At the end of Day 1 of the 2019 Big Ten Outdoor Championships, both Iowa squads are on the board and have sent a plethora of athletes to their section finals on May 12.

The early story for Iowa comes from the women’s heptathlon, where Tria Simmons and Jenny Kimbro find themselves in a familiar place: at the top of the leaderboard. Simmons ended as the Big Ten champion in the pentathlon to end the indoor campaign, with Kimbro finishing right behind her in second.

Halfway through the heptathlon, things have shaped up the same way. Simmons leads the pack with 3,417 points, with Kimbro in a close second place with 3,406 points.

Both athletes have shined so far on the big stage in Iowa City, picking up personal records as a part of their ascent up the leaderboard. Simmons ran a personal best 13.71 in the 100-meter hurdles, while both she and Kimbro put up collegiate bests in the 200 meters (Simmons at 24.19, Kimbro at 24.27).

Kimbro also found success outside of the heptathlon, finishing sixth in the 400-meter hurdles preliminary round (59.38) to qualify for the finals on May 12.

On the men’s side, three Hawkeyes also found themselves qualifying for the finals in the event.

Raymonte Dow, Chris Douglas, and Noah Larrison all made it through to the final round after finishing third, fourth, and seventh, respectively. Dow finished in a personal record 51.35 seconds.

As far as the scoring goes, the Iowa men are currently in 11th place with 3 points (only four events have been run), and the women are in sixth with 7 points.

Daniel Soto has accounted for all three of the points for the Iowa men thus far after finishing sixth in the 10,000 meters. Soto finished in 29:44.40 to secure his points for the Hawkeyes.

All the points for the Iowa women have come from the field events.

In the hammer throw, Nia Britt finished in sixth place with a personal-best throw of 60.99 meters to secure 3 points. Laulauga Tausaga finished right behind Britt in seventh (60.91) to add 2 points to the team total.

Britt’s throw is the second-best throw all-time for Iowa in the event.

In the women’s javelin, Marissa Mueller threw a personal best 47.02 meters to finish seventh and score two points. Her throw ranks third all-time at Iowa.

Looking ahead to Sunday, Iowa had two athletes qualify for the finals in the men’s 200 meters. Karayme Bartley and Antonio Woodard will both be moving on in hopes of adding to the team point total.

Bartley finished third in the preliminary round with a wind-aided time of 20.61, good enough for a personal best. Woodard finished in seventh with a time of 20.87.

Competition will resume at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow with the men’s decathlon 110-meter hurdles. Peyton Haack will be the first Iowa athlete to compete Saturday, where he will try and improve upon his ninth-place standing in the decathlon.