A wild night for the PCM girls track and field team led to a Drake Relays qualifier ahead of last Thursday’s deadline to post a time.

After beginning the night at their scheduled location in Guthrie Center, PCM Girls Track and Field Coach Eric Karr pulled athletes that were going to run the hurdles in the meet and went to Ogden because the automated scoring system stopped working at the original site. In order to qualify for the Drake Relays, times have to be electronically timed.

Karr explained the events that ultimately led to the craziest night of the 2021 season.

“It got confirmed that their fully automatic timing system was not working. For me as the head coach, I was panicking in my head not for me but for the athletes since we were on our last night for Drake Relays and the timing system didn’t work.”

If it were not for travelling to Ogden, Senior Margo Chipps would not have qualified to run at the Blue Oval in Des Moines in the 100 meter hurdles. Now, Chipps can add Drake Relays’ hurdler to her high school track resume.

While Chipps is in Des Moines racing among the fastest athletes in Iowa, PCM will be back in action for their next track meet, which is Thursday at Roland-Story at 4:30 PM.

Hear more from Chipps about her Drake Relays qualifying experience on this week’s Radio Sports Page, airing Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and Thursdays at 10 a.m. on 92.1 KRLS.