DES MOINES

Carter Harmsen usually takes the curve for Mid-Prairie’s 4x100 relay. His fellow senior Will Cavanagh arrives with the baton, Harmsen puts his left hand back, and then delivers the stick to Cain Brown for the anchor.

But the cast on Harmsen’s left hand threw the Golden Hawks a curve at Drake Stadium on Saturday.

A broken finger injured in a relay earlier in the week required some changes in the usual order. 

“We all used our non-dominant hands,” said senior Tyler Helmuth, who led off the 4x100 as usual.

Brown ran the second leg, Cavanagh ran the bend, and Harmsen anchored the relay, which came up just shy of its previous season-low at 44.79.

“We had to switch all our handoffs and that took some adapting, so I think we did really good,” Harmsen said. “Overcoming that — we were only .04 off of our season best, so it wasn’t bad at all.”

Mid-Prairie finished sixth in the heat and 62nd out of 96 overall.

It was the second trip to the Drake Relays for Brown, a junior who competed in the high jump for the second straight season, but it was the first for the three seniors. 

“It's really nice,” Cavanagh said. “I mean, (the state meet) is really fun, obviously, You get to be here for all three days and watch — but having the college teams here and being able to watch them is pretty crazy. And you’re running against the best of the best — not just everybody in your class, it's everybody.”

On Friday, Brown finished tied for 10th in the high jump, which was moved indoors to the fieldhouse because of the weather. 

“There’s good competition and a good atmosphere,” Brown said after the race on Saturday.

Brown, who has a high of 6-7 this season, cleared 6-3 on his first attempt but narrowly missed at 6-5. 

Mid-Prairie will compete in the state qualifying meet on May 12  at E-B-F, according to the assignments released by the IHSAA on Monday. The track & field state championship meet will be held May 19-21 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.