After a near month-long hiatus, Iowa men’s and women’s track and field hosted the Hawkeye Invitational this weekend. The Hawkeyes welcomed 11 teams to Iowa’s indoor track facility.

Iowa flexed its muscles during its second event of the indoor season, taking 15 championships from over the two-day event.

The Iowa men won five individual titles and the 4×400 relay. The women’s team crowned eight individuals and also won gold in the 4×400 relay.  

In the 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, triple jump, and weight throw events, Iowa won both men’s and women’s gold. 

Big Picture

The Hawkeye Invitational marked the second of three home events for Iowa this indoor season. 

Director of Track and Field Joey Woody said Iowa can look back on the Hawkeye Invitational with confidence and build on its performance in next week’s Larry Wieczorek Invitational in Iowa City. 

“After we kind of take a couple days, I think they’re gonna feel a lot better coming off of this meet [and] going into the Wiz meet,” Woody said. “That’s always a great atmosphere, and I think they’re gonna feel even better and be able to continue to build on those performances from tonight.”

Eight Hawkeyes post personal bests in victories

Of the Hawkeyes’ 13 individual winners on Friday and Saturday, six of them — two men and four women — posted personal records in the process.

In the men’s 200-meter race, freshman Khullen Jefferson posted a 21.23-second time —beating his previous best by half a second. Freshman Jenoah McKiver won the 400-meter race in 46.83 seconds — a tenth of a second faster than his previous record. 

For the women’s team, senior Mallory King, sophomore LaSarah Hargrove, and freshmen Myreanna Bebe and Grace Bookin-Nosbisch all PR’d on their way to victory. 

King finished the 400-meter in 55.75 seconds — better than the 55.89-second time she posted two seasons ago. 

Bookin-Nosbisch raced to a time of 2 minutes and 57.74 seconds in the 1000-meter — nearly a second less than the 2:58.60 she ran a year ago. 

Hargrove won the 200-meter in 23.58 seconds — ousting her previous mark by .08 ticks. 

Bebe beat her personal record in the 60-meter hurdles not once, but twice — taking down her mark of 8.42 seconds in both prelims and finals with identical times of 8.30 seconds. Her new best time is good for fourth in Iowa track and field history. 

“I just liked the way people came out and competed,” Woody said. “Whether it was winning their event or just competing to win their heat or their flight or whatever, I was just really happy with how our athletes showed up and competed. We had a little bit of a break and so it’s just nice to get through the break and  just get on the track and start competing again.”

Up next

The Hawkeyes will return to their home track next weekend when they host the Larry Wieczorek Invitational on Jan. 21 and 22. Iowa will welcome Baylor, Gonzaga, Northern Iowa, Purdue and Wisconsin for the Hawkeyes’ final home competition of the indoor season.