4X800 WINS CLASS 3A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!! INDIANS CLOSE TO PLACING IN OTHER EVENTS AT STATE MEET

The 2000 Memorial Day weekend will include an extra special, solid gold memory for Waukon veteran track coach Harlan Heidelbauer and his Indian boys 4x800 relay team.
The Indian 4x800 foursome of seniors Eddie Frick, Kirk Deal and Josh Tweedy, and junior Cody Kammeyer struck state championship gold at Drake Stadium in Des Moines Saturday, May 27, winning the Class 3A 4x800 relay state title in a time of 7:55.37.
Not only was that performance good enough for a state championship, but it also eclipsed the 18-year old Waukon Senior High School record of 8:01.89 in the event by more than six seconds. That record had been set in 1982 by the 4x800 crew of then junior John Peterson, sophomore Eric Campbell, sophomore Eric Prestemon, and senior Steve "Moose" Gearhart.
"The highlight of the state meet for us was definitely the 4x800 winning the state championship, and doing so in a new school record time," Coach Heidelbauer said. "The kids in that 4x800 ran as close to being technically correct as they possibly could, and it paid off. Too many people at the state meet go out too hard on their first lap of the half-mile, and they just run out of gas on the second lap. All of our guys were right at the times we talked about before the race, and they all had really great finishes left in them for that final lap. They ran very technically sound."
The same foursome had joined together last year to place sixth in the same event at the state meet in a time of 8:08.46, but would not be denied this year. "We knew we could do it," Frick said afterward. "We had this as a goal since the season started, and we had beaten some pretty good teams this season, so we knew it was possible."
Frick led off the relay event, staying right near the middle of the 12-team pack on his first lap before surging ahead on his second circuit to complete his leg in 1:59.3 and bring the Indians up to second place behind Central Clinton, DeWitt, one of the two teams that had turned in a better state-qualifying time than the Indians in the event. "It was great, even better than all our state cross country championships because we knew right away we had won it," said Frick, who competed on each of the Waukon boys cross country program's last three state championship cross country teams.
Frick handed the baton to Deal for the second leg of the relay, and Deal was able to maintain the Tribe's second-place position, turning in a leg of 2:01.6. "This was spectacular," he said afterward. "It took all of us to get it accomplished, it wasn't just one, two or three of us. It took all four of us to win this championship. Everyone did their part."
When Deal handed off to Kammeyer for the third leg of the relay, DeWitt Central held a slim lead over the Indians, a lead Kammeyer slowly overcame and eventually took over with his 1:58.9 leg that moved the Indians from a slim second-place deficit to an even narrower first-place lead over the Sabres, the top two teams leaving the remaining 10 teams in the second heat further and further behind as they battled.
"It hurts right now, but it feels great," Kammeyer said later, grimacing and holding his sore right hamstring. "I knew I had to catch that guy. I was thinking the whole time that I had to get the baton to Josh in first place, and then we'd have a shot at winning it."
Kammeyer battled DeWitt Central's Treye Kettwick, overtaking him and holding him off just slightly as he approached the final hand-off to Tweedy. The exchange was nearly simultaneous between the Indians and Sabres, but Tweedy established a slight lead over DeWitt Central's anchorman Luke Niemann around the first corner.
The two battled the entire two-lap leg, Niemann making a late charge on the final lap, but Tweedy able to hold him off down the homestretch to cross the finish line a full second ahead of him and secure the Tribe's state title. Tweedy's anchor effort clocked in at an incredible 1:55.3. "That's the best half-mile we've ever had run here," Coach Heidelbauer said.
"This is almost better than the five straight cross country championships," Tweedy said after the race. "It felt awesome coming down that final straightaway. I could feel my legs starting to go a little bit, but I wasn't about to give in. I was a little bit worried about holding that guy off, but I wasn't going to let myself get beat, not after what the other three guys had done to put me in such great position."
The Indians competed in the second of two heats in the 4x800, knowing they had to also beat the 8:08.48 from Sioux City Heelan, who had won the first heat of the event. Their 7:55.37 easily accomplished that, and was close to making meet history. That time was just a few tenths of a second off the Class 3A state meet record of 7:55.10 set way back in 1980 by Bloomfield, Davis County.
"Everybody had to do their job, and they did," Coach Heidelbauer said. "This was such a competitive race. Each kid felt he had to hold up his end of the deal. Eddie did a great job of getting us into position to start the race, Kirk ran a great number-two leg for us, keeping us in that second position. We knew that both Cody and Josh could go under two minutes, and we got the baton to them in good position. Cody did an excellent job of getting us the lead, and Josh did a super job of holding off a great half-miler. It was a total team effort."
The state title was the first for Coach Heidelbauer as head boys track coach at Waukon Senior High and the first for Waukon boys track since 1986 WSH graduate Scott Jenkins won the 100 meter dash state championship in his senior year.
The state championship effort in the 4x800 did have its cost, however, as Kammeyer, Frick and Tweedy all had to come back within two hours of the win to compete once again in their respective open events. Kammeyer and Frick finished 15th and 19th, respectively, in the 1600 meter run in times of 4:37.02 and 4:40.07. Tweedy was also unable to challenge the leaders in the 800 meter run, finishing 21st in 2:14.13.
"There are some disadvantages to putting forth a championship effort like our guys did in the 4x800," Coach Heidelbauer said. "Those efforts took so much out of these kids that it made it very, very difficult for them to double-up and come back in the 1600 and 800. Mentally, they wanted to do it, but their legs just wouldn't let them do it in that short amount of recovery time."
The Indians also competed in three events in Friday's very rainy and windy competition, coming close to getting state placewinnings in the two relay events and getting a 22nd-place finish from junior Ben Stamper in the 3200 meter run in a time of 10:40.43. Tweedy had qualified for Friday's 400 meter hurdles event, but did not compete because each athlete is limited to three event finals at the meet.
"The weather was miserable Friday," Coach Heidelbauer said. "Ben told me afterward that he had never been so nervous before in his life. He started out with splits that were right where we wanted him to be, but just couldn't maintain it over the last half of the race. The good thing is that he experienced it during his junior year, so he will be back next year and know what to expect."
The Tribe's 1600 meter medley team of junior Justin Bulman, senior Nick Farley, Frick and Tweedy was within one second of securing a sixth-place finish in that event. The crew finished eighth overall in a time of 3:42.59. Senior sprinter Brian Dahlstrom had qualified with the Tribe's medley unit, but did not compete because of a hamstring pull suffered earlier in the week.
Later Friday, the Indians' 4x400 relay team of Farley, Kammeyer, Deal and Frick finished third in their preliminary heat of that event in a time of 3:33.49, good enough for 12th place in the preliminary heats, but not good enough to make it into the top eight teams to qualify for Saturday's final.
"The weather definitely played a factor in our events Friday," Coach Heidelbauer said. "We were very close to getting some places out of both of our relays, just a second or two off in both events. Overall, it was a very good state meet for us. The 4x800 capped it all off. That was a great way for this group of kids to end the season."
As a result of their state title, the Indians scored 10 points in the state meet team race, finishing in a tie for 14th place in Class 3A with Algona. Mount Pleasant won the Class 3A team race with 46 points, with Northeast Iowa Conference powerhouse Waverly-Shell Rock coming up short of defending the Class 3A team title they had won at last year's state meet, scoring 37.5 points to finish as Class 3A runner-up this year.