CHARLESTON - The Pride of Jersey Ben Flowers made it to the 1,600-meter finals Friday and will make a bid for a top state finish Saturday in Charleston in the IHSA Class 2A State Track and Field Meet.
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Flowers recorded a time of 4:25.79 to get to the finals, saving his best race for Saturday as planned.
“He has the sixth fastest time for the entire year in Class 2A,” his coach Harold Landon said. “He didn’t run hard at sectional, he was just trying to qualify. His best time is 4:21.7; 4:19 is the fastest time in Class 2A in the state this year.
Saturday will be a very strategic race for Flowers and the other 1,600 runners in Class 2A.
“He is going to get inside the track and when the gun goes off, he is staying on the startlng line and not getting caught up in the middle of the pack,” Landon said. “We want him to have the cleanest race possible. He is one of 10 guys who will contend for the title; there is no clear-cut favorite. Nobody likes to lead the race because the majority of time they don’t win it. At the 700-meter mark he will look at his time and he might take the lead to try to take the sprint out of the other runners’ legs. I think 4:16 probably will win it.”
Flowers has not been pushed for most of the season, so Saturday will be an extreme test for him.
“Ben is ready,” Landon said about the big race. “He has his legs back.”
