JEWELL – Logan Peters enjoys being a front runner, a pacesetter, whether he’s running hills on a golf course or in a continuous oval on a track.

Hanging back and coming on at the end simply isn’t his style. It never has been and it never will be.

That aggressive mentality has served the talented South Hamilton freshman well. He led the boys’ cross country squad to the state meet last fall and will now run twice at this week’s state track and field meet inside Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Peters’ solo endeavor will be in Saturday’s Class 2A 1,600-meter run. He’ll be one of 24 entrants jockeying for a top-8 medal and he’s likely not to be the only runner that likes to get out hot.

Will his strategy change? No way.

“Logan will come out and run his race,” South Hamilton head coach Darrell Paulsen said. “With him, he just needs to make sure that when he comes around the corner he’s looking at the clock to see how much he can push it at the end.”

Seeded 18th, Peters won’t be favored to contend among the lead pack, but the state-meet rookie has his sights set on the South Hamilton school record of 4:41.30, set by Bret Greve back in 1990. Peters ran 4:42.16 at last week’s state qualifier and there’s no doubt the pace will be fast enough to give it a go on Saturday.

“He was pretty close to that school record, so he wants to go down there and get that,” Paulsen said. “There are 23 other guys that are going to be pushing him.”

Peters’ individual run will end the Hawks weekend on the blue oval. It will begin today at noon when Peters teams up with the Fisher twins, Jared and Devon, as well as Josiah Brown to battle in the 4×800 relay. Seeded 16th, South Hamilton will run in the first of two timed sections and winning that heat will be necessary if the quartet wants to move up the standings.

“That’s one where I think we can make a lot of improvement time wise because we haven’t really put one good day together where all four kids ran their best,” Paulsen said. “Hopefully with the good weather that can happen.”

Jared Fisher will jump into the blocks for the open 400 at 1:40 p.m. today. He broke 52 seconds for the first time last week and it put him in the No. 14 seed for the timed finals. He’ll be in the second of three sections and housed in Lane 7.

South Hamilton’s 1,600 medley relay – Logan Klemp, Drake Thompson and the Fisher boys – will run in the first of three timed sections in Lane 3 on Friday at noon. Again, since the race is a final, the Hawks will need to make every step count in order to bump up from their No. 19 seed.

“With Jared in the 400 and the two relays, we just want to improve and hope for the best,” Paulsen said. “And I think there’s a little motivation for the medley team with a team that is running right next to us. I think there will be good times from everybody.”