Wow, Adrian
Adrian Peterson tossed aside a defensive back the same way a kid gets rid of a dirty shirt – effortlessly.
If there’s one enduring image from Peterson’s last touchdown run at Cleveland Sunday, it’ll be that one. Sprinting down the sideline and confronted by a Browns’ DB, Minnesota’s star simply moved him out of the way. the guy had no chance. None. Peterson then stiff-armed another Bronco on the way to the end zone. Unbelievable.
I’m not a big fan of declaring this play or that runner the best of all-time. So I won’t go there. All I’ll say is, I could watch that run 10 years from now and still marvel at it. Peterson’s speed, his elusiveness, his power were all wrapped into one 60 yard package. If you don’t like that effort, you don’t like football.
Iowa vs. ISU: It’s only the beginning
Never throw out the records when Iowa and Iowa State play football.Please recycle.
Sort by year. Divide by category, such as “trash-talking”. Then leave them curbside for next season, where the records and history can be used again.
Of course, there are some differences from year to year. The annual overhyped controversy varies from billboards to game films and what television reporter goaded what player into saying something unkind about the other side.
Beyond that, the pre-game talk centers on the same broad themes. Who gets bragging rights? Does the game mean more to the Cyclones or the Hawkeyes? And is it wise to arrive at a game three days before the kickoff without bringing enough brats to feed half of Jack Trice Stadium?
There are no shortage of opinions on those matters. After watching this game for a quarter century, from close range and far away, I believe there are two things about ISU-Iowa football that one most definitely can say.
It doesn’t guarantee a successful season for the winner. And it doesn’t mean disaster for the loser.
Unless, of course, you submit yourself to the postgame talk radio noise. Puncturing an eardrum with a nail may be less painful.
Dan McCarney used to say it often during his tenure at Iowa State. There’s plenty of season left to play. No matter how much victory is savored, the games go on.
And, if you are on the short end, a chance for redemption is just around the corner.
Consider 1981, for instance. Iowa lost the battle with Iowa State, 12-10. Yet the Hawkeyes went to the Rose Bowl for the first time under Hayden Fry. The Cyclones stayed home, a popular December destination for them during that era.
Seventeen years later, ISU ended the 15-game losing streak to the Hawks in Kinnick Stadium. Some believe that win jump-started McCarney’s program and quite possibly saved his job. Maybe. But over the rest of 1998, ISU won just twice more.
Then there’s 2000. The Cyclones again prevailed at Iowa’s home. A big victory? Sure. But was it bigger than beating Missouri, a decision that guaranteed bowl eligibility? Did it mean more that year than taking down Pittsburgh in the Insight.com Bowl? That was Iowa State’s first postseason win.
Jump to 2002. Iowa State extended its winning streak in the series to five by rallying past Iowa. Arguably, it was the best game between the two rivals in recent years.
The Hawkeyes hardly blinked over the long haul. They didn’t lose again until meeting Southern Cal in the Orange Bowl.
ISU, conversely, reached No. 9 in the polls until being blown out at Oklahoma, 49-3. The Cyclones won just once over the closing seven games and finished 7-7.
In 2004, Iowa handled Iowa State for the second consecutive time. Both teams had prospered by the end of the year. Iowa surged to 10-2 and beat LSU in an unforgettable Capital One Bowl. Iowa State nearly reached the Big 12 Conference championship game before defeating Miami of Ohio in the Independence Bowl.
Now comes 2009. Iowa nearly endured a home upset against Northern Iowa. Can it live up to expectations against the Cyclones?
Iowa State will compete for the second time in the Paul Rhoads Era. Would a victory generate any momentum beyond an early September Saturday, given a wicked Big 12 schedule?
The answers will be fresh. But don’t throw out the records. We’ll use ‘em next year.
The Age of Brett: Does it really go on forever
A truly historic man makes gray stubble and a battered golf cap that’s older than Arnold Palmer’s first putter look cool. And that, sports fans, can only be Brett Favre.
Favre’s first press conference as a Minnesota Viking was much more spectacular than his first preseason appearance in purple. It didn’t matter. The jerseys are flying off the racks, ticket sales are up and Favre may yet be able to push a health care bill through Congress in his spare time.
Think I’m exaggerating? Heavens to Bart Starr, no. It’s pretty clear that no matter how old he looks and how rusty he may be, Favre can do little wrong in the eyes of NFL analysts. They still see him as the guy who can lead the Vikes to the promised land — their first Super Bowl win in franchise history.
