CHARLESTON – Edwardsville distance runner Roland Prenzler, building off a very successful cross-country season this past fall, finished ninth for the Tigers in the Class 3A 3,200 meter run in the IHSA boys state track and field meet on Saturday afternoon at O’Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
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Prenzler, a senior who was considered one of the St. Louis area’s premier distance runners, overcame some minor injuries at the start of the year, and ran well throughout the season to make it to the state meet.
“Well, my cross-country season, I’d done the best I’ve ever done,” Prenzler said in a post-race interview, “I (set a personal record) by almost 35 seconds, so I was ready for a great track season. I had a bad state race, and I dwelled on it for too long over the winter, I didn’t get much sleep at night. And I had a few minor injuries that set me back, that probably put me out for a total of a week throughout the early spring.
“So, I’m just coming in; we had done some fitness tests on the track,” Prenzler continued. “And I was ahead of where I was just naturally from the previous season by working hard and just developing naturally and building upon what I had done. But for a single race, I had done a personal best indoors by about seven seconds, so I was at a steady point of about seven seconds better than the previous season. And then, going 9:18 at Granite City on a cold winter day. And since then, I hadn’t raced the 3,200, except for just jogging at a conference for points. Come sectionals, it was the worst weather we’d ever gotten. So, to be honest with you, I was kind of surprised I made it to state.”
Prenzler was exhausted after qualifying at the sectional meet, so in preparing for the race at state, he stayed hydrated throughout the week.
“I was so tired after the sectional race,” Prenzler said, “but coming up this week, I’d not run any further than six (miles); I’d been drinking water like crazy. I had water bottles piled up all over the dorm room, I’d been going to EIU just to be drinking so much water in order to stay hydrated for this, and it looks to the heat today, and I guess I got a medal out of it.”Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.
