Published: September 03, 2008 11:22 am            

Small school runners win titles

CLINTON — They might compete for small schools, but two of Iowa's best runners last year in Class 1A proved they stack up well with competition from larger schools Tuesday evening at the Schoolhouse Open cross country meet at Emma Young Park.

Morgan Casey of Northeast, which is moving from 1A to Class 2A this season, shot out to the lead with an opening sprint and increased her advantage the rest of the way to win the varsity girls race by half a minute. Later, Drew Sikkema of Clinton Prince of Peace was part of a three-man battle for most of the 5,000-meter boys race until he broke away in the final 300 meters and outsprinted Central DeWitt's Frank Futselaar, an exchange student from the Netherlands, to the finish line.

“This leaves me with a good feeling,” Sikkema said. “I know I'm up there with the big schools. It was a good race, and it should be a good season.”

It was an extremely competitive race, too.

“It was fun to see a race, not just a one-person runaway,” said Central DeWitt coach Jim Hetrick, who saw Futselaar in action for the first time.

“I like having competition because it pushes you,” said Sikkema, the highest-placing (fourth) runner from last year's 1A state meet. “It was a good run three-by-three. Then, with probably 300 or 200 (meters) left, that's kind of where I pulled it out. I ended up coming out on top.”

Although Sikkema had met Futselaar, they never had run against each other. Still, Sikkema expected a challenge.

“I knew Frank would be up there,” he said. “He's a good runner. It's going to be fun to run against him a few times more.”

Futselaar also enjoyed what might become a nice Highway 30 rivalry this season.

“It's always better if you have someone even with you or better,” he said. “I was happy.”

Sikkema admitted that he might have had a couple of advantages.

“The heat definitely played a factor,” he said. “It played a factor in how fast you want to go out. I also have a pretty good sense of this course (it is Prince of Peace's home course). I know where to sprint and where to speed up and slow down.”

The hot, humid weather also might have been more of a disadvantage for Futselaar, whose home country in northwest Europe often has temperatures in the low 70s in August.

“It was really hot,” Futselaar said. “I wanted something to drink, but I missed the water (that was available along the course).”

The heat took a visible toll on many runners. Prince of Peace coach Dave Lawrence estimated it slowed his runners' times by about 20 seconds. One Dubuque Senior girl was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The close race in varsity girls competition was for second place, with Casey a runaway winner.

“I'm really happy with the race,” Casey said.

Casey said her early charge to the lead was important.

“When it's a bigger field, and the way it gets narrower at about 100 meters, I wanted to get out fast,” she said. “I'm happy with my start. I felt really good that first mile.”

Casey built about a three-second lead over the first mile and widened it after that.

“I ran a normal, but comfortable, pace,” she said.

Like Sikkema, she said it was satisfying starting the season by winning a meet that was loaded with Class 4A runners.

“I think it's a good motivation for me and my team,” she said. “There were a lot of really big schools, and I feel like an underdog.”

Of course, it might be difficult for runners in any class to view Casey and Sikkema as underdogs after the way they started their seasons.





THEY SAID IT …

Short takes from Tuesday's Schoolhouse Open cross country meet, hosted by Clinton High School at Emma Young Park:







Clinton High School ran without head coach Wes Golden in attendance. His National Guard unit was called to Louisiana to help battle Hurricane Gustav. Albert Hayton, Golden's assistant, guided the Clinton runners.

James Smith led the River Kings and Hattie Buikema paced the River Queens in the varsity races. Each finished in the top 10 individually.

“I'm happy with how it turned out,” Smith said. “I came to see where I stood, where I compared to the guys like Drew (Sikkema). I wasn't thinking about my time at all. I just tried to stay in a pack and run my race.”

Hayton said he was pleased with his runners' performances.

“We got a very good showing from the younger girls and the older girls; it was a very good start for them,” Hayton said. “The boys were in a big pack. They did a great job. That's kind of how they run, in a pack, and the group feeds off each other.”







“Audrey (Griffin) had a nice run in the freshman-sophomore race. She ran a good race because a lot of our kids were in their first race and underestimated the heat. It's nice to have an up-and-coming runner for us.” - Prince of Peace coach Dave Lawrence.







“I really was more surprised on the boys side, where we made some good progress since last year. I knew Matt Bowman would be good, but it was his first race. He and Seth Mommsen had especially good races. Brent Blanchard was very good in that in the second half of the race he moved up quite a few positions.” - Northeast coach Kerry Kennedy.







“I thought our boys ran real competitively. I was real pleased with Codie Adams (who had a top-10 finish in the boys varsity race). In a surprise, we had freshman Lorena Temple lead our pack of girls. She did a nice job. Courtney Harksen was the other girls who surprised me.” - Camanche coach Mark Metzger.





“Ryan Hamby did a very nice job; 15:02 is not bad.” - Central DeWitt coach Jim Hetrick, on his freshman who won the boys freshman-sophomore race.

        

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