The Lady Lions continue to shatter school records at state

By TJ Rhodes
Posted 5/23/23

The Lone Tree Lady Lions showed up in droves for the Iowa state championships for track & field. They qualified for seven different events and eventually ranked 25 of 57 rankings in 1A …

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The Lady Lions continue to shatter school records at state

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The Lone Tree Lady Lions showed up in droves for the Iowa state championships for track & field. They qualified for seven different events and eventually ranked 25 of 57 rankings in 1A competition with 12 team points. 

The relay teams for the Lady Lions have been great all season, consistently breaking their school record. While competing in Des Moines the Lady Lions relay team would set a new school record three times in the span of two days.

Lone Tree’s relay teams ended the state meet with three top-six finishes, just one year after they didn’t reach state in any relay events.  

Their best finish of the day at Drake Stadium belonged to the 4x200 relay team, ranking fourth place, just over a second behind the first-place finish. Lone Tree’s time was 1:47.17, a new school record, and the runners were sophomores Avery Moraie, Rylee Shield, Vivian Zaruba and freshman Ava Christofferson.

The 4x100 relay team consisting of Zaruba, Christofferson, Shield and senior Riley Krueger finished third place in the prelims, qualifying for the final race Saturday afternoon. The Lady Lions finished fifth in the finals despite doing slightly better than the prelims, with a time of 50.86 (prelim finish was 50.98). The prelim finish of 50.98 set a new school record and the time of 50.86 they set in the finals would then become the new school record. 

The 800-sprint medley team ranked sixth place with a time of 1:53.14. This team consisted of Zaruba, Shield and Christofferson who each had four total events, and included freshman Sophie Bell in her only qualifying event.

Krueger qualified for two events. Her second being the high jump where, despite securing a personal best at four-foot-ten, she tied for 16th place, last in the event. As a senior, this was her first year competing in the high jump and qualifying for state is a very successful first year.

Christofferson ranked 15th in the 100m with a time of 13.35. Shield ranked 19th in the 200m with a time of 27.67. Zaruba ranked 22nd in the 800m with a 2:31.30 finish. All personal bests. Competing with the best brews the best.

This was a great season for the Lady Lions track & field team. They ranked top four in each meet they had, including a third-place finish at state qualifiers in Wayland. 

The Lone Tree boys 4x200 relay team consisting of seniors Tyce Alt, Drew Gauley, junior Ethan Bockelman and freshman Emmett Burke also qualified, ranking 21 of 23 teams with a time of 1:36.14 in their only race of the day.

When they next take the track in competition, they will only have lost three seniors. Since most of their qualifying athletes were sophomores or freshmen, they only gained another year of experience and can come out stronger next year in 1A competition.