eighth grades and capped it with a middle school individual state title. Always right behind him in middle school was Tallman, and the duo proved quickly as freshmen that the 1-2 punch was going to be quite effective on the varsity stage as well. Bleich is now a two-time Raccoon River Conference indi- vidual champion. Tallman has the best state-meet finish. Squiers was the individual champion at last year’s 3A State Qualifying Meet. It’s no fluke. And everyone around the state knows it. Part of what makes them so good is the competition they face on a daily basis in practice, which ramps up even more on meet day. “We push each other in workouts,” Squiers said. “I want to do better than these two and these two want to do better than me, and the same goes for meets.” “We’re all best friends, but we’re all competitive, too,” Bleich explained. “It stinks sometimes that these guys are my competition, but sometimes you have to turn that thing off in your brain.” All three would love to win an individual state crown this fall, but all three quickly put that in perspective. For starters, the team race will always be the No. 1 focus. And, secondly, they are all quite aware of the fact that two 3A gold medalists — Western Dubuque’s Quentin Nauman and Pella’s Canaan Dunham — also return. Nauman un- seated Dunham a year ago, and in the spring Nauman be- came a household name nationally with his performances over 800, 1,600, and 3,200 meters. Nauman makes Western Dubuque good, and Pella will be a formidable foe this fall as well. But neither team has a trio quite like Gilbert. There isn’t a team in 3A that even comes close. And everyone knows it. “There aren’t any other teams where there’s three of us,”
Squiers said. ‘When you put three people in front of another team’s No. 1, I feel like the race is kind of over.” “All three of us look at this like it’s a great opportunity,” Tallman said. “I don’t say it’s going to be stressful. We’re just going to do the best we can and it will turn out great.” Pulling of the 3A state three-peat won’t be easy, but it will be expected from the outside world. The good news is the Tigers don’t pay much attention to the noise. They didn’t last year and it served them well. They also won’t be scour- ing the Internet to find results and times of their potential state competitors. “We didn’t follow teams last year and it worked out pretty well,” Squiers said. “The only time that really matters is at state and Coach (Aaron) Thomas breaks everything down so well. We’ll know exactly what we need to do.” • They’ve now hit the backstreets of Gilbert as mile No. 6 comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Grimacing ever so slightly, Bleich begins to shake his arms out due to the buildup of lactic acid, but it’s to no avail. As they reach the final half-mile, Squiers and Tallman take off from their teammate without saying a word. Your average non-runner would look at them and say they took off at a sprint — not exactly normal after six-plus miles al- ready covered, and yet there they go. Bleich, meanwhile, maintains his even pace and accepts the fact that today just isn’t his day in this inside competi- tion. And he’s more than fine with that. Don’t you see? This is exactly what makes this trio so for- midable on the statewide landscape. Is it usually Bleich that leads the way? Yep. But is it even a small surprise if it’s Tallman or Squiers
10 GAME ON | FALL 2025
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