De Soto was well represented at last weekend's Kansas Relays, as it competed in 11 total events on Friday and Saturday. Eight of those were relay races and coach Brian Dinkel wasn't sure how pleased he was with the performance as a whole.

"It was kind of a mixed couple of days," he said. "Some of the relays ran really well, like the boy's 4-by-400, but then we had some mistakes on our 4-by-100s."

The 4-by-100 meter relay was the worst race for both the boys and the girls. The girls finished in 46th place while the boys dropped their baton and failed to finish.

"We had some mistakes and we could have run a lot better than we did," Dinkel said. "The handoffs were key, we've been practicing that, but I think the big stage made them kind of nervous and that hurt us."

The weather also may have bothered the Wildcats, with rain and severe winds causing problems Friday.

"It probably affected them a little bit, but we've competed and practiced in that stuff all year long so it shouldn't have been a major factor," Dinkel said.

The best performance on the boys side according to Dinkel was the 4-by-400 team, which placed 20th with a time of 3:33.55 in a very competitive field.

The top finish on the entire team came from senior Andre Linzy, who placed seventh in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 7 and one-half inches. Linzy also grabbed 14th place in the triple jump (43 feet, 6 and one-half inches) but neither event went as well as he would have liked.

"My form was off and my running start just wasn't consistent," Linzy said. "I definitely feel I could have done better."

He said that his lack of a good warm-up contributed to his disappointing jumps, but better to learn that now than at State.

The other event for the boys was the 4-by-mile relay, in which they placed 14th. That race was the top event for the girls, thanks in large part to freshman Lacey Erickson.

Erickson ran a personal record time of 5 minutes, 36 seconds to help her team place ninth. She also ran the second leg in the distance medley relay and 4-by-880 yard relay, which finished 19th and 28th, respectively.

"Lacey Erickson probably did the best of everyone we took," Dinkel said. "From the very first event, she got in there and competed. She wasn't afraid, she wasn't intimidated and she's only a freshman, so that speaks volumes."

In other events, the De Soto girls placed 42nd in the 4-by-400 relay and junior Barbara Hartz captured 28th in the high jump with a height of 4 feet, 10 inches.

Overall, Dinkel said he thinks that his team can learn from the experience of a big meet and use it in the future.

"That's what I'm hoping, anyway," Dinkel said. "I hope being in front of a crowd like that is going to pay off down the road because at state there will be a lot more people there and the pressure will be on them a little more."