Busy Klein leads Cardinals at Drake Relays

DES MOINES — Caden Klein competed in four events at the Drake Relays.

But he was more excited to watch his younger sister run and talk about his father’s performance than he was to speak about himself.

That’s part of what makes Klein who he is. But he’s pretty good on the oval, too.

Klein led the Newton boys track and field team this weekend with a pair of top-11 individual finishes. He also anchored the Cardinals’s 4x400-meter relay team to seventh place.

“I just tried run my hardest. I’m grateful to be here and there’s not much more you can do than to try run your best,” Klein said. “The nerve-wracking part is trying to qualify. Running here is the fun part.”

Klein opened the Cardinals’ weekend in the 400-meter dash on Friday night. He also competed in the 400 hurdles on Saturday.

The 4x400 relay preliminary round was scheduled for Friday night, but the event was postponed due to weather.

That became a theme to the weekend as the 4x400 relay also was delayed due to more severe weather on Saturday.

Klein’s busy weekend became a busy day as he ran in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays on Saturday in between the 400 hurdles.

The rest of the 4x400 relay team included Nate Lampe, Christian Ergenbright and Curtis Payne and the foursome posted a season-best time of 3 minutes, 22.19 seconds in seventh.

The event became a timed final late Saturday night. Cedar Falls won the race in 3:16.74 and South Hamilton was the runner-up in 3:17.13, which was the fastest 4x400 relay time by a non-4A school in Drake Relays history.

The top finishing team in Class 3A was Ballard, which took fourth in 3:19.41. Four teams — Bettendorf (4A), ADM (3A), North Polk (3A) and Central DeWitt (3A) — did not stay after Saturday’s delay and dropped out of the race.

Newton was 20th in the 4x400 relay last season at Drake and that group featured Lampe, Klein and Payne.

Newton’s 4x100 relay team placed 34th out of 96 squads. That was much better than the Cardinals’ qualifying position.

The foursome of Nick Thomason, Reilly Trease, Klein and Ergenbright posted a season-best time of 43.68 seconds. That was a top 15 time in 3A. It took a 42.43 to qualify for the finals.

“It’s exciting. For all of the work we all put in to pay off with a PR is awesome,” Trease said. “There’s nothing like running here.”

Klein and Ergenbright both ran in the Drake Relays before, but Thompson and Trease were making their first appearances.

ADM was the 4x100 Drake Relays champion with a time of 41.38. Cedar Rapids Kennedy was the runner-up in 41.79.

Newton won its heat and came in ahead of Grinnell (44.02) and Central DeWitt (45.24), who both had faster qualifying times.

“I’m grateful I got to be here after all the hard work my teammates and I put in,” Thomason said. “I’m glad we were able to come here and set a PR.

“It could have been the weather. We were focused and locked in all week and gave our best effort, too.”

Saturday’s weather was great until the storms rolled in late in the day.

Ergenbright doesn’t remember much about his first Drake Relays experience when he ran on Newton’s distance medley relay team as a freshman. He knows he was less nervous this time around.

“It was still nerve-wracking,” Ergenbright said. “But I was less nervous today because we came in really low. There was no pressure, but we did win our heat and got a PR. That feels good.”

Klein finished 10th in the 400 and 11th in the 400 hurdles in his first two individual events at the Drake Relays. He was the only sophomore or freshman in both events.

It took a time of under 50 seconds to qualify in the 400, and Klein posted another sub-50 with a time of 49.99. That was the fourth-best time by a 3A runner and four posted times in the 48s.

Cedar Rapids Prairie’s Jackson Johannes won the race and set a new Drake Relays record in 47.67. Carlisle’s Braedin Zondervan was second in 47.72 and Ankeny’s Jackson Belding finished third in 47.83.

“I moved up two spots so I’m happy with that,” Klein said. “I was going to be happy with anything under 50 today. It actually ended up being pretty nice weather-wise. It wasn’t that bad.”

Klein posted a career-best time of 54.12 in the 400 hurdles and placed 11th. He was not as fond of that performance though.

“It felt OK. I ran a PR. I’m happy about that, but I wanted to run faster today,” Klein said. “It is what it is though.”

Iowa City West’s Aidan Jacobsen won the 400 hurdles in 52.03 and Mount Ayr’s Ryce Reynolds was the runner-up in 52.09. Reynolds is a Stanford recruit.

All but two of the athletes in the 400 hurdles finished in under 55 seconds. Four were faster than 53.

Klein was a late addition to the 4x100 relay team. He replaced an injured Qhjuan Coley. The first time he joined Thomason, Trease and Ergenbright in the 4x100 was in the team’s home meet on April 18 and there was a bad handoff on the final exchange.

“I had never ran in the 4x100 before the Newton meet,” Klein said. “It didn’t end well that night so it was nice to get a good one in today. We’ve struggled to PR with our handoffs, but got some clean ones today.”

Notes: Friday was a big day for the Klein family on the blue oval. Father Chad Klein started the day with a 13th-place finish in the mixed 800-meter masters. He posted a time of 2:26.17 and there were 24 total runners. Youngest sibling Camryn Klein anchored the middle school girls’ 4x100 relay team to a 12th-place finish out of 37 teams. The group also included Sophia Coady, Ashlyn Karsten and Jazmyn Rivera and they posted a time of 54.55 seconds, which was .18 seconds off the school record. “It was pretty cool,” Caden Klein said. “It was fun to see (Dad) run and my sister was here, too, so that was an awesome experience for all of us.”