Fearless race turns into learning experience for Phipps

DES MOINES — "Respect all, fear none."

That was the message Creston sophomore Brandon Phipps had written on his spikes for his 3,200 meter race at the Drake Relays here Thursday.

"These guys have earned it," Phipps said about his competition in the race. "They deserve to be here with the training and work they've put in, so I respect them, but I wasn't scared of anyone coming in either."

Phipps displayed that fearless attitude in the early part of the race, running a 4:40 opening mile and being right in the middle of the pack, before the early pace took its toll.

Phipps closed the race with a 5:09 second mile and finished in 21st place, running 9:49.12.

Dowling Catholic senior Cole Decker, who ran with a big lead from the gun, just outleaned Bettendorf senior Matt Butler, who showed a strong closing kick from 300 meters out, at the line for the victory. Decker ran 9:08.96 compared to Butler's 9:09.03.

"What he takes from today is going to go a long way toward coming back here in another month for state," Creston head coach Pat Schlapia said. "His first mile was 4:40, and I don't fault him at all. With a situation like that, you've got to go out and test the waters. You're running with the sharks, you've got to go out and test the waters."

Phipps said this race was good experience for his final two years of high school track.

"I'll be one of those guys one of these days if I keep working," Phipps said. "It's a good experience for right now, and hopefully one day I can be that guy that's at the front of the pack. It's a dream of mine, so just keep working and never give up."

Coming through the first half of the race, Phipps sat in the 12-13 range. On the fifth lap, he moved to the back of the chase pack.

The early pace really began to set in on laps six and seven, as Phipps lost contact with the chase pack.

"You knew that (early pace) was going to hurt," Schlapia said. "You could tell that pace was starting to wear on him on laps six and seven, but then coming back on lap eight, he picked it up again."

Now that he has one Drake Relays experience under his belt, Phipps said he will be better prepared for his next experience.

"Now I'm not an amateur when it comes to this," Phipps said. "Now I'll know what to do when I get here, and understand what the competition is going to be like and what the times are going to be like. I've just got to keep working, get some more miles in, get that conditioning up a little bit, and when state comes around, I'll be ready to go, I think."

Schlapia gave high praise to his young distance runner, who became the first Creston male track athlete since 2007 to qualify for the Drake Relays.

"We're very proud of him. He's the second person in Creston history to qualify for the 3,200 at the Drake Relays. The last one was Scott Vicker in 2007," Schlapia said. "With Brandon coming in at 9:41.85 in qualifying, we had some ideas of what we wanted to do, but the main thing was it was going to be a learning experience. We're proud of him. He represented Creston very well, and he represented himself and the whole team very well up here."