By Connor Sindberg
In their only home meet of the season, the track Hawkeyes shone, breaking one school record and grabbing 13 titles at the April 23 Musco Twilight at the Cretzmeyer Track against Drake, Iowa Central, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa.
“It’s great to represent our program in front of the home crowd,” Director of Track and Field Joey Woody said. “I was really proud of our student-athletes to go out and do what we wanted them to do: Be stars for the night, as Coach [Larry] Wieczorek used to say.”
Although there were plenty of great performances throughout the day, freshman Briana Guillory was the one Hawkeye who broke a school record. In her first time competing in the 100 meters, the Antioch, California, native finished with a time of 11.35, a time that stands at the top of the Big Ten.
“Briana as a true freshman is starting to put some things together,” Woody said. “I’m really excited to see what she does going forward.”
Sophomore Jahisha Thomas also had a fantastic day, setting the meet record (12.89 meters) and finishing first in the triple jump.
“I was very happy about the triple jump,” she said. “From last week, I had a whole 4 feet improvement tonight.”
Thomas also competed in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing second place to Paige Knodle of Northern Iowa.
“There’s still work to be done in the hurdles, but I thought my first one to five was really good,” Thomas said. “I’m on pace for a really good time, but I just need to maintain through the finish.”
The women continued to claim titles, with Elexis Guster in the 200 meters (23.91) edged teammate Guillory (24.23) for first, with Hawk Taylor Chapman finishing third (24.61). Guster’s winning time wasn’t her best, but she noted that running against the wind was a negative factor.
The action on the men’s side also included spectacular performances on and off the track.
Aaron Mallett led the charge on the track, claiming his third Musco title in the 110-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 13.50. He was ecstatic about his performance.
“It’s the Musco magic,” he said. “It’s just good to get in front of the home crowd and have a lot of fun. Just to win it three times in a row is amazing.”
After the hurdle performance, Mallett ranks third nationally and leads the conference.
Mallett also competed in the 200 meters, finishing third place in 21.55. Christian Brissett Winning won with a time of 21.20, holding off Drake’s Pierce Vincent at the line.
Even finishing third, Mallett was happy to see his freshman teammate get his first career Musco title.
“Christian is a heck of a competitor,” Mallet said. “He’s pushed me all season long, and I’m happy to see him do well.”
In the later stages of the meet, fans made sure to stick around to watch sophomore Carter Lilly compete against former Hawkeye and world medalist Erik Sowinski in the 600 meters.
Sowinski held a firm lead throughout the race with Lilly making a final push in the last 100 meters. It was one of the highlights of the evening, as Sowinski claimed the title with Lilly trailing 0.33 seconds behind.
“Carter is an exciting guy; he’s a guy that’s going to do some amazing things, he’s only a sophomore,” Woody said. “Eric [Sowinski] as a sophomore was nowhere near where Carter is at. It was early in Eric’s professional year, but it was great to see Carter to be able to compete with him.”