It was a joyous conclusion to the 2016 State Track and Field Championships in Des Moines on Saturday. For the second time in the last four years, the Pella High boys won the team title, scoring 62 total points to edge Vinton-Shellsburg by six. Payson Vande Lune got the team six points by placing third in the 800 meter run, Chase Van Sant came in fourth place in the 100 meter dash and third in the 200, and Michael Buma took fifth in the 110 high hurdles. For the girls, they scored a whopping 79.5 points, only bested by Davenport Assumption, who ran away with the team title with 126 points. The Lady Dutch shuttle hurdle relay team became state champions, winning the event in a state record 1:03.39; the sprint medley relay team was third, Annika Pingel and Emily Vos went 3 – 5 in the 100 meter dash; Emma Thoreson was second and Corin McKinstrey was fourth in the 100 meter high hurdles; Pingel was also fourth in the 200; the 4 x 100 meter relay team took third, as did the 4 x 400 meter relay squad. Afterwards, the new state-record-holding shuttle hurdle relay team shared their thoughts on being state champions.

“I think we just knew that we needed to stay level headed,” said Emma Thoreson, who ran the third leg of the shuttle hurdle relay. “I think we knew from the beginning that we could do it, but just to come out and do it is just unexplainable.”

“We just had to run a clean race,” Annika Pingel said, who was the lead-off runner for Pella. “We had to trust our training, because we knew that we were able to do it, it was just a matter of running a clean race and trusting ourselves.”

“In our prelims we ran our best time of the season, and we knew that we just had to come back and do it again,” said anchor-lady, Corin McKinstrey. “We were able to get work done, and it was just an amazing feeling when we crossed the finish line.”

“I was confident in this team the whole time,” said a certain Emily Holterhaus. “Afterwards, I was just so happy, so thankful that we could all do this together.”

Congratulations to Pella High for tremendous showings at the 2016 State Track and Field Championships.