Defending state champs, future teammates

MARENGO — The feeling of being an individual state champion is not something every athlete gets to experience.

The emotion and gratifying feeling of reaching the top is something words cannot express sometimes.

Two area athletes, Iowa Valley’s Lydia Kriegel and HLV-TC’s Ema Roberts, took home titles last season at the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships in Des Moines in their main events.

Kriegel won the Class 1A discus and Roberts, the high jump.

It was a breakthrough moment for both athletes; they had both been state medalists before. Kriegel and Roberts are each three-time state medalists now.

“I was definitely not expecting it. Going into it, my coaches believed in me more than myself,” said Kriegel on winning discus. “Shot put did not go well the day before, so I knew I had something to prove.”

Kriegel threw a lifetime best of 135 feet, 3 inches to take the title.

“Being around my family, teammate and coaches and to have that moment with them was special,” said Kriegel.

For Roberts, the moment was surreal. Roberts cleared the five foot, seven inch mark to win by two inches.

“It was what I had been working on for three years, and all the extra training and hard work finally paid off,” said Roberts. “Especially with the injury, I just wanted to push through to finish out the season and prove to myself I could do it.”

Both proved to themselves that they are among the state’s best, and they’ll now look at defending their titles in their senior seasons. Both are motivated to do so.

“Going into this season, I do feel pressure, but I also don’t, because I know I have to trust my training and do the little things,” Kriegel said.

“Its been good getting back into the groove of things and getting the team chemistry going.”

“That’s my ultimate goal, to repeat, so just getting as much extra training in and really focusing on form to do so,” Roberts said.

Defending their state titles isn’t all Kriegel and Roberts hope to accomplish this season either.

Kriegel also hopes to place in shot put after finishing tenth last season, and qualify in both events for the Drake Relays.

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Roberts is a great 400-meter runner who ran in the open 400 and 4x400 relay last season for her team at state.

Both also qualified for the Drake Relays last season, which takes the top 24 marks in the state for field events.

The Warriors return all of their state qualifiers from last season.

“I am super excited to see where we are able to take our times and events this year,” said Roberts. “We had a lot of fun last year, and I think we can keep building on what we started.”

Being defending state champions is not the only thing these two have in common. They are also set to be future teammates.

Kriegel and Roberts both committed to Wartburg College for track and field this past fall. Roberts is will also play volleyball.

“We have always competed in all sports, so it’s going to nice to finally have her as a teammate,” said Kriegel.

“I’m very excited to have someone close to home joining me at Wartburg next year,” Roberts said. “I think it will be good to have a familiar face next year as we begin college.”

Both have cited the Knights’ culture as a huge reason for why they committed there.

Wartburg has one of the best programs at the NCAA Divsion III level.

Track and field season will be in full swing once the calendar hits April, and both Kriegel and Roberts will be competing at Belle Plaine April 1.