Ethan Zuber didn’t know how fast he was running around the blue oval on Thursday afternoon.
The lack of awareness paid off for the Ankeny sophomore.
Zuber raced to a fourth-place finish in the boys’ 3,200 in the Drake Relays at Drake Stadium. He posted a time of 9:11.58, which set a school record.
“I really just wanted to push myself as much as I could and to be honest, I didn’t know the time,” said Zuber. “I just focus on the next guy to catch.”
Chase Lauman of Pella won the race in 9:06.71. He was followed by Gabe Nash of Sioux City North (9:07.94) and Luke Knepp of Pleasant Valley (9:10.92).
The gap between Knepp and Miles Wilson of Cedar Rapids Kennedy, who placed seventh in 9:13.03, was just a little more than 2 seconds.
“That was a monster 16-second PR for Ethan,” said Ankeny coach Jordan Mullen.
In the field events, Ankeny’s Jamison Patton tied for 17th place in the high jump and fellow senior Sam Dietz of Ankeny Centennial finished 19th in the shot put.
Patton was among a group of six jumpers who cleared the bar at 6 feet 3 inches. He tied with Marshall Knapp of Southwest Valley and Dylan Stecker of Spirit Lake based on fewer misses than the other three jumpers.
Jacob Kieler of Cedar Falls won the event with a leap of 6-10. He missed his first two tries at 6-3 before making his third attempt to stay alive, then had one miss at each of the next three heights before clearing 6-10 on his first attempt.
TJ Jackson of Linn-Mar (Marion) and Cain Brown of Mid-Prairie (Wellman) both cleared 6-9 before missing all three of their attempts at 6-10.
Dietz had a throw of 50 feet 2.5 inches on his first attempt. He then scratched on his next two throws and did not advance to the finals.
“(It was) pretty underwhelming, but I still have conference, district and state to improve,” said Dietz, who would have placed third if he matched his personal record of 55-7.5.
Spencer Kessel of Louisa-Muscatine easily won the event with a toss of 62-3.5. Keaton Roskop of Linn-Mar threw 55-11.5 to place second.