By Kristi Nixon

DES MOINES — Three-fourths of the St. Ansgar distance medley relay had never run the Drake Relays, although half had run the state meet on the blue oval.

St. Ansgar’s Riley Witt, right, reacts after finishing Drake Relays runner-up in the 800-meter run to Newton’s Jackson Mace-Maynard, left. Witt kicked it in for the final 200 to close the gap and finish within .13 of a second behind Mace-Maynard, his XLR8 teammate. EJ Photo/Kristi Nixon

There was no intimidation there for the Saints as the foursome of Joey Beyer, Dylan Brumm, Bradley Hackenmiller and Riley Witt broke the school record they set two weeks ago in order to qualify for Drake to finish seventh out of 24 teams, running to fourth in the third and fastest heat on Friday, April 29.

Everything about the race went the Saints’ way, from start to finish with good exchanges all the way through.

“It was pretty good (the start),” Beyer said. “I felt pretty fast on this track and the hand-off was the best we’ve had all season.”

Brumm added, “I thought it (the hand-off) was really good. Since it was my first time (here), it felt really cool and very fast.”

Hackenmiller also said that it was the best exchanges the team has had all season since practicing in the pre-season, which have always been smooth.

The Saints ran the event in 3 minutes, 32.76 seconds, eclipsing the mark set at the North Iowa meet a few weeks ago that qualified the quartet for Drake in the first place.

The experience was everything the first-timers on the blue oval, Beyer and Brumm, had expected it to be.

“I was hoping (for the best), and we did it,” Beyer said.

Brumm added, “They’ve been telling me it’s really fun, and it was really fun. It was a big deal. We beat our record that we beat a few weeks ago by, like, three seconds again, so that felt really good.”

Hackenmiller, who ran state before but not the Drake Relays, said the experience was similar.

“It was pretty exciting,” Hackenmiller said. “It was on my mind at the beginning of the year, senior year, make it to Drake, I honestly never expected it to be in the D-Med after breaking the school record, and we actually broke it again today. I think that record will stand for a while. It was fun, compared to state … state is a little more fun, but this is still a fun experience. I’m glad I got to come.”

By the time Hackenmiller handed off to Witt, the Saints were in seventh place, and the distance specialist passed one team in the first 400 and then picked off a pair in the final 400 for the team’s finish.

“As soon as I gave it to him, I knew he was going to at least give us one position,” Hackenmiller said. “He’s always … he’s an insane athlete. He’s a better runner than I ever will be. When I hand it off to Riley, I knew he’s going to do more than his fair share and gain a few positions.”

Witt added, “(It’s) not all the time (coming) from a small school that we don’t get the hand-off in first (place), so to have somebody to chase down is really something and helps with the motivation and stuff like that…”

The full story, and more photos, appear in the May 4 print edition of the Enterprise Journal.

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