Greiner gets full workout, 12 points on Day 1

DES MOINES — One would be hard-pressed to find someone who had to work as hard as Cardinal’s Griffin Greiner in the first section of the 2021 state track and field meet.

Greiner had a full day in just a few hours, competing in the long jump, 100-meter dash preliminaries, 200-meter dash preliminaries and 400-meter dash finals. He earned 12 points for the Comets in the process, taking second in the long jump and fifth in the 400.

“I felt like I could have done better in that 400, but it is what it is,” Greiner said. “I'm happy I got a medal in the long jump.”

Greiner’s day started in the long jump pit. His best jump was his last, leaping 22 feet, 1¾ inches in his sixth attempt.

“I was extremely excited,” Greiner said. “Once I knew I got second place, I was ready to rock ’n’ roll for the day.”

The only leaper to jump farther was OABCIG’s Cooper DeJean, a future quarterback for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“He's an amazing athlete,” Greiner said. “I knew that I just had to give it my best.“

The Comet speedster failed to qualify in both his preliminaries, finishing 11th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.21 seconds and placing 13th in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.57 seconds.

After scoring eight in the long jump, Greiner scooped up four more points in his final event, finishing fifth in the 400-meter dash with a final time of 50.55 seconds.

Of course, it wasn’t Greiner’s first time running the gauntlet in one day. He often cruises to four wins in local events, but he says it was quite a new battle spending all four events inside the blue oval.

“It’s a different world,” Greiner said. “It’s unreal.”