LAWRENCE — Heather Coe pulled the medal out of its plastic wrapper, turned it over in her hands several times and admired all its tiny details.
The Emporia High senior had just stepped down from the medal stand at the Kansas Relays on Saturday along with her teammates Angela Finch, Leslie Stanbrough and Layne Moore after the quartet had finished third in the girls sprint medley relay, earning all four a shiny bronze medal.
For Coe, the medal was the symbol of a goal attained.
“I wanted to come here and get a medal,” Coe said. “Our goal was to win, because that’s what you do when you compete — you want to win. But we’re happy with medals.”
Coe, Finch, Stanbrough and Moore combined to turn in the top performance for Emporia High in the two-day event with their third-place finish in a time of 4 minutes, 16.56 seconds, just missing out on second place by .73 seconds.
It almost never happened though, as a mid-race disaster was narrowly avoided on Coe’s 400-meter leg of the race.
Finch and Stanbrough each ran a 200-meter sprint before Stanbrough handed off to Coe for the race’s third leg. Coe was rounding the second turn to head down the homestretch when another runner suddenly entered her lane.
A Gardner-Edgerton runner in lane seven cut across lane six and had started to come into Coe’s lane, which is an automatic disqualification. Still, Coe had to avert a run-in with the Gardner-Edgerton runner, who had already cut off a runner from El Dorado in lane six.
“She actually did cut off the El Dorado girl — ran in front of her to get into my lane — and then she swerved back out,” Coe said. “I was just like, ‘What is going on?’ She’s had to be thinking something crazy.”
Coe made it out unscathed, though, and handed the baton off to Moore, who picked her way up to second during her 800-meter leg of the race to finish just over two seconds ahead of El Dorado. Leavenworth won the second heat in a time of 4:15.29, dropping EHS to third overall.
“I think Layne was a little disappointed because Leavenworth ran not even a second faster, and they were in the second heat,” Coe said. “She was like, ‘Guys, I’m sorry, I would have beat them if we were in the same heat.’
“It’s no big deal though.”
After Emporia participated in 17 events on Friday, the day was much less filled on Saturday, as EHS had participants in just four events on the second day.
Coe and Moore earned another medal on the day when they teamed up with Jenna Stanbrough and Michaela Reynolds to take fifth in the girls 4x800 relay. Emporia ran at around ninth for the majority of the race before Moore got the baton on the anchor leg.
The Missouri signee picked up several places on her second lap before passing Olathe East’s Amanda Miller at the line to bump EHS up to fifth. Emporia finished in a time of 10:02.17.
The EHS boys 4x800 team of Jacob Davies, Tyler Anliker, Asher Delmott and Ryan Parks ran a time of 8:40.75 to finish 25th overall.
Samantha Kraft completed the EHS list of participants with a 20th-place finish in the long jump with a best leap of 15 feet, 3 1/2 inches.
Guevel, Leffler pick up 1st-place finishes
Two area athletes shined during Saturday’s portion of the Kansas Relays, as Katie Guevel of Burlington and Jacquelyne Leffler of Northern Heights each picked up first-place finishes in their respective events.
Leffler, the two-time 3A State champion in both the discus and the shot put, dominated the field in the discus on Saturday. She won with a final heave of 149 feet, 11 inches topping the best mark in the state of Kansas (148-07), which she set earlier this year.
Her throw of 149-11 came on her final attempt and was 10 feet, 9 inches better than second-place Chelsie Bonds of Wichita Southeast. Leffler’s first throw of 145-01 also would have won the event by nearly 6 feet.
“I kind of blew through my throw on that last one — technically it wasn’t right,” said Leffler, who won handily despite recovering from a slipped disc in her back. You can never be satisfied. You can always go that inch further.”
Guevel won the girls 100-meter hurdles in a time of 14.10 seconds, just barely beating out Bishop Miege’s Melesa Johnson (14.46). Guevel finished second in the 300-meter hurdles on Friday. Earlier in the day, Guevel finished eighth in the long jump with a leap of 16-10 1/2.