Washington, West earn relay titles

DES MOINES -- Robert Hogg got the baton with a 15-meter lead. A perfect time to run relaxed, right?

"No, no," he said. "That's when you really have to go."

And when it was time to go, Hogg went. He anchored his 800-meter anchor portion in 1:53.1, completing a winning, dominating performance by Cedar Rapids Washington's 1,600-meter medley relay at the Drake Relays on Friday at Drake Stadium.

Mitch Bredeson, Will Griffin, Nicolas Corbett and Hogg were clocked in 3 minutes, 30.16 seconds, more than 2 seconds ahead of second-place Waukee.

"My freshman year, track was nothing," said Corbett, who received the baton in first place from Griffin and gave Hogg a nice cushion. "Now, to have a Drake (championship) flag, you can't get any better than that."

Washington was one of two area relays to strike gold. Iowa City West's 800-meter relay did likewise.

Warriors distance coach Will Harte said last week that Hogg is at his best in relay mode, when others are depending on him. And the Harvard-bound Hogg delivered Friday.

"I got the baton with a nice lead, and I thought, 'OK, this is going to happen if I just go out and finish,' " Hogg said.

He was never threatened.

"I was really confident with Rob with the lead and the baton," Bredeson said.

With the Warriors, West lived up to its top seed. Tavian Smith, Charles Rogers, Richard Bryant and Armando Williams motored through the 800 relay in 1:28.61, outrunning runner-up Waterloo West by just over a second.

The Trojans did so with limited handoff experience.

"This was the first time I'd been in the 4-by-2 all season, and we just did one handoff in practice," Rogers said. "I guess (we had it) right.

"When I saw (Williams) coming around the last turn, I knew we had it in the bag."

According to Williams, it was he, Rogers and Bryant that designed the new West uniforms.

"Like our coach said, if we're going to look good, we've got to win good," Williams said.

Cedar Falls' James Harrington set the Drake record in the 100 meters, in 10.61 seconds. The old record was 10.63, by Marques Simmons of Davenport North.

It was Harrington's sixth Drake title.

"A lot of hard work has gone into this," said Harrington, who will run at Alabama next year. "I'm just happy every time I get to come out here and run."

Brandon Ophoff of Linn-Mar was second to Southeast Polk's Tyler Donels in the 110-meter hurdles. Donels was clocked in 14.41 seconds; Ophoff in 14.58.

"You have to hand it to (Donels)," Ophoff said. "He's a very good athlete. An extremely good athlete. I've just got to get better, and I'll come back here for state (in three weeks) with a little more fire."

Dan Roemerman of Iowa City High was third.

Conner Smock of Lisbon held off two late challengers to earn second place in the 800 meters.

Neil Flattery of Fort Dodge St. Edmond won it comfortably, in 1:55.18. Smock was clocked in 1:57.17, 1-hundredth of a second ahead of Antoine Parrish of Burlington and Timauntay Jones of Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

Kyle Ansley of Union was third in the shot put.