COLUMN: The big chill

     Some notes, clips, quips and commentaries from the State Track and Field Meet, easily the coldest one of my Express career.

     • It was a testament to the quality of girls’ teams that competed at State that Monticello could have a higher team point total than last year but fall just two points short of a trophy.

     It was also interesting that three of the top four teams were from our own River Valley Conference (Cascade first, Mid-Prairie second, Monticello fourth).

     • There were dozens of outstanding performances, as there are every year at State. But to me, one of the most impressive – and maybe the most overlooked statewide – came from Monticello’s Aaron Loes in the 3,200.

     He was tripped and fell to the track on the backstretch of his first lap – past the point where they could stop the race and have a recall. Loes not only got back up and kept going, he was in the lead pack in the latter part of the race, and wound up finishing fifth.

     Coach Greg Williams informed me later that despite the fall, Loes had the fastest time in the 3,200 for a Monticello junior in the history of the program. Considering the list of outstanding distance runners who have gone through this school, that is pretty amazing.

     • I believe this was the 19th year I have been coming to Iowa’s State Track and Field Meet, and Thursday evening was the first time I can remember heading to the media room below the stands to escape the cold.

     • Kudos to Gage Clay of AHSTW of Avoca, the 200-meter state champion in Class 2A. I’m not great at the whole relative, distant cousin, twice-removed lingo, but let me take a stab at this: Gage is my wife’s, brother-in-law’s, brother’s, son. So, you know: “kin.”

     Anyway, Gage was also second in the 100, and anchored the seventh-place 4x200 relay. So he scored 18 points on his own, and was part of all 20 points for AHSTW, which finished 11^th.

     • Not a fan of the 2A meet running from 2 to 7:40 p.m. on Thursday and Friday (2A-3A alternate the morning and afternoon sessions with 1A-4A every two years). It seriously cut into my Prairie Meadows time.

     • In a Murphy’s Law sort of situation, the websites that post results shortly after each event ends were down for much of Saturday, as I was trying to keep tabs on the schools that were in the race for 2A girls’ trophies.

     So for a while I had to get results the old-fashioned way, by scrambling up the stairs to read the hard copies that were stapled to a bulletin board in the concourse.

     Toward the end it’s easier to just keep score yourself.

     • While this year’s state meet was one of the coldest on record, it probably also broke records for inaccurate weather forecasts.

     All we kept hearing was about the rain we were supposed to get all day Friday, and the heavy storms that were supposed to hit Saturday morning.

     Friday, I wouldn’t say it “rained” at all. There were periods of mist, maybe a little drizzle, off and on. Steady rain? Nope.

     And Saturday was cool but mostly delightful. A small, black raincloud came across in the early afternoon and it rained for about two minutes, and that was it.

     • By the way, I found it funny that the first time the sun peeked through the clouds all weekend was just before the start of Monticello’s last event, the girls’ 4x400 final on Saturday.

     Better late than never.