Iowa track sets stage for eventful final day at Big Tens
Hawkeye track and field put points on the board on Day 2 of the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, still with the opportunity to do more of the same in the finals May 12.
University of Iowa Heptathletes Tria Simmons and Jenny Kimbro sprint towards the finish of the 200 meter portion of the heptathlon during the first day of the Big Ten Track and Field Outdoor Championships at Cretzmeyer Track on Friday, May 10, 2019. Simmons placed first in the 200 meter run with a time of 24.19 seconds, and Kimbro finished second with a time of 24.27 seconds.
May 11, 2019
The second day of Big Tens saw a plethora of Hawkeyes put their names up on the scoreboard, while others qualified for finals events on May 12.
Some, like Iowa’s pair of diversely-talented multi-event women’s athletes, did both.
The first points scored of the day for Iowa came from Jenny Kimbro and Tria Simmons in the women’s heptathlon. The pair added a combined 14 points to the women’s team total.
Kimbro finished runner-up with 5,501 points in the event, only 19 points off of the winning mark. On her way to finishing second Kimbro had a sizable personal record in the javelin throw, putting up a mark of 31.68 meters, nearly two meters higher than her previous mark.
The second-place finish in the heptathlon from Kimbro added 8 points to the team total, and an additional 6 points went up on the leaderboard for Iowa after Simmons finished right behind Kimbro in third-place, scoring 5,350 points in the event.
Kimbro was, as always, just happy to put up points for the team. However, she would have liked to see herself or Simmons take gold
“It didn’t end exactly how we wanted, but we’re just happy to be able to score points for the team,” Kimbro said. “Especially after how well everyone competed yesterday, the coaches said to just take each event one at a time and focus on what’s in front of me.”
In the 800 meters, the final event of the heptathlon, Kimbro and Simmons blew away the competition. The pair finished first and second, respectively, to secure their places on the final podium.
Kimbro only edged out Simmons by a blink of an eye, 2:18.39 to 2:18.42.
The two iron-athletes would not be done after the heptathlon, however. Both Kimbro and Simmons qualified for the 100-meter hurdles finals, the second hurdling event she has qualified for the finals in
To compete in the heptathlon while also running in two other hurdling events, Kimbro and her coaches have focused on keeping her fresh despite the heavy workload.
“The schedule is pretty spread out,” Kimbro said. “So we’ve been making sure we focus on recovering well and feel the best we can at the end of the competition.”
As far as the other Iowa hurdlers, they too had quite the day at conference championships.
In the men’s 110-meter hurdles, Iowa will make up half of the eight-man finalist field tomorrow, as Josh Braverman, Anthony Williams, Jaylan McConico, and Chris Douglas all qualified with their preliminary times.
Braverman won his section and put up a career-best time (14.05) for his third-consecutive competition.
Iowa continued the success without the hurdles in the way, as several sprinters will be taking the track tomorrow for the finals wearing the Black and Gold.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will send athletes to the finals in the 400 meters. The men will have Mar’Yea Harris and Karayme Bartley competing in the finals tomorrow after finishing in the top-eight in the preliminaries. Brianna Guillory will take the track for Iowa for the finals of the event tomorrow afternoon.
Antonio Woodard and Antonise Christian both qualified in their respective 200 meter event, and Nolan Teubel, Tysen VanDraska, and Matt Manternach each qualified in the 800 meters.
Moving from the track to the field, the Iowa men added nine points through the jumping events on Saturday.
The men’s team picked up 6 points between two athletes in the long jump. James Carter set two collegiate bests in his attempts, the first being in his third jump, where he put up a mark of 7.07 meters. Carter would then blow that away with a mark of 7.27 in his final attempt of the day, securing a fourth-place finish, adding 5 points to the team’s total.
Cooper Koenig finished in eighth place with a mark of 7.00, enough to put 1 point on the board.
Jay Hunt had a career-best in the high jump, clearing 2.14 meters and taking sixth-place, adding 3 points to the final total.
Also in the field, Laulauga Tausaga and Nia Britt both contributed points via the the women’s shot put. Tausaga finished in third (17.17) and Britt finished in seventh (15.88), earning eight combined points.
The final points scored of the day for the Iowa men came from Nathan Mylenek in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Mylenek finished in third (8:48.72) to score 6 points for the team.
At the end of Day 2, the Iowa men sit in 10th place with 18 points through nine events, and the women are in fourth with 29 points through eight events.
The third and final day of the 2019 Big Ten Outdoor Championships will take place tomorrow, with competition commencing at 11 a.m. with the men’s triple jump and the women’s discus.
The team champions will be named after the final event at 3:45 p.m., and Director of Track and Field hopes he hears the local team be announced as champions over the speakers.
“We have lots of opportunities in front of us tomorrow,” Woody said. “Now it’s just about executing and bringing home a pair of championships.”
