By JAMIE SUHR
Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette
Tom Kroeschell and Co. finally got a good
night's sleep Saturday.
And they deserved it after their performances during
the three-day coed state track meet.
"No question, there's been some really late nights,"
said Kroeschell, one of the meet's two announcers.
"We're running on adrenaline."
This year, instead of having two weekends of state
track, 4,000 boys and girls were crammed into three
days.
Kroeschell, also the sports information director at
Iowa State, has announced the Drake Relays since 1989,
the boys state meet since 1980 and the girls state
meet since 1997.
He and co-announcer Mike Jay make this event so
entertaining because of the amount of work they and
their staff do.
Two assistants spent the past week putting together a
database of numbers, splits and anything else a track
fan would need to know.
That left Kroeschell enough time to scour the Internet
for the most mundane of details, including why a
runner wears blue spikes or how one runner still has
scars after a fall at the state meet last year.
"I read the newspaper sites to get any information I
think will be interesting to people," Kroeschell said.
"A lot of state meets don't do it, but I think this
crowd is more knowledgable than most."
Some of the details are more obvious, like the number
of state titles an athlete has. As Charles City's Greg
Offerman cruised to yet another 400-meter hurdles
title, Kroeschell read off the senior's
accomplishments. As Offerman crossed the finish line,
the crowd was giving him a standing ovation.
"People may hear my voice," Kroeschell said, "but
there are lots of people who make sacrifices. They
don't have to do this, but they do it because they
love it."