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Irwin’s atonement sparks Spartans to relay victories

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

DES MOINES — Pleasant Valley’s Blake Irwin promised vindication after letting the medley relay’s lead vanish Friday.

Narrowly missing the 1,600-meter relay final Friday night only furthered his fury.

On Saturday, he followed through on his pledge, earning a pair of titles on the final day of the Drake Relays.

In the morning, he anchored Pleasant Valley’s 3,200 relay to a second straight Drake victory, and in the afternoon, he repeated as the 1,600 champion.

“Personally, it’s just the fact that we had a rough day yesterday in my events,” Irwin said. “My team, my coaches know how devastated I was.

“I felt if I do something, it’s going to be great. If I don’t, it’s going to crush me.”

He didn’t take long to shake off Friday’s disappointment. His relay teammates made sure of that.

Second leg Austin O’Brien passed the two frontrunners to take the lead, and Devin Allbaugh followed up nicely in the third leg to hand Irwin a cushion of a couple of seconds.

The Spartans won last year’s 3,200 relay in 7:55.31 and cut that time to 7:54.89 Saturday.

Irwin also anchored PV’s 1,600 relay in Friday night’s preliminary. The Spartans finished in 3:27.3, but they fell .07 seconds short of qualifying for the final.

For Irwin, the real test came in the 1,600.

He hung with Allbaugh, and Charles City’s Isaac Wendland through most of the race. With 300 meters to go, Irwin made his move and finished in 4:16.93. Allbaugh clocked in at 4:19.97 and finished second, two spots better than last year.

“When people have Allbaugh and I running against them, I hope it scares them,” Irwin said. “You give us the lead, and it’s going to be a tough one to overcome.”

Bettendorf junior Nick Young placed sixth, though he’s used to falling short of Irwin and Allbaugh.

“They’re terrific,” Young said. “I finished behind amazing runners. There’s no shame in that.”

In the boys 400 hurdles, Clinton junior Ethan Holmes stunned the field to win the event in 53.56 seconds.

Holmes, who finished sixth in the 110 hurdles Friday and sixth in the 400 hurdles a year ago, won by .6 seconds and beat defending champion Kellyn Fogarty of Marshalltown for the first time.

“I never saw this coming,” Holmes said. “Just look for the finish line, that’s all I did.“

He trailed through the first 300-plus meters before surging to the front in the home stretch.

While he ran into trouble clipping hurdles on Friday, Holmes had no similar pitfalls Saturday.

“It’s all unreal,” he said. “To me, it means the world.”

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