April 20, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format
THIS WEEK — The Iowa men and women’s track team will compete at the 100th running of the Drake Relays, Thursday-Saturday, in Des Moines, IA. Events will be held on Jim Duncan Track in Drake Stadium (18,000). Tickets are available at (515) 271-3647 or at www.drakebulldogs.com. Events are scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday.
The Saturday session of the Drake Relays will be shown, taped delayed, on ESPN2. The air time will be 1 p.m. (CT) Sunday.
TICKET INFORMATION — Tickets for the 100th annual Drake Relays are available at (515) 271-3647 or at www.drakebulldogs.com. The Saturday’s event finals has sold out 42 consecutive years, which is the longest streak in U.S. track history. Following are ticket prices:
Reserved Ticket Packages
Package (Days) – Price
All-Session – $85
All-American(Friday Night and Saturday) – $55
Gold (Friday Day & Saturday) – $70
Friday & Friday Night – $45
Single Session Prices
Competition Day (Ticket Type) – Price
Thursday (General Admission – All Ages) – $5
Friday Day (Reserved Adult/Youth) – $35/$20
Friday Night Only (Reserved Adult/Youth) – $20/$10
Saturday (Reserved Adult) – $40
IOWA AT THE DRAKE RELAYS — The Hawkeye men’s team has won 25 individual events and 23 relays during the Drake Relays 100 years of existence. The Iowa women have won 10 individual events and four relays.
The last Drake Relays individual champions for the Hawkeye women were Tiffany Johnson (100-meter hurdles) and Diane Nukuri (5,000 meters) in 2007. The Iowa women’s last winning relay was the shuttle hurdle relay in 1998. Former Hawkeye Ken Kemeny was the last Drake Relays individual champion for the Iowa men, winning the shot put in 2004. Iowa’s last winning relay for the men’s squad was the 1992 sprint medley relay.
Two Hawkeyes hold Drake Relays event records – both in the long jump. Former Hawkeye Anthuan Maybank set the men’s long jump mark of 27-1 in 1993. Maybank, who was named outstanding performer at the 1993 meet, remains the only man to break the 27-foot barrier in the long jump in addition to the 45-second barrier in the 400 meters. He was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 2008.
Former Hawkeye Aisha James set the women’s Drake Relays long jump record of 22-3 in 2003. Her jump was a world-leading mark at the time and bested the Drake Stadium and Iowa school records. It was also the best long jump for a native of Trinidad.
2008 DRAKE RELAYS REVIEW — The Hawkeyes saw two women’s school records fall and several placewinners at the 99th annual Drake Relays in Des Moines, April 24-26.
Senior Tammilee Kerr broke her own hepathlon school record of 5,332 with her runner-up total of 5,417. That performance also provisionally qualified Kerr for the NCAA Championships.
The Hawkeye women’s 6,400-meter relay of senior Diane Nukuri, junior Racheal Marchand, graduate student Sarah Henize and senior Meghan Armstrong shattered the school record of 20:39.12 by over one minute with their third-place finish of 19:15.42. Former Hawkeyes Nikki Chapple, Jordan Laney, Katie Donlon and Michelle Sokol set the previous record in 2005.
Iowa’s other top placewinners were senior Jessica Schmidt (5th-3,000 steeplechase) and the distance medley relay of freshmen Lauren Hardesty, Amanda Hardesty and Tiffany Hendricks, and junior Krista Anderson (7th).
The Hawkeye men were led by shot putters John Hickey, A.J. Curtis and Shane Maier. The trio placed second (60-3 1/4), third (57-11 3/4) and fourth (56-4) – respectively – in that event. The Hawkeye sprint medley relay of seniors Max Milder and Lee Elbert, freshman Chris Barton and sophomore Adam Hairston also placed second (3:21.24). Senior Ryan Niver placed seventh in the decathlon with a collegiate-best 6,837 points, which fell two points shy of the school record. Iowa’s other top placewinners were junior Andy Napier (6th-3,000 steeplechase), sophomore Ray Varner (8th-400-meter hurdles) and Hairston (8th-800 meters).
Three former Hawkeyes and a coaching staff member also competed at Drake. Former Hawkeye Peaches Roach placed placed third in the heptathlon (5,412). Two-time Drake Relays University 100-meter hurdles champion Tiffany Johnson placed fifth in the special invitation 100-meter hurdles (13.74). Johnson is the only women’s student-athlete in Hawkeye school history to win consecutive Drake titles in the same event. Former Hawkeye sprinter and current women’s assistant coach Shellene Williams placed fifth in the women’s 400 meters (53.62). Hawkeye assistant coach Joey Woody placed fourth in the men’s 400-meter hurdles (50.93), competing in his last race at Drake.
LAST WEEK — The Hawkeyes posted eight regional qualifying performances and crowned nine event champions between the John McDonnell Invite in Fayetteville, AR, and the Messersmith Invite in Cedar Falls, IA, last weekend.
At Fayetteville, AR, sophomore Steven Willey won the 400 meters with a regional qualifying and collegiate best 47.04. Junior Adam Hairston regionally qualified in the 800 meters with a season best 1:49.96 for fourth place. It was business as usual for junior Ray Varner, as he again came out with a season-best and regional qualifying mark in the 400-meter hurdles of 51.00 for second place. Varner’s finish was only two-hundredths of a second away from breaking his collegiate best in that event. Freshman Patrick Richards (8th, 21.70) had a strong showing in the 200 meters. It earned him a new collegiate best and was only less than four-tenths of a second away from a the regional qualifying mark of 21.35.
