Women’s track & field sprints to three gold medals at the Black & Gold Premier

Athletes+take+their+marks+during+the+Larry+Wieczorek+Invitational+on+Saturday%2C+Jan.+20%2C+2017.

Nick Rohlman

Athletes take their marks during the Larry Wieczorek Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2017.

Sydney Becker, Sports reporter

The Hawkeyes ended the home indoor season this past weekend at the Black & Gold Premier in the Rec Building.

After taking home two individual medals and one relay gold, the women’s team will continue to work through the second half of the indoor season.

Iowa took on Barton County, Drake, Eastern Illinois, Loyola, Marquette, and South Florida. While Iowa had some successes, not everyone competed.

“Today was a fun meet for our athletes,” Director of Track and Field Joey Woody said. “We held a lot of our athletes out this week because they’ve been training at such high levels. We used this week to train for the last half of the indoor season.”

Athletes such as Briana Guillory and Laulauga Tausaga did not bring performances to the meet to keep their training close in mind for the second half of the season.

“We start to get into our championship phase here in the next couple weeks, so we had to use this week for some of those athletes to prep for it,” Woody said. “Traveling adds a curve ball to what we’ve been doing.”

Nia Britt won the shot put (16.12 meters), and Kylie Welch took the 400 meters (57.12). The women’s team also took home a medal in the 1,600-meter relay, made up of Mika Cox, Talia Buss, Welch, and Addie Swanson (3:51.14).

Some Hawkeyes added personal bests.

Related: Men’s track picks up two victories at Black & Gold Premier

Kylie Morken (8.88) and Carly Donahue (8.92) ran personal bests in the 60-meter hurdles.

Hannah Schilb bested her time in the 60 meters (7.94), as did Morken in the 200 meters (25.41).

Macie Weber (5:08.04), Kylie Latham (5:11.00), and Mary Arch (5:18.06) hit personal marks in the mile.

In the shot put, Konstadina Spanoudakis (14.30 meters), Tria Simmons (11), and Jenny Kimbro (10.89) put up bests. Erika Hammond reached a personal best as well in the shot put (15.79), bettering the third all-time mark at Iowa.

Woody was particularly impressed with Kimbro’s effort as she prepares for the pentathlon.

“Putting Jenny Kimbro in a different event, running the 60 open, that’s an impressive time to have never run that race before,” Woody said. “She had a long day, she started off with the shot put this morning and she was here early. She’s really ready to go next week and put a big mark in the pentathlon.”

Recently, Kimbro broke the No. 2 all-time rank at Iowa in the 60-meter hurdles, making her a tough competitor.

Kimbro placed third in the all-time records at Iowa with her 3,715 points in the pentathlon at the Black & Gold Premier last year.

The Hawkeyes will compete in their first away indoor meet Feb. 1 and 2 at the Frank Sevigne Invitational, hosted by Nebraska, as well as the Meyo Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame.