Roth plans to use Demon Indoor as conditioning for his athletes

Washington head boys? track and field coach Steve Roth doesn?t have high expectations for his squad when it competes at Thursday?s sixth-annual Demon Indoor at the University of Iowa Rec Building in Iowa City.

It?s not that he doesn?t have faith in his runners. It?s just that his runners have yet to have a proper practice.

Snow on the Case Field track has kept the Demons from practicing outdoors. Instead, they?ve worked in the high school gymnasium nearly every day since beginning practice on Feb. 13.

?We have not really seriously had a quality workout yet. And we?ve been going three weeks,? Roth said. ?We?ve spent time in the gym, but you can only do so much in a gym.?

Roth has hesitated to work his athletes too hard indoors.

?It?s just too hard on your legs,? he said. ?I don?t need [my runnners getting] shin splints and injuries from them pounding on the floor.?

So Roth is hoping his athletes can get a proper workout during Thursday?s meet, which will begin at 5 p.m. Roth plans to take 17 athletes to the Demon Indoor, most of whom are upperclassmen.

?My 4x800 and 4x400 guys will be the same guys, and they?re going to run two races,? he said. ?That?s going to be a good workout for them. It won?t hurt them a bit. We?re going to use [the meet] more for conditioning. We want to get on the track.?

And the Demons will be testing themselves against some of the best track and field teams on this side of the state, including squads from Anamosa, Burlington, Central Clinton, Clear Creek-Amana, Clinton, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Cedar Rapids Washington, Danville, Davenport Assumption, Davenport Central, Des Moines Roosevelt, Fairfield, Fort Madison, Iowa City High, Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, Louisa-Muscatine, Mediapolis, Mid-Prairie, Monticello, Mt. Pleasant, Muscatine, North Scott, Pleasant Valley, WACO, Waukee, West Branch, West Burlington-Notre Dame, West Liberty, Williamsburg and Woodward-Granger.

Events will include the high jump, shot put, 60-meter hurdles, 60-meter dash, 4x800 relay, 200-meter dash, 800-meter run, 1,600-meter run, 1,600 medley relay and the 4x400 relay. Roth is interested to see the outcomes of many of those events.

?My 4x800 and 4x400 will be interesting,? he said. ?My shot put will be interesting. I want to see where Tommy [Peterson] is at. I want to see where [Tanner] Knupp and [Garrett] Covington are at. Carl [Sivels] and [Alex] Coker are going to run one event, probably the 60. [Jacob] Hennigan and [Logan] Moeller will run the 60 highs. And Moeller is going to come back and run a quarter because we need to get him some conditioning for the 400 outdoor. That?s pretty much what Thursday is going to look like.

?But I?m not expecting big things from my team on Thursday. We haven?t had the quality workouts that we had last year at this time. We?re still a good two weeks behind, like everybody is.?