Barthelman medals at Drake Relays in 400m hurdles

Des Moines – It wasn’t too much of a surprise that Summer Barthelman was among the best of the best when she competed at the Drake Relays April 26 & 27. She qualified in the 400m hurdles, one of her signature events, and the 400m dash, which even she was surprised about.

Her first event was the 400m dash, which she ran on April 26. She ran a quick enough time to beat the Blue Standard on April 16, two days before the qualifying window closed. By sneaking into the top 16 in the state. She ran in the second heat, placing seventh with a time of 58.91 seconds which overall had her in 12th place. Needless to say, she wasn’t pleased with that performance.

She didn’t let her finish get to her and used it to motivate her for a better race the next day. While conditions were pleasant day one, day two was anything but. Running in the early afternoon, combined with near-freezing wind chills and drizzling rain wasn’t ideal to run in.

She was pitted against the top fastest girls in the state which included Janette Schraft (Glenwood), Caroline Schaeckenbach (Iowa City) and Emma Kalderman (Oskaloosa) amongst others. Barthelman got a strong start and kept up with the leaders the whole way but was unable to catch up to the eventual winner. Still, she wound up placing third in her heat and finished third overall with a time of 1:05.57, earning a medal on the Blue Oval.

To read the full story, including Barthelman's thoughts on how she ran, pick up this weeks' edition of the News-Review.