While watching the hoopla, it struck that maybe I’m underestimating Favre.
His reach, his ability may stretch over thousands of years and around the world.
And some deep research — about 90 seconds of it, if you must know — confirmed my suspiscions. So I offer some headlines that illustrate how great Favre was and how wonderful he may be.
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of what follows. You might find it hard to believe that Favre would be old enough to get all of this done. OK, did you take a good look at that beard and cap?
Be that as it may, let’s begin the trip through time
- Favre hands off two stone tablets to stranger on mountaintop.
- Favre builds Rome — in a day.
- ESPN analysts: Favre would make Alexander the Great REALLY cry.
- Favre warnings about flood control go unheeded in Atlantis
- Favre finds fountain of youth, but refuses to divulge its location for nearly 400 years.
- Favre airmails early warning to Americans at Lexington and Concord. British intercept.
- Favre to Washington at Valley Forge: Get in the boat and row, will ya?
- Favre tells Francis Scott Key that his new song will be a classic. “Just wait ’till Whitney Houston sings it,” says old QB.
- Favre to Lincoln: Try a beard, and go to Gettysburg for a road trip
- Favre advises unknown band from Liverpool: Lose the barber.
- Favre visits Al Capone’s vault – and actually finds stuff!
- Favre wins Daytona 500 – on riding lawn mower.
- Favre sings Jefferson Starship tune “Miracles” to Al Michaels before USA-USSR hockey game.
- Doing jumping jacks as a warmup, Favre sets world record in high jump.
- A “really tight spiral” is key as Favre pass knocks down Berlin Wall.
- Obscure comedian credits Favre for “show about nothing” idea.
- Favre brokers Middle East peace; blames Ted Thompson when last-second snag ends negotiations.
- Favre suggests Buster Douglas as opponent for Tyson.
- Finally: Favre joins Packers’ rival, signs with Vikings
Hmm. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
No thanks necessary in Norway
In return, he gave me some gratitude.
I think I got the better deal.
“Thank you for supporting baseball,” he said to my wife and I.
Thank you? No thanks were necessary. After all, we were in one of Iowa’s legendary baseball strongholds. Hollywood made “The Final Season,” about Norway High School’s last team.
We brought no camera, but we saw the lights and the action. My son’s team was playing in the Iowa Amateur Baseball Association state tournament. Walford lost that first-round game to a squad from Muscatine. In a way, it didn’t matter, because I saw my own history run right through the scene here.
Beyond the outfield fence, the trains raced up and down the tracks, seemingly every 15 minutes. When I was in grade school, my dad worked as a depot agent for a railroad company in Minnesota. Every day, I heard the whistles and watched the locomotives fly past the window, with iron ore heaped into the cars.
Across a street from Norway’s baseball field, tall corn stood at attention. Sorry, no ghost players came out. But the kids, in search of foul balls, dived in. I never played next to a cornfield, I spent my share of time thrashing through weeds (and, I must confess, beautiful gardens) in search of missing baseballs.
And, of course, there were the fans of all shapes and sizes. The older guys fascinated me, because I’d seen men just like them at games for year after year.
One of them offered guidance to the boys wading into the corn. Left! he’d yell. No! Right!.
At one point, our fan turned to a friend. In a voice that made a train whistle seem like a whisper, he said. “Geez, some of these kids don’t know left from right! Or north from south!”
Maybe, maybe not. But I liked the direction the night followed, offering a path from the past to the present that shows how sports can enrich our lives, if we let it.
This is no plea for the good old days. I feel no urge to dress the game in the flannel players wore decades ago. Times change. People change. Games change.
A major league game now gives us rock and roll (very loud rock and roll) as well as balls and strikes. Fans wonder about drug tests and steroids. And place your bets on the sausage race. Still, a trip to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park, if you can afford it, gives us the game at its best.
On a Friday night in Norway, the sausages filled a more traditional role – as food for the hungry baseball fans. We heard a little music, but the classic “Who’s On First?” comedy routine made famous by Abbott and Costello, also floated over the field.
Town baseball isn’t as popular as it used to be. Waterloo’s team hasn’t been around for a while. Yet, to visit a place like Norway is to revisit the game and its roots. It’s also a chance to see a life as it races from boy to man.
All that for a few dollars.
And the guy was thanking me?
Olejniczak casts a great shadow
DES MOINES – Mike Tangen has walked in the shadow of a legend for years.
