Cretzmeyer Track flood-rehabilitated, hosts meet

The University of Iowa once again will showcase its men's and women's track teams in the gloaming of a Saturday evening.

After a one-year flood-related hiatus, the 11th Musco Twilight Meet returns tonight to refurbished Cretzmeyer Track. It's a chance for Iowa's athletes to compete on its biggest local stage, something longtime Iowa men's coach Larry Wieczorek relishes.

“I told the team there are two purposes of the meet,” Wieczorek said. “One is to show off track and field as a great spectator event, and then also to make Iowa track and field men and women stars for the night here in town. It is a little bit magical when you can go to any high school and flip on a switch and the lights come on, but here that's the darkest spot in Iowa City/Coralville where our track is located.”

The Musco Twilight is more than just a meet this time. It represents the revitalization of a devastated area. A $2 million resurfacing project had begun at the track in spring 2008. By midsummer, the project became much more extensive when the track was flooded and sat under water for weeks in June 2008. It was virtually destroyed by the Iowa River.

“The floodwaters delaminated the polyurethane surface from the asphalt base,” said Jane Meyer, Iowa's senior associate athletics director. “That created delamination that could not be repaired. We had to literally grind off all the polyurethane, including some of the asphalt, to start from scratch. What I mean by starting from scratch was making sure we had a level asphalt surface and then to go with a full 13-millimeter surface of the polyurethane.”

Iowa's original plan included repair work and a 7-millimeter surface. The price tag soared to $2.4 million. Like many university facilities damaged by flooding, it's still undetermined how much Iowa will receive from FEMA or insurance companies to recover some of the cost.

The damaged track robbed Iowa of its home for 2009, including its scheduled hosting of the Big Ten meet. The team practiced at Iowa City's public high schools, depending on track availability. It was challenging, but Wieczorek and women's coach Layne Anderson said the teams persevered.

Iowa will host the 2011 Big Ten meet.

“On the women's side, we're sort of in a rebuilding mode so we saw the silver lining in terms of giving us this year and last year to continue to recruit and build the roster and get this young group developed,” Anderson said. “We're excited about the prospects of hosting next year. We feel like on the women's side we'll be in a much better position next year than we would have been last year hosting the championship.”

The track surface is Olympic-caliber and prepared for bigger events. Iowa hosted a smaller invitational two weeks ago, but the Musco Twilight is Iowa's annual showcase event. Teams competing include Drake, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“It's really exciting to have a track to practice on and compete on,” said junior distance runner Amanda Hardesty. “It's just exciting to have a certain place to call home.”

“It's going to be fun because it's going to be my last meet here in Iowa City in front of friends and family,” said senior hurdler Ray Varner.