At Cedar Falls, senior Renee White had a very strong season debut in the long jump, netting a win (20-0 1/4) with a regional qualifying mark. Iowa swept the top three spots in the men’s discus with three regional qualifying performances from freshmen Nick Brayton (1st, 180-11), and Ryan Lamparek (2nd, 177-3), and senior A.J. Curtis (3rd, 170-4). Brayton and Lamparek’s tosses rank sixth and ninth, respectively, all-time at Iowa. Freshman Matt Banse earned his qualifying mark in the hammer throw (2nd, 187-7) with a collegiate best mark that ranks seventh in school history.
In addition to White and Brayton, six other Hawkeyes were crowned event champions at the Messersmith Invite: Senior Jennie Docherty (800 meters – 2:14.68), junior Jay Renaud (1,500 meters – 4:01.54) and freshman Ryan Lamparek (shot put – 53-2 1/4) won individual events, while the women’s 400-meter relay of sophomore Karessa Farley, and Tiffany Hendricks, junior Rhonda-Kaye Trusty and White (46.90), the women’s 1,600-meter relay of redshirt freshman Kelsey Mims, freshman Courtney Johnson and Nicole Erickson and junior Sophia Poncé (3:58.67), and men’s 1,600-meter relay of sophomores Dan Kuhlman, Brandon McSkimming, Matt Rammelsberg and junior Zach Splan (3:21.72) also won titles.
IOWA TRACK TO HOST CLINICS & CAMPS — The Hawkeye coaching staff is scheduled to host a four-day summer camp June 21-25. For more information contact Assistant Coach Scott Cappos at (319) 335-9392 or scott-cappos@uiowa.edu, or visit www.hawkeyetrack.com.
MEN’S TEAM ANNOUNCES 2009 RECRUITING CLASS — The Hawkeye men’s track team has signed four student-athletes to national letters of intent for the 2010 season. Head Coach Larry Wieczorek is excited about the immediate impact that hurdler Ethan Holmes (Clinton, IA), distance runner Jeff Thode (Hoffman Estates, IL) and throwers Ben Stancombe (Bloomington, IN) and Matt Byers (Wichita, KS) will have on the Hawkeyes next season.
Holmes is the defending Class 4A state 400-meter hurdles champion (53.03), also winning that event at the 2008 Drake Relays. Stancombe is one of the top five returning hammer throwers (202-0) and one of the top nine weight throwers (67-10) in the nation. Competing for South High School, he is also the top returning shot putter (58-0) in the state of Indiana. Byers is one of the top three returning javelin throwers in the nation, recording a personal-best 219-8. He placed second at the Class 6A Kansas state championships, the USTAF Junior Championships and the USATF Junior Olympics last season. Thode is the fourth Illinois state cross country champion to join the Hawkeyes in recent years. He won the large school class at the 2008 state meet in November with a time of 14:18 on the three-mile course. He is also one of the top six returning milers in the nation, posting a 4:10.80 last spring.
WOMEN’S TEAM ANNOUNCES 2009 RECRUITING CLASS — The Hawkeye women’s track team has signed eight student-athletes to national letters of intent for the 2010 season. Head Coach Layne Anderson is excited about the immediate impact that multi-event competitor Missy Miller (Tipton, IA), high jumpers Megan Glisar (Sergeant Bluff, IA) and Eva Greenwalt (Fitchberg, WI), distance runners Megan Ranegar (Valparaiso, IN) and Sarah Boyd (Dunrobin, Ontario), thrower Ashlyn Gulvas (Pinconning, MI), sprinter and jumpr Emily Moore (Gillette, WY) and sprinter Raven Moore (Riverdale, GA) will have on the Hawkeyes next season.
Boyd placed third at the 2007 OFSAA Cross Country Championships (17:56), and has lifetime best performances of 2:14 (800 meters) and 4:39 (1500 meters indoor). Glisar is a three-time Class 3A high jump state champion who placed third at the 2007 Nike Outdoor National Championships (5-8 3/4) and won the 2007 USA Youth Outdoor high jump title. Greenwalt qualified for the 2008 state meet in four events, placing third in the high jump. Her lifetime best clearance in that event is 5-8. A 2008 state champion in both the shot put and discus, Gulvas has posted lifetime best performances of 45-3 in the shot and 140-6 in the discus.
Miller is a four-time Class 2A state champion in track, having qualified in the maximum 12 events for three state championships, and a four-time state qualifier in cross country. She is a 10-time Drake Relays qualifier, and was part of two state championship cross country and track teams. Emily Moore is an 11-time Class 4A state champion in the jumps and sprints. Wyoming’s 2008 Track and Field Gatorade Player of the Year, she holds state records in the long lump (19-2 1/2), triple jump (39-7 1/2) and as a part of the 400-meter relay (48.30). She is a two-time triple jump all-American at the Nike Outdoor National meet, placing fourth in 2007 and second in 2008. Raven Moore was a Class 1A state champion in both the 100 (11.80) and 200 meters (24.50). Ranegar was the 2007 State Cross Country Runner-up and placed 20th at the Footlocker Midwest Regional in a time of 18:24.
NEXT UP — In their final event before the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, the Hawkeyes will compete at the Illinois Invite Saturday, May 2, at Champaign, IL. Events will be held at the University of Illinois Track and Soccer Stadium and are scheduled to start at Noon (CT).