Geneva’s 4 x 800-meter relay team isn’t just an assembly of four teammates, it’s a group of four friends who have run together for years.

That’s what makes the group’s second-place finish at last Saturday’s Class 3A state finals all the more special.

“I didn’t do track last year; I played basketball instead,” Jake Tauscher said. “I came back out (for track) for this. I wanted to be here with these guys at state.”

The all-senior quartet of Chris Higgins, Drew Hickey, Tauscher and Andrew Nelson ran a relay personal record with a time of 7:45.86 in the finals, a time that shattered the previous school record by five seconds. They did so by sticking to their strategy.

When some runners jostled for the early lead on the first leg, Higgins sat back and didn’t get sucked in.

“I think the leaders went out really fast, in about 57 seconds,” he said. “I didn’t want to go out too fast. I wanted to save myself for the last 200 (meters). The last 200 I made up some ground on a lot of guys. That’s how I always try to run.”

Hickey stuck with the smart approach on the second leg, which set up the Vikings nicely for the second half of the race.

“I got the baton in fifth or sixth place,” Hickey said. “I could tell the people in front of me went out pretty fast. I went out pretty conservative.”

Hickey battled back to take the lead by the end of his leg, giving Tauscher the lead along with the baton for the third leg.

“I tried to protect the lead,” Tauscher said. “I went out at my pace. The end of my second lap, the Waubonsie Valley kid made a strong move, but I ran my race and didn’t worry about anyone around me.”

Waubonsie took the lead by the start of the fourth leg and never let it go, but Nelson made a push of his own and closed the gap on the Warriors while also holding off furious finishing kicks from Neuqua Valley and Prospect.

While the Vikings’ distance relay was clocking second on the track, Frank Boenzi was wrapping up a sixth-place finish in the shot put. The junior recorded a mark of 55 feet, 4-1/2 inches in the prelims, which carried over to Saturday as he remained in sixth place. Not one competitor had a successful put in Saturday’s finals longer than that recorded during Friday’s prelims.

“I’m not happy with myself today,” Boenzi said Saturday. “My goal was 60 feet. I would have been happy taking third with 57 feet, but I’m not happy. I came in throwing 57 and 58 feet. I don’t know what happened.

“There’s no excuse for this. I’m a junior, not a sophomore. I have some experience.

“I’m going to use this as motivation when I don’t want to work hard. I’m going to think of this at every meet next year.”

The Northern Iowa-bound Nelson probably wishes he had a do-over like Boenzi. In the 1,600 run, Nelson tried to stay with the frontrunner (Jeff Thode of Conant) early but couldn’t maintain the blistering pace and fell off down the stretch. Nelson still earned an all-state finish with a ninth-place time of 4:18.74.

Boenzi scratched two throws in the discus prelims, and his one successful throw of 140-8 wasn’t enough to make the finals.

Sophomore Tom Frederick posted a time of 15.61 seconds in the 110 hurdle prelims and finished seventh in his heat.

Vikings’ all-staters
NAME               EVENT    PLACE
Relay                4x 800      2nd

Frank Boenzi     shot put     6th

Andrew Nelson    1,600       9th