Glodowski's gold caps career

OMAHA - Schuyler's Jenny Glodowski learned from history to make some history of her own on Saturday at the 2003 State Track and Field Meet.

Throwing in the same ring she left thoroughly disappointed a year earlier, Glodowski won the Class B girls shot put title and the shot put all-class medal with a throw of 46 feet, 2 1/2 inches during the second and final day of the annual state meet at Omaha Burke Stadium.

Glodowski's efforts in the shot put and the discus, where she finished fifth, gave the Schuyler girls 12 points in the meet, placing the Warriors in a tie for 14th overall in the Class B girls team standings.

Mary Wells scored all 18 points for the Boone Central girls, who led the area with a ninth-place finish, tying York. Lakeview, with Janae Mueller scoring all 14 points, finished 13th, and Scotus, with scorers Katie Swanson and Haley Buelt, were 17th with 11 points.

Lexington won the Class B girls title with 55 points, and Gering finished second with 53 points.

In the boys half of the meet, Tyler Roewert scored all 14 of Scotus' points, as the Shamrocks finished in a tie for 14th overall, and Joel Hinze's third place in a very tight Class B boys discus gave Boone Central six points.

Gothenburg scored 24 points in the last two events - the long jump and the 1,600-meter relay - to win the boys title with 43 points. Seward and York tied for second with 40 each.

Glodowski came into the state meet as the state leader in the girls shot put, having thrown an area-record 47 feet, 10 3/4. But the senior had come into the state meet last year with high hopes, only to finish fifth after taking second as a sophomore.

"After last year, I knew that it doesn't matter what you've thrown coming in," Glodowski said. "It's what you do at state that matters."

Glodowski's best throw of the competition came on her final attempt of the preliminaries. No other competitors came close to her, with Wells coming the closest at 42-3 1/4, her season best.

Glodowski said once she had the gold medal sewn up, "I just wanted to coast. I just wanted to get it over with."

"I think some people doubted my marks. To do it at the state meet helps a lot."

Glodowski, who was fifth in the discus with a 126-5 throw, was able to increase her personal-best throw by more than four feet over the previous year, in part because she had already cleared her mind of the recruiting process. Glodowski signed with Virginia Tech in November.

"That helped a ton," Glodowski said. "In the fall, I was getting so many calls from schools that it was very stressful. That was a big factor in my decision because I wanted to decide early."

Wells added the area's other Class B win in the girls discus with a 139-7. But it was the shot put that proved the most eventful for the Boone Central junior.

Wells scratched on her first two preliminaries attempts, with the wet surface caused by the morning rains keeping her from staying in the ring. On her third and final attempt, she wore a sock over her shoe to prevent the slipping, and her second-place throw resulted.

"I saw it done before, and I thought we'd give it a try," Boone Central throws coach Kris Pestel said. "It gave her some stopping power, and it worked. But that shows what a great competitor she is. To foul twice and come back and throw as well as she did (was great)."

Mueller finished with a second and a third in the state meet. The defending Class B state champion in the 400, Mueller was forced to settle for second when Tiffany Roemmich of Lexington held her off.

A sophomore who will finish as the area leader in the event for the second straight year, Mueller finished in 59.48 seconds.

"I didn't have enough oomph left," Mueller said, who finished third in the 800 with a time of 2:23.29.

"I was slow coming out in the 50 meters."

Mueller was able to pick up the pace on the backstretch, which Lakeview coach Tom Lange said is the strongest part of her 400.

"She generates a lot of speed on the backstretch," Lange said. "Running the 400 helps her 800 speed."

For Scotus, Swanson had the top finish, getting second in the 200 with a 26.24 clocking. She was also fifth in the 100, an event in which the sophomore won the Class A state championship last year as a freshman, in 12.87.

Buelt scored the Shamrock girls other point in the triple jump, taking sixth with a 34-4 effort.

The triple jump was the event in which Roewert captured second place on Friday. The defending state champion in the event, the senior went 45-2 to gain the silver medal and jumped 21-10 to take third in the long jump.

In both events, Roewert, who had suffered through knee problems most of his high school career, couldn't take off on his last jump of either event because of the problems.

"The last long jump and the last triple jump," Roewert said. "My knees hadn't given out all year along. ... I just hit too hard on both (last) jumps.

"What I'm mad about is I don't know what I could have done."

Roewert finished his prep career with four state medals - a fifth in the triple jump his sophomore year to go with last year's gold and this year's two medals. He said he couldn't have done it without help.

"Mr. Lahm did a very nice job for me the last four years," Roewert said of Scotus jumps coach Merlin Lahm.

Hinze scored his six points in the discus in what was perhaps one of the tightest finishes in state meet history. Two inches separated the top three finishes and six inches split the top four.

Caleb Garvin of Wayne won the event with a 158-6 throw, Brett Druba of Falls City was second at 158-5, and Hinze was third at 158-4. Jerrod Holz of Ashland-Greenwood was fourth at 158-0.