Iowa track and field notebook | Hawkeyes improve across the board two weeks before championship season
Freshman thrower Mike Stein set the javelin record, and junior sprinter Austin Kresley grabbed his third school record of the season in the 200-meter dash.
Iowa’s Grace Bookin-Nosbisch leads her heat of the women’s 800-meter premier during the Larry Wieczorek Invitational at the Iowa Indoor Track Facility in Iowa City on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. Nosbisch won her heat and finished third overall with a time of 2:10.82. The meet also hosted the Hawkeye Pro Classic for the American Track League.
May 3, 2023
The Iowa track and field team filled the podium in multiple events last weekend as it progresses toward championship season.
The Iowa distance runners, throwers, and jumpers competed at the Drake Relays in Des Moines from April 27-29. The sprinters and hurdlers sought warmer weather at the Arizona-hosted Desert Heat Classic on April 29 in Tucson, Arizona.
Two Hawkeyes headlined the weekend with school records, beginning with Mike Stein continuing his strong freshman campaign with a 75.59-meter toss in the javelin — a performance Iowa throws coach Ray Robinson said was impressive but not surprising.
In addition to his existing Iowa records in the 4×100-meter relay and 100-meter dash, junior Austin Kresley added his name atop a third event as he ran a 20.32-second 200-meter dash — to finish first among collegiate athletes and third overall in the event.
“We knew if he just was able to stay healthy and not have these training gaps then I thought that he could really excel,” Iowa director of track and field Joey Woody said. “He’s really been very consistent [and] hasn’t had any major setbacks or anything like that. He’s been able to continue to progress.”
Improving across the board
Junior twin sisters Alli and Grace Bookin-Nosbisch finished first and second with 2:04.37-minute and 2:05.49-minute finishes, respectively, in the 800-meter event. Alli’s finish put her second all-time at Iowa in the event, and Grace’s was good for fourth in school history.
The 400-meter hurdle pair of senior Julien Gillum and junior Austin West ran personal records of 49.73 seconds and 50.26 seconds for second and fourth in the event, respectively. Gillum’s finish moved him to third all-time at Iowa in the event while West’s put him fifth.
Senior LaSarah Hargrove, junior Paige Magee, sophomore Lia Love, and freshman Alexandria Edison joined forces for the 4×100-meter relay, finishing in 44.10 seconds for third in the event and third all-time at Iowa.
Woody said the performance was a large step in the right direction for the relay despite it being the quartet’s first time running together. However, he said, the group still has room to improve.
Following them came the 4×400-meter relay of senior Mariel Bruxvoort, junior Ali Dorn, redshirt freshman Chloe Larsen, and freshman Audrey Biermann. They finished in 3:35.10 minutes for the win and a jump into fifth all-time in the Iowa record books.
Iowa senior Kat Moody notched two wins over the weekend, one in the discus with a 53.60-meter toss and another in the shot put with a 16.46-meter heave.
Going the distance
The 4×1600-meter relay of junior Jack Pendergast, sophomores Yohana Yual and Ian Geisler, and freshman Hayden Kuhn finished in 17:11.68 minutes for ninth both in the event and in the Iowa record books.
Pendergast also grabbed a personal-record 9:04.89-minute finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing 25th but missing the Iowa top-10 record board by four-tenths of a second.
Sophomore Max Murphy finished second in the 1,500-meter race in 3:44.83 minutes, junior Nick Trattner following up in third with a personal-record 3:47.96 minutes.
“He’s developed a lot of patience in training,” Iowa distance coach Randy Hasenbank said. “[Murphy has learned to] just get an ebb and flow for ‘Let’s get this set up for the end-of-the-season championship run and not press too early.”
Looking forward
The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranked the Iowa men’s team eighth in the nation, up from 13th last week. The women’s team is down to 46th.
The men’s squad is ranked in the top 15 in a handful of events, including first in the 400-meter hurdles and fourth in the 200-meter dash.
“I think on the men’s side being ranked eighth at the end of the regular season is really impressive and shows what type of team we are,” Woody said. “We’ve got athletes performing at a high level in every single event … there’s not many teams out there that are built like that.”
The Hawkeyes will send a small group of throwers, hurdlers, and sprinters to the Iowa State Alumni Invitational on May 6 to give them another competitive repetition or a shot to improve their marks to qualify for the Big Ten Championships.
The meet is Iowa’s last of the outdoor season before the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in Bloomington, Indiana, from May 12-14, hosted by Indiana University — the rest of the team will remain in Iowa City, focusing on resting and training for the meet.
Woody feels both the men’s and women’s teams are in a position to score points and compete for the title.
“I think we just need to come together these next couple of weeks and really get bought into believing that we can win a championship,” Woody said. “It’s going to be a very tough competition.”
Woody said the Hawkeyes are in close contention for the trophy with Ohio State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan on the women’s side and Nebraska and Minnesota on the men’s.
He said the sprinters’ success come championship season is 90 percent confidence, which he said Kresley has in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.
Hasenbank said Pendergast and Yual are close enough to score in the steeplechase at the championships and make a big difference in the Iowa team score.
“[Pendergast and Yual] need to really bring an ultra-competitive mindset, which they do and which they’ll need in the Big Ten,” Hasenbank said. “The goal is to score.”