Spring in Iowa isn’t known for being cooperative for outdoor sports, and that has been the story for the past several years at the Drake Relays.
Especially last year, in which gallons of rain seemed to pour down on Des Moines, but this year’s weather was perfect.
For a Drake Relay veteran such as Reno Tuufuli, who has competed in two previous Drake Relays, this year’s weather was a nice change of pace.
“It was great,” Tuufuli said. “Coming to Drake the last two years, the weather has been bad. So it’s nice to come out here and take advantage of the weather.”
And taking advantage is exactly what Tuufuli did. In the 2017 Drake Relay’s, he placed second in shot put, but this year, he was able to claim the crown with a distance of 18.50 meters.
Shot put won’t be his last event this weekend; April 28, he will toss the discus, an event that he won last year. Needless to say, he wants to retain his crown.
Tuufui wasn’t the only Hawkeye to win a Drake flag at shot put. Later in the day, he was joined by teammate Laulauga Tausaga.
Tausaga won the women’s shot put in a thrilling finish, with North Dakota State’s Courtney Pasiowitz carrying a big lead into the final throw.
Shaking off a tough first event and a rough start in her current one, Tausaga put everything she had into her final throw, and she wound up with a personal record of 16.74 meters.
“Just amazing; I don’t even know what to say,” Tausaga said. “I wasn’t expecting that on my last throw.”
The key for Tausaga was forgetting her mistakes.
“I looked at my coach, and he looked at me, and I realized we couldn’t focus on what I did wrong,” she said. “So I just said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ”
Some Hawkeye teams also qualified for relay finals during the April 27 competition, including the men’s and women’s 4×100 and 4×400. The races will run April 28.
Perhaps the highlight of April 27 was Olympian Jennifer Simpson’s 2-mile run, which she ran in 9:16 to set a U.S. record.
Simpson, a native of Iowa, has competed at the Drake Relays since high school and has an undefeated record, which means she revels in the Drake Relays atmosphere.
“It feels so wonderful to come to a place where people have followed and cared about the progression of your career,” Simpson said. “I really hope the Drake fans felt a ton of affection from me tonight, because the record was hard. But I really wanted to do it for the fans.”
The competition of middle-school sports all the way to Olympic athletes running on the same track is part of what makes the Drake Relays so special.
“It was a jaw-dropping experience to run in front of a crowd like this,” Iowa senior Kevin Docherty said. “It’s really nice to be in the ‘home track of Iowa.’ I really appreciated coming back for my final year.”