McConico Does it Again

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa track and field team set 10 personal bests and earned two individual titles on the second day of the Rod McCravy Memorial in Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday. 
 The men were led by senior Jaylan McConico and sophomore Wayne Lawrence. McConico took home first place in the 60-meter hurdles  in 7.72. Lawrence placed first in the 400 meters with a time of 46.40. Senior DeJuan Frye, who ran alongside Lawrence and took second in the 400, earned a new personal best of 47.16, a time that ranks ninth all-time at Iowa. 
 
“Going in I didn’t put a time on it because we had rough travel and stuff like that,” said McConico. “It wasn’t my cleanest race, but I was just trying to focus on staying technically sound and staying composed and coming out with a win. Having Jamal (Britt), my teammate, there with me was nice and I just focused on coming out on top.”
 
QUOTING COACH WOODY
“Overall, I think it was a great meet for our program. I think we got a lot of good things accomplished, both on the men’s and women’s side.”
 
“I was really excited for Wayne (Lawrence) to open up, just proving he’s one of the best 400 guys in the country. He went out there for his first 400 open and had a great race today. It was great to see DeJuan (Frye) come back and looking like his old self from a couple years ago. He was one of the top guys in the conference so to run a big PR this early is a really positive thing. Then, he had a tremendous leg on the 4×4 to set us up on that. Both of those guys are coming off running great 200s last night so it’s pretty exciting for that group. Peyton Haack had some great attempts at the vault. We just had a lot of good things happening.”
 
“On the women’s side, the 400 hurdlers that train in that group had some really good 400s today, led with Payton (Wensel) who had a big PR, a second faster than what she ran a week ago. That shows that some athletes are built for the oversize track, which she is.”
 
“Jamal (Britt) competed really well and Jaylan (McConico) competed exceptionally well. That shows why he’s the best in the Big Ten right now. Going forward these next couple weeks we are focused on getting people healthy and getting them confident on the track so that we can get ready for championship season in the next 3-4 weeks.”
 
HAWKEYES TAKE GOLD
Wayne Lawrence: 400 meters (46.40)
Jaylan McConico: 60-meter hurdles (7.72)
 
CAREER BESTS
The women tallied four personal bests:
Anaya Alexander: 400 meters (57.91)
Taylor Arco: 400 meters (57.97)
Addie Swanson: 400 meters (56.76)
Payton Wensel: 400 meters (55.84)
 
The men added six personal bests:
Alex Birkett: 800 meters (1:50.13)
DeJuan Frye: 400 meters (47.16)
Spencer Gudgel: 400 meters (49.57)
Jordan Johnson: shot put (15.54m, 51-0)
Nolan Kembel: 400 meters (49.15)
Nolan Roethler: 400 meters (49.33)
 
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes host their final indoor meet of the 2019-20 season on Jan.31-Feb.1. The teams competing include, Barton College, Bradley, Drake, Eastern Illinois, Iowa Western, Loyola, Marquette, Minnesota State, Northern Iowa, and Tulsa.