Marion's Clark tops 3A discus field

DES MOINES - Marion senior Drew Clark needed only one launch to cement his name into the Class 3A record book.

Clark, who will attend Iowa on a football scholarship, won the discus on his first throw of 161 feet, 1 inch last night at Drake Stadium. Clark held off several late challengers to claim the state title.

"That's probably been the most consistent I've been, this week and the week before," Clark said. "I'm hitting around 160 every meet.

"I know there's a lot of guys out there that can throw farther, and I was hoping to get a personal record at this meet, but it didn't happen. But the win feels great."

Clark competed against future Iowa teammate - and future roommate - Decorah senior Brett Van Sloten. Van Sloten was ill this week and finished 12th. Clark will go for his second state title today, this time in the shot put.

Waukon senior Brett Egan trailed Winterset's Evan Selsor by nearly 10 meters with 300 left in the 3,200. Egan then kicked his stride into overdrive, briefly overtook Selsor with about 100 meters to go before falling short. Selsor won a dead sprint with Egan - and the event - in 9 minutes, 23.22 seconds, .31 faster than Egan.

"I really wanted to go for a state championship in my last year," said Egan, who will run at Northern Iowa next year. "He's an amazing runner. I guess if you want to be the best you've got to beat the best."

"I was blocking out the pain and just looking at the finish line the whole time."

Selsor, a sophomore, was sick and didn't compete for most of the season.

"(Egan) passed me right around the last corner and I was just thinking, ‘I'm going to try to stick with him as long as I can,'" Selsor said. "He doesn't have a great kick, but he's got more guts than anyone else in this race. When he hits top speed, he can really move."

Egan helped the Waukon to a fourth-place finish in the 3,200 relay.

Anamosa senior Jason Breon was second in the high jump at 6-4. DeWitt Central's Weston Ketelsen won at 6-6.