Sports : Bartz 2nd, Barnes 3rd in State 400m; girls 4 x 8 team sets another school record

Tyler Bartz, left was 2nd in the State 400M; Joel Barnes, 3rd. Both broke previous VS record.

400M: Joel Barnes (3rd) Jojo Frost (1st) and Tyler Bartz (2nd) head toward finish line.

4th at State! Annika Schmidt, Bristi Gerber and Grace & Lily Horst set another VS record.

4th at State! Annika Schmidt, Bristi Gerber and Grace & Lily Horst set another VS record.

400M: Joel Barnes (3rd) Jojo Frost (1st) and Tyler Bartz (2nd) head toward finish line.

Tyler Bartz, left was 2nd in the State 400M; Joel Barnes, 3rd. Both broke previous VS record.

Joel Barnes lined up in Lane 5; Tyler Bartz in Lane 3.

In between them for the final heat of the State Track 400M run at Drake Stadium stood JoJo Frost, their fast neighbor from nearby Center Point Urbana. The announcer listed Frost as a state leader in that event; he entered the State Meet as the state leader in the 400M hurdles as well.

The three started fast and eventually pulled away from the pack, with Bartz ahead by a step as they reached the middle of the final stretch. Frost eventually gained a step on Barnes and pulled even with him, and then leaned forward to win the race by .03 seconds. When the results from the first heat were figured in, the CPU junior and the two Viking seniors were still the fastest three runners.

Both Barnes and Bartz set personal records and both broke previous Vinton-Shellsburg school records for the event. Frost won the race with a time of 49.02; Bartz ran 49.05 and Barnes, 49.68.

‘Phenomenal’ finish for girls 4 X 800m team

Vikette track coach Heather Kalous had just one word for the performance of the girls 4 x 800 team.

“It was phenomenal,” she said.

Earlier this month, the quartet – Bristi Gerber, Grace Horst, Annika Schmidt and Lily Horst – set a new 4 X 800 school record of 9:45.11 at the Wamac Super Meet. On Thursday, they bettered that by more than seven seconds, finishing 4th in Class 3A with a time of 9:37.08

Thursday V-S results:

100M: Nick Hyland, 8th, 11.40 (He qualified in the 8th spot, .01 seconds of the ninth-place finisher, and will run in Saturday's finals.

Discus: Amanda Dedrick, 14th; 108 feet, nine inches;

3000M: Lily Horst, 14th, 11:00.08

Girls 4 X 800M (Bristi Gerber, Grace Horst, Annika Schmidt, Lily Horst): 4th, 9:37.08

Boys 4 X 800M (Cole Tharp, Cole Smith, Nolan Haisman, Nolan Hendrickson) 12th, 8:24.92

Boys Shuttle Hurdle (Will Edwards, Wes Edwards, Tanner Davis, Will Dudley) 15th, 1:01.52. (This matched their time in the qualifying meet.)

Boys 400M: Tyler Bartz, 2nd, 49.05; Joel Barnes, 3rd, 49.68.

See more photos HERE.

See complete results HERE.