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Thanks for your interest in the history of Cedar Falls Track & Field.

THE RESEARCH:
The data submitted on this site was collected over many months but does not claim to be 100% accurate. Quick Stats (quickstatsiowa.com) was the primary source for collecting results going back to 2006. Results 1906-2005 were found by searching a variety of sources, among them: newpaperarchives.com, drake.edu/relays, desmoinesregister.newspapers.com and rolls of Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier microfilm at the Waterloo library. Historically, The Courier and other Iowa newspapers have given high school track & field good coverage for many meets (Dickinson Relays, Cole Collinge Relays, Drake Relays, State Meets etc.) but not every meet makes the newspaper. In addition, there are many cases where a meet was covered but only the winning times were published. Freshman results from 1994-2005 were difficult to find as Junior Varsity results generally do not make the newspaper. Early records were also scarce, but so were the meets.

NOTABLE FINDINGS:

The first high school track meet for CFHS was held May 4, 1906 in Cedar Falls. Wilson Stone won the half mile and Orvial Miller won the mile for the Lawn City (Cedar Falls) Tiger “thinclads” or “cinder artists,” as the athletes were often called.
The track season in the early years was about 4 weeks from first practice to final meet and consisted of only 2 to 3 meets.
No results could be found for the years 1907, 1908, 1909, 1912, or 1913. The school and athletes opted not to participate in track in 1911 so the coaches and athletes could concentrate on baseball.
Many early meets were called Track & Field Carnivals or Loop Meets and included a declamatory event where points were given based on speeches.
1927 was the first year Cedar Falls entered into the annual State Meet. That team entered 6 events resulting in 3 runner-up finishes and finished 4th overall as a team- just 7 ¼ points behind champion Carroll High.
Participation spiked in 1936 when track and field was elevated to a ‘major’ sport at CFHS. The season was expanded and letters were awarded to top performers for the first time.
The first competition at the Drake Relays came in 1956 with the mile relay team of Dennis Johnson, John Rosenberger, Dennis Corwin and Leon Cooksey. The first Drake Relays championship was also a mile relay team; Gaylen Gerdes, Jeff Espinosa, Tim Hemming and Jay Bradley in 1977.
The first individual state championship for Cedar Falls came from Al Robinette in the 1958 high jump. The first relay team to win a state championship was the 1974 2-mile relay team of Brian Bigelow, Dale Doyle, Brian Cook and Steve Pershing.
Fall Track was organized in Iowa Septembers from 1935 – 1973 but the first recorded team for Cedar Falls was in 1952. The sport was similar to Cross Country with 5 mile-runners for each school (top 3 scored) but was run on a track as opposed to a course. Many of the meets were run during halftime of Friday night football games— and in some cases CF athletes competed in both sports, most notably Agris Aperans in 1950s— but ended with a state meet in late September. CF won team titles in 1955/56 & 1958/59 and finished top-5 at the state meet in 11 of the 22 years it competed. Joe Fee recorded the only individual title for the school in 1960/61. The 1 ½ mile and 2 mile events were added in 1973- the final year before the sport gave way to an expanded Cross Country season.
Cedar Falls put its first girls team together in 1974. Lynn Clark qualified for the 220 yard dash at state meet in the first year.
The first girls competitor for Cedar Falls at the Drake Relays was 800 runner Kelly Goodwin in 1980. The first Drake Relays champion was also an 800 runner; Dawn Lentsch in 1983.
Dawn Lentsch became the first girls state champion in 1982, winning the 800 and 1500 meter runs. The first girls relay champions came in 1994; Nicole Sickels, Michelle Van Dorn, Darci Noelting and Karen Patterson won the 4×400 Relay.
In 1990, Cedar Falls added freshman girls to their high school team-moving them up from the junior high team. The boys freshman moved up in 1994 with Jeff Short and Justin Kinard as the only known exceptions. Short was moved up at the end of season to qualify in the 3200 meters at districts and ran the event again at state. Kinard was added to the 4×800 relay at the 1992 state meet.
Cedar Falls and Indianola H. S. tied for the girls team indoor State Championship in 1995. The team was led in points by Sarah Gray and Becky Slick.
Eligibility rules changed in 2005 to allow an athlete to compete in four running events at the Iowa state meet. Faith Burt, in her freshman year, became the first ever 40 point runner that year.
Cedar Falls won their first men’s State Championship as a team in 2011. James Harrington and Marshall Hill led the team in points.
From 2014-2017, Cedar Falls won four consecutive 4×400 meter relay championships. Only two other 4A schools have won four consecutive relays at the state meet.

