Schulenburg’s Limbaugh Second in State in 3200

Schulenburg’s Taylor Limbaugh and Flatonia’s Ali Janecka participated in the Class 2A state track and field championships Friday morning, which were held at the University of Texas.

Lady Horns track star and Texas Tech University commit Taylor Limbaugh ran in the 3200 meter contest Friday morning and finished in second place, lunging past Wink high school’s Autumn Smith by .008 seconds to grasp the silver medal with a time of 11 minutes and 38.70 seconds.

Gruver’s Dylaney Weaver won the event with a time of 11:31.61.

“I had my race planned to start out pretty conservative the first mile,” Limbaugh said. “I wanted to start out conservative and really push that second mile.”

Limbaugh started the event in position nine and was towards the bottom of the pack until the fourth lap. She then separated herself from the bottom tier and moved into third place during the sixth lap. At the beginning of the bell lap, Limbaugh grinded her way to second place and went toe-to-toe with Smith as they both took a big step across the finish line. Limbaugh was able to beat out Smith by the tiniest of margins.

“Going into it, I decided if I’m not going to get gold, I don’t want to get third. I better get second. I was kind of assessing the girl next to me to see how much she had left. I pushed really hard. It ended up really well.”

Later in the day, Limbaugh competed in the 1600 meters, where she placed fourth with a time of 5:25.70. Kyla Kane of Wellington won with a time of 5:14.56.

Janecka Fifth in Discus

Flatonia’s Ali Janecka missed a nod for the medal as she finished fifth in the discus throw, but put in quality results to make it to such a platform and looks forward to the future. “It was very special,” said Janecka on qualifying for state.

“I’m very honored to be here. I didn’t do my best, but I’m going to come back stronger for next year.” Janecka recorded a best throw of 114 feet and 7 inches.

“Ali’s had to work through some shoulder injuries throughout the season,” said Flatonia head track and field coach Kaylyn Stryk. “That puts a strain on her. But she pushed through it, faced adversity head on, and took charge. Each meet she got better with exception to her area meet where she was really feeling some pain. She took some time off and came back to compete even stronger at regionals.”

Janecka beat her opponent at regionals on her final throw in order to advance to the state championship.

“Today, she wasn’t feeling quite as strong, so she didn’t do her very best. But she went out there and she competed. That’s all you can ask for from a kid. Next year, she’s going to come back even stronger.”