IOWA STATE TRACK AND FIELD NOTEBOOK

Font Size:

By Jon Gremmels and Andrew Petersen | Friday, May 16, 2008 11:39 PM CDT | () comments

Danielle Frere entered her senior track and field season for Muscatine with three main goals. She reached them all, and came away with a state record, too, Friday at the Iowa Class 4A girls state meet at Drake Stadium.

Frere had the shot put state title wrapped up at 45 feet, 9 inches before her final throw and then unleashed a toss of 46-113/4 on that one to beat the all-time state-meet record by a half-inch.

“My main goals since last year were to win both Drake and here, and go undefeated in the shot put, and it happened,” said Fere, who will take her throwing talents to Iowa State next fall.

She said she felt some pressure coming in as the favorite and having won the Drake Relays title, but she didn’t mind that.

“I like to be top dog,” she said. “I know pressure in me. I like pressure. I like to chill and get the job done.”

The win string was in jeopardy when Iowa City West’s Taylor Freeman, who beat Frere on Thursday in the discus competition, opened with a heave of 44-83/4. But Frere equaled that on her second throw and then beat it twice in the finals.

Frere went 45-9 on her first throw in the finals. Throwing last, she already had the title in hand before her final throw.

“I knew I was in first, but that’s not really what I was going for — I was going for the record,” she said. “I knew my last throw was my last throw, so go for it. As soon as it left my hand I saw the 46(-foot) line and thought I had it, so I was pretty excited.“

Freeman finished second at 44-83/4, and her teammate Micaela Haight was third at 43-5. Davenport North’s Carissa Coopman placed fourth (41-7), and Bettendorf’s Erika Sevigny was eighth (37-31/4).

Coopman does double duty for North

It’s unusual to see shot putters on the track, but Davenport North’s Carissa Coopman isn’t your typical shot putter.

She’s good, no doubt — she placed fourth in Class 4A competition Friday at the girls track and field state meet — but her talents aren’t limited to throwing.

When she was finished throwing Friday, it was over to the stadium next door to run in the 400-meter relay.

“I love it, personally,” she said. “People see I’m throwing and then a couple of hours later I’m running on the track. It’s like the best of both worlds.”

With Coopman running the third leg, North placed 16th in the 400 relay preliminaries, finishing in 50.81 seconds.

Frustrating finishes

It wasn’t hard to sense the frustration of Dominique Quinn and Eric Manson on Friday.

Both entered the second day of the Iowa state track and field meet among the favorites to win the long jump in their respective classes. But that didn’t quite go according to plan.

Quinn, a Davenport West senior, had only been jumping for about a month. Still, after qualifying for the Class 4A state meet with the second best distance at 22 feet, 2¼ inches, he had lofty expectations.

Instead, Quinn leapt only 20-3, missing out on the finals and finishing 14th.

“I was too far off the back of the board,” he said. “Every time I jumped I was 2 feet behind it. But I never thought I was going to get here.

Manson, a Maquoketa senior, entered the Class 3A meet with the top district distance — 21-9¾. Stricken with strep throat the past two days, however, he could never take off the way he wanted and finished sixth at 20-6.

“I didn’t have any knee lift,” he said. “It just didn’t feel right.”

Jumping for joy

With ideal weather and a stream of premier athletes, records continue to fall at this year’s meet.

But in no event have this year’s qualifiers been as successful as the high jump.

Through the eight high jump competitions, the coed meet saw three records fall and one tied. That included AG Bradford’s record effort of 5-8 in winning Class 4A girls honors.

In all, six of the eight winners cleared higher distances than the winner of that class a year ago. On average, winning heights were 2.6 inches higher this year than last.

— Andrew Petersen

and Jon Gremmels