DES MOINES - Ryan Smith, Justin Burns and Matt Stocker exchanged hugs and celebrated winning the 4x800 meter relay at the Class 4A state track meet Thursday.

A few feet away, Kyle Stocker lay sprawled on the ground, unceremoniously depositing a stream of bodily gunk onto the Field Turf at Drake Stadium, unable to join his teammates.

That was OK with Kyle Stocker. He's accustomed to missing the party with the Hawks.

"I didn't want them to wait for me," he said 10 minutes later, after partially recovering from his arduous leg on the relay. "I do my own thing after a race. I throw up. All the nerves."

It was a heck of a race, except for Kyle Stocker's inability to celebrate the victory in style.

The Hawks toured the Blue Oval at Drake in 7 minutes, 54.56 records to beat Indianola by slightly more than two seconds. The public address announcer said the 800-meter splits were 1:58.8 for Kyle Stocker, 1:59.6 for Smith, 1:59.8 for Burns and 1:56.2 for Matt Stocker, but that was unofficial and does not exactly equal 7:54.56.

It doesn't matter. They were fast. "Overall," Matt Stocker said, "it was great."

Kyle Stocker began the race for Prairie, but started too quickly. That cost him his lunch.

"The first 200, I looked up and I saw 23 (seconds)," he said. "I thought, 'Oh, a little too fast.' And that kind of killed me the last 200. I couldn't stride out."

Kyle Stocker had the lead for most of his 800, but lost it (barely) down the stretch. Then he collapsed onto the ground and stayed there.

"He died," grinned Matt Stocker, Kyle's twin brother, "but it was a great race."

Prairie collected 10 points for its victory in the 4x800 relay. Sam Joens also scored 10 points for the Hawks by winning the discus, which is why Prairie finished the day in second place in the team standings with 20 points. Southeast Polk has the lead in the three-day extravaganza with 27 points.

The Linn-Mar Lions finished the day in third place with 16 points after Kyle Dunn won the 400-meter dash in 47.56 seconds, one of the fastest times in Iowa prep history and only a half-second behind the all-time best of 47.01 set by Calvin Davis of Iowa City High in 2002.

"I'm extremely happy," Dunn said. "I was thinking if I could run 47.5, I would have a really good time. And that's exactly what I did."

The 47.56 eclipsed Dunn's previous best of 48.33, set here last year when he won the 400 at state as a junior. Kaleb Van Cleave of Des Moines Hoover finished second Thursday in 48.08 seconds.

Dunn also ran the anchor as Linn-Mar posted the fastest time in the preliminaries of the shuttle hurdle relay. The finals in that event are Saturday.

Dunn has won four state titles in his prep career, with two victories in the open 400 (2010 and 2011) and two victories in the 400 hurdles (2009 and 2010). He could finish with seven state titles if he captures the 400 hurdles and 110 hurdles this year and the Lions take the shuttle hurdle relay.

"I'll do my best," Dunn said. "I just want people to remember me for that and not my mistakes. So that's my goal."

Dunn was suspended for three meets this season after being arrested for drunk driving, and he was disqualified from the 800 meters at the district meet last week for making an inappropriate remark after the race.

Dunn said he's still bothered by a sore foot, but it does not affect his running. "I'm on some anti-inflammatory and it helps out a lot," he said. "It hasn't affected my times at all."

Linn-Mar placed fourth in the 4x800 relay in 7:58.38 to score five points with Chase Grabau, Nick Gentzler, Jabez Walker and Matt Simon doing the honors.

Alec Clasen of Xavier placed second in the high jump at 6-foot-6, putting the Saints in ninth place in the team standings with eight points. Tyler Donels of Southeast Polk won the event at 6-8. Clasen cleared 6-8 last week at the district meet, but missed three times at that height Thursday.

Donels has cleared 7-2 this year and is the premier high jumper in the state, so Clasen took a small measure of satisfaction in finishing second.

"But first would be better," he said. "It just wasn't my day, I guess."

Anthony Crawley of Kennedy placed seventh in the 400-meter dash in 49.64 seconds. Josh Evans of Linn-Mar finished eighth in the 3200-meter run in 9:31.57 to score a point for the Lions.

Will Griffin of Cedar Rapids Washington posted the fastest time in the 100-meter prelims in 10.81 seconds. James Harrington of Cedar Falls, who beat Griffin at the Drake Relays, had the second-fastest time of 10.91 in a different heat. Alex Carr of Washington also qualified for the finals on Saturday in 11.02 seconds.

Griffin failed to qualify for the finals in the 200-meter dash.

Washington had the fourth-fastest qualifying time in the boys shuttle hurdle relay to make the finals. Kennedy also advanced with the seventh-best time.

Alex Bartz of Xavier placed third in the girls high jump at 5-foot-3. Kristen Huebsch of Kennedy and Sara Strauel of Linn-Mar also cleared 5-3, but placed sixth and seventh, respectively, on the basis of more misses.

Carolyn Newhouse of Linn-Mar finished seventh in the 3000-meter run in 10 minutes, 34.33 seconds to score two points for the Lions. Linn-Mar is in fourth place in the team standings with 13.5 points, with 10 points coming from Amanda Piche's victory in the discus. Iowa City High leads the standings with 30 markers.

Washington qualified for the finals of the girls shuttle hurdle relay with the fifth-best time of 1:05.45.