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Bradford breaks Drake mark

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By Andrew Petersen | Friday, May 09, 2008 | No comments posted

DES MOINES — AG Bradford minced no words in expressing her disdain for the 400-meter hurdles.

“I absolutely hate it,” she said.

But her contempt doesn’t inhibit her success.

Running the 400 hurdles for the second time this season, the Davenport North senior won the event at Saturday’s Drake Relays in thrilling fashion.

Clocking in at 1 minute, 1.01 seconds, Bradford beat the rest of the field by 3 seconds. She also set a Drake record by another full second.

“It doesn’t even feel like you’re running that fast, and then you get done and see,” Bradford said. “It’s crazy.”

Her time was so insane that it was the second-fastest in Iowa girls high school history, and the best in 33 years.

And in an event, Bradford reiterated, she abhors.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I usually run the open 4 in 56.3 (seconds). If I put that together, it might make sense that I’d run (1:01.01), but not with hurdles.”

Her previous running of the 400 hurdles was a 1:03.3. That was three weeks ago at North Scott.

Pleasant Valley junior Susan Rodriguez took third in the 400 hurdles Saturday, finishing in 1:05.94. Tipton junior Missy Miller took fifth at 1:06.22.

That marked the only event at Drake in which three area athletes finished in the top five.

Rodriguez placed third a year ago, when Bradford wasn’t among the qualifiers.

“I always run better when she’s there,” Rodriguez said of Bradford. “I’m in step with her for the first one, and then she zooms off.”

Bradford won the 100 hurdles Friday and finished runner-up in the high jump Thursday.

Saturday’s other top-five area girls finish came in the 400 relay.

Admitted underdogs entering the meet, the Lancers did what every athlete at Drake strives to accomplish — notching a best personal best.

The North Scott team of Alicia Rus, Paula Wagner, Stephanie Schmidt and Jenna Higgins shaved its time to 50.38 seconds in Friday’s qualifying and slashed it to 50.17 on Saturday.

That was good enough for fourth place and excited the group of largely underclassmen. Wagner, a foreign-exchange student from Germany, is the lone senior. But because they had run together so little, the girls weren’t sure where to set their expectations.

“To be honest, we were all very questionable about making the finals,” Higgins said. “We were very surprised and very happy. We were just going crazy.”

This weekend has seen plenty of that.

Andrew Petersen can be reached at (563) 383-2288 or apetersen@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qcvarsity.com.