Saturday, April 26, 2003

City relay gets sweet win

By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen

Motivated by City High's three second-place finishes at Drake last year, Grenko and Swaney led the Little Hawk 1,600 medley relay team to victory at Drake Stadium.

Swaney's strong anchor leg held off Zach Brower of West Des Moines Valley, which edged City for Drake and state titles in the 4x800 last year.

"I remember the feeling after that race," Swaney said. "We got second place, but it was the worst feeling. To come out here and win is all I wanted to do."

City's squad, which also included Rob Duwa and Aaron Grove, finished in 3 minutes, 32.49 seconds to beat second-place Valley by more than a half second.

Grenko's impressive 48.6 split with his 400 leg lifted the Little Hawks from sixth to the front of the pack.

"We didn't win it by that much and without that leg," Swaney said, "I don't know if we would've won."

When Swaney got the baton, he said he thought about losing to Valley last year and said it wasn't going to happen again.

"Not a chance. Not again," he said. "It was the last thing I wanted to happen, and I wasn't going to let anyone pass me."

Grenko, who ran on the medley and 4x400 teams that finished second at Drake last year, said the team wanted to give John Raffensperger a relay victory in his final Drake Relays meet as the Little Hawk coach. Raffensperg-er is retiring after this season.

"It feels a lot better to win here than get second," Grenko said. "Raff, he stresses to do as well as you can. But when you see guys you ran with when you were a freshman or sophomore and you tell them you get second at Drake, they're like, 'What are you doing?'"

City junior Nelle Trefz couldn't quite complete a two-day sweep of her individual events. Thursday's girls 3,000 winner led the 800 with 30 meters remaining. That's about the time when Trefz and North Linn's Ellen Ries got tangled and Ries went on to victory.

"It was a pretty physical race," Trefz said. "People were getting jostled around the whole time. I'm sure it was clean."

Trefz said she didn't know where the rest of the field was after extending her lead to more than 5 meters with 250 remaining.

"I knew I couldn't count anyone out, so I wasn't going to make sure of anything until I crossed the finish line," Trefz said. "But I really had no idea where anyone was, which is a disadvantage when you're in the lead, you don't know where the field is. But Ellen had an amazing race."

In other girls action Friday, West's sprint medley relay team of Lizz Huntley, Lindsey Windauer, Amanda Judisch and Lynn Dobyns placed fourth, despite a rough final handoff.

"I saw the (exchange zone line) and I knew I couldn't go any further so I dove with all I could to catch (Dobyns)," Judisch said. "It was kind of crazy there."

Atlantic got a remarkable 55.3-second anchor split from standout Cortney Jacobs to win the event.

City's Emily Triplett placed sixth in the 100 hurdles, West's Alison Dirks finished seventh in the high jump, Tipton's Brandie Weih finished sixth in the shot put, Williamsburg's Abby Jones placed ninth in the 800 and West Liberty's Maria Montagna tied for 10th in the high jump.

In other boys action, City's team of Pat Barry, John Humston, Curt Steyers and Swaney placed third in the 4x800, West's Ashton Winchel leaped to fourth place in the long jump and West Branch's Eric Heid finished third in the 400-meter hurdles.

"I didn't like that all too well. Not at all actually," said Heid, who finished in 55.10. "I guess I just wasn't ready. It's still a lot of fun to come to Drake, though."

Boys
100
1, Andy Brodell, Ankeny, 10.65 seconds.
110 hurdles
1, Jordan Crosby, Fort Dodge, 14.41.
400 hurdles
1, Greg Offerman, Charles City, 52.59. 3, Eric Heid, West Branch, 55.10.
4x200 relay
1, Des Moines East, Scott Phaydavong, London Hayes, Robert Thompson, Marque Glenn, 1:29.07.
4x800 relay
1, Ankeny, Chris Gardner, Tyler Strand, Chris Lawson, Tim Heugerich, 8:06.33. 3, City High, 8:09.87.
1,600 medley relay
1, City High, Rob Duwa, Aaron Grove, Ryan Grenko, Colin Swaney, 3:32.49.
Long jump
1, Quincy Christie, Sioux City West, 22 feet, 51/2 inches. 4, Ashton Winchel, West High, 21-73/4.
Discus
1, Brandon Franklin, Des Moines Hoover, 170-5.

Girls
100
1, LaNeisha Waller, Cedar Rapids Washington, 12.13.
800 run
1, Ellen Ries, Troy Mills North Linn, 2:16.46. 2, Nelle Trefz, City High, 2:16.72.
100 hurdles
1, Sara Boisen, West Des Moines Valley, 14.27, meet record, older record, 14.50, Tiffany Pederson, Atlantic, 2001. 6 (tie), Staci Vander Berg, Milford Okoboji, and Emily Triplett, City High, 15.21.
400 hurdles
1, Sara Boisen, West Des Moines Valley, 1:03.16.
Sprint medley relay
1, Atlantic, Angie Jenkins, Jamie Hoegh, Lauren Osborne, Cortney Jacobs, 1:48.90. 4, West High, 1:50.63.
High jump
1, Crystal Hanson, Story City Roland-Story, 5-7.
Shot put
1, Sheena James, Clinton, 45-61/4. 6. Brandie Weih 40-21/2.