Strong men's open field highlights Brady Street Sprint
- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
By Shannon Heaton | Thursday, July 24, 2008 |
Defending champions, closely contested races and one of the largest fields in its history is expected to be on display Saturday for the Quad-City Times Bix 7 race.
It also will be on display tonight in the finals of the Brady Street Sprint, the final salvo before race day.
Sprint coordinator Gary Roberson expects as much from the Sprint, which starts at 7 p.m., after three qualifying races earlier this month and in June.
“We’re always excited at this time of year. It gets better every year, and hopefully that’s true (tonight),” Roberson said.
“We’ve got, probably, the best overall field that we’ve ever had in the men’s open. We have three defending champions back (men’s open champion Ryan Grenko, men’s masters champion David Bailey and women’s masters champion Kathy Evanchyk) and it might be the largest field we’ve had (for corporate relay teams).”
Grenko, who runs 400s for Northern Iowa, will have plenty of competition to push him. Of the 15 qualifiers for tonight’s final, 12 have times between 60 and 70 seconds, with Grenko topping the list at 62.04.
The women’s open field should be strong as well, with former Pleasant Valley and Northern Iowa sprinter Lauren Carruthers matched against Downs, Ill., high school senior Stephanie Brown.
Former Davenport North teammates Kelsey Regan and AG Bradford also are qualified for the final, but Roberson said it was unclear whether Bradford would run in the open or as part of North’s defending champion high school girls relay. Eleven-year-old Claire Schwarz is back in the field as well.
Look for a rematch in the men’s masters between Bailey and East Moline’s Matt Matthews in a reprise of the 2007 final. Evanchyk is a two-time champion in the women’s masters field.
“That’s the lowest as far as numbers go, but it should be a good final,” Roberson said of the women’s masters division, which has five qualifiers.
Seven boys and seven girls teams are set to compete in the high school relay divisions, with both North’s girls and defending champion Rock Island’s boys team fielding entries.
Though perennial powerhouse Lujack’s is installed as the early favorite in the corporate relay, a field of 12 teams — largest in the division’s history — already is entered.
Relay teams still can show up and compete tonight by arriving ahead of the race.
“We’ve got plenty of lanes for them to come out on Brady Street and run,” Roberson promised.
Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.
del.icio.us
Digg
NewsVine
Fark
redditMore Stories By Shannon Heaton
» More Bix7 Stories
Highest Rated Articles from the last 7 Days
- Technology News Articles
- Computers, MP3, Phones & More. See Product Pics, Specs & Reviews.
- www.NexTag.com
- 2008 Diet Of The Year:
- Finally, A Diet That Really Works! Seen On CNN, NBC, CBS & Fox News.
- www.Wu-YiSource.com
- Cheap Airfare
- Compare multiple travel sites. Discount web fares made easy.
- www.LowFares.com
- Ads by Yahoo!
