JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – McCluer North senior Aaron Mallett felt he got a sliver of vindication when he crushed the 300-meter hurdles with a 36.98, falling just .76ths of a second off the state record.
Mallett was disqualified from the prelims of the 110-meter hurdles on Friday when he clipped a hurdle, which landed near St. Joseph Central’s Drew Bodicky and caused him to trip and fall to the track. Bodicky and the rest of the field reran the preliminary heat later on Friday.
Mallett was still disappointed with the decision to disqualify him from the event, but he opted to turn his attention to the race he could control in the 300 hurdles.
“I’m not going to lie, I was mad about the disqualification yesterday, especially when I found out it really wasn’t my fault,” Mallett said. “So I had to come out here and give a show to the people.
“Everybody expected (Marquette’s) Jared (Michel) to press up on me, and I did too. I don’t know, I guess the gods were with me, so I just went out and ran as hard as I could.”
Mallett was aiming for that record time, but he seemed satisfied with a new PR and a second and a half victory over Michel in second place (38.52).
After a brief rest he came back and finished fourth in the 200-meter dash (22.19), an event he added this spring.
“That’s successful for me. I wanted to come out here and show people that I had flat speed and that I was good at hurdles,” said Mallet, who will run for the University of Iowa next year. “I was pretty tired from the 300 hurdles, but I came out here and ran as fast as I could in that, too. Those guys are fast, so I’m just glad I was up there in the mix with those guys.”
Mallett will have a couple more opportunities to showcase his hurdle skills before college starts. He’s slated to run the USATF Junior Nationals in North Carolina and the ESPN RISE Games in Florida.
Bodicky finally got his all-state medal after three tries, finishing third in the 110-meter hurdles (14.90) behind champion Justice Burks of Raytown South (14.64).
“I can’t complain about third place,” Bodicky said. “I’ve cut my hand open, I’ve fallen many times, false starts, blocks slip – actually finishing the race and getting third, that’s pretty amazing to me.”