Divisional meets kick off track's home stretch

CEDAR RAPIDS -- For the area big schools, the so-called "championship phase" of the high school track season is about to begin.

It begins with somewhat of a dress rehearsal -- the Mississippi Valley Conference divisional meets.

"It's an important meet," said Iowa City High girls' coach Tom Mittman. "It decides the conference championship, and we'll do everything we can to achieve our goal of winning the meet."

On the other hand, it's also an opportunity to make some decisions about next week's district and regional meets.

"Sure," Mittman said. "We're still trying to sort that out, who's going to run what for regionals and state."

City High is the favorite to win the Mississippi Division girls' title at Loras College in Dubuque. The Valley Division girls are at Cedar Falls, the Mississippi boys at Kingston Stadium and the Valley boys at Saints Field at Cedar Rapids Xavier.

All four meets start at 4:30 p.m.

The most competitive meet should be at Kingston, where two-time defending Class 4A boys' state champion Cedar Rapids Washington will be challenged by Linn-Mar and City High.

"That's good," said Warriors Coach Bill Pinckney. "It gives us an opportunity to run well. If you want to compete at the state level, that's what you want -- competition like this.

"We're not where we want to be, but we're getting close. The question now isn't the conditioning of the kids, it's what's inside them for this stretch run."

Iowa City West and Cedar Falls should be the top teams in both of the Valley Division competitions.

Scoring Drake

Team scoring is a non-entity at the Drake Relays. But if points were counted, Cedar Falls' boys and Des Moines Roosevelt's girls would have been crowned.

Using the same scoring method as the state meet, Cedar Falls would have scored 43 points in the boys' meet, followed by Southeast Polk (38), West Des Moines Valley (36), Glenwood (32) and Cedar Rapids Prairie (27).

On the girls' side, Roosevelt would have tallied 49 points, followed by Logan-Magnolia (43), Sioux City East (38), Valley (29) and Iowa City West (27).

Roth up for national honor

Washington (Iowa) boys' coach Steve Roth is one of eight finalists for the national coach of the year award by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

As a finalist, Roth will be honored at a banquet in Grand Rapids, Mich., on June 22.

Roth has coached 35 years, leading the Demons to the 1998 Class 3A state championship. Washington placed third on six occasions, most recently in 2006.