Is the Wash runner that anchored at Drake 100%? Seems like a heavyoad could be a problem if hes not healthy.
As far as the mid d and distance guys go, maybe they will break every record in the book but maybe they dont have that 3rd race maxout capacity either leaving the door open for others. Ive seen a lot of weak comebacks in the past after taking their first race to the wall including at Drake this year. If they focus on racing and not times maybe special efforts will happen.
Of all the people listed above, I can see Heidesch trying to control pace on everything hes in to get the points and worry about fast times later in elite races. The 800 will be the toughest to do so but, well, weve seen what hes willing to do and what resulted from it in the past. Hopefully, not this year.
It'll be a great team race between linn mar and city. First team to mess up probably loses.
With 10 of 19 events scored and finals set, I’m projecting City High to finish with 73 points and Linn Mar with 72…to place 3rd and 4th behind Johnston and Ankeny.
It'll be a great team race between linn mar and city. First team to mess up probably loses.
With 10 of 19 events scored and finals set, I’m projecting City High to finish with 73 points and Linn Mar with 72…to place 3rd and 4th behind Johnston and Ankeny.
I have Johnston with 85 now, city with 75, Linn mar 74, and Ankeny 73. Johnston kind of came out of nowhere. They are absolutely stacked.
I have Johnston with 85 now, city with 75, Linn mar 74, and Ankeny 73. Johnston kind of came out of nowhere. They are absolutely stacked.
Nice! It’s fun to share with someone who’s done the same thing. I have Johnston 86, Ankeny 77, City 73, Linn Mar 72. I will say though that City has more opportunities to exceed that projection than Ankeny does. For one, after Thompson’s split 1:51.8 and 49.2 already it’s not crazy to picture City going 1-2 in the 800.
I have Johnston with 85 now, city with 75, Linn mar 74, and Ankeny 73. Johnston kind of came out of nowhere. They are absolutely stacked.
Nice! It’s fun to share with someone who’s done the same thing. I have Johnston 86, Ankeny 77, City 73, Linn Mar 72. I will say though that City has more opportunities to exceed that projection than Ankeny does. For one, after Thompson’s split 1:51.8 and 49.2 already it’s not crazy to picture City going 1-2 in the 800.
I think if Matt can move up in the 110hs, Ammon and Truman go 1-2, and Ammon places in the top 5 of the 1600, city will win, even without Johnston messing up. Otherwise they'll need Johnston to not show up in a couple races. It's a huge stretch at this point. But have 4 boys teams ever scored more than 70 points? They all deserve to take the title home.
With 10 of 19 events scored and finals set, I’m projecting City High to finish with 73 points and Linn Mar with 72…to place 3rd and 4th behind Johnston and Ankeny.
I have Johnston with 85 now, city with 75, Linn mar 74, and Ankeny 73. Johnston kind of came out of nowhere. They are absolutely stacked.
Johnson had lots of depth last year, so it isn’t surprising that they are doing so well even though many people graduated.
Some people like Picken and Schug really stepped up from last year
All true but unlikely. Nash and Heidesch and Zuber and Lane look like they will be in the mix in the 800. City High could easily go 4th and 6th.
No Zuber in the 800 but Tiea could factor. Nash, Heidesch, Smith, Thompson, Lane, Tiea look like the “sub-1:54 tier” and then Hensley, Weber and Hanson could come top-5 if they’re on and some of tier-1 is off. It’s definitely the race of the meet IMO.
The weather looks absolutely perfect for the 1600 this afternoon so I’m hoping one of the top kids elects to make it a fast race, instead of a remix of the 3200 where everyone defers to Heidesch who keeps it relatively slow. Personally if I were Heidesch I’d be thinking about the records (Josh Evans 4:06.32 state meet, Nate Mueller 4:05.39 all time) in my last race for my high school at Drake Stadium.
I think it was psychological more than anything - he’s never run as fast as some of the others in the race today and couldn’t cope with needing to run a 55.xx second lap with the speedsters breathing down his neck, and once a couple guys went by him he checked out. Of course he’s capable of faster and the 57.0 opener shouldn’t have been too hot for him.
He ran 1:57.82 in the 800 and then split 1:58.00 to close the 1600. That’s certainly never happened before at an Iowa State Meet.
There may be a kernel of truth to your observation though. If he’s struggling to run faster than 1:53 as a 4:02 miler and running 8:42y indoors, then 3k may ultimately be his sweet spot. If he is a miler, he’s definitely in the Stewart McSweyn mold and not the Jake Wightman.
Fair assessment. His somewhat abnormal running gait allows him to cover the ground efficiently (which is why he'll likely excel 3k-5k), but IMO, he'll have some issues in the mile at the next level.
I think it was psychological more than anything - he’s never run as fast as some of the others in the race today and couldn’t cope with needing to run a 55.xx second lap with the speedsters breathing down his neck, and once a couple guys went by him he checked out. Of course he’s capable of faster and the 57.0 opener shouldn’t have been too hot for him.
He ran 1:57.82 in the 800 and then split 1:58.00 to close the 1600. That’s certainly never happened before at an Iowa State Meet.
There may be a kernel of truth to your observation though. If he’s struggling to run faster than 1:53 as a 4:02 miler and running 8:42y indoors, then 3k may ultimately be his sweet spot. If he is a miler, he’s definitely in the Stewart McSweyn mold and not the Jake Wightman.
I actually think that Heidesch and Smith are running on tired legs. They both ran 1:53 in like January or February and competed a lot then. Neither was running 1:53 today. Whereas Thompson and Nash peaked at just the right time for PBs.
He definitely took his foot off the gas once he was dropped to save himself for the 1600. I agree though, I see him as more of a 3k/5k guy at the next level.