It feels like a warm and bright place to him.
Tangen is a 23-year-old graduate of Decorah High School. He played baseball for Dennis Olejniczak in the town’s youth leagues. Then came a stint for Olejniczak and the Viking varsity. Following his stay at Luther, Tangen stayed home and eventually joined the veteran head man’s staff as an assistant.
“I just kind of volunteered my time,” said Tangen Tuesday after Decorah lost to Norwalk in the first round of the Class 3A state baseball tournament at Principal Park. “I hit some fly balls, things like that. I just kind of worked my way. He always asked me to come to the games. I love going to the games. I like being around the game.
“I just learned a lot from him. I guess he’s been a great teacher for me, too.”
Visit any diamond in Decorah, and you’re bound to see a guy who played for Olejniczak. After all, he’s been a Vikings coach for 46 years and a highly successful one. Chuckling, Tangen pointed out that his father-in-law wore the uniform for Olejniczak, also known as “Coach O.”
Tangen added, “There are always Denny O stories, always Denny O stories, no matter what the level. When we talk, we could finish each other’s stories, taking about practice, some speeches. It’s pretty interesting.”
No shortage of stories surrounded Decorah’s 10th appearance at the state baseball tournament. Hospitalized by an irregular heartbeat Sunday, Olejniczak still made the trip here for the Vikings’ opening round game. His team battled, but fell to Norwalk and a standout left-handed pitcher named Matt Dermody, who is already a Pittsburgh Pirates draft choice.
Maybe the enduring story though, the one that follows Decorah baseball for year upon year, is the impact the veteran head man has on his players. Yes, Olejniczak has won 1,221 games, more than any high school coach in America except Gene Schultz of Kee High. He received a national coach of the year honor this summer.
And, it’s reasonable to assume there are kids in Decorah who have not been influenced by Olejniczak in some way, shape or form.
Spend just a few innings around the Vikings, though, and you hear one phrase over and over – life lessons. When Olejniczak speaks, he doesn’t just talk about the hit-and-run. And the kids listen. They listened when the Beatles invaded America, and they still listen nearly a half-century later.
Said Mike Tangen, “It’s just being a very honest person, and when things go wrong being man enough to admit that maybe I didn’t do what I was supposed to do and I could have done better.
“I think that is one of the biggest life lessons that Decorah baseball players go out with is being honest with themselves and when they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, fess up to it.”
Even when Olejniczak’s health became an issue, at least one of the Vikings stuck to the coach’s lesson plan.
“He always teaches us not to worry anything about him,” said outfielder Andy Sacqutine, one of four seniors on the team. “We need to focus on our thing. I mean, he always tells us to keep family and faith first. He knows he’s gotta keep himself healthy for Paula (Olejniczak’s wife) and his kids. So he told us not to worry about it.”
All things considered, the man himself seemed unworried following Tuesday’s game. He made sure Dermody received full credit for his 13-strikeout effort. Olejniczak made it clear – a 47th season as the Vikings’ head coach was on his agenda.
And he relishes being in the game, and a part of his players’ lives.
“I hate to lose – I hate to lose,” he said as he critiqued Decorah’s performance Tuesday. “I still feel like I’m a competitive person. It’s still fun to be around young people and this was a good group of young people who worked hard for me.”
Olejniczak added, “I still feel like I’m a big part of Decorah athletics, since I’ve coached about everything. I have dads here. I’ve coached uncles – had brothers.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Thomas death leaves a void for future Falcons
He was a seventh-grade boy with a dream, and he knew it would never come true.
Shortly after the word spread Wednesday that Aplington-Parkersburg head football coach Ed Thomas had been shot and killed, the kid approached Duane Nevenhoven. He made a simple statement.
“You know, Neve,” he said to the athletic director at Aplington-Parkersburg middle school. “I wanted to play football for coach Thomas, and I won’t be able to.’’
As he related the story, Nevehoven paused and added, “Darn. Some of his future is gone. That’s so true.”
We will hear reasons and explanations for Thomas’ tragic death Wednesday, and it still won’t make sense. We will hunt for perspective, and some day, we may find it. We can only begin to guess at the cost. How many kids have had their dreams shattered by the bark and bite of a gun? How many lives could Thomas have enhanced, if only given one more, or five more, or 10 more years?
At the moment, many of Ed Thomas’ friends and peers can ask exactly the same question that Duane Nevenhoven asked Wednesday.
