The Iowa women’s track and field team competed at the Razorback Invitational and faced tough competition from around the country this past weekend.

On Jan. 28, the distance medley of junior McKenzie Melander, senior Tiffany Hendricks, senior Bethany Praska, and junior Betsy Flood, who ran anchor, took second place — only 2.54 seconds behind Stanford with a final time of 11:24:47. Although the final time was close to Iowa’s record, head coach Layne Anderson noted they were hoping for a better time on paper, but said, “We’re preparing for the end of the season more than individual [meet] training.”

Jan. 29’s results featured more top-notch performances from some of the Hawkeyes’ experienced veterans. In the mile, junior Brooke Eilers crossed the finish line in second place, recording a time of 4:47:02. In the mile invitational, a separate event, three Hawkeyes finished in the top 10. Senior Lauren Hardesty took second place matching Eilers’ time. Melander took sixth, and senior Amanda Hardesty finished right behind Melander in seventh.

Praska took fifth place in the 800-meter invitational, at 2:08:63.

Freshman Erin Jones finished in the top 20 in the both the 60 meters and 200 meters. Jones took 10th in the 60-meter with a time of 7.68 and 14th in the 200 meter, 24.20.

Anderson said, “Across the board, we had a better overall team performance than Minnesota.”

— by Amy Tiffany