Cedar Rapids Washington’s Michael Blank stretches his range, wins 400 at John Ask Relays

CEDAR RAPIDS — Michael Blank writhed on the Kingston Stadium turf in mild agony and made a vow:

“I’m never running the 400 again.”

Uh, might want to rethink that. There’s some high-level potential there.

A junior at Cedar Rapids Washington, Blank extended himself and showed promise in an unfamiliar race Tuesday night at the John Ask Relays, winning the 400-meter race in 51.97 seconds.

“I like to push myself and do different things,” said Blank, ordinarily a sprinting stalwart for the Warriors. “It was pretty entertaining. But the aftereffect sucks.”

The “aftereffect” included Blank hovering over a waste can near the finish line. Fortunately, everything stayed down.

Heading into Tuesday, Blank ranked sixth in the state (all classes) in the 100 and 200.

“The 400 is such a different race,” he said. “The 100 and the 200 are full-out ‘goes.’ Coach (Maurice Blue) told me in the 400, come out hard for the first seven seconds, keep a good turnover through 150 (meters), then push.”

Blank led the race throughout.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy led a balanced eight-team field with 144 points. Linn-Mar was second with 135.5, followed by Cedar Rapids Prairie (121), Iowa City West (109.5) and Western Dubuque (106).

Kennedy’s Miles Wilson edged Western Dubuque’s Eli Naumann in the 3,200-meter run, eclipsing the Kennedy school record in 9:25.44.

“I knew I wanted to control the race,” Wilson said. “Saturday, I let somebody else take the lead, and the pace slowed. I really wanted to push the middle laps today.”

Naumann was running his first 3,200 of the season and finished in 9:25.96.

“I wanted to go out and compete,” he said. “(Wilson) is a good guy to run against. This was one of the few nice days to run that we’ve had.”

Naumann returned to the track about two hours later and topped future University of Iowa teammate Hayden Kuhn of Linn-Mar in the 800. Naumann was clocked in 1:56.87 (which vaults him to No. 4 in the state), Kuhn in 1:58.05.

Linn-Mar’s T.J. Jackson and Isaac Guerrero usually spend the early portion of a meet tending to their field-event duties. But they were in the first running event of Tuesday’s slate, bookending the Lions’ triumphant sprint medley relay.

Guerrero, Carter Henderson, Hunter Reynolds and Jackson won in 1:39.08.

“We were focusing on the relays today,” said Jackson, one of the state leaders in the high jump at 6 feet, 7 inches, established Saturday.

Reynolds and Jackson had a close call on their final handoff.

“I saw him going down, but I didn’t see him hit the ground,” Jackson said. “I think maybe I took off a little too late.”

Linn-Mar won a meet-high seven events, including four relays.

The Lions possess one of the Metro’s most versatile competitors in sophomore Keaton Roskop, a rare combination of speed and strength.

Roskop won the discus, was second in the shot put and anchored two winning sprint relays.

Results

Teams — 1. C.R. Kennedy 144, 2. Linn-Mar 135.5, 3. C.R. Prairie 121, 4. Iowa City West 109.5, 5. Western Dubuque 106, 6. C.R. Washington 59, 7. C.R. Jefferson 44, 8. Iowa City Liberty 19.

Shot put — 1. Dakota Hoffman (WDbq), 51-9 1/2; 2. Keaton Roskop (LM), 51-0 1/2; 3. Josh Ernzen (WDbq), 48-9.

Discus — 1. Keaton Roskop (LM), 155-8 1/2; 2. Dakota Hoffman (WDbq), 147-6 1/2; 3. Dylan Davis (CRK), 144-0.

High jump — 1. Mitchell Schares (CRK), 5-10; 2. Daniel Robinson (ICW), 5-10; 3. (tie) Jacob Dooley (LM) and Braden Gladwin (ICW), 5-8.

Long jump — 1. Colton Kronfeld (CRK), 19-9 1/2; 2. Kylin Crittenden (ICW), 19-1 3/4; 3. Daviyon Gaston (WDbq), 19-0.

Sprint medley relay — 1. Linn-Mar (Guerrero, Henderson, Reynolds, Jackson), 1:39.08; 2. C.R. Jefferson, 1:40.32; 3. C.R. Kennedy, 1:41.05.

3,200 — 1. Miles Wilson (CRK), 9:25.44; 2. Eli Naumann (WDbq), 9:25.96; 3. Nick Lee (CRP), 10:24.56.

3,200 relay — 1. Iowa City West (McKane, Cheney, Van Waning, Tiea), 8:08.59; 2. Western Dubuque, 8:08.74; 3. C.R. Prairie, 8:09.84.

Shuttle hurdle relay — 1. Iowa City Liberty (Thompson, Kraft, Maassen, Lucas), 1:02.20; 2. Linn-Mar, 1:02.48; 3. C.R. Prairie, 1:02.75.

100 — 1. Christian Janis (ICW), 11.44; 2. Isaiah Loveless (ICW), 11.60; 3. Jackson Baedke (CRP), 11.68.

Distance medley relay — 1. Linn-Mar (Lechtenberg, Dooley, Jesse, Morrissey), 3:48.09; 2. C.R. Prairie, 3:49.33; 3. C.R. Jefferson, 3:55.56.

400 — 1. Michael Blank (CRW), 51.97; 2. Isaiah Morgan (CRK), 53.74; 3. Ben Blackford (LM), 54.91.

800 relay — 1. Linn-Mar (Hart, Ferguson, Reynolds, Roskop), 1:32.53; 2. C.R. Jefferson, 1:33.17; 3. C.R. Kennedy, 1:33.98.

110 hurdles — 1. Nicholas Gorsich (LM), 15.28; 2. Cyrus Courtney (CRK), 15.93; 3. William Grant (LM), 16.30.

800 — 1. Eli Naumann (WDbq), 1:56.87; 2. Hayden Kuhn (LM), 1:58.05; 3. Brady Cortez (CRP), 2:01.61.

200 — 1. Aidan Armon (CRW), 23.86; 2. Austyn Riehle (CRP), 24.10; 3. Brayden Kolosick (CRP), 24.15.

400 hurdles — 1. Clayton Bopp (ICW), 1:00.07; 2. Landen Dougherty (CRK), 1:02.41; 3. Ryan Bartels (CRK), 1:02.80.

1,600 — 1. Bryson Canton (CRP), 4:38.63; 2. Anthony Lee (CRP), 4:41.98; 3. Ethan Cozine (LM), 4:42.77.

400 relay — 1. Linn-Mar (Guerrero, Henderson, Jackson, Roskop), 43.50; 2. C.R. Kennedy, 43.92; 3. C.R. Jefferson, 44.19.

1,600 relay — 1. Linn-Mar (Ferguson, Gorsich, Grant, O’Toole), 3:27.77; 2. C.R. Prairie, 3:29.49; 3. Western Dubuque, 3:29.75.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com