“You wonder – what kind of world do we really live in?” said Nevenhoven. “It’s just unbelievable.”
It’s hard to imagine this part of the world without Ed Thomas, let alone picture a future without him.
He was there every year — enthusiastic, passionate and successful. Thomas won 283 games in 34 years as a head football coach at Parkersburg and then Aplington-Parkersburg. State championships joined Thomas’ resume in 1993 and 2001. Four years ago, the NFL named him as the High School Coach of the Year. We know the honor roll of players who became successful pros – Jared DeVries, Casey Wiegmann, Aaron Kampman, Brad Meester.
Thomas attracted national attention for helping those boys become men. His efforts to rebuild A-P’s football field in the wake of the 2008 Parkersburg tornado became an ESPN story.
There are other stories about Thomas that stand outside the national spotlight. They come from the men who knew exactly what that seventh-grade boy meant when he lamented the loss of a dream.
Once upon a time, Taylor Schrage was that boy.
Schrage’s family attended the same church as the Thomases. Taylor got to know the coach at a very young age. At first, he felt a little intimidated by the legend. Later, he came to understand the man and his deep faith. As a youngster, though, he knew what he wanted.
“I can’t wait to play football for him,” said Schrage.
Over time, Schrage grew into an all-state football player and a part of the Falcons’ 2001 state championship. Eventually, injury cut short his college career at Iowa State.
Beyond the game, Thomas’ words will live with Taylor Schrage forever.
“God has a plan for all of us – I heard him say that many times,” said Schrage, who now lives in Omaha. “In my life, that’s being selfless and loving and caring from those people in my life and having faith in Jesus Christ.”
Duane Nevenhoven saw another example of that ability to influence people. It happened 18 years ago on a muddy football field.
At that time, Aplington and Parkersburg were intense rivals. But the two towns would be joined by whole grade sharing in 1992. How would it go? Could Panthers play alongside Crusaders?
Aplington and Parkersburg played their final high school football game in October of 1991. Thomas’ Crusaders won. Then he gathered both teams at midfield and told the players, “The football rivalry is over.”
It would be foolish to believe that all the passion vanished, chased away by Thomas’ words. But, a few weeks later, as Thomas and Nevenhoven sat in the UNI-Dome, he noticed kids from both schools sitting together.
“Look, Neve,” Thomas said to Nevenhoven. “They’re together already.”
Eighteen years later, Nevenhoven added, “Right then, I knew things would go smoothly with his leadership.”
Ed Thomas can lead no more. As we mourn his passing, he leaves us with hope and faith as part of his legacy. No one knows if Thomas can be replaced in every way. But maybe, maybe, someone will come who can nourish dreams and influence lives.
A young boy is waiting.
Print it on the black: Ciesielski still loves fastpitch
WATERLOO – Jim Ciesielski always wanted the call on the black.
We followed a pattern, week after week during those summers years ago. Early in the morning, the phone would ring. Ciesielski was on the other end, and he’d give me the linescore on his latest fast pitch softball game.
Invariably, at the end of the conversation, Ciesielski would ask a question. Every time.
“Can we get black print on this one?” he’d say.
It was Ciesielski’s way of requesting a story as opposed to a small item in The Courier’s scoreboard section. A few times, he got his wish. More frequently, he struck out. But he always wanted the call. He wanted the black.
“We had some conversations, didn’t we?” said Ciesielski, laughing. “You were the only guy who would listen to me.”
I don’t know about that. I do know this: Maybe it’s a few years late, and maybe it’s not enough, given the role Ciesielski played in softball in the Cedar Valley and the country as a whole. But here it is – black print, or what passes for it in the 21st century.
I turned the tables on Ciesielski this time. I called him. Why? For one, I hadn’t heard from him in years, quite possibly since 1993, when he decided to fold his last fastpitch team, Kent Feeds. Did he have any connection to the game at all at the age of 70? And where did he think fastpitch stood now?
Ciesielski, of course, doesn’t play. Golf, and more golf, occupies a lot of his time. For a while, he dabbled in auto racing.
But softball is still there for Ciesielski. Tiger Woods will take up badminton before Ciesielski gives up fastpitch. He still cares, just as he cared for 28 years as a player and manager. He was man who guided local teams to national prominence, who made the Iowa Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame in 1993.
And, he was the guy who fought, and fought, and fought to keep fastpitch alive, even when people in the media told him his sport was dead in the 1970s.
