DES MOINES - Brooke Foreman left the 103rd Annual Drake Relays in tears Saturday.

Foreman had the lead in the 400 meter hurdles coming over the final barrier, but Anne Leners of Pleasant Valley put on a late burst and beat her to the finish line.

Foreman began sobbing on the track, then headed quickly to the interview room under the stands where she spent a few minutes trying to control her emotions before meeting with reporters.

"I blew it," she announced, visibly distraught.

She began crying again and ducked behind a curtain in the interview room, where the senior from Cedar Rapids Washington put her head in her hands and cried loudly for several minutes before trying to answer questions again. She said a few more words and accepted an invitation to leave, but returned a few minutes later to conduct a short television
interview.

Foreman won the Class 4A state title in the 400 meters last year and was hoping to add a title at Drake to her list of accomplishments. She was clocked in 1:03.28 Saturday, her best time of the season by 1.54 seconds, but Leners won in 1:02.93 to claim the title by 35-hundredths of a second.

"It wasn't good enough," Foreman said during her TV interview. "She was stronger at the end."

Foreman took no consolation in running her fastest race of the year. She won the state title in 1:02.62 last year and uses that as a measuring stick, so running 1:03.28 at Drake on a cool day provided no satisfaction.

"My best this year, yes. But I was running 1:02 last year," she said with emphasis.

Foreman has signed to run track at Drake University next year and was hoping to win a gold medal on what will become her home turf. Instead, Leners got the flag that goes to all the Drake Relays champs.

Foreman has dedicated this season to her grandfather, Ed Foreman, who died a few months before the 2011 state meet without having a chance to see her run in high school. She announced this March that she'd like to use the 2012 state track meet as a fundraiser to help fight cancer, with people able to pledge amounts that would be tied to how she does at state.

Frank Scherrman, the girls track coach at Cedar Rapids Washington, wants to make sure Foreman does not put too much pressure on herself as she seeks to repeat as a state champion and also raise money to fight cancer as a high school senior.

Foreman's emotions flowed to the surface Saturday after her near-miss in the Drake Relays. She was reminded that she could get another shot at beating Leners at the state meet in three weeks.

"Yes," she replied, "but I don't get a Drake flag at state."