Never staying down: BCLUW girls shuttle hurdle wins state title (PHOTOS)

DES MOINES – The BCLUW girls shuttle hurdle team has pushed through its share of adversity over the years, feeling the pain of falling in several key races.
 
The Comet girls always took it in stride and kept picking themselves back up, and the underclassmen sent out senior Olivia Hughes as a state champion on Saturday afternoon.
 
The girls made school history with the first girls state title, as Kiersten Kruse, Payton Pekarek, Olivia Hughes and Lizzie Garber won a timed final in 1:07.78.
 
Hughes had tumbled herself in the previous day's 100 hurdles preliminaries to fall well short of the finals.
 
"Falling sucks, it really sucked, but I got up and finished and I had to move forward today," Hughes said.
  
On Saturday afternoon, she embraced her Comet teammates as a state champion.
  
"I told myself in the blocks that I could do this, that I had to do it one more time," Hughes said, with tears in her eyes. "It's my last race, which makes me kinda sad."
 
Class 1A: Day 1
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Class 1A: Day 2
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Class 1A: Day 3
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