“We kept it going for over 20 years,” said Ciesielski, laughing. “I felt like I accomplished something.”
Eventually, though, Ciesielski couldn’t find a sponsor. The end of the road came. Sixteen years ago, he decided if he couldn’t do the right way, with the resources to compete at a world class level, he wouldn’t do it all.
“It hurt,” he said of that decision to hang it up. “I would have kept going, but we lost the sponsorship. It takes money to do it. That’s the only reason. I’d probably still be doing it if I had a sponsor. But we’re talking a lot of bucks – $40,000 or $50,000 a year. It’s not there.”
When there’s a big fastpitch game on a diamond, Ciesielski is there. This August, he’ll be in Moline, watching the International Softball Congress World Fastpitch Tournament.
“If you want to see the good stuff, that’s the place to be,” said Ciesielski. “I sort of keep up with things. I see what’s going on.”
There’s just one problem, Ciesielski said. There isn’t as much to see anymore. The reason? The same one that knocked Ciesielski out of an active role in fastpitch – money.
Softball has been hit hard by the recession. The ISC tournament field consists of 24 teams this year, down from 40.
“It’s really hit the low spot,” said Ciesielski of fastpitch. “There aren’t that many teams around anymore. … It’s really taken a nose dive. There’s not much in Iowa. I think there are only three open teams.”
More and more, fastpitch has become an international sport played by men from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Argentina and so on. Locally? Ciesielski has yet to be approached about jump-starting fastpitch and fielding a team that could compete against the best in the world.
“Nobody has contacted me for any advice,” he said. “I would even get halfway involved with it. I don’t see it happening, but we’d love it – love it – if it did.”
And so it went. Over my years here, I’ve heard many voices – angry, happy, satisfied, passionate, disinterested. Ciesielski’s lingered because he cared, and cared a lot, about his sports. Good games or bad times, he loved what he did.
And that alone is worth a little black print.
Toast of the town? Not during sports vacation
My breakfast toast looked great, if you believe two charcoal briquets are things of beauty.
I had failed to notice the gathering crisis in the kitchen, largely because I was surfing the Internet. I sought information. Why is Joe Mauer hot? Why does Scott Baker seem to believe a fastball down the middle is his best pitch? Has Carlos Zambrano scheduled his next temper tantrum?
Only when the toaster belched smoke like a 20th century steel mill did I suspect there may be a problem. There was my toast, blacker than Al Davis’ soul. Fortunately, I had depth. Next bread in, although I swear those two pieces of wheat were strangely reluctant to get to work.
Then it dawned on me at that moment last week. I’m on vacation, but I’m still transfixed by sports. My plans to get away from it all were, well, toast.
I had thought about this now and then when I stepped away from my job in the past. Sports is a welcome distraction for those who want to dodge the corporate crosshairs for a while. But what about a sports writer? His job involves watching others battle above the rim or under the shadow of the goalposts. What does he do? How does he escape?
The quick answer is, I don’t. Sure, I’ve tried to back away in the past with mixed success. I’ll read. Or I’ll listen to music and try to figure out exactly what Bob Dylan was talking about in 1965. That’s a challenge.
Invariably, though, I end up back in the sports world. Maybe I’m not seated behind a laptop, but I’m there, often in a very active way.
Take the Sunday afternoon I spent in Walford. My son plays for a town baseball team there, so I went down to watch him play. What better way to kick back and relax for a few hours?
My relaxation period ended somewhere around the third inning, when Pete motioned to me from his dugout.
“Do you have your glove?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said to him.
Privately, I said, “Oh, oh.”
He needed to warm up, but Walford didn’t have a lot of extra players on the bench. So I became his catcher of sorts.
Now, Pete didn’t throw hard. He knows the consequences of firing pitches at a middle-aged set of eyes and reflexes. As evidence I have the stitches in my chin. Still, he could have been throwing a beach ball underhanded and I would have been a little edgy.
I made it through our session with no injuries, but at that point, sports was no longer a distraction. I became focused, locked in, on every throw my son made.
Someone could have dropped $1 million at my feet, and I would not have taken my eyes away from the baseball, Well, I might have reached for my wallet, but you get the picture.
Away from the diamond, I didn’t watch much sports on TV. Yet, when Fran Tarkenton started lobbing verbal grenades at Brett Favre, I snapped to attention.
Tarkenton, the former Viking quarterback, ripped the old Packer in a series of interviews. Asked about Favre playing for Minnesota, Tarkenton said, “I kind of hope it happens, so he can fail.”
