He didn’t think of himself as a miler, even though he finished as the state runner-up in that event in 1978. He says he was known as a “relay guy” because relays were worth more points back in the day. He would run 48 second quarters and sub 2 minute halves while anchoring some pretty impressive Waterloo East quartets during his high school career.
Running the mile at the 1979 state meet was something that really came along by accident for Todd Peverill.
This was before co-ed meets, so East Coach Jim Miller moved personnel around at the district meet to keep Todd fresh and still score as many points as possible. The district schedule did not allow enough recovery time for Todd to run the 4×8, medley and 4×4, so they entered him in only the mile and the 4×4. The state meet schedule, however, would allow for that to happen so the plan was for him to run those three relays at state, for maximum points, and scratch out of the mile. Peverill had anchored East’s medley and 4×4 teams to Drake Relays titles just a month earlier.
Things don’t always go as planned and neither the medley nor the 4×8 qualified to make the trip to Drake Stadium; but Todd did qualify in both the mile and the 4×4.
They say things happen for a reason, and that seems to have been the case in the spring of ‘79.
Once Peverill knew he would have only 2 events at state he became very focused on the mile, not only wanting revenge for his photo finish loss the year before, but because the Des Moines Register did not mention him as a contender; siding, instead, with defending champion Mike Diment of Hoover and Matt Trimble of City High.
At the end of the first lap, Peverill moved from 5th to 2nd and settled in on the shoulder of leader, Mike Cupp from Valley. He surged a couple of times in the next 880 yards, trying to take control of the pace, but Cupp would have nothing of it. His coaches had told him to wait until 100 to go before executing his final kick, but Todd couldn’t wait that long. With visions of the 1978 loss still in his mind, he threw it down as he approached the 3rd turn and the field had no answer. The mile run, in the 1979 state meet, is the event Todd Peverill became known for. His winning time of 4:13.65 was the 4A state meet record until getting broken some 35 years later.
Todd was a team player. Rather than basking in the glow of being a state champion, he came back 30 minutes later to anchor East’s 4×4 to the 4A state title with a 48.1 split. Their winning time of 3:18.09 is #6 all time and was the 4A state meet record for a number of years.
Oh, and for icing on the cake, Waterloo East also won the 4A team title.
Peverill had a very successful cross country career at East as well, finishing 3rd in the state meet as a junior and 8th as a senior.
Todd started his collegiate career at UNI and finished at Nebraska-Omaha. At one time he had all of the UNI freshman records in Cross Country and the distance races in track. In 1980 he led off UNI’s winning distance medley at the Drake Relays. He was conference runner-up in Cross Country in 1979 leading UNI to a team title. UNI went on to finish 4th in the Division II national championships and Todd just missed garnering a medal, finishing 26th, while the top 25 earned All American honors.
Not all athletes make good coaches, but Todd Peverill has proven he could do both with great success.
He has been the Assistant Boys Track coach at Glenwood for 20 years and has coached a state champion in the 3200 along with 2 state champions in the high jump and 3 Drake Relays champions. In 16 years as the Head Cross Country coach he has had 5 conference championship teams, 5 state qualifying teams, 9 state qualifying individuals, 3 state medalists and 1 individual state champion.
Todd has won a number of IATC awards during his coaching career and is very active in our organization coordinating the individual cross country rankings and helping to recruit for the IATC Senior All Star teams.
Todd has been married to his wife Lu, a former UNI track manager and his long time assistant cross country coach for 31 years. They have 2 sons, Kelsey and wife Amanda and Collin and wife Diamond. They are the proud grandparents as well.