For Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Swartzendruber twins, the stakes are higher now than a simple race home from school

CEDAR RAPIDS — See them now, Lane 4 and Lane 5, leaving their 400-meter competitors behind.

Imagine them back then. Ponytails flying, backpacks shifting side to side.

Let’s set the scene:

It’s, oh, maybe 2015 or 2016. School just let out at Viola Gibson Elementary School, and a small crowd of kids has assembled to watch this daily duel.

Race time arrives. Addison Swartzendruber vs. Sidney Swartzendruber. First one to sprint to their home, across Gibson Drive NE.

The finish line?

“You had to touch the mailbox first,” Sidney said.

Side by side — and stride by stride — the little girls have grown up. Now juniors at Cedar Rapids Kennedy, they have matured into two of the best long-sprint/middle-distance runners in Iowa.

“They’re a lot of fun to work with, very dedicated,” Kennedy girls’ track and field coach Duane Wampole said. “They’re go-getters.”

At Drake Stadium three weeks ago, the “go-getters” went and got two Drake Relays championship flags, in the sprint medley relay and the 1,600-meter relay.

Those were Kennedy’s first two Drake girls’ titles since 1992.

“It was kind of surreal,” Sidney said. “We’d always dreamed of winning. But when the time came, I didn’t even think about that.”

They’ll return to Des Moines this weekend for the three-day state meet, and more success is likely.

  Buy Photo

With a regional time of 56.54 seconds, Addison is seeded No. 1 in the Class 4A 400-meter dash. Sidney (56.60) is second.

Addison will run the 200, Sidney the 800. They will join Quren Hullon and Morgan Hospodarsky in the sprint medley and run the first and final legs (with Jovie Veach and Emerson Swearinger in the middle) of the 4x400.

“This team is really interconnected,” Addison said. “There has been an attitude shift since our freshman year. These relay girls, they work their butts off.”

As identical twins sometimes are, the Swartzendrubers are difficult to distinguish physically.

Their running forms vary a bit: Addison is more of a front leaner, like a sprinter; Sidney is perpendicular to the track.

Imagine the backstretch like the face of a clock. Addison’s form is like the hour hand at 11:30; Sidney’s more like 12 o’clock.

It is their demeanor in which Wampole detects a difference. Addison is the older twin, and it shows.

“Addison is more organized. Sidney is more fly by the seat of her pants,” Wampole said.

“Before the open 800 (at the state qualifying meet), we were looking for Sidney’s shoes, and Addison was running down to get (Sidney’s) hip number.”

At the start of the Drake 800, three weeks ago, Sidney took a spike to the heel.

Her heel was intact. Her shoe was not.

“We’d just been sticking it together with super glue,” she said. “That didn’t go so well.”

So, as Sidney prepared for that 800 at Linn-Mar last week, Addison kicked off her spikes and handed them off.

Identical twins, identical shoe sizes, but not identical shoe styles. They pulled it off, but Sidney’s knee was sore afterwards.

A new pair of spikes was scheduled to arrive for Sidney by Tuesday.

Both of the twins were in the rotation for Kennedy’s basketball team last winter (the Cougars were 13-9). They say cross country next fall is a possibility.

Year-round training for track, that’s first and foremost. And Wampole doesn’t stand in the way.

“If they’re doing outside work, and it’s helping them, I say keep doing it,” he said. “That’s what they do ... summer, fall and winter.

“Strong runners are faster runners.”

Both twins were asked to describe the other.

Addison, on Sidney: “She’s the hype person. Really ambitious. She can be hard on herself. She’s very goal-oriented, not just in track, in everything. She’s enthusiastic and energetic.”

Sidney, on Addison: “Very considerate, thinking about others all of the time. She’s competitive, but she has a caring side.

“We don’t fight, but we bicker. When we’re done bickering, we usually start laughing.”

This weekend, they’ll compete together in two relays. They’ll cheer for one another in one individual event.

And at 1:20 Thursday afternoon, they’ll race, side by side, in the 400.

Trying to be the first to the mailbox.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com