Five first-team All-Americans and eight second-team All-Americans — that was the final tally for Iowa at the 2014 outdoor NCAA met. Top-eight finishers receive first-team honors, and those who finish No. 9-16 made second-team honors.
Pretty impressive for a squad that was not very competitive through the first month and a half of the outdoor season. Luckily for the Hawkeyes, they peaked at the right time, and quite a few of their performances toward the end of the season were either personal records or very close to them.
The five first-teamers were occurred two events, the men’s 4×100-meter relay and the women’s long jump.
The growth and rapid maturation of the 4×100 relay, which ran a school record 39.19 race in prelims, might very well be the reason the Hawks sprinted to a sixth-place NCAA finish.
Made up of senior Tevin-Cee Mincy, junior Keith Brown, sophomore James Harrington, and freshman O’Shea Wilson, the group got itself from the middle of the pack to contending for a championship.
While they certainly are a big story, senior Zinnia Miller in the long jump was the feel-good story of the meet.
Never having even qualified for the NCAA meet before this season, Miller got in with two different events — the long and triple jump.
She certainly did not act like she had never been there before; she jumped a personal record 6.39 meters, which was now stands as second all-time in Iowa history and got her a fifth-place finish and first-team All-American honors.
With the long jump being her best event, it was not a surprise when she did not finish nearly as well in triple, though she still received second-team All-American honors with her 15th-place finish.
“I think [Miller] has come a long way,” assistant coach Clive Roberts said in a release. “It was an awesome way to finish her career — it could not have gone any better.”
Elsewhere on the women’s side of things, freshman Brittany Brown finished 11th in the 200 meters to add to the number of Hawkeye All-Americans.
She also teamed up with fellow freshman Elexis Guster and sophomores MonTayla Holder and Lake Kwaza to place 16th in the 4×100 relay.
The last two second-team all-American honors were picked up by junior Gabe Hull in the discus and fellow junior Babatunde Amosu in the triple jump.
Hull tossed a 57.99-meter throw to finish 11th, improving from his 15th-place finish last season. If anything, this result was slightly disappointing, especially because Hull held the third best throw in the nation for several weeks.
After barely sneaking into the NCAA finals in the first place, Amosu’s 13th-place finish looks very good. He was 12th in the West Regional, and only the top 12 in the region advance on to the finals.
“This week was a great conclusion to a tremendous season,” head coach Layne Anderson said in a release. “Throughout the year, we saw a young team grow up with each meet — the future of the program looks bright.”