I think it was psychological more than anything - he’s never run as fast as some of the others in the race today and couldn’t cope with needing to run a 55.xx second lap with the speedsters breathing down his neck, and once a couple guys went by him he checked out. Of course he’s capable of faster and the 57.0 opener shouldn’t have been too hot for him.
He ran 1:57.82 in the 800 and then split 1:58.00 to close the 1600. That’s certainly never happened before at an Iowa State Meet.
There may be a kernel of truth to your observation though. If he’s struggling to run faster than 1:53 as a 4:02 miler and running 8:42y indoors, then 3k may ultimately be his sweet spot. If he is a miler, he’s definitely in the Stewart McSweyn mold and not the Jake Wightman.
I actually think that Heidesch and Smith are running on tired legs. They both ran 1:53 in like January or February and competed a lot then. Neither was running 1:53 today. Whereas Thompson and Nash peaked at just the right time for PBs.
I question that explanation (at least for Heidesch) for a few reasons.
First, Heidesch split 4:20.97/3:10.80 for the last 1600/1200 of the 3200 on Thursday, and split 1:58.00 for the last 800 of his 4:07.18 1600 today. Nothing about those races suggest that his legs were too trashed to run a decent 800.
Next, it’s not unprecedented for Heidesch to inexplicably bomb one race in these 3 day meets—it’s practically a tradition.
2021 state meet: Wins 3200 in 9:18 with the last 1600 in 4:26.6…finishes 12th in the 1600 in 4:29.9
2022 Drake: Places 3rd in the 3200 in 9:01 with ~4:37/4:24 splits and 2:06 final 800…finishes 18th/20 in the 1600 in 4:30
2022 state meet: Places a distant 8th in the 3200 in 9:38 with splits of 4:37/5:00, last 800 in 2:33…2 days later runs 4:07.30 to win 1600 by 7 seconds
Certainly doesn’t prove anything, but that pattern lends some credence to my theory that it’s primarily mental.
Lastly but perhaps most importantly, Heidesch barely raced this Iowa track season. After NBIN he took a week off running altogether and then didn’t race until Jim Duncan on 4/15, where he ran a 1:53.0 4x8 anchor and that’s it. 3 days later he ran a 50-high 4x4 lead off and a solo 1:54 800. Next was Drake where he only raced the mile, and then he didn’t compete again until districts, where it’s not like he had to go all out. I actually think his season has been geared toward being able to compete well at state, but not exactly peak until upcoming national level meets. And how much did he really race indoors anyway? I’m aware of an 8:42y in late January and the double at NBIN, but I could be unaware of other races.
For Smith it could very well be different, because he ran a much fuller Iowa season and didn’t perform especially well in any event this weekend. Certainly he ran better in the Drake 800 than today, in a similarly paced race. But I’m confident he COULD have run 1:53 this morning if he hadn’t split 57.39/56.80 for 1:54.19, since negative splits aren’t the way to max out at 800. I know, at this point I’m quibbling.
Nash may have been ready to PR today, but he didn’t. His PR is 1:51.23 from the Festival of Miles last June. Again, splitting 57.29/55.04 in his case is certainly not the way to run your fastest 800.
I actually think that Heidesch and Smith are running on tired legs. They both ran 1:53 in like January or February and competed a lot then. Neither was running 1:53 today. Whereas Thompson and Nash peaked at just the right time for PBs.
I question that explanation (at least for Heidesch) for a few reasons.
First, Heidesch split 4:20.97/3:10.80 for the last 1600/1200 of the 3200 on Thursday, and split 1:58.00 for the last 800 of his 4:07.18 1600 today. Nothing about those races suggest that his legs were too trashed to run a decent 800.
Next, it’s not unprecedented for Heidesch to inexplicably bomb one race in these 3 day meets—it’s practically a tradition.
2021 state meet: Wins 3200 in 9:18 with the last 1600 in 4:26.6…finishes 12th in the 1600 in 4:29.9
2022 Drake: Places 3rd in the 3200 in 9:01 with ~4:37/4:24 splits and 2:06 final 800…finishes 18th/20 in the 1600 in 4:30
2022 state meet: Places a distant 8th in the 3200 in 9:38 with splits of 4:37/5:00, last 800 in 2:33…2 days later runs 4:07.30 to win 1600 by 7 seconds
Certainly doesn’t prove anything, but that pattern lends some credence to my theory that it’s primarily mental.
Lastly but perhaps most importantly, Heidesch barely raced this Iowa track season. After NBIN he took a week off running altogether and then didn’t race until Jim Duncan on 4/15, where he ran a 1:53.0 4x8 anchor and that’s it. 3 days later he ran a 50-high 4x4 lead off and a solo 1:54 800. Next was Drake where he only raced the mile, and then he didn’t compete again until districts, where it’s not like he had to go all out. I actually think his season has been geared toward being able to compete well at state, but not exactly peak until upcoming national level meets. And how much did he really race indoors anyway? I’m aware of an 8:42y in late January and the double at NBIN, but I could be unaware of other races.
For Smith it could very well be different, because he ran a much fuller Iowa season and didn’t perform especially well in any event this weekend. Certainly he ran better in the Drake 800 than today, in a similarly paced race. But I’m confident he COULD have run 1:53 this morning if he hadn’t split 57.39/56.80 for 1:54.19, since negative splits aren’t the way to max out at 800. I know, at this point I’m quibbling.
Nash may have been ready to PR today, but he didn’t. His PR is 1:51.23 from the Festival of Miles last June. Again, splitting 57.29/55.04 in his case is certainly not the way to run your fastest 800.
I appreciate the dialogue. Always fun to meet another enthusiast.
Jaden Merrick ran 4:14 for the 1600, putting him third among freshman this year. He also is one of the top five fastest 3200 runners among freshman this year.