Somebody get Overachiever’s Anonymous on the line. Lawrence High’s boys track team is at it again.
The Lions haven’t relapsed into the dominance they showed two years ago when they won all four relays at the Kansas Relays.
It was the same idea on a smaller scale Friday, though, when LHS, the 19th-seed among 21 teams entered in the distance medley relay, placed fourth.
“I didn’t expect that time,” LHS boys coach Bob Lisher said. “I entered them at 10:51. Everybody improved on their times.”
The Lions finished in 10:45.6.
“We weren’t supposed to do this well,” said Jan-Eric Anderson, who ran the 800 leg. Anderson set the tone during his first leg, running second through most of his two laps.
“I was actually surprised the half (-mile leg) wasn’t faster,” he said. “I honestly didn’t see myself handing off second or third or whatever.”
Neither did P.J. Born, the quarter-miler of the bunch.
“Jan-Eric ran his best race all year,” Born said. “When he came around the corner I was trying to find him. I was way out in the pack, and coach was yelling, `Move in, you’re second.”‘
O.J. Bell, normally a half-miler, took over for the 1,320-meter leg. And what was he thinking as he rounded the last curve on his extra quarter mile?
“I don’t know if I’m going to make it,” Bell said, laughing. “I got a lot of support from Donta (Tanner, LHS sprinter) and the rest of the team.”
And Bell gave way to David Rynders for the 1,600 anchor.
“In practice we’ve pushed hard all season,” Rynders said. “This was the first meet we took a little break for. I don’t know about everybody else, but I was shooting for this meet for a short-term goal. Long term, of course, is state.”
Former Lawrence High football and track coach Bill Freeman is working the Relays as a timer.
Freeman’s last two track teams at LHS in 1989 and 1990 were two of the strongest the state has ever seen. This year’s team, he said, has an outside shot at a fourth state championship in a row.
“They have a lot of kids able to finish third, fourth, fifth or sixth,” he said. “If they’d have a real good day, they have a chance.”
Retired in LeRoy, where he is mayor, banker and farmer, Freeman has served as starter at high school meets in Eureka and Burlington this season.
He fell out of touch with football late last season, though. After following Lawrence, he missed the last two rounds of the state playoffs because he was vacationing in Hawaii with wife JoAn.
“I didn’t even know if they won,” he said. “I found out on Monday when we went to the airport. I picked up USA Today, and it was in there.”
Freeman watched LHS win the 1990 championship in Manhattan after coaching them in the previous five final games.
“That was the first time in a lot of years I missed the state final,” he said.
