T he sun is just beginning to peak its head out on this Tuesday morning in early August, but what is most noticeable is the lack of humidity. It’s actually a bit chilly at 62 de- grees, not the norm in a state that is known for summer air so thick that it feels like a sharp knife is needed to cut through it. The conditions are optimal for a long run, which is exactly what got Gilbert cross country student-athletes Carson Squiers, Logan Bleich, and Jacob Tallman out of bed so early. This is what they do. This is who they are. And this is why they are so good. They start what will end up being a seven- mile trek with a light jog (by their standards) down the bike path going south on what the kids refer to as the “Gilbert Speedway.” All along the trail, they chat about this and that like they’re sitting at an outside cafe sipping a morning latte. The more than a mile they quickly cover doesn’t appear to effect them at all. At this pace, just how far could they go? “I don’t know, maybe 20 miles?” Bleich says, and the others don’t disagree. If they wanted, could they run a marathon? “Yeah, we could,” Bleich says and, again, Squiers and Tallman don’t disagree. “I’m not saying it would be fast by any means, but we could do that.” We’re now nearing the end of mile No. 2 at this point and their breathing still isn’t labored. We’re back toward the town of Gilbert now, and this light jogging pace (again, this is by THEIR standards) is about to be left in the rearview mirror.
• It’s not a secret and it’s not an opinion. It’s simply a fact. Squiers, Bleich, and Tallman are among the best cross country runners in Iowa. Together, they give the two-time defend- ing Class 3A state champion Tigers what is arguably the best trio the state has to offer. Tallman placed fourth, Bleich was fifth, and Squiers took sixth at state a season ago when Gilbert set an all-time state-meet scoring record en route to the program’s fifth cham- pionship overall. They’re all two-time all-state performers. The résumés are impressive, there’s no doubt. But how did they get started? And when did they know that, yeah, we’re good? Bleich, who could be known as the me- chanic with how in tune he is with his training and performance, says it actually began on the playground at Gilbert Intermediate. “Mileage Club, that was my thing,” Bleich, a junior, said. “Then during COVID, I was bored so I ran because there wasn’t anything else to do.” Squiers, the elder statesmen of the bunch as a senior, doesn’t remember a time when running wasn’t his thing. He also vividly re- members competing against Bleich during a track and field day when they both attended Gilbert Intermediate. “My parents always told me I was a runner, and I remember running the mile against Logan at track and field day, that was hype. I kind of got away from it in middle school, but then I locked in again in high school.”
6 GAME ON | FALL 2025
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