April 8, 2009
IOWA CITY, IA – Iowa junior Ray Varner has been named the Big Ten’s Men’s Co-Track Athlete of the Week, sharing honors with Purdue’s Josh Hembrough. This is Varner’s first weekly honor, and Iowa’s first track athlete honored since Andy Napier, exactly one year ago.
Varner earned accolades for his two regional qualifying performances at last weekend’s Tiger Track Classic, hosted by Auburn University. The Wadsworth, IL, native posted a third place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51.82.
Later in the meet, Varner anchored Iowa’s 1,600-meter relay team, helping them to a fifth-place finish of 3:09.70. The other members of the regional-qualifying relay team were sophomore Steven Willey, freshman Patrick Richards and sophomore Chris Barton.
The Hawkeyes are set to split competitors between three meets next weekend. Team members will compete at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, AZ, the Lee Calhoun Memorial in Macomb, IL, or the Jim Duncan Invite in Des Moines, IA. All three meets have events scheduled Friday and Saturday.