DES MOINES — Brady Burkhart yelled out as he and a handful of Oelwein teammates walked toward Drake Stadium early Thursday morning.
“Hey,” he called. “It’s a good day to have a good day.”
Burkhart and classmate Conall Sauser had good mornings during the first session of the Class 2A state track championships, with the former placing third in the long jump and the latter earning runner-up in the 3,200-meter run, the final step of a ladder he began to climb with older brother Brennan four years ago as a freshman.
Sauser and classmate Caleb Schunk went 2-7 in the 3,200, with Sauser clocking a personal-best 9 minutes, 31.82 seconds and Schunk clocking 9:48.63.
“I feel really good. I was happy with it. It turned out well,” Sauser said. “A second-place PR. You cannot go to sleep mad about that one.”
“I’m proud of my guy right here,” Schunk patted Sauser on the chest. “Always moving up in the world. It’s always fun racing with him.”
Added Sauser: “Every time I looked at the scoreboard, Schunk was there (close by) every lap. On my tail.”
Both distance runners stayed with a secondary pack through the first 2,000 meters; Sauser was as high as fifth but settled into sixth while Schunk stayed ninth through 2,400 meters.
Sauser joked that he “was not prepared to feel that good,” and rocketed up to third in the next 400 with a 1:13.82 split time. He moved past Mid-Prairie’s Emmett Swartzentruber in the next 400 meters with a time of 1:09.85, then ran 1:08.14 in the final 3,200 lap of his career.
“I came through three laps and was like ‘All right.’ There was probably about 1K left (and) I was like, ‘Man, I’m feeling it.’ So I took off. Got about second and went from there. I very much surprised myself, I’m not going to lie.”
Schunk seemingly followed, moving to seventh by 2,800 meters with a 1:14.7 lap. His final lap was 1:13.16.
“I came in, knew it was going to be tough,” Schunk said. “Prepared for that mentally, physically.”
“Come out and do it on this stage, you know it’s a good time.”
Sauser went from running as a freshman to fifth as a sophomore, third last season and a runner-up placement as a senior.
“(Jason Gearhart) asked if I had a strategy before the race. I don’t ever have strategies for a race. Some people overthink it. I’m just like, I’ll go out however I feel. It just comes to me; I don’t ever think about it.”
As Sauser and Schunk, and Ashlyn Sauser before them, ran circles, Burkhart and Caleb DeTemmerman were jumping inside the track.
Burkhart began in the first flight, then set the tone for the rest of the 24 jumpers with a 21 foot, 5 inch leap on his second hurtle through the air. Burkhart hit 20-11.75 in his final preliminary jump and led the field through the first round of flight 2. Then Manson Northwest Webster’s Matt Condon registered 21-7 on his second jump, and Burkhart remained in second until Camanche’s Tyson Seeser hit 21-7.75, pushing Burkhart to third.
Oelwein’s senior didn’t get farther than a 20-foot mark in the finals, but no one surpassed him.
“Like Brandon Tournier and Mr. (Cole) Thomas say, ‘It was a good day to have a good day.’ Had a good day. I’m very happy.”
“I’m a little more aerodynamic,” he joked, grabbing his freshly crew-cut-shaved head. “I think that kind of helped. It was a great time.”
Fellow jumper Caleb DeTemmerman, who led off flight 2, never leapt farther than 20-5.5 and placed 12th.
“He’ll be back,” Burkhart offered, to which the junior smirked.
It was the same message Burkhart crowed after a 2024 appearance.
“I said I would be back. Came back, got third. Feels pretty good. Happy with it.”
Ashlyn Sauser placed seventh in the 3,000 in a time of 10:33.18. She moved from 15th after the first 200 meters into seventh by 600 meters with a 1:19.78 first full lap and stayed at that pace for the duration.
“My main goal was to place, and I’ve been struggling mentally with this race,” she said. “(Jason) Gearhart was telling me, “You’ve worked for what you need to get, it’s just all in between (the ears). I wanted to place more than anything else, so I just pushed past the pain.”
Sumner-Fredericksburg’s Braelyn Suckow placed 19th in the 200 preliminary race (23.63) and Cameryn Judisch was set to run the 100-dash preliminary race later in the day.
Oelwein’s shuttle hurdle relay placed 12th in 1:10.44.
“Obviously, we didn’t PR, but it was still a really good time,” Macy Westendorf said. “We ran the best we could.”
Added Aspen Weir: “I feel like it doesn’t matter about the time … coming down here and making memories with teammates is what it’s all about.”
