By: Nathan Bloechl — nathanb@977thebolt.com
Des Moines, Iowa — Rewind the clocks two weeks prior and tell Lily Groat she’d be competing at Drake Stadium, at State Track, in the high hurdles and she might have slapped you.
Okay, maybe not slap, she’s too nice. But she might have chuckled in your face and called you crazy.
Fast forward to today, she might be asking you for the lottery numbers — because the freshman did just that — competed in front of 10,000-plus people in the 100m high hurdles.
Throw out the time she ran or the place she took because it doesn’t matter.
Groat was one of just two freshman competing in the 3A high hurdles with Decorah’s Bella Knutson joining her in that category.
To get here is an impressive feat in and of itself.
“I was really nervous, I’m not going to lie” said Groat following her race. “I mean I’ve only ran this event a couple times and this is my first year so of course, I was really nervous. But I just had to get out there and do it.”
Despite qualifying second last week at state qualifying in Nevada, Groat couldn’t believe it.
It took her until about Wednesday of this week for it to finally sink in that she’d be competing at the vaunted blue oval.
It’s safe to say she soaked in the moment.
“Everyone was like Lily, you made it, you made it — I was just still trying to understand how I did it” Groat laughed. “It was just crazy, I wasn’t expecting it.”
In her first meet at state, Groat was short on experience but her head coach Dean Clasen, who’s been pushing her in the hurdles all year, was right there for the youngster when she needed him most.
“He told me to just give it my all and to not think, he wasn’t expecting me to win it all, just give it everything I’ve got and run my race.”
“Do you think you ran your race” I asked.
“Yeah, I did as good as I could. There’s some fast girls out here.”
Groat said she’ll take this moment, bank it, and use it to improve on her time and form in hopes of getting back next year.
Once again, she was just one of two freshman running here today. She PR’d in state qualifying, ran 16.88 today — two weeks removed from running 18-plus. I’d say based on that sample, Groat is just scratching the surface of what she could become.
(Pictured: Humboldt’s 4x100m shuttle hurdle relay team. Left to right: Lily Groat, Kailee Dettmann, Jori Hajek, Claire Varangkounh)