Photos: Taylor Soule
The Drake track team enjoyed four first place finishes and nine second place finishes this past weekend in the Jim Duncan Invitational in Des Moines. The Jim Duncan Invitational is Iowa’s showcase for CIML high schools, and the team’s only home meet.
With reported tornadoes touching down as close as an hour south of the Jim Duncan Track on Saturday the Jim Duncan Invitational was postponed indefinitely around 4 p.m. Out of the 77 scheduled events only six of them were not contested.
Junior Marissa Smith won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.28 seconds, one one-hundredth of a second slower than her personal record. Smith commented on the weather as it pertained to her team performance
“It was an alright day,” Smith said. “It was actually fairly warm, but we’ve been in worse weather.”
Smith will be preparing for the 100-meter hurdles and the sprint medley for the Drake Relays in two weeks.
Junior Whitney Westrum took home the 200-meter dash title with a time of 24.77. Smith also had a strong showing in the 200-meter dash with a sixth-place finish. Sophomore Tiara Winston finished ninth.
Junior Briana Isom-Brummer placed in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.19, finishing third. Isom-Brummer also finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles.
Senior Jon DeGrave ran a meet record 51.95 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles on the way to winning first place. Degrave also holds the school record in the 400-meter huddles with a time of 50.59.
In her first 1500-meter run senior Kristen Lake took first place with a time of 4 minutes, 33 seconds. Distance coach Dan Hostager commented on Lake’s performance.
“Tremendous debut for Kirsten in the 1500,” said Hostager in a Drake Athletics press release. “She ran a smart race and is extremely fit right now so this should give her some extra confidence in the weeks ahead.”
In addition to the Bulldog’s dominance in running, the hurdlers and throwers also tallied up points for the Drake team.
Junior Isaac Twombly shattered his school record in the weight throw by almost two feet with a throw of 173 feet, 3 inches as he finished in second place.
Twombly also finished fourth in the discus (143-11) and sophomore Andy Curtis finished third (146-4).
Junior Charlie Lapham took home third place in the 800-meters, running a time of 1:51.28, which ranks second in the Valley. Senior Matt Jurysta finished in sixth with a time of 1:52.63.
Senior Shaun James claimed second in the 100-meters (10.95) and fifth in the 200-meters (22.14).
Over 21 meet records were broken and countless personal records were tested on the blue oval.
“We had a few more personal bests today so we’re looking forward to the championship phase of the season,” said Hostager in a press release.
The track team will next compete in the Kansas Relays which starts on Wednesday.