That was not the smartest or classiest thing he’s said in his life. Another quote, though, really jolted me.
Said Tarkenton, “I can’t put my arms around this as a Vikings fan. I was born a Viking, I retired a Viking and I will die a Viking.
“And in the spirit of sport — I don’t like to use the word hate — but (the Packers) are the enemy, are they not? And I want to embrace the icon Brett Favre to come over here and play for my team? He’s a Packer and should be a Packer.”
You can disagree with Tarkenton’s stance on Favre as a Viking. But his passion about his old team almost burns the air.
So maybe there’s no escape. Living in the sports world means you care, sometimes too much. But that passion is always there, whether you’re a writer on vacation or a Vikings quarterback 30 years past his final game.
I just wonder if Tarkenton ever burns his toast.
Crunching Hannah’s numbers
The right CEO in the wrong place would force Hannah Willms to make some cuts.
We can’t have this kind of individual success in the 21st century economy, can we? Willms, the Dike-New Hartford star, competed in four events at the state track meet. She set records in every single one – the high jump, the 200, the 400 and the sprint medley relay. Since her state meet debut, Willms has claimed 10 championships in 11 events.
That’s too good. Something’s got to go, right? How about cutting one record, or a victory or three, from the books? You know, she could downsize just a little. It might be enough to make even Dick Cheney smile.
That’s not going to happen, of course. Hannah Willms will get to keep all the wins and records, good economy or bad. In fact, those totals are likely to get downright inflationary, since she has one more year of high school to go.
It’s 12 months down the road, and nothing can be taken for granted, even with an extraordinary talent like Willms. But, if she returns to the 2010 state meet and wins four more events, Willms will have 14 state titles over her career.
That’s rare air. Faith Burt, the former Cedar Falls standout sprinter, collected 13 gold medals here. Ashley Miller won 15 times before leaving Tipton for Nebraska.
Those kind of career numbers draw attention, even for a high school girl who lives in the moment.
“I’m not much of a planner,” said Willms, laughing. “I just kind of go with what happens.”
That doesn’t mean she’s not aware of what the future could bring and how high her career totals could go.
“We’ve had discussions about that,” she said. “It’s been like, ‘do you realize where you could go with track?’ I do realize it, but … I don’t know. It’s in my head, I guess.”
One thing is clear. Hannah Willms stands at the head of the girls’ track and field class in Iowa. And she may stay there for a very long time.
There are a few other numbers to crunch after the co-ed state meet concluded.
A total of 23 records were set, including eight on Saturday.
There were 40 multiple winners, including 25 girls. Willms and North Tama’s Sara Stoakes won four times each, as did Ft. Dodge St. Edmond’s Brian Sandvig.
And one more thing: If a track and field wizard out there knows how many times a team has won a title with one girl scoring all the points, let me know. Stoakes, of course, did just that as she gave North Tama its fourth straight girls’ 1A title.
When the rubber meets the road
I have so much rubber in my socks right now, I’m turning into the Michelin Man.
I owe that bit of discomfort to the Field Turf here at Drake Stadium. The old pieces of tire used as backing tend to bounce up and jump into items like socks. Or shoes.
That said, the complaints about the 2009 state track meet should be few and far between, rubber problems notwithstanding. The weather has been excellent and the performances even better.
Friday, Dike-New Hartford star Hannah Willms broke her own all-class record in the high jump when she soared 5 feet, 11 inches. Before that, North Tama’s Sara Stoakes set a new mark in the 1A 400 hurdles.
It didn’t stop there. Take Marion’s Drew Clark. Stepping into the ring for the first time, Clark set an all-time best in the shot put at 64-7 3/4. It appeared to be as easy as flipping a golf ball into a bag.
And so it went. On the other hand, it’s been a very quiet meet from a metro standpoint. Cedar Falls’ boys took a solid second in the 4A distance medley relay, but the highlight reel stopped there for the Tigers. There will be no champions from Waterloo or Cedar Falls in 4A. NU High’s Terry Nielsen goes Saturday in the 1A 1,600 and he could score some points for the Panthers.
Saturday will offer several intriguing story lines. Willms goes in two events. Stoakes closes out her prep career. Dike-New Hartford’s boys will have a tough time catching Fort Dodge St. Edmond in the 2A team race, but the Wolverines have a solid shot at second place.
Stay tuned. The rubber should hit the road, when it’s not crawling into my socks.