UNI runners sweep Brady Street Sprint open divisions

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By Shannon Heaton | Friday, July 25, 2008 10:16 PM CDT | () comments

Northern Iowa runner Lauren Carruthers of Bettendorf beats Stephanie Brown of Downs, Ill., in the women’s open division of the Brady Street Sprints. Buy this Photo

As a Division I track and field athlete at Northern Iowa, Ryan Grenko has no doubt heard of the phrase “leaving it all out there.”

He’s probably even had the cliché describe a particular race he ran, more than once.

Grenko experienced it firsthand Friday night shortly after defending his men’s open title at the Brady Street Sprint, as the strain it took to hold off Panthers teammate Dennis Hammel and Augustana College’s Dillon Smith ultimately put too strong a strain on his stomach.

“We did a lot of trash-talking (via text message). It goes on for quite awhile, from qualifying (for the Sprint in late June) until the final starts,” Grenko, who finished the Sprint in 59 seconds, said of his battle with Hammel.

“He was here last year and one of the guys pushing me, so I knew he’d be up there. About halfway (up the hill) I couldn’t see anything or hear anyone (in the lead). With 100 (meters) left, I died. A big old bear jumped on my back. I was just hoping no one’s catching me.”

Northern Iowa runners made a sweep of the open divisions, as Bettendorf’s Lauren Carruthers won a back-and-forth battle with Downs, Ill., high school senior Stephanie Brown with a surge at the end. Carruthers won with a time of 1:14.

“She’s run a great time in the 800s, even for college, and she had a real good qualifying time, so I was kind of expecting it,” Carruthers said of the showdown with Brown.

The men’s masters race also was a two-way battle between three-time champion Matt Matthews of East Moline and defending champion David Bailey of Davenport. A flurry in the final 20 yards was enough for a fourth Sprint title for Matthews, as he finished in 1:16.

“We’re at the end of our competitive days, so, to be honest, I think it’s worse with us old guys. We compete a little bit harder,” Matthews said. “I know for me that when someone pulls up alongside me (in a race) it’s someone I’m going to race. It’s a king-of-the-hill thing. It was him last year, me this year.”

Davenport’s Mary Toohill made it two wins in a row on the hill. After winning her qualifying heat race last week, Toohill had a pretty good lead on fellow Davenporter Kathy Evanchyk, running four seconds faster than her qualifying time for the women’s masters win.

“That kind of money at the end ($500 to the winners), you start out pretty nervous and it takes something out of you, knowing it’s coming,” Toohill said. “I was really dying when I got to 7th Street.”

Illinois teams set Sprint records in both the boys’ and girls’ high school relays. In the boys’ race, United Township helped overcome what it saw as a disappointing state track meet by dominating their race with a time of 48.9 seconds.

“Just like old times. We were doing the same thing all the way up to state. We messed up at state and we can’t really get that back, but we had some fun here,” UT anchor Airreo Greer said of relay teammates DeMykhal Teague, Quinton Musgrow and Josh Pope.

After Davenport North set a Sprint record last year in the girls’ relay, Rock Island came out determined to take the record back across the river, and did so in 58.17 seconds, thanks in large part to huge middle relay legs from Triona Roberts and Victrese Jones, allowing anchor Ciara Turner to finish ahead by a significant margin.

“We talked about it,” Roberts said of setting a record. “Since North won it from us last year, we wanted to get the record back and bring it back to our school. It was very important to us.”

Genesis Hospital won first in the corporate relay, which fielded a record 14 teams.