Late surge allows Washington to repeat

DES MOINES -- Bill Pinckney's message to his team was pretty simple Saturday morning.

Do what you can do, he said. And if you can do a little more, do it.

Cedar Rapids Washington did what it needed to do. And the Warriors are Class 4A boys' track champions again as a result.

A couple of late clutch performances -- third-place finishes by Andrew Marshall in the 1,600-meter run and by the 400-meter relay -- vaulted the Warriors to their second consecutive title.

The Warriors tallied 59 points. Indianola and Pleasant Valley shared runner-up honors with 52; Linn-Mar was fourth with 42.

"Whoever said track's not a team sport?" said sprinter Alex Carr. "We were up, down, up, down all weekend. We only won one race. But we won this as a team."

Washington didn't take its first lead of the meet until Marshall more than surpassed his No. 11 seed in the 1,600. He went out with the leaders, stayed near the front for the majority of the race, fell back a bit, then used a late kick to move up several positions down the stretch.

"I thought I could surprise some people here," Marshall said. "When guys started going around me without about 150 meters to go, I said to myself, 'C'mon, man. If you can't push yourself for your team, you should try something else.'

"I had to grind it out for those guys."

That gave Washington the lead. Then the 4x100 gave the Warriors some breathing room. Less than an hour later, the Warriors were toting a championship trophy for the second straight year.

"The whole secret is that the kids maintained their (seeds) for the most part, and in a few cases, they went past it," Pinckney said.

Cedar Rapids Xavier's Ryan Sander foiled Kyle Dunn's triple-crown bid, edging the Linn-Mar star in 110-meter hurdles.

Sander finished in 15.17 seconds. The winner of the 400-meter dash and the 400-meter hurdles, Dunn was clocked in 15.24.

"I knew I'd have to run really well; I had lost to Dunn seven or eight times this year," said Sander, who will run at Iowa State next year. "I hit quite a few hurdles. Fortunately for me, I think Dunn did too."

The win was particularly sweet for Sander, who ran in two relays that were disqualified this weekend.

"It's definitely a good way to finish up," he said.

Kyle Donnelly of Xavier came out of the slow heat to place second in the 800-meter run. Donnelly was timed in 1:55.63.