DES MOINES – When you make your last race of the season your personal best, you’ve done just abount all you can do.
Ellen Cook did that Thursday morning, May 18, at the Class 1A State Meet in Des Moines.
She turned in a personal best of 12:00.42, her best. It was a fast field, though, with almost half of the two dozen runners also clocking personal bests.
Cook wound up in 21th place, in an event that runs no prelims.
Cook took 10 seconds off her state qualifying meet time, and a total of 22 seconds off her previous best during her final two meets.
In other morning action, freshman Chloe Snook ran a time of 27.27 in the prelims of the 200-meter dash. She needed to place in the top 8 in order to advance to the finals. As it was, her time was 17th-best in the fieid.
Snook also finished 17th in the long jump. Her state effort of 15 feet, 7.25 inches was about three inches off her season-best. Again, she needed to be in the top eight in order to advance to the finals.