GENEVA, Ohio — University of Iowa senior Mallory King collected a pair of gold medals to lead the Hawkeye track and field team Saturday at the SPIRE B1G Invitational.
King ran on the women’s first-place 1,600-meter relay and dominated the women’s 800 meters, finishing nearly three seconds in front of the runner-up to win gold in 2:05.34. Four Hawkeyes followed King with career-best performances, including Clare Pitcher, who placed fourth overall in 2:09.67.
The Hawkeye men placed runner-up in the 1,600-meter relay. Julien Gillum, Spencer Gudgel, Wayne Lawrence, Jr. and Tyler Olson put together a season-best 3:08.25.
The silver was one of two on the day for Lawrence. Iowa’s school record holder in the 400 meters placed second Saturday in 46.08. Jefferson placed fifth in 47.98 and was one of four Hawkeyes to record a personal best
Austin Kresley, who last week jumped to No. 3 on Iowa’s all-time top 10 list, was runner-up in the men’s 60 meters, earning silver in 6.75.
Tesa Roberts led a trio of women to set personal bests in the 400. Robert broke 55 seconds for the first time in her career, finishing in 54.97 and sliding into No. 10 spot on Iowa’s all-time top 10 list.
Alex Still and Tyler Olson registered top 10 finishes in the men’s 800. Still led Iowa with a sixth-place finish in 1:51.52. Olson placed eighth, setting a personal-best in 1:51.65.
The Hawkeyes set a total of 14 personal best Saturday at the SPIRE Institute.
QUOTING JOEY WOODY
“I thought we continued to build off of yesterday. We had some okay performances yesterday and then came back with some really good performances. The guys and girls were feeling a lot better today.
“It’s unfortunate for Penn State that they have to quarantine for a week, but it really took away from the competitiveness of some of the events over there.
“Mallory King ran 2:05, which is fantastic. I thought she did a great job in the 800. The guys and girls had fantastic performances in the 400. There were a lot of PRs and that is nice to see. On the women’s side, Tesa Roberts and Nylah Perry both ran PRs in the 400 and then to come back and run on that 4×4. It sounds like we blew away the field in the 4×4.
“We were hoping to have a little more competition to push us a little bit, but we have some really good athletes that are ready to do some big things when we get to the Big Ten meet.”
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes return to action Feb. 25-27 at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio.
EVENT WINNERS
W 800m: Mallory King: 2:05.34
W 4×400 meter relay: 3:42.54 (Roberts, Perry, King, Wensel)
CAREER BESTS
W 400m: Tesa Roberts, 54.97, 10th all-time
W 400m: Nylah Perry, 55.03
W 400m: Mariel Bruxvoort, 56.25
M 400m: Khullen Jefferson, 47.98
M 400m: Everett Steward, 48.39
M 400m: Drake Woody, 49.13
M 400m: Evan Schuster, 49.66
W 800m: Clare Pitcher: 2:09.67
W 800m: Alli Bookin-Nosbisch: 2:11.71
W 800m: Katie Moore: 2:14.76
W 800m: Lindsay Welker: 2:18.24
M 800m: Tyler Olson: 1:51.65
M 800m: Jason Hoffman: 1:52.33
M 800m: Martin Strong: 1:53.50