It did not take long for the first record to fall at the 91st Drake Relays. Iowa City High’s Michelle Lillienthal shattered not only a Relays record but set an all-time Iowa high school record in the process by winning the girls three thousand meter run in a time of nine minutes 47-point 53 seconds. Lillienthal says she could tell she had a shot at the record coming down the home stretch. She says she could see her time on the scoreboard as she came around the track.Andy Kohler of Ames won a second straight boys’ high jump title by clearing six-feet nine-inches.Kohler says six-nine is his season best in the high jump.Steve Wegner of Harlan won the boys’ high school shot put with a toss of 55-feet, five inches. Wegner’s winning throw came in the preliminary round. He calls it a great accomplishment that’s “bigger than state,” referring to the state high school track meet.Wegner says the conditions were nearly ideal for a good throw.Sean Johnson of Clinton won the boys high school 110-meter hurdle title.Northern Iowa got a strong anchor leg from Balazs Csillag to stun defending national champion Stanford in the four by 16-hundred meter relay.Rob Brock ran the third leg for the Panthers and said it was a great victory.Among the recognizable faces in this year’s Drake Relays “half-marathon” will be Governor Vilsack’s. The first-term Governor took up the protein diet and began running longer distances shortly after leaving the campaign trail in 1998. Vilsack has been training for this weekend’s 13-point-one mile route. He says he’s done 10 miles every Saturday for the last 10 Saturdays.Vilsack has run other races in the past couple of years. Vilsack’s press secretary, Joe Shannahan, is a marathoner, but will only be running the Relays’ five-mile race. The Drake Relays full marathon was discontinued a few years ago in favor of shorter road races which would draw more area runners.
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