Road to NBNI Blogs, 2015: Logan Wetzel, Week 3
Logan Wetzel's Road to NBNI Blogs, Week 1 | Week 2
At lower right, Logan Wetzel and his Spirit of Pre/Saline HS teammates from both the boys' and girls' DMRs at 2014 NBNO. Photo by Walter Pinion.
Watching and running in the MITS State Meet this past Saturday made for a pretty exciting weekend. After being under the weather last week, I decided to just compete in the distance medley relay with my Spirit of Pre (Saline HS) teammates, and run the 800m leg. The relay went extremely well, and we were able to win it in 10:29.14, with our anchor leg, Kevin Hall, running a big PR and going 4:21 to seal the victory.
I ran decent for still feeling pretty sick, splitting a 1:56, but my teammates Josiah, Brian, and Kevin stepped up big time and all ran fantastic. Our time was much faster than we had anticipated, and set us up for the opportunity to run the DMR at New Balance Nationals Indoor, which I am really looking forward to! It will be an awesome experience, and I think we are in a very good position going into the meet if we can all stay healthy and fit. Although I didn’t get to race in any individual events, getting the chance to watch my friends compete, as well as some of the nation’s best athletes was very cool.
Two races in particular that I really enjoyed watching were the 1600m and the 800m. In the mile, I had the chance to see a couple of my teammates race very well, with my friends Kevin and Bryan running new PRs of 4:24 and 4:32. In probably the most exciting individual event of the day, I got to watch Grant Fisher set the state record in the 1600m in 4:04.46. It was definitely a bit frustrating not having the chance to be out on the track and competing in that race with him, but it was nonetheless exciting to watch him smash the old state record, and run another nation-leading time, as well.
In the open 800m, I was very eager to watch Donavan Brazier and Drake Gauthier battle it out. Having had the opportunity to compete against both these guys multiple times, I knew everyone was in for a great race as they are both very talented runners. The race did not disappoint, with Donavon running a very impressive 1:52.54, and Drake not far behind in 1:53.85. This was just one of the many great races of the day at EMU. The amount of track and field talent in the state of Michigan continues to impress me, with multiple state records and nation leading times being run all over the board. The sport has definitely grown a lot in Michigan over the past couple of years, and it should be a very exciting spring to come for Michigan track and field athletes!
The past week of training since the state meet has been going much better, and the focus has shifted towards preparing for New Balance Nationals Indoor. Now that I am feeling better and finally over the flu, the next couple weeks of training up to nationals will be much of the same work we have been doing all winter, with a lot of longer tempo runs and some longer interval workouts on the indoor track. We will also touch on a bit of speed work as our races approach, and go through the gears to make sure we are ready to be able to finish fast when the bell lap comes around.
Having not gotten the chance to run the mile at our state meet, I am very excited to once again race against some of the nation’s best in the championship mile. There are a lot of very talented guys in the field, and it has the makings of an extremely fast race. With the addition of the DMR to the schedule, I am very excited as I will get the chance to once again compete on the national stage alongside three of my good friends, Kevin, Brian, and Josiah. We performed very well at the state meet, so I’m very excited to see what we will be able to do with a couple more weeks of training under our belts and competing against the best high school DMRs the country has to offer.
