NEIC meet turns into mud run

As a freshman, Nolan Usher earned Northeast Iowa Conference honors by placing 12th at the NEIC meet. Then as a sophomore he moved up to 11th, then back down to 14th as a junior.
This year, despite running his slowest time of the four years at conference, he had his best finish, fifth place, in a meet held at Waverly Tuesday.
There’s a good reason he ran a slower time. Mud is rather slippery.
“I’m surprised we even had the meet, very few conferences did that day,” coach Jamie Ohrt commented. “There was mud everywhere, the kids were covered when they came to the finish line.”
Add to that the pouring rain. “It was more of a “warrior dash” or “tough mudder” and it was a meet where spikes really came in handy since the ground was saturated and you couldn’t get a grip.”
The course was also a little short. The Wartburg College course was used, and the starting line usually starts south of a railroad track, then crosses and runs a loop before crossing back over the tracks for the finish. Tuesday the area north of the track was drier, so meet officials just used that area.
“They said they tried several times to get the correct measurements, but finally said “it is what it is” and went with it,” said Ohrt. “It’s been that kind of a season, I was just glad we could run. You practice for so long, it gets redundant!”
Usher is now on a very short list of Chickasaw runners that ran to an all-conference spot all four years.
For the complete results, please see the Oct. 12 Tribune.