STORY BY EMILY LAMBIE
Over this past weekend the Drake University Track and Field team competed in the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championship at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, one of the last competitions of the indoor season.
The Bulldogs competed against nine of the 10 schools in the MVC, only Creighton not making an appearance.
The men’s team as a whole took seventh place, the women’s team falling right behind in eighth overall.
Several Drake standouts also had a pretty good weekend, setting several personal bests.
In the field events, Kayla Bell leaped into a new school record in the triple jump. She had a distance of 40-9.75, setting her own PR by almost 17 inches.
She landed at fifth place overall.
Emma Huston was another Bulldog to beat her personal best in the mile. Huston came in with a time of 9:48.42, which placed her in fifth.
Samantha Nielsen had a new personal best in the 800 meter event with a time of 2:12.96, also finishing in fifth place.
Mary Young set a person best in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.49, placing third.
“I feel like it’s hard work paid off. That was the time I wanted to hit by the end of the indoor season so I was really happy at the end of the day,” Young said.
Rob McCann placed third with a time of 4:14.05 in a four-way photo finish in the mile.
McCann also earned the MVC Elite 18 Award for the second time. The award is given to the athlete with the highest grade-point average who also is competing in the finals at the MVC’s 18 team championships.
In the 400-and-800-meter races, the Bulldogs brought in some points, with Steven Jordan following up his fifth place finish on Saturday in the 200-meter race. Jordan placed sixth in the 400-meter race with a time of 49.92. He was also part of the sixth place 4×400 Relay team alongside Kai Asberry, Pierce Vincent and Hudson Priebe.
Freshman Rai Ahmed-Green finished seventh in the women’s 400-meter dash with a time of 56.64. Ahmed-Green also ran in the 4×400 meter with Danyelle Cole, Mary Young and Virginia Cole, taking seventh place.
Head coach Natasha Brown was proud of her team, even if they may not have ranked highly overall.
“That was a tough one for us because we’re always that David and Goliath story,” Brown said. “It was good to see our kids being aggressive and assertive and really going after it.”
The Track and Field team’s next competition is at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 12-14.
