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Manchester track and field coach Casey McDowell paced the football field like a caged cat. "This is it right here," the track and field coach said to himself. "This is it right here."
"It" was a possible team first place at the Plymouth Sectional. After 13 of 16 events were tallied, Manchester and Plymouth were tied for the lead with 91 points.
And still it wouldn't come easy. Five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 20 minutes passed by after the meet ended. Still no announcement on the winner.
The results were finally tallied and read off. McDowell picked up his pacing.
His wait was worth it. The first-year coach and his Manchester Squires edged out Plymouth 107-106 in Thursday's sectional.
The sectional team title is believed to be Manchester's first.
The 16th and final event of the evening was the 1,600-meter relay. Plymouth was a three-second favorite going into the meet.
Manchester's first two runners, David Barrett and Andrew Bueker, held their own. Bueker handed off the baton to Nick Iden, who pulled ahead. Iden handed off to Nate Grossman, who made sure the Squires kept their lead for the win.
Manchester won with a time of 3:33.44, while Plymouth finished in 3:33.55.
thinking the (1,600) relay," McDowell said. "They ran a 3:30 on paper, while we ran a 3:33."
Iden, a senior, and sophomore Rex Reimer more than held their own all night for the Squires. Iden won the 110 and 300 hurdles and was the turning point in Manchester's 1,600 relay win.
And when Manchester was announced as the winner, he was one of the two guys carrying a chest of ice to dump on his coach. This was the only time he failed, as coach broke out a few move of his own to emerge rather unscathed.
Reimer placed second in the long jump and 100. Both times he lost to Whitko's Tim Mason. He still had another chance at him in the 200.
He got him this time. Reimer won the 200 with a time of 23.21 seconds to Mason's 23.28.
"Mason has been a thorn in Rex's side," McDowell said. "At the Goshen Relays, he beat him in the 100, 200 and long jump. I knew Rex would be a competitor. What type of guy wouldn't step down from competition? I wouldn't, and I knew Rex wouldn't. I knew he would give his darndest, and he did it.
"He beat him in the long jump, and that's going to eat at Rex's stomach until next week. He'll be there next week."
Grossman, a senior, also fared well, placing second in the 300 hurdles and third in the 110 hurdles. The trip to the Kokomo Regional will be his first.
McDowell, also an assistant football coach at Manchester College, approaches track as a team sport. He made sure to point out other events, the ones where the fifths, sixths, sevenths and eighths gave the Squires important points.
"The 800 we scored points, the 3,200 we scored points, the mile we scored points ... those are places that I asked my guys to score," McDowell said. "They rose up to it and did it.
"This is the first year Greg Groombridge pole vaulted, and he pole vaulted 12 feet. He throws the discus 130 feet. He would have thrown the shot if I would have asked him to. But I asked him to run the open 400, and he ran 56 (seconds) for me. He's a decathlete in college."
Whitko finished fourth with 80 points. Tippecanoe Valley was sixth with 49.33, and Triton was seventh with 43.33.
Whitko's Mason won the long jump with a leap of 21-7 1/4 and the 100 with a time of 11.27 seconds. Whitko teammates Bo Mullins and Ray Smith placed first and second in the discus. Mullins won with a throw of 158-10.
The top four in every event advance to next week's Kokomo Regional.
"I'm no philosopher," McDowell said. "I'm straight from the heart. I try to make track a team-oriented thing. I know it's individually, but it's scored as a team.
"We have to have a great showing next week. Our guys, I don't know if we've peaked yet or not."
