Burlington's Hill, Stiefel bring home hardware from middle school state track meet
Burlington High School has enjoyed a resurgence in boys sports the last few years as the Grayhounds have won Southeast Conference championships in multiple sports and gone on to compete at the state level.
The BHS girls are about to enjoy the same experience.
Burlington competed in the Mike Henderson Junior High state track meet last weekend at Waukee High School and came back with plenty of hardware.
Kylee Hill won both the seventh-grade large school shot put and discus state titles and Mylee Stiefel took second in the 100 and long jump and fifth in the 200 and 400 in the eighth-grade large school class.
The duo is helping put Burlington back on the map for girls sports, one step at a time, one meet at a time.
“It’s great because it’s fun and it means I get to be with my friends and have a fun time," Hill said. “I think it’s a little bit of pressure because I know some of the sports have been struggling a little bit. I know that a lot of us girls coming up are really good and I think we are going to do well.”
“It was a really great experience facing other girls outside of our conference.. It was a really fun experience to get me ready for high school," Stiefel said. “It’s really great just to know that I can help build up our sports teams here. I like the people in the community.”
“It’s great to have Burlington represented, to go up there from southeast Iowa," said Burlington junior high co-coach Eric Glasgow. "For Burlington girls to get back into sports and recognize the talent we have in this young group. This is a nice group of young girls we have here who are very talented. I just hope they stick together and work together. Some good things are going to happen in all sports.”
Hill, who also plays volleyball, basketball and softball and swims, won the shot put with a throw of 32 feet, 5 inches and won the discus on her last throw, which covered 88-8.
“I won shot in every meet and I won discus in every meet except for one. I won shot put and discus at the state meet," Hill said. “I was really nervous because this was my first year of doing track. Throwing shot I was like, Wow! This isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Doing discus my first throw wasn’t very good and I was freaking out a little bit. I saw the other girls throw and I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ Then my second throw I was behind the first two girls. The last throw I aimed for 90 because I had to hit pretty close to that or I wasn’t going to win. I got 88 and I won. I was so happy.”
Stiefel set a personal record in the long jump, clearing 16-6 1/4. She took second in the 100 in 13.45 despite. it being just the second time she had run a competitive 100.
“I was pretty nervous at first. It was only my second time running the 100-meter dash. I was nervous for that. It went pretty well. I didn’t run my best time, but it was a different experience," Stiefel said. “I had a new personal best in the long jump. That went really well. The facilities up at Wake were really great and I just knew I could perform well.”
Both Hill and Stiefel have found success by working hard and putting in extra time outside of practices.
“I do a lot of other sports competing in front of other people, so it really wasn’t as scary as I thought," said Hill, whose favorite subject in school is math. “Eric is our team coach. but my Dad has worked with me a lot. He works with me mostly on shot because that’s what he threw in high school. In the discus I do a lot of Youtube videos to help me.”
“I have my normal practice, but then I put in extra work. I want to perform well so I put in extra time," said Stiefel, whose favorite subject in school is social studies. “My goals are to work really hard and make it to state freshman year and help build up my team.”
Burlington finished ninth in the team race in seventh-grade large schools with 20 points. Burlington was 11th in eighth-grade large school points with 20.
Also for Burlington's eighth-grade team, Klairissa Hamilton was 27th in the 400 and 23rd in the 800 and Ellie Weiss was 20th in the 200
In seventh grade, Vanessa Woodsmall was 13th in the 100, 19th in the 200, 15th in the 400 and ninth in the long jump. Gemma Plummer was 19th in the 400, 24th in the 800 and 10th in the long jump.
“It’s great to see any young athlete who starts at the beginning of the year and progresses and improves is really the whole aspect is seeing the improvement and the joy they get out of it. Winning always helps," Glasgow said,
Other area schools competed
Fort Madison was well-represented in the eighth-grade large school girls. Mara Smith was fourth in the 200 hurdles, 16th in the 200 and 24th in the long jump. Dynasty Bell was 15th in the 100 hurdles. Caralena Crooks was 18th in the 200 hurdles. Addison Rump was fifth in the 1,500. Ellie Huebner was21st in the long jump.
Nellie Johnson was Holy Trinity was 20th in the shot put and 12th in the discus for eighth-grade large school.
In eighth-grade small school, Danville's Alaina Gourley was eighth in the 200, third in the 400 and second in the 800. Macie Wagner was 14th in the 100 and 20th in the 200.
Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA TODAY Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 31 years. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Multi-sport duo helping put Burlington girls sports back on the map
