Kennedy’s Miles Wilson goes wide, and to the wire, for 3,200 title

CEDAR RAPIDS — The longest race produced the closest finish.

“Did I do it?” Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Miles Wilson asked after a dramatic duel with Cedar Falls’ Brayden Burnett in the 3,200-meter race at the Wilkinson-Pinckney Relays on Friday at Kingston Stadium.

After a lengthy wait, the answer was disclosed:

Yes, he did. By the slimmest of margins.

Wilson wasn’t able to take a direct path to the finish line, but outkicked Burnett nonetheless — by one-hundredth of a second — in 9:35.43.

“It was a really good race between the three of us,” Wilson said, including Cedar Falls’ Alex Horstman, who ran third in 9:36.46.

“It was pretty strategic. We wanted to try to take it out in 4:50 at the first mile. I think this will get all three of us into (the) Drake (Relays).”

Wilson, a junior, paced Burnett and Horstman through the first half of the race, then had to chase down Burnett at the very end. Burnett meandered out of the inside lane down the stretch, forcing Wilson to pass in Lane 3.

“Brayden’s a tough guy. It’s tough to get around him,” said Wilson, who closed with a 66-second final lap. “I think we both raced pretty smart.”

Iowa City Liberty’s Gavin Keeney pulled off a similar comeback, anchoring the Lightning’s 3,200-meter relay to victory with a 2:00.4 split.

Liberty was clocked in 8:13.38, Cedar Falls in 8:16.64.

“I was hoping the boys would get the baton to me in first place, but if I was in second or third, that was OK too,” Keeney said. “I just tried to stay relaxed.”

Keeney is part of a set of triplets that includes Ashlyn Keeney, a distance ace for the Liberty girls and an Iowa State recruit.

“I used to think I kind of ran in her shadow when we were younger, because I was the slowest,” Gavin said. “As I got older, I’ve worked hard to run my own race.

“I’m thrilled we had a good benchmark to start the year from.”

Aidan Decker, Jordan Robinson and Christian Montover ran the first three legs for the Bolts. After the race, Montover had about 50 minutes to jet back to North Liberty and play guitar for a musical at the high school.

Cedar Falls captured the team title with 131 points. Linn-Mar was second with 119, followed by Liberty (96) and Kennedy (84).

Field events ignited Linn-Mar’s effort. The defending Class 4A state champion in the discus, McKade Jelinek unleashed a monster throw of 177 feet, 9 inches — an effort that leads the state by nearly 20 feet.

Keaton Roskop won the shot put at 51-3, and Isaac Guerrero topped the long jump (21-6). In all, the Lions won six events, most of any team.

Cedar Rapids Washington’s Miles Thompson and Michael Blank went 1-2 in the 100 and were members of the Warriors’ winning 400- and 800-meter relays.

WILKINSON-PINCKNEY RELAYS

At Kingston Stadium

Teams — 1. Cedar Falls 131, 2. Linn-Mar 119, 3. Iowa City Liberty 96, 4. C.R. Kennedy 84, 5. C.R. Washington 45, 6. Ankeny Centennial 38, 7. C.R. Xavier 17, 8. Waterloo West 16, 9. C.R. Jefferson 14, 10. Davenport Central 12, 11. Davenport North 10, 12. Monticello 7.

Shot put — 1. Keaton Roskop (LM), 51-3; 2. McKade Jelinek (LM), 49-9; 3. T.J. Robertson (CRK), 45-7.

Discus — 1. McKade Jelinek (LM), 177-9; 2. Keaton Roskop (LM), 133-7; 3. Aidan Perez (WW), 129-4.

High jump — 1. Brendan Linde (CRK), 6-3; 2. Jacob Kieler (CF), 6-1; 3. Jeremiah Madlock (ICL), 6-1.

Long jump — 1. Isaac Guerrero (LM), 21-6; 2. Luke Meyers (ICL), 21-1 1/2; 3. Tyree Gardner (WW), 20-5.

Sprint medley relay — 1. Cedar Falls (Terry, White, Townsend, Schellhorn), 1:36.05; 2. Davenport North, 1:37.08; 3. Linn-Mar, 1:39.03.

3,200 — 1. Miles Wilson (CRK), 9:35.43; 2. Brayden Burnett (CF), 9:35.44; 3. Alex Horstman (CF), 9:36.46.

3,200 relay — 1. Iowa City Liberty (Decker, Robinson, Montover, Keeney), 8:13.38; 2. Cedar Falls, 8:16.64; 3. Linn-Mar, 8:37.28.

Shuttle hurdle relay — 1. Linn-Mar (Gorsich, Singh, Grant, Bautista), 1:04.13; 2. C.R. Kennedy, 1:04.45; 3. Iowa City Liberty, 1:05.54.

100 — 1. Miles Thompson (CRW), 11.09; 2. Michael Blank (CRW), 11.36; 3. Aidan McDermott (CRX), 11.43.

Distance medley relay — 1. C.R. Jefferson (Washington, Duffie, Canas, Hall), 3:52.85; 2. Cedar Falls, 3:54.17; 3. Davenport Central, 3:56.46.

400 — 1. Hunter Russell (CF), 53.51; 2. Morgan Hendrickson (CF), 53.99; 3. Tristan Steichen (CRK), 54.33.

800 relay — 1. C.R. Washington (McBride, Armon, Blank, Thompson), 1:31.21; 2. Cedar Falls, 1:32.21; 3. Iowa City Liberty, 1:32.57.

110 hurdles — 1. Eric Lucas (ICL), 14.79; 2. Nicholas Gorsich (LM), 15.39; 3. Grayson Hartman (CRX), 15.53.

800 — 1. Hayden Kuhn (LM), 1:59.99; 2. Gavin Keeney (ICL), 2:01.20; 3. Brayden Burnett (CF), 2:02.56.

200 — 1. Luke Meyers (ICL), 22.27; 2. Cayden Schellhorn (CF), 23.29; 3. Alec Schneider (AnkC), 23.97.

400 hurdles — 1. Nicholas Gorsich (LM), 56.36; 2. William Grant (LM), 57.62; 3. Maxwell Thompson (ICL), 58.15.

1600 — 1. Aidan Decker (ICL), 4:46.51; 2. Henry McMahan (CRK), 4:47.02; 3. Colby Cryer (CF), 4:47.34.

400 relay — 1. C.R. Washington (McBride, Thompson, Armon, Blank), 43.69; 2. Ankeny Centennial, 43.92; 3. Cedar Falls, 44.06.

1,600 relay — 1. Cedar Falls (Schellhorn, Townsend, Roussell, Woods), 3:27.53; 2. Iowa City Liberty, 3:35.39; 3. C.R. Kennedy, 3:37.26.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com