North's Bradford dominates state meet
DES MOINES — There was a time when AG Bradford questioned having to enter four events at a track meet. Other girls got away with just two or three events — why not her?
She realizes now it was a good decision.
Bradford, a senior at Davenport North, picked up her fourth Class 4A championship in three days Saturday when she won the 100-meter hurdles at the Iowa state track and field meet at Drake Stadium. She scored 40 points for the Wildcats, who placed fifth in the team standings with 47.
Her time (14.21 seconds) was well off record pace, and even slower than her preliminary time, but that didn’t matter.
“I’m happy with what I got,” she said. “Whatever I get, I always could have done better.”
That’s a scary thought since she broke the all-class state meet record in winning the 400 hurdles Friday and broke the 4A state-meet record Thursday in winning the high jump.
Of course, Bradford had to make things a bit difficult for herself.
“I went swimming last night,” she said. “They told me not to go swimming, but I went and was kind of tired.”
Warmups weren’t exactly to her liking, either.
“I did a run-through and didn’t feel right, but there wasn’t time for another one,” she said.
Waukee’s Artianna Black-Scott and Urbandale’s Kelsey Sandon challenged Bradford as they headed toward the finish line, with Black-Scott finishing .18 of a second behind Bradford and Sandon another .09 back.
“The girls stayed up there with me and pushed me toward the end,” Bradford said.
Bradford couldn’t take off once she got her fourth title, though. She had to stick around for a ceremony in which she received a plaque for being named Drake Relays female athlete of the meet.
Now, she can turn her thoughts to college. That means even more events because she is going to attend the University of Northern Iowa, and the plan is to make her a heptathlete.
“I look forward to it,” she said.
There was a time when she wouldn’t have admitted to that.
Jon Gremmels can be contacted at (563) 383-2294 or at jgremmels@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qcvarsity.com.