All Sports Schedule
Holly Duax at the Drake Relays last season preparing for a race.Holly Duax at the Drake Relays last season preparing for a race.
Stephen Mally
Men's Track & Field

Notes: Drake Relays, Rittgers Invite, Kip Janvrin

The Hawkeyes return to Iowa competing at the Drake Relays and Kip Janvrin Open.

THIS WEEK

The Hawkeyes return to Iowa this week, competing over the weekend in Des Moines at the Drake Relays and in Indianola at the Kip Janvrin Open. Action begins Thursday and continues through Saturday. A small group will start the week at the Rittgers Invitational, hosted by Coe College, on Wednesday afternoon.

HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG

The meet schedule and results can be found on the Iowa Track and Field schedule page at hawkeyesports.com. Updates and results will also be posted on the team's official 'X' account (iowaXC_TF). 

2026 NEWS

  • Junior Ryan Johnson shattered his own program record taking the national lead with a 77.64-meter throw to secure the hammer throw title at the Big Red Classic. Tate Joens made his Iowa debut and finished third with a personal best of 67.74 meters, ranking fourth all-time at Iowa. 
  • Sophomore Chioma Nwachukwu reset the Iowa school record in the 400 meters, clocking a personal-best 51.24 at the Tom Jones Memorial Invite.
  • Jailya Ash secured the win in the collegiate women’s 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 13.29. The time ranks sixth all-time at Iowa. Freshman Isabel Evans also added a personal-best time of 14.04 to finish ninth.
  • At the Tom Jones Invite, freshman Jordan Gross used a personal record of 20.81 to place 15th in the men’s 200-meter invite. Senior Holly Duax matched her personal best of 23.18 in the women’s 200 meter invite. 
  • Freshman David Akhalu recorded a personal-best time of 20.94 to finish second in the collegiate men’s 200 meters in Florida.
  • At the Stanford Invite, sophomore Luke Knepp set Iowa’s new school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, placing third in his section with the new program best of 8:34.97. He had previously held the No. 2 spot on the program list at 8:39.54. He shaved five seconds off of his time from a season ago. Teammate Hayden Kuhn ran 8:30.26 in his section to post the program’s fifth-best time.
  • Senior Lizzy Korczak captured the women’s javelin title at the Texas Relays with a throw of 55.20 meters. It is her second win of the season.
  • Senior Sal Capaldo wrapped up the decathlon in third place with a lifetime-best 7,305 points at the Texas Relays. Capaldo tallied four personal bests and six top-five finishes, including the win in the 110-meter hurdles.
  • Iowa’s Vaughn DeVaughn III claimed the men’s 110-meter hurdle title in 13.92 at the UCF Black & Gold Challenge.

LAST TIME OUT

The Hawkeyes delivered a record-breaking weekend across the U.S., highlighted by Ryan Johnson in the men’s hammer throw. Competing at the Big Red Classic, Johnson shattered his own program record and fired the nation's second-best mark of 77.64 meters to claim the title, surpassing his previous personal best twice during the competition. Sophomore Chioma Nwachukwu also reset her own school record in the 400 meters, clocking a personal-best 51.24 at the Tom Jones Memorial Invite. Jailya Ash secured the event title in the collegiate women’s 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 13.29, which ranks sixth all-time at Iowa. Overall, the Hawkeyes recorded 29 personal bests and made 12 updates to the program’s all-time list. 

LAST TIME HERE 

Last season, the Iowa women won the Drake Relays Cup. The Hawkeyes delivered a standout performance with a then-world-leading performance in the men’s 4x800-meter relay. The team of Derek Leicht, James Fingalsen, Ryan Schreiner and Terrick Johnson clocked a 7:21.88 to win the event, marking the program’s first title since 2017 and the third-fastest time in school history. On the women’s side, Iowa secured the team title with first-place finishes in the sprint medley and both the invitational and open 4x400 relays. The sprint medley relay team of Holly Duax, Lia Love, Damaris Mutunga and Alli Bookin-Nosbisch set a school record of 3:44.12, earning the program’s first win in the event since 2019. Duax also dominated the day, capturing two flags in the sprint medley and 100 meters. She also made history by becoming the first Hawkeye to win the 100 meters in 11.98 at the Drake Relays. 

