DES MOINES — Creston senior Jay Wolfe joined an elite list here Thursday at the 2015 Co-ed State Track Meet.
Wolfe became just the second Creston athlete ever to break the 50-second mark in the 400 meter dash, running 49.91 for fifth place in the Class 3A 400 meter dash.
The Panther senior joins school record holder and former Notre Dame University athlete Mike Mansour as the only two Panthers to ever break 50 seconds.
It also gave Wolfe seven state track medals for his career, after he won his sixth earlier in the day by anchoring the 4x800 relay to an eighth-place finish.
“I was really excited for the 400 just to see what I could do,” Wolfe said. “I’m really happy to break 50 in that. I was a little fatigued coming off that 4x8. Wasn’t much recovery time.”
Wolfe had consistently been running in the mid-50 range this season in the 400 and had never broken 50 seconds in his career.
“It’s definitely nice to break 50,” he said. “It’s kind of tough to beat Mansour’s low 48 time, but it feels good to break 50.”
“He ran a great race and was right in the hunt with all those guys,” Schlapia said. “It was a nice race for him. The Mansours were in the audience today watching that.”
Senior teammate Bryce Briley finished 21st in the 400 meter dash with his time of 53.61.
“You could tell when he was out there those legs were awfully heavy,” Schlapia said about Briley. “He gave it his best. He gutted it out. That’s one thing Bryce Briley shows is a lot of heart.”
Relay medal
Briley and Wolfe teamed with Nick Walsh and Cooper McDermott to finish eighth in the 4x800 relay, running the team’s second-best time of the season in 8:15.76.
Briley opened with a 1:59 carry on the first leg to put the Panthers out in front. Walsh, who ran a season’s best 2:10 split, kept the Panthers in the top spot through the first 300 meters of his leg.
McDermott also ran a season’s best split of 2:09. Wolfe anchored in 1:56, moving up several spots before getting clipped at the line by Sioux City Bishop Heelan’s Alec Pavone for seventh place.
“This is the second time in school history we’ve medaled up here in the 4x800 and it’s the fourth straight year we’ve qualified,” Schlapia said. “That 8:15.76, that’s the second-best time we’ve had this season. That was awesome. Those four guys ran the best they could today. You have to be happy with what they did. Everybody got out very well and competed well.”
The Panthers had hoped to finish better than eighth and also run a season’s best time, but still felt good about leaving with a medal.
“I just wish we could have done a little better,” Walsh said. “We were expecting to come in better than we did last year. I guess it just didn’t work out that way. We feel really good about the medal.”
“A medal is a medal,” Wolfe said. “We were hoping to do a little better than we did, but it feels good to get a medal again. Bryce got us out to a nice start and the other two did what they could to keep us in contention.”
Wolfe and Briley now have a day to recover before they take to the track Saturday morning in the Class 3A 800 meters.
Wolfe is the defending champion in the event and Briley enters with the fourth fastest time in Class 3A.
“We got some points out of both events today and that was nice to see,” Schlapia said. “I was very impressed with our boys in the 4x8 and our two boys in the 400. We did some special things today, but there’s still more special things to come Saturday.”
2015 Co-ed State Track Meet
CLASS 3A
Boys
Thursday
4x800 relay — 1. Gilbert, 7:56.68; 8. Creston (Bryce Briley, Nick Walsh, Cooper McDermott, Jay Wolfe), 8:15.76.
400 meter dash — 1. Will Ontiveros, Davenport Assumption, 48.82; 5. Jay Wolfe, Creston, 49.91; 21. Bryce Briley, Creston, 53.61.