Typically I post in regards to the highest levels of national and international competition, but having followed Iowa high school running for 15+ years, I have to pour one out for my homies at the Drake Relays tonight.
Since I’m now living so close to Drake Stadium and today was my day off work, I was in attendance for the second time in my life, after competing at the Relays as a high schooler in 2010. I was hoping to see a sub-9 3200 and the kids did not disappoint. Aidan Ramsey of Dallas Center-Grimes took the win in 8:58.27, with Ford Washburn of Iowa City High 2nd in 8:59.60 and Jackson Heidesch of Dowling Catholic West Des Moines 3rd in 9:01.29. 7 boys ran 9:11 or faster and 12 clocked 9:17 or faster. Obviously this doesn’t compare with some of the more populated states or what we saw at Arcadia earlier this month, but it was the deepest 3200 in Iowa HS history.
More impressive than the final times was the way the race was run: Ramsey split 61.44/62.68 (2:04.12) for his final two laps. In fact, he was running so hard on the penultimate homestretch that I thought he might be pulling a Lomong/Gebrhiwet and miscounting the laps. Washburn actually split faster for the last 800 (2:04.02) including 59.50 for his final 400. Each of the top 7 finishers ran negative 1600 splits (4:36.7 halfway split for the leader…Ramsey 4:36.9/4:21.3!).
Each of the top-3 finishers appears to have more in the tank, and Washburn and Heidesch are only juniors. Hopefully we’ll see Thomas Pollard’s Iowa All-Time Best of 8:50 go down in the next 14 months, and hopefully these kids will go on to have successful collegiate careers.
As a bit of an aside, Heidesch, Will Ryan (7th) and Tyler Schweizer (14th) all attend Dowling Catholic West Des Moines, the HS alma mater of Karissa Schweizer and former NXN/NCAA champion Katie Flood. (I’m actually not sure of Tyler’s relation to Karissa, but he could well be a younger brother). That school has had an impressive running program for a while now, compared with my old school that won state track team titles in ‘09 and ‘10 but now friggin’ stinks.
The most (only?) intriguing result of the night from a national perspective was Daniel Michalski (4th placer at the Olympic Trials steeplechase) waltzing away with the steeple win in a solid 8:28.
Nice running, homeboys.
