April 2, 2011
- Big Ten Championships – Iowa City, Iowa
- Download your Iowa Hawkeye iPhone app!
- Iowa and the Big Ten Network
- Big Ten Network: Free Hawkeye Video
- 24 Hawkeyes to Watch
Complete Results in PDF Format
BATON ROUGE, La. – The University of Iowa track and field teams crowned four champions at the LSU Invite Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. The Hawkeyes took third place as a team on both sides of the competition, propelled by the performance of the field athletes. The women claimed third with 71 points, while the men racked up 127.50 points in the team race.
The Iowa men’s team boasted three champions at the meet, with All-Americans, Erik Sowinski and Ethan Holmes, and sophomore Matt Byers earning titles. Sowinski, a junior, claimed first place in the men’s 800 meter run after clocking a time of 1:48.15. Holmes dominated the men’s 400 meter hurdles (51.85), while Byers, an NCAA qualifier last season, placed first in the javelin after hitting a mark of 245.08 feet (74.89m).
The women’s team posted one champion. Freshman Carisa Leacock earned first place in the long jump. Leacock leapt 19-11.5 feet (6.08m) to take the top spot in her outdoor collegiate debut.
Senior Tiffany Hendricks placed second in the women’s 400 meter run, posting a time of 1:00.53, while Kelsey Taylor and Majesty Tutson excelled in the field events. Taylor, a third place finisher, hit 172 feet (52.42m) in the hammer throw competition and Tutson posted a mark of 149.6 feet (45.57m) to earn fourth place.
In the men’s field events, junior Nick Brayton finished second in the discus with a toss of 161-10 feet (49.33m) and junior Matt Banse hit 55-2 ¼ feet (16.82m) in the shot put, good enough for a second place finish.
The men’s and women’s 400-meter relay teams had solid debuts. The men’s team (Tevin Mincy, Zeke Sayon, Patrick Richards, Paul Chaney) crossed the line in 40.53 to earn third place, while the women’s team (Tiffany Hendricks, Erin Jones, Ashley Liverpool, Carisa Leacock) finished in 45.77 to take fifth.
The Hawkeye men’s 1,600 meter relay team, running for the first time since earning All-America honors at the 2010 NCAA Championships, placed fourth at the Invite with a time of 3:10.17.
The Hawkeyes will hit the ground running next weekend at the Sun Angel Classic on the campus of Arizona State University. The event is scheduled to begin Friday (April 8) and conclude Saturday (April 9).