This site is full of school records, state championships and other great accomplishments. But here are a few that may have gotten away:

1956 – Top athletes Ben Forker (school record sprinter and hurdler), Dennis Corwin (top distance runner) and Leon Cooksey fell sick and could not compete at the district meet. All three were expected to qualify for state meet in multiple events.
1958 – Senior Leon Cooksey, one of the top runners in the state and school record holder in the 220 and 440, fell sick before districts once again. He was limited to only the mile relay at state where he anchored the relay team to a 2nd place finish.
1971 – School record holder in the mile, 880 and 2-mile relay Dan Alderman missed most of his senior year to acute tendonitis. He was the top returning 880 runner in the state after finishing 3rd in 1970.
1976 – Senior long-distance runner Jeff Dotseth, senior school long jump record-holder Bruce Acton and junior school record-holder in the 440 Jay Bradley were all lost throughout the year to injuries. All three were able to make it back for the state meet, but we’re limited and not at full strength.
1978 – School high jump record-holder Kurt Lorenzen’s family moved to Reinbeck the summer before his senior year. Lorenzen finished 5th at the Drake Relays and 3rd in Class C State Meet that year to help Reinbeck to a 3rd place team finish.
1979 – After breaking the school long jump record in 1978, Dave Cobb missed his entire senior season due to injury.
1982 – The medley relay team of Cathy Oltmann, Jennie Haman, Diane Berry and Dawn Lentsch lowered their school record and finished first at the state meet but were disqualified due to an exchange zone violation.
1985 – School 100 meter record holder, Tami Schwartzenbach missed her junior year after off-season knee surgery. She returned in 1986 to help break the school’s 4×100 relay record.
1996 – One of the heavy favorites to win the open 100 and 400, senior 100 meter school record holder Brent Clemons was forced to compete at the state meet with the flu. He had to settle for a 5th place finish in the 100.
1996 – Two-time state champion and top distance runner, junior Sarah Gray collapsed to heat exhaustion while leading the state meet’s 3000 meter run and missed most of the meet recovering. She rebounded her senior year to win her third state championship.
2010 – After winning the Drake Relays 100 meter dash one month prior, sophomore James Harrington false started the 100 at the state meet. He went on to win the 200 meters that year and eight more titles his junior and senior seasons.
2020 – The outdoor season including Drake Relays and State Meet was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The only outdoor competition came on July 7 when senior Kyle Trunnell and freshman Eric Lucas competed unattached in Brooklyn, IA. Cedar Falls seniors who had their prep careers cut short included Trunnell (the school record hurdler), top returning high jumper in the state and school record-holder Bryce Albaugh, five-time state champion and school record holder in the 400 & 800 meters Mackenzie Michael, school long jump record-holder Emerson Green, returning state champion and multi school record-holder Halie Frahm along with state meet veterans Jibreel Bailey, Allison Flanscha, Jayna Freeman, Jenneh Gee, Michael Kremer, Sabrina Leistikow, Devin O’Laughlin, Jacob Paulson, Sydney Stokes and many others.

PERFORMANCE CONVERSIONS:
The procedure used comes from the Track & Field News’ Big Green Book which is now the Big Gold Book which is used by NCAA and USATF.
To convert from hand to FAT for sprints up to 200 meters (55 hurdles, 60, 100, 200 & 200 hurdles): First round the time up to the nearest tenth. Then add .24. For example if an athlete runs 8.51 in the 55 hurdles, it should be rounded up to 8.6. Now add the conversion of .24 which gives a final time of 8.84.
To convert for races of 300 and up (400, 800, etc.): First round the time up to the nearest tenth. Then add .14.
The following website was used to convert yards to meters and 55 meters to 60:
* http://ia.milesplit.com/calc.
In the event both conversion of yards to meters and conversion of hand to FAT was needed, the conversion of yards to meters was calculated first.

PHOTOGRAPHS & VIDEOS:
Photographs for this site were provided by Eileen Crotty (memoriesbyeileen.com), scrapbooks & yearbooks from the Cedar Falls Historical Society, newspaper articles from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier and from former athletes. Videos were provided by Michael Hoy, Mark Lavallee and from former athletes.

If you have any information, photos or videos that could be added, please feel free to get in touch by e-mail and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!

-Brian O’Hair

I Corinthians 9:26

brianohair926@gmail.com