It's a day full of surprises on course

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By Sean Moeller | Sunday, October 1, 2006 12:08 AM CDT | () comments

CLINTON, Iowa — It looked like what Pleasant Valley’s Mike Hemming did over the last 100 meters of Saturday’s 27th annual Clinton Invitational was going to be enough to pull it out for the state’s top-ranked team.

Hemmng, a track sprinter in the spring, used his short-twitch muscles to full advantage in overtaking Bettendorf’s fifth runner — Mike Frahm — in the final 20 meters to swing two points in the Spartans’ favor.

“All I remember hearing is coach saying, ‘If you pass these guys, we win the meet,’ ” Hemming said of the to-the-wall finish he put forth on a picturesque morning at Emma Young Park.

With Pleasant Valley’s top ranking, Bettendorf’s No. 4 ranking and both teams having their packs prominently positioned at the front of the race, most everyone forgot about the four diminutive move-ins from Cedar Rapids Washington (Gamariel Barutwanayo, Liberio Niyiragira, Lewi Manirumua and Eliazeri Niyonzigiye). That pack — which hadn’t put together a complete finish all season — stuck tight and all finished in the top 11 to pull off an upset and turn the scene not so ideal for the Spartans.

The Warriors scored 52 points, the Spartans 53 and the Bulldogs 54 to make up the top team places in a clash of state running powers. For much of the race, it seemed to shape up to where it could only go one of two ways as PV and Bettendorf duked it out, well aware of where each other’s scorers were. When Hemming zipped by Frahm, it would have been sewn up, but Washington’s fifth runner, James Beardsworth got into the chute in 22nd, and it was enough to throw some surprise into the air.

“We didn’t really think that more teams was going to make a difference,” Hemming said of meeting Bettendorf for the first time in a large weekend invitational. “Us and Bettendorf are usually the top two teams there, no matter where we go.”

It didn’t make a difference that Devin Allbaugh was able to fight off a resilient Muscatine Muskie in Josh Fick to take the individual title in 16 minutes, 21.6 seconds or that Jordan Lang and Charlie Paul went sixth and seventh, respectively. Fick’s toughness led to a runner-up finish (in 16:23.1) and a confidence jolt that could spur him on to finish out the year with some fire.

“I’ve had some ups and downs this year, and I came into the day kind of nervous, but I knew the longer I could stay with Allbaugh, the better I would be,” said Fick, who took a small lead with less than three-quarters of a mile to go. “I hung on a little longer than I thought I could. We were both breathing hard, and I thought that I might as well hang with him to the end.”

In the girls race, West Des Moines Dowling freshman Katie Flood helped her team to the title by breaking the course record by nearly a half-minute — running 13:48.6 — to devastate a stacked field that included the state’s top four runners thus far. Flood broke away from Davenport North’s Kelsey Regan by the mile mark and was treading solo from that point. Urbandale’s wunderkind Stephanie Mundt picked off Regan in the last mile to finish second. Regan was third with Wildcat teammate AG Bradford an impressive sixth in 15:05.4.

“(Coach Jen Paul) just told me to stay in sixth place, and I stayed in sixth place. I just wanted to keep my spot,” said Bradford, the state runner-up in the high jump who is competing in cross country for the first time this year. “At our last meet, I beat the two-time state champion (Iowa City West’s Sarah Wickman), and I just had to keep my spot.

“Last year, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as cross country. I just went out to stay in shape for basketball.”

Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or at smoeller@qctimes.com.