Running unattached, some freshmen steal the show for the Hawkeyes.
By Adam Hensley
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The Hawkeyes placed fourth in the Hawkeye Early Bird Invitational in their first contest of the year.
Iowa State won the meet, followed by Illinois State and Northern Iowa. On Friday, Iowa will travel to the Illinois State Invitational for another shot at the Redbirds, which coach Layne Anderson emphasized.
“They beat us handily today,” he said. “That will be a good goal for us next week, to go to Illinois State’s home course and see if we can return the favor.”
The men were originally slated to run at 6 p.m, but started at 6:30 because of the heat.
Hawkeye sophomore Brook Price was unable to finish the race because of the heat, Anderson said.
“He overextended a little bit in the heat,” Anderson said. “He left it all out there on the course, came up about 150 meters short. He tried to pop up and keep going, but I grabbed him.
“Everybody is dealing with the same conditions. Certainly, the performance should not be impacted in any way by the delay.”
Junior Ben Anderson, Iowa’s top runner in the meet, placed 14th at 19:30.2. Sophomore Michael Melchert finished right behind him with a time of 19:30.3.
“I think it went well, I felt good,” Ben Anderson said. “The competition from here only goes north in terms of intensity.”
Senior Anthony Gregorio placed 22nd, red shirt freshman Daniel Gardarsson finished 26th, and junior Kevin Docherty took 29th. Samuel McElhiney, Daniel Huff, and Nate Ferree all finished outside the top 30.
Running unattached, three freshmen finished in the top 20. Ian Eklin, a freshman from Plymouth, Minnesota, placed third with a time of 19:13.5.
The Hawkeyes’ average finish time was 19:39, one second behind Northern Iowa but 19 seconds behind Iowa State.
The runners did not believe the half-hour delay affected them or was helpful.
“A lot of us guys thought it was pointless,” Eklin said. “Due to the humidity, things were not going to get a whole lot better.”
However, the heat did not affect Eklin’s performance.
“We had talked before, by the 3K we were going to start to move, and that’s when I moved,” Eklin said, noting that he does not want to peak now but later on in the season when it counts. “I want to make sure that I’m contributing at that point, not just now. It’s more about the last [meets].”
The other freshmen to finish in the top 20, Bailey Hesse-Withbroe and Daniel Soto, placed 17th and 18th with times of 19:32.2 and 19:32.3.
For the Hawkeyes, the Early Bird is not necessarily a pivotal meet, but it provides the team with a starting point. Those who have been in the program treated the race as a workout, while the new athletes used it as a measuring tool to see where they were.
“I thought our freshmen were the stars of the show today,” Layne Anderson said. “They made it pretty clear they belong in an Iowa uniform.”
Their times and finishes back up his belief. Iowa placed more unattached freshmen in the top 20 than attached runners.
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