Four Records Fall In Final Hour Of Friday’s Drake Relays Presented by Xtream Powered by Mediacom

DES MOINES, IOWA — Two Drake Relays records, which stood the test of time for more than 30 years, took only 15 minutes to fall during Friday’s session of the 111th Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom.

Friday Results - PDF | HTML | TXT | Notes 

Saturday Heat Sheets

Iowa State loaded up its men’s team in the 4x800 relay to take a shot at the 36-year-old Drake Relays record in the event and the Cyclones got it done. Behind a 1:47.51 anchor from Festus Lagat, Iowa State ran 7:12.57 - the fifth fastest all-time collegiate clocking and the top time in the world this year.

Iowa State’s record run whetted the crowd’s appetite for another record, which happened 15 minutes later. Furman senior Ryan Adams broke the 31-year-old Relays record in the men’s university 1,500, outrunning Drake’s NCAA All-American Adam Fogg to win in 3:38.74. That beat the 3:41.74 that Iowa State’s John Nuttall ran in 1990. 

Fogg, who was fourth in mile in the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships, broke a 40-year-old school record by three seconds in 3:38.79 en route to a second-place finish. He also bettered the all-time Missouri Valley Conference record of 3:39.17 set April 10 by Illinois State’s Jack Anstey.

If that wasn’t enough, three of the top four times in the world this year were posted in the next event – the women’s invitational 3000 steeplechase.

Leah Falland, who was a two-time national champion at Michigan State and entered the meet ranked No. 3 in the world, won in 9:32.23. That’s the second-fastest time in the world this year. Runner-up Aimee Pratt, the reigning national champion in Great Britain, ran 9:35.34, which is No. 3 in the world. Third-place finisher Grayson Murphy, who was a two-time All-American at Utah, put up the No. 4 time in the world -- 9:37.25.

Australian national champ Morgan McDonald celebrated his 25th birthday by setting the final Drake Relays record of the day,  winning the men’s invitational 5,000 in 13:21.39. He shattered a record that had stood even longer than the others that fell on Friday, beating the 13:27.20 that Nick Rose ran back in 1977..

McDonald, who was a four-time NCAA champ at Wisconsin, led a parade of five runners who went faster than the previous record. The top four finishers also broke the Drake Stadium record of 13:25.53 that  U.S. Olympian Lopez Lomong set on the Blue Oval during the 2019 USA Championships.

Iowa State led from start to finish in the 4x800 relay with legs from sophomore Jason Gomez (1:48.66) and seniors Daniel Nixon (1:48.52),  Roshon Roomes (1:47.88) and  Lagat, who gave the Cyclones their third straight victory in the event at Drake. Nebraska set the previous record of 7:14.89 in 1985.

Earlier, Roomes ran the 800 anchor leg to power Iowa State to a victory in the sprint medley relay in 3:22.06.

Oklahoma State, which finished third in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, continued its trend of winning the Drake Relays women’s university 4x800 and 4x1600 relays in odd-numbered years.

The Cowgirls, who won the 2020 Big 12 Conference cross-country championship team title, won the 4x1600 in 19:27.09, its fourth Relays title in the event. The Cowgirls’ previous victories came in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Sophomore Taylor Roe, runner-up in the NCAA Cross Country championship, covered the final 1600 meters in 4:47.36 after her teammates ran splits of 4:51.38, 4:53.43 and 4:54.94. Utah State finished well behind in second in 19:50.04.

The Cowgirls sweetened their 4x800 victory with the best time in the country this year in 8:39.83, just under the previous U.S. best of 8:39.99. They also won that event at Drake in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

2020 U.S. Indoor champ Aaron Mallett, who was ranked third in the world last year, led the qualifying out of the preliminaries in the men’s  invitational 110 hurdles. Mallett won his heat in 13.54 seconds, which matches the 10th fastest time in the world this year.

Daniel Roberts, the reigning USA outdoor champion -- he won that title at Drake Stadium -- was right behind Mallett at 13:57. It was the first time in five races on the Blue Oval that he did not finish first. The finals in the event will be run at 3:26 p.m. Saturday.

Notre Dame runners went 1-2 in the women’s university 1500 a day after the Irish swept the top three places in the women’s 5000. Katie Wasserman won the 1500 in 4:14.43 and was followed across the finish by Olivia Markezich, a freshman who finished in 4:15.76. Wasserman is a grad transfer from Columbia, where she was an Ivy League champion in the indoor mile. It was Markezich’s first 1500 as a collegian.

Miami of Ohio captured the men’s university  4x1600 relay — a first for the school and the first for a team from the Mid-American Conference since Eastern Michigan in 1995.The Red Hawks won in 16:40.84, holding off defending champion Oklahoma State, which ran 16:43.54.

Nell Graham worked her way into the lead with 200 meters to go and carried North Dakota State to its third Drake Relays victory in the women’s university sprint medley relay. Graham closed with an 800-meter carry of 2:10.85 to overtake Iowa State’s Maggie Davis and bring her team to the finish in 3:55.87. Davis got Iowa State  into second in 3:57.13. North Dakota State won its other Drake titles in 2014 and 2017.

Missouri freshman Mitchell Weber, ranked No. 3 in the NCAA, captured he men’s university discus at 199-10, becoming the first Tiger to win the event at Drake since Russ Bell won back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002. Weber’s mark was the best winning mark at the Drake Relays since Wyoming’s Jason Gervais threw 205-1 in 2000.

Texas-Arlington freshman Arthur Petersen, the No. 2 ranked men’s javelin thrower in the NCAA, won his specialty by more than 15 feet thanks to a toss of 245-2 on his second throw of the competition. It was the best winning throw at the Drake Relays since Western Kentucky’s Ignacio Guerra won the 2011 meet at 246-5.

Senior Nora Monie won Houston’s first-ever women’s university discus title on her final toss at 190-5. That mark was not only a personal best by five feet, but ranks No. 6 in the NCAA this year. She also was the first thrower to break 190 feet in the event at Drake Stadium since Nebraska’s Becky Breisch threw 202-5 at the 2006 Drake Relays.

Finals were held in six men’s and women’s college division running events as well as four men’s and women’s college division field events Friday morning.

Beau Ackerman of Montana State-Billings won the men’s college javelin with a throw of 216-3 (65.92m), his fourth victory this season in as many meets. He also won the Drake Relays title in 2018 and was fifth in the NCAA Division II championships that year.

Oklahoma Baptist won the men’s college sprint medley for the seventh time at Drake since 2007, clipping Augustana (S.D.) at the wire, 3:27.54 to. Augustana’s  3:27.58.

Lincoln’s Chrissani May outdueled Tesa Potter of Oklahoma Baptist on the final lap to give the Blue Tigers their fourth Drake Relays championship in the women’s college 4x800 relay in 9:08.61. Oklahoma Baptist, a four-time Relays winner in the event, finished in 9:09.80.

Freshman Mason Strader, who anchored Pittsburg State to the NCAA Division II indoor championship in the distance medley relay last month, captured the men’s college 1,500 in 3:49.25 for his third straight victory at that distance this month.

Northwest Missouri State’s Hiba Mahgoub, ranked No. 2 nationally in NCAA Division II, coasted to win the women’s college 400 in 54.97.

Action starts at 8 a.m. Saturday with the women’s college distance medley relay final.

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