EudoraNews.com / Ballock wins fourth straight title

Archive for Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Emily Ballock nears the finish line in the 300 hurdles Saturday at Cessna Stadium at Wichita State. Ballock won her fourth gold medal in as many years in the event.

By Caleb Regan

May 27, 2008

Emily Ballock won her fourth consecutive gold medal in the 300 hurdles Saturday at the state track meet in Wichita.

Running in her future home stadium at Wichita State, Ballock qualified Friday for finals with a time of 45.58, .01 slower than Chapman freshman Jill Kurtz.

The thought of letting her fourth gold slip away was something that she said was on her mind after qualifying with the second-fastest time Friday.

"It was different, not having the fastest time coming into the finals," she said. "But I just let that be my motivator and I came out and I wanted it more and showed my strength and ran well."

Run well she did, controlling the race in the finals Saturday and pulling away from the field, finishing in 44.83, a full second and then some ahead of Concordia's Witney Sorell (45.94). Kurtz finished third in 46.06.

"After my freshman year, when I won the first time they started saying way back then, 'four in a row, four in a row,'" Ballock said. "Every year I came out and kept working towards that goal every step and this is definitely icing on the cake."