Records set, and almost set, at 2026 MercyOne Genesis Brady Street Sprints

All of them won championships Thursday night as the Genesis MercyOne Brady Street Sprints were held for the 25th time as one of the opening acts of Quad-City Times Bix 7 weekend.

A lively crowd of more than 1,000 people turned out in unseasonably cool conditions to watch the competitors sprint a quarter-mile up one of the steepest and most iconic hills in the sport of road racing.

Barker claimed her record 11th victory in the sprints, cruising to a fairly easy win in the women’s masters (40 and over) division. She won her age group seven straight years from 2013 through 2019 and now has another current streak of four in a row.

“You know, the day of the race, I’m still as nervous as the first time I did this,’’ Barker said. “I don’t get to lace up these racing flats much anymore, but I can count on this one every year. I look forward to pulling these out of the closet and putting them on for a couple of minutes, and just enjoying the feeling of competing again.’’

The 43-year-old Bettendorf resident said she has no plans to retire from the event any time soon. She admitted racing in the finals on Brady Street seems easier than the qualifying heats that are held one block over on Perry Street.

“I think it’s only easier because of the street being lined with people,’’ Barker said. “All the adrenaline makes it so much easier. You go to qualifying and it makes me wonder if I should keep doing this again. But then you get into this atmosphere and it goes by in a flash.’’

Stockstell, an 11-time state champion at Mid-Prairie High School and a former runner at Northern Iowa and Alabama, also set a record. His time of a minute, 3.26 seconds in the men’s 30-39 division clipped 7 hundredths of a second off the 2015 mark set by Zach Digney.

“This is the only race that I had in my sights,’’ said the 36-year-old Waterloo resident. “I’ve been training all year for it. I wanted to come out and do it again.’’

Stockstell said it wasn’t any easier this time even though his time was better than when he won a year ago in his Brady Street debut.

“I think it’s getting steeper,’’ he said, glancing back at the hill. “I don’t know if climate change is making the hill steeper in Davenport, but I tell you that hill was harder this year.’’

The defending champion in the women’s 30-39 division also was back, but Lawrence provided the biggest surprise of the night by knocking off Davenport’s Allanah McCorkle in a time fewer than two seconds off the course record.

The 35-year-old Lawrence, a mother of two, ran at Rockridge High School and St. Ambrose University. She has run the sprints once before but said she did not place in the top three.

Roesler brought one of the more intriguing storylines to the event. He and his wife Justine won the World Wife-Carrying Championships in Finland last July. Justine stayed home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, this time but Caleb knocked a couple of seconds off his qualifying time to defeat defending champion David Thompson and Davenport’s Phil Young in the men’s masters.

Unlike Barker, he said the finals were not easier than the qualifying.

“I was hoping it would be, but it felt harder,’’ he said. “I tried to push the pace toward the middle and I died a bit. Coming up the hill I was running out of steam. I felt that gorilla on my back.’’

House, a former Bureau Valley High School star, held on to defeat St. Ambrose teammate Chris Miserendino in the men’s 20-29 division. Miserendino’s qualifying time was about a half second better than that of House, who covered the distance in a blistering minute and 0.2 seconds in the finals.

House said the event wasn’t quite as grueling as he had been led to believe.

“Having Chris on my shoulder and not going away helped,’’ he said.

Miller, a recently-graduated Bettendorf High School star, prevailed in the women’s 20-29 division, but wasn’t done for the night after that. She then went back down the hill to run for the Bulldogs’ second-place unit in the high school relay event.

There nearly also were records set in both the high school relays as the Pleasant Valley girls and Bettendorf boys each came within about a second of breaking the previous standards.