The Quad-City Times - News, Sports and more from the Quad Cities region or Iowa and Illinois

You are not logged in.
Login

Log in to qctimes.com
Email:
Password:
Remember my information.
Register
Quadsville
Site Help

Late pushes send Bettendorf girls relay team, PV's Irwin, Northeast's Krogmann to Iowa state track titles Saturday.

Font Size:

By Jon Gremmels and Andrew Petersen | Saturday, May 17, 2008 |

Sam Cameron took the baton in fourth place for the 400-meter anchor leg and charged to the front of the back to carry Bettendorf to the Class 4A title Saturday morning in the girls sprint medley relay at the Iowa coed track and field state tournament in Des Moines.

“We really wanted it,” said Cameron, who followed teammates Anna Kuebler, Jaide Knight and Abbey Sawyer in carrying the baton. The Bulldogs, seeded second, won in 1 minute, 47.81 seconds.

In the Class 4A, Pleasant Valley senior Blake Irwin became the first to win consecutive 800 titles in 21 years. He lost his lead with 200 meters to run, but he caught Linn-Mar’s Zack Braff at the last possible moment. Irwin clocked in at 1:52.69, and Braff was 0.21 seconds behind.

“For 2 seconds, I was thinking, ‘Uh oh. It just went down the drain,’ ” Irwin said. “I wouldn’t have run that fast if (Braff) hadn’t been right there.”

He later won the 1,600, with teammate Devin Allbaugh finishing second.

Northeast’s Ryan Krogmann kicked it in with about 110 meters left and caught Aaron Kerkvliet in the final few meters to win the Class 1A boys 800 by two-hundredths of a second. His time was 1:56.46.

“I got passed at the end last night (in the distance medley), and I didn’t want that to happen again,” Krogmann said. “This definitely makes it all worthwhile.”

Tipton picked up the fourth title of the morning for Quad-City area runners, winning the Class 2A girls shuttle hurdle relay in 1:05.15. The win put the Tigers into a tie for second place in the team standings for the time being.

"There was a lot riding on it," said leadoff runner Maggie Wehde, "but we knew what we wanted to do. We really wanted it."