-Webber said.

The performance highlighted a dominant showing by the Little Hawks, who rolled to the title with a meet-record 195 points -- 100 more than second-place Muscatine. Cedar Rapids Xavier took fifth out of six teams with 50 points.

City High won 12 of the 19 events.

"People ran mentally tough, which is what you hope for on a night like tonight," City High Coach Terry Coleman said.

Coleman expects his team to be strong in hurdle events. That looks like the case.

Triplett won the 100 hurdles in 15.38, with Monitto-Webber taking second in 15.54. Fraga took first in the 400 hurdles in 1:11.24, followed by Dreier in 1:12.79.

Xavier had second-place finishes from Dani Anderson in the 200 (27.44) and the sprint medley relay (1:58.91).




All local content copyright © 2002 by The Gazette Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa