The Iowa track and field team had a weekend full of wins in another split across the country from April 12-15.

Iowa jumpers, sprinters, and hurdlers returned to Florida for the Tom Jones Invitational, while mid-distance, distance, and multi-event athletes traveled to California for the Mt. SAC Relays and Bryan Clay Invitational and a handful of sprinters joined the throwers in the Jim Duncan Invitational in Des Moines, Iowa.

The men’s and women’s sprinters and hurdles shined.

In the women’s 400-meter hurdles event, Hawkeye senior Mariel Bruxvoort and juniors Paige Magee and Nylah Perry etched their names into the Iowa all-time record books.

Bruxvoort finished in 56.71 seconds for fourth all-time, Magee following in 56.79 for sixth, and Perry in 58.61 for ninth.

Iowa junior hurdler Gratt Reed finished ninth in the men’s 200-meter dash with a personal-record 20.54 to move to fifth all-time at Iowa, and junior sprinter Austin Kresley finished fourth with a 20.07 that was wind-aided and thus not counted in the all-time lists.

Kresley finished fifth in the 100-meter dash to improve his own school record. His 10.10 bested his previous mark by .09 seconds.

The women’s 4×100-meter relay — consisting of freshmen Mytika Mayberry and Julia Pattison, sophomore Brynley McDermott, and junior Katie Petersen — also captured a win, finishing with a 46.29.

“I feel really good about the progress we’ve made over the last few weeks,” Iowa director of track and field Joey Woody said. “I think our [4×100-meter relay] is close to having a breakthrough. We just need to get the right people in the best handoffs here in the next couple of weeks.

“I think we have the team that can be a national qualifying type [of 4×100-meter relay],” Woody continued. “We’ve just got to put it together at the right time.”

Junior jumper Tionna Tobias improved her personal best in the women’s 100-meter hurdles event with a 13.55-second finish, improving her standing on the school record books to eighth all-time in the event.

Fame in the field

Tobias added a win in the women’s long jump with a 6.11-meter leap, but junior multi-event athlete Austin West headlined the Hawkeyes’ success. At the Mt. SAC Relays, West finished third in the decathlon — and second among collegiate athletes — with 8,038 points.

“I think [Tionna Tobias] is close to having her breakthrough there too,” Woody said. “She’s been more consistent; she’s competing well … we’re looking for her to be a point scorer [at the Big Ten meet] in multiple events … I think she’s really close to putting it together.”

Wins were also dispersed across the Iowa throws squad, starting with senior Kat Moody’s two wins, one in the discus with a 54.32-meter throw and another in the shot put with a 16.78-meter toss — that puts her third all-time at Iowa in the event.

“Our goals [with Moody] shifted from scoring [in] two events to maybe making the national meet in two events, and she’s been doing it at a consistent level,” Iowa throws coach Ray Robinson said.

Freshmen throwers Mike Stein and Lizzie Korczak won their respective javelin competitions with 65.01 and 47.86-meter tosses. Korczak’s mark was good for third all-time at Iowa. Senior thrower Ryan Williams followed Stein in second with a 54.82-meter throw.

Senior throwers Elijah Barnes, Jordan Johnson, and Amanda Howe also had impressive weekends. Barnes won the shot put with 18.04 meters, Johnson won the discus with 59.27 meters, and Howe finished first among collegiate athletes in the hammer throw with 63.46 meters.

“I think some of our leaders have just decided that they’re going to be dogs, and that’s what it comes down to,” Robinson said. “They’re not going to fight for table scraps anymore. They’re going out there to make their mark.”

Going the distance

The Iowa 5,000-meter race pair of  Nick Trattner and Ian Geisler each succeeded in their respective races, Trattner finishing in 13:55.57 for fourth all-time at Iowa at the Mt. SAC Relays and Geisler winning at the Jim Duncan Invitational with a 14:52.54 finish.

Junior Brooke McKee finished the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:39.88 for sixth in the Iowa record books, and junior Grace Bookin-Nosbisch finished the 800-meter race in 2:07.20 for ninth all-time.

“Brooke had a really nice performance in the steeplechase,” Iowa distance coach Randy Hasenbank said. “She might be able to shave 10 more seconds off of that. We need every bit of that, in fact, for us to squeeze some points [in the championship meets] out of that event as well.”

Looking forward

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranked the Iowa men’s team 13th in the nation, down from 10th last week and the women’s team 41st from 27th last week.

Iowa track fans can expect more athletes on the men’s team to open up their outdoor season in the next couple of weeks, including junior sprinter Khullen Jefferson and indoor second team All-American Grant Conway.

“I actually think we’re going to see some big improvement over the next couple of weeks,” Woody said. “We’ve got big goals out of that event group. We expect to have multiple athletes at the national finals and scoring points at the national meet.”

Hasenbank said the distance runners will train hard in the coming weeks, but every trip for the squad is focused on getting athletes in positions to score come championship season. 

The team initially scheduled the Musco Twilight for April 22 at the Francis X. Cretzmeyer Track in Coralville, Iowa, but Woody announced on Monday it will be canceled due to the weather forecast for the day.

Woody said the team will now send a small group to compete at Baylor University this weekend before the team splits again to Arizona and back to Drake University for the Drake Relays the following weekend.

“Drake is exciting because it’s the state of Iowa, and we do have a lot of Iowans representing our rosters,” Hasenbank said. “The men and women will get as many things going on over there as we can…but then we’ll still lean on a couple of these student-athletes to try to improve their mark in their specialty, so a lot going at Drake Relays for us.”

Robinson said the throws squad likely will not compete this weekend, its eyes set on the general goal of building confidence on recent successes. But the unpredictability of the weather requires the throwers to always stay prepared to compete.

“When multiple people are throwing well, it definitely helps,” Robinson said. “It just picks up the morale. It’s like, ‘OK, it’s that time. Everyone’s looking good right now, so it’s time for me to get mine,’ and that sort of mentality.”