The Iowa track and field team split up for two meets this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., and Stanford, Calif., for the Arkansas Spring Invitational and the Stanford Invitational.

Team scores were not kept at either meet, but the Hawkeyes performed well at both events.

Day one of the Arkansas Spring Invitational featured a strong showing by the women’s hammer throwers. Junior Annemie Smith and seniors Jasmine Simpson and Ashlyn Gulvas finished first, second, and third.

Smith set the hammer throw school record two weeks ago at the Arizona State season-opener. The junior had another impressive performance last weekend in Fayetteville and led the hammer throws from start to finish; she recorded the six best marks of the competition.

The men’s shot putters also placed well, with junior Gabe Hull finishing third, freshman Avery Meyers finishing fifth, and senior Drew Clark sixth. Hull also competed in the discus, finishing second with a throw of 58.89 meters in the finals.

The Hawkeyes also finished well in the women’s discus, with sophomore Dakotah Goodell hitting a 46.76-meter throw on her first attempt, which ended up being the winner.

The relay teams took the spotlight on the second day of the meet, winning two events. The 4×400-meter relay team of freshmen Elexis Guster and Alexis Hernandez and sophomores MonTayla Holder and Lake Kwaza broke the school record by more than one second.

For the men, the 4×400 also finished well. The group — made up of juniors Kaleb VanCleave and Brennan Davey, sophomore Will Teubel and freshman Jared Ganschow — finished in third with a time of 3:15.33.

“Speed and power continue to shine as sprints and throws led the Hawkeyes once again,” head coach Layne Anderson said in a release. “We certainly have areas to work on, but we have seen a lot of positives, and that’s what we need to build from.”

Three of the same women from the 4×400 — Guster, Holder, and Kwaza, along with freshman Brittany Brown — made up the 4×100 relay team. They finished the relay just .02 seconds behind the school record and beat the second-placed Arkansas team by .03 seconds.

The men’s 4×400 finished fourth with a time of 40.37, which trailed Arkansas, the third-place finisher, by .4 seconds.

“We got one school record, and nearly broke another, so it was great to see that consistency,” Anderson said in a release. “What’s important now is that we continue to build.”

Despite not having their two top triple-jumpers, the Black and Gold still finished third in the event as Kerry Dean Jr. jumped 14.21 meters to finish strong for the team.  

At Stanford, five distance runners competed in the invitational — juniors Kevin Lewis, Shannon Maser, and Rachel Price as well as freshman Kevin Docherty all set personal bests in their events. Junior Ben Witt was the only Hawkeye not to set a personal record but nevertheless finished eighth in his heat.

Lewis, Maser, Price, and Witt all competed in the 1,500, while Kevin Docherty raced in the 5,000. All the athletes finished in the top 15 of their respective heats, with Lewis finishing ninth.