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By JACK ROSSI
hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The UI Recreation building was electric for the finale of the Larry Wieczorek Invitational in a meet that saw career-bests, facility records, and a Hawkeye victory on Saturday.
The Iowa men and women downed Iowa State, Florida State, and Northern Iowa with team scores of 168 and 148.50, respectively. Iowa captured 14 event titles over the two-day competition.
“The atmosphere was awesome,” UI director of track and field Joey Woody said. “We want to continue to create a great entertaining atmosphere here for not only the fans but our student-athletes who compete in front of a great crowd.”
Moving into eighth in the country in the shot put was senior Avery Meyers with a personal best throw of 61-feet 4 ¼ inches (18.70m). That mark ranks third all-time at Iowa and third in the Big Ten.
“It’s funny, I haven’t been feeling great all week,” Meyers said. “But I was able to put something together in the last round and I am really happy with that. I was hoping to continue to be 18-meter plus and I accomplished that today.”
“He is just continuing to have such a great start to the season and that was a great way to start the meet today,” Woody said.
The duo of senior Aaron Mallett and sophomore Chris Douglas moved up the national leaderboards in the men’s 60-meter hurdles. Douglas set a personal best with a time of 7.87 to rank fourth in the Big Ten and 11th in the country.
Mallett topped his own facility record set a week ago in the Hawkeye Invitational with a season-best time of 7.77 seconds. Mallett moves up to first in the Big Ten and third in the country.
“I wanted to come out here and compete well and have a good race,” Mallett said. “I have been pushing a lot in the weight room and my power is way up so I am trying to get used to getting over the hurdles and having good races.”
With an entrance reminiscent of a pro wrestling event, the 4×400 meter relay team of freshman Jenny Kimbro, sophomore Briana Guillory, junior Alexis Hernandez, and freshman Talia Buss walked onto the track under a spotlight and set a personal best (3:42.17), moving into third place on the Big Ten leaderboards.
Guillory sparked the team, coming from behind on the second leg to take a lead the team never gave back.
“In high school I had a lot of experience being behind and having to make up the stagger,” Guillory said. “Even if the person is out in front of you, it doesn’t mean that they are faster than you. There is no guarantee they will keep that lead.”
The Hawkeyes host their fourth meet in a row next weekend in the Black and Gold Premier. The two-day competition is set to run next Friday and Saturday, beginning at 11:00 a.m. (CT) on Friday.
OTHER NOTEABLES:
Erika Hammond: Personal Best
Women’s 400m
Alexis Gay: Personal Best
Men’s 400m
Collin Hofacker: Personal Best
Will Teubul: Personal Best
Women’s 60m
Taylor Chapman: Personal Best
Women’s 400m
Talia Buss: Personal Best
Brittany Brown: Personal Best, Event Title
Men’s 400m
Austin Lietz: Personal Best
Women’s 60m Hurdles
Jenny Kimbro: Personal Best
Heaven Chandler: Personal Best
Men’s 60m Dash
Jacob Gourley: Personal Best
Christian Brissett: Personal Best
Men’s Triple Jump
Akinshe Calica-Hill: Personal Best
Women’s Triple Jump
Allison Wahrman: Personal Best
Hannah Schilb: Personal Best
Women’s 3000m
Andrea Shine: Personal Best
Men’s 3000m
Adam Jones: Personal Best
Mile
Tess Wilberding: Personal Best, Event Title
