Close-call kids take another shot

DES MOINES -- A photo hangs on a wall in Jasmine Staebler's bedroom.

It's a photo of a photo-finish. Staebler would much rather have a flag.

"I was so close," said the junior from Clayton Ridge High School, referring to last year's girls' 800-meter race at the Drake Relays. "I think about it a lot. That photo, I use it as motivation."

So close. An eyelash. A lean at the finish line. A hundredth of a second.

"I thought I had won," Staebler said. "I didn't know until (meet officials) gave the (championship) flag to Lydia (Saggau of West Des Moines Valley)."

That's life at the Drake Relays, which return Thursday through Saturday at Drake Stadium.

Races will go to the wire as the crescendo builds along the west stands. The winner gets to prance through a victory lap, holding a white flag on a stick.

Those that come up short? They get a pat on the back and conflicting emotions.

Great race. So close.

Staebler ran that epic 800 in 2:11.21, a terrific effort. Saggau finished in 2:11.20.

"She leaned just a little further than me," Staebler said.

It was one of several tight finishes in the high school division last year. Cedar Rapids Kennedy's boys' shuttle hurdle relay team suffered the same fate as Staebler, coming up one-hundredth of a second short, against Waukee. The Linn-Mar boys' 800-meter relay was even closer, three-thousandths of a second behind Des Moines Lincoln. Monticello, a Class 2A power, ran right with the big schools in the boys' 3,200-meter relay before being edged at the wire by Iowa City West.

Michael Melchert and Ben Ahlrichs return (they'll be joined by Matt Manternach and Nick Meyers) as the Panthers take another shot at it. Monticello is seeded fifth in the event, having run 8:04.61.

"Our (seed) time doesn't reflect how good we can be," said Melchert, a University of Iowa recruit. "We think we can be up there again, right up there, out front."

Melchert's most vivid recollection from last year is auditory.

"I don't remember racing so much, but I remember (public-address announcer) Mike Jay saying that Monticello's 4-by-8 is stacked every year, and that we would compete with the big boys," Melchert said.

The Panthers did. West won in 7:48.99, Monticello was second in 7:49.41.

"We were really close," Melchert said. "We were disappointed. We wanted to win."

That's the sentiment for those that came so close, just short.

Said Kennedy's Derek Jacobus, after last year's shuttle: "I just wanted a gosh-dang gold medal.'

Last year's state long jump champion, a Drake title still eludes Jacobus. He's one of three Cougars back (Famiek Cook and Marcus Perkins are the others) from last year's shuttle quartet that ran 57.36 in last year's final.

Waukee ran 57.35, returns three members and is favored to repeat.

Despite her second-place finish last year (Saggau has graduated), Staebler probably isn't in your first breath of girls 800 contenders -- Kaley Ciluffo of Pleasant Valley, Rebekah Topham of Griswold, Stephanie Jenks and Amber Decker of Linn-Mar.

"I know I'm ranked eighth. I am hoping to get out and run with those leaders," she said. "I think I have a fairly quick kick at the end which I hope benefits me."

And now, she has down-to-the-wire Drake experience.

"Hopefully, if it comes down to it, I'll lean at the right time," she said.