LA CROSSE — Maybe Manny Putz misjudged his ability to make up a deficit over the final 150 meters of his Division 1 1,600-meter final at the WIAA state track and field meet on Friday.
The Onalaska High School senior certainly knew his chief opponent — De Pere junior Grady Lenn — as well as himself after years of running races against each other.
Putz quickly cut Lenn’s lead in half and then down to a couple of strides. He nearly pulled even with his friend and future teammate at the University of Wisconsin, but Lenn wasn’t going to let this one slip away.
Lenn crossed the finish line at 4 minutes, 1.79 seconds and Putz, who swept the 1,600 and 3,200 championships a year ago and won the past three Division 1 cross country state titles, at 4:02.25 in a race for the ages at the Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.
Both of them broke the previous meet record of 4:04.97 — that was held by Madison West’s Gabe Jennings since 1997 — and third-place Slinger junior Reed Grotenhuis finished in 4:05.2 on a sunny day in front of a very boisterous crowd.
“I knew he was going to come out strong, so my plan was to sit behind him,” Putz said. “He did such a good job of pacing us and keeping up the speed, especially going into that third lap.”
Lenn’s lead after three laps was .02 seconds over DeForest’s Lucas Tanner after and .66 seconds over third-place Putz.
“I felt so powerful for the first two (laps) and for the third one I felt super strong,” Putz said. “I got a little confident going into that last lap. He was getting away, and I was like, ‘It’s fine, he’ll die down, but he did not.
“I underestimated his strength, his speed and his ability to keep on pushing. But I will not do that in the 3,200 (on Saturday).”
Putz doesn’t like to lose, but he could appreciate the victory for Lenn, who has suffered repeated losses to Putz over the years. Putz was the first to congratulate Lenn on the track and said he called him a legend for the performance.
Six runners completed their four laps in less than 4:10, and Putz said the biggest takeaway was that he broke a record that had been standing 28 years. It just so happened that someone else beat it, too, and beat him in the process.
And while Putz was confident in his ability to catch Leen down the stretch, Lenn was worried about the same thing.
“The thought with the race plan was to not have him near at the (final) 100,” Lenn said. “If he was right there at 100, I didn’t know if I could beat him.
“Today, he was able to hang with the hot pace, but I was able to hang, too. I felt really good, but I think I was so nervous that I had a crazy amount of adrenaline.”