B1G HONORS

Two Hawkeyes were named Big Ten Athletes of the Week on March 25. Emmanuel Njoku's 7.95-meter jump is tied for sixth in the nation in the long jump. He won the title at the UCF Black & Gold Invite to open outdoor season. Prior Ochonogor kicked off his outdoor campaign with a title in the 400-meter hurdles. Ochonogor's time of 50.20 led the nation after opening week. He moved to 7th on Iowa's all-time list. 

JOHNSON ON THE BOWERMAN WATCH LIST 

Ryan Johnson has been named to The Bowerman Award Watch List, which honors the top male and female collegiate track and field athletes of the year. Johnson had a dominant indoor campaign, winning the NCAA and Big Ten title in the weight throw. The junior was Iowa’s first-ever weight throw champion and third overall champion in program history. He became a back-to-back Big Ten champion and holds Iowa’s only weight throw conference titles in school history. Johnson’s mark of 25.66 meters at the Big Ten Championships set the 2026 world lead. The throw broke his previous school record and shattered the collegiate, meet, and facility records. Johnson now ranks third all-time among American weight throwers and fourth in world history in the event. During the indoor season, Johnson claimed eight event titles and reset the school record three times. He was named the USTFCCCA Men’s National Athlete of the Week on Feb. 9 and earned Big Ten Men’s Field Event Athlete of the Week honors twice. Johnson opened his outdoor season with a school-record throw of 75.75 meters in the men’s hammer throw, surpassing his previous program record of 73.20 meters. He bettered that the following weekend with a 77.64-meter throw at the Big Red Classic. He now holds the No. 2 mark in the country. 

RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS

The Hawkeyes return All-American’s Ryan Johnson, Mike Stein, Lizzy Korczak, and the men’s and women’s 4x400-meter relay teams. Johnson earned first-team All-America honors in his first season as a Hawkeye finishing in sixth-place, firing 71.91 meters and scoring the men’s team three points in the hammer throw. He became the first Hawkeye to reach the podium in the hammer throw since 2007. Making her NCAA Championships debut, Lizzy Korczak became a second-team All-American in the javelin. Competing in flight two, Korczak placed 13th at 53.18 meters. Stein uncorked a 75.77-meter throw out of the gate and earned him sixth place and first-team honors. The 4x400-relay team of Landon Fontenot, Zidane Brown, Josh Pugh and Terrick Johnson placed fourth and clinched first-team All-America status. The group clocked the second-best time in program history at 3:01.61. Also returning is the women’s 4x400-relay team of Alivia Williams, Damaris Mutunga, Olicia Lucas and Chioma Nwachuku securing the program's first ever first-team All-America honor. The quartet clocked a sixth-place time of 3:27.42 to finish the 2025 NCAA Championships.

IN THE RANKINGS

This week, the Hawkeyes have seven events ranked in the top 15, highlighted by the No. 1 men’s hammer throw. The men’s 400-meter hurdles comes in at No. 2, while the women’s 400 and 800 meters are ranked No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. The men’s 110-meter hurdles and men’s 400 meters both hold the No. 9 spot, and the women’s 10,000 meters rounds out the group at No. 13. The men's team is ranked third in the Midwest region, while the women check in at No. 6.

SCHOOL-RECORD HOLDERS

Seven school records have been set by current members of the 2026 Iowa roster:

UPDATING THE ALL-TIME LISTS

The Hawkeyes made 21 updates to the outdoor top-10 lists:

UP NEXT

Iowa returns home to host the Musco Twilight meet on May 1–2, while another group travels to Tucson, Arizona, for the Desert Heat Classic on May 2.