By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – There were a lot of athletes with busy days and impressive performances on Friday at the Drake Relays.

There are busy days and there are impressive performances and then there is the feat that Josie Durr pulled off Friday.

Durr finished third in the high jump competition at the Drake Relays on Friday morning, matching her career-best effort by clearing 5-6.

Hours after her last attempt in the high jump Durr scored four goals to lead the Class 1A No. 11 Solon soccer team to a 4-1 win over WAMAC rival Mount Vernon (6-6).

“It was a little crazy in the morning knowing that I had to jump and then I had to get back here quickly for a soccer game,” Durr said. “It was a little crazy but I just tried to perform the best I could in both events.”

The breakdown for Durr’s Friday looks something like this:

Two different sports, in two towns, separated by 120 miles, in a span of less than eight hours.

The results: a third-place finish, a win and four goals.

For Durr the day as a whole was a win.

“I just knew I had to try my best and perform my best at each sporting event and whatever happened, happened,” Durr said. “Whether it was a good outcome or not I just had to do my best and I can say I did that.”

What goes into that type of day?

The short answer is, a lot.

Durr traveled to Des Moines on Thursday evening and woke for breakfast around 7 a.m. on Friday.

Friday morning usually means 6 a.m. weight lifting for Durr so the wake-up call just before 7 a.m. wasn’t bad.

She was at Drake Stadium by 8 a.m. and ready to high jump around 9 a.m.

Rain forced the high jump competition to be moved indoors so Durr began jumping around 10 a.m.  

Durr had just two misses at her first four heights, clearing 5-6 on her second attempt.

She couldn’t break her own personal best just missing twice at 5-7 while settling for second place behind defending champion Megan Durbin (5-6) of Greene County and Maria Gorham (5-7).

“I would have really liked to get 5-7,” Durr said. “I know I was super close on my second jump and it would have been awesome to get it. I was pretty happy because I hadn’t really practiced in a long time so it was nice to know that I was staying consistent every meet and I could jump that every meet.”

Following her third-place finish in the high jump is when the fun started for Durr.

Durr headed for Solon around 11:45 a.m., after a short lunch stop at Jethro’s barbecue arrived home by 2:30 p.m. and was at the soccer field by 3:30 p.m. for the 4:30 kickoff.

They hurried me home so I could grab to my soccer stuff and get to the game,” Durr said. “I had to roll with it.”

Durr scored twice in the opening 21 minutes to stake Solon to a 2-0 lead and added two more goals in the second half to put the game away.

The four goals upped Durr’s state leading total to 47 on the season while helping the Spartans improve to 8-3 on the season.

“She is just at a different level,” Solon coach John Tucker said. “It’s nice to have and it’s definitely a comfort to know that we have her.”

Few athletes would attempt the double duty that Durr pulled off on Friday.

Tucker has gotten used to seeing similar performances from his senior standout.  

“She has been doing it for four years now so it’s just part of the game for us,” Tucker said. “We have talked about which track meets she is going to be at and adjusted practice if we have to. It’s part of the game and every year we have girls with other activities and it’s just a matter of working around those other activities.”