photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence senior shortstop Harper Dye smiles after crossing home plate during a 10-0 win over Shawnee Mission North in the regional semifinal at the Olathe District Activity Center on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Olathe.

Lawrence High School’s 4×100-meter relay team qualified for the state meet at Friday’s regional meet, recording the best time of the season for LHS in the event.

Friday’s relay team had an unusual composition. Two of the four runners, senior Harper Dye and freshman Lucy Juelsgaard, competed in softball, and Juelsgaard’s first day with the team was the day of the regional meet. The team wasn’t even sure if they could put a gruop together to compete, let alone hit a personal record and qualify for state, yet the Lions did both.

It’s been a busy spring for Dye, particularly on Wednesdays. Dye begins with track and field practice after school, which is where she gets her chance to work on chemistry and timing with handoffs on the relay team. After that, she was off to softball practice where she started at shortstop and was the team’s leadoff hitter.

Aside from a couple of early track meets, Dye has managed both to play in every softball game during the week and compete in track and field meets on the weekend.

“I prioritized softball,” Dye said. “Now that at least everything is done and I can focus on track it’s not so bad, but the last few weeks were so much. Not even with just sports, but with prom and graduation and softball regionals. It was mentally exhausting, but in the end it was rewarding.”

This is Dye’s fourth year competing in both track and softball, but this year was the easiest for her, as she didn’t also participate in club volleyball practices that she had done from freshman to junior year.

“I’ve done this for four years, and I’ve ran with LaKeyshia (Woods) and Sienna (Wesley) for the past two years, so I have that to my advantage,” Dye said. “It’s hard to build that chemistry when you’re not here a lot, but we’re just doing what we can when I am here.”

Lawrence track and field coach Audrey Pope-Trowbridge said the team had a few multi-sport spring athletes, including Hadley Ornes, a freshman on the Lawrence girls soccer team. Working with the other spring coaches went smoothly, and the prospect of including more two-sport spring athletes is something Pope-Trowbridge would be happy to see more of in the future.

While Dye had only a short time to practice with her relay team, Juelsgaard had even less. An injury to Wesley on the 4×100-meter relay team late in the season left an open spot right before regionals. Juelsgaard, who spent the spring only with the softball team, had run track in middle school but hadn’t practiced or competed with Lawrence in the spring. Regardless, at the regional meet on Friday at Mill Valley, Juelsgaard suited up and ran the 4×100, helping the team both hit a personal record and qualify for state.

“I was going to do (track) in the beginning of the season, but then I thought with being a freshman and being on varsity in softball, I needed to prioritize softball,” Juelsgaard said. “On Friday, they needed an extra because Sienna got hurt, so I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll run with you guys.'”

The Lions had been working to break 50 seconds in the 4×100 all season, and that finally came with a trip to state on the line — the relay finished fifth in 49.97 seconds.

“We went into our regional sixth and since we were kind of throwing it together at the last minute, I really wasn’t nervous at all,” Dye said. “I don’t think anyone was expecting us to go out and PR and qualify for state, but we did. We were hesitant to even put a team out there… but it worked out well for us.”

Due to new state qualifying rules, the team didn’t know if they had qualified for state immediately after. The top three finishes at each regional automatically qualify, and the next four best performances in the event across all regionals qualify for state. The Lions were going through the results on Saturday and texting each other while checking to see if their time would be among the next four best times.

Juelsgaard has focused on the smallest details in this week of practice. She said it’s been a pretty dramatic switch in training for track from training for softball, but that she’s ready for the challenge. Dye has enjoyed being able to focus only on track this week, with school and softball being over. Considering the success the relay team had with no preparation, the group is confident that they can bring a little more magic to the state meet in Wichita.

“It’s really just a mindset thing,” Juelsgaard said. “I just have to get it and go, and I just have to not look back.”

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence freshman right fielder Lucy Juelsgaard rounds third base in a 5-4 loss to Olathe North in the regional championship at the Olathe District Activity Center on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Olathe.