World-leading marks were set in three of the four Rio Olympic Rematch races during the final day of action at the 108th Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee Saturday, April 29, at Drake Stadium.
Those world-leading marks came in less than an hour as Georganne Moline, Keni Harrison and Omar McLeod shined in front of the crowd gathered at the Blue Oval.
Moline not only beat a strong field in the Rio Rematch women's 400 hurdles, she sped to the fastest time in the world this year. Running in lane one, Moline finished in 54.66 after the previous world leader, Ashley Spencer, stumbled over a hurdle on the far turn and fell. Spencer, the Olympic bronze medalist last year, had the previous best of 54.78. Runner-up Kori Carter, an NCAA champion at Stanford, ran 54.72 to give her the No. 2 world mark.
Harrison is now No.1 on this year's chart, too. Harrison beat an incredibly strong field to win the Rio Rematch women's 100 hurdles in 12.56 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year. Eight of the top 10-ranked hurdlers in the world ran in the race, so Jasmin Stowers can feel good about her second-place finish. She ran 12.76, which puts her No. 8 on the world list this year. It was the second straight victory at Drake and third in five years for Harrison, who set the world record of 12.20 last summer after failing to make the U.S. Olympic team.
The Rio Rematch in the men's 110 hurdles produced three of the top four times in the world this year -- and a Drake Relays record to boot. Omar McLeod, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist and co-outstanding performer at Drake in 2015, won the race in a blazing 13.04 seconds. That's No. 1 in the world this year and tops the Relays record of 13.08 he set in winning last year's race. Andy Pozzi, a two-time Olympian from Great Britain, was second in 13.24, which is the second fastest in the world so far. Third-place finisher Aleec Harris ran 13.37, the No. 4 time worldwide.
Following his win in the Grand Blue Mile on Tuesday, Clayton Murphy claimed victory in the men's Elite 1500 in 3:41.75. It marked Murphy's third win in eight days as he also helped the U.S. to a victory in the 4x800 at the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas.
Derek Drouin, a gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, won his fourth-straight title in the men's high jump Rio Rematch while Sam Kendricks, a bronze medalist at those same games claimed his first outright Drake Relays crown in the invitational pole vault. Nike's Lorraine Ugen defended her Drake Relays crown in the invitational long jump on Saturday with a jump of 21-3 ½.
Big Ten schools dominated college events as for the first time in school history, the Iowa men won three relays at Drake en route to winning the Hy-Vee Cup. Iowa completed its big meet when it won the university 4x400 relay in 3:07.35, its first victory in that event since 1967. The Hawkeyes finished with 39 points in the Hy-Vee standings, which reflect overall relay strength. Ohio State and Illinois tied for second with 28. Iowa also got victories this weekend from Aaron Mallett in the 110 hurdles and Reno Tufffuli in the discus.
On the women's side, Ohio State won its first-ever Hy-Vee Cup with 24 points. Despite not winning a Hy-Vee Cup event, Ohio State finished second in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays and third in the 4x800.
It was a great day for Purdue as well as the Boilermakers won the women's shuttle hurdle relay and the 4x400 relay and senior Obokhare Ikpefan won the men's collegiate 400 hurdles.
Iowa State's Jhoanny Luque completed the horizontal jumps sweep at the Drake Relays as the Cyclone captured the women's collegiate triple jump crown on Saturday morning. Thanks to her winning jump of 43-0 ½, Luque became the fourth athlete in Drake Relays history to win both the women's collegiate long jump and triple jump.
Northern Iowa sprinter Brandon Carnes won his second-straight Drake Relays crown in the 100 meters thanks to a blazing time of 10.17 seconds. His time is the fastest time by a Relays champion since Isiah Young of Ole Miss on the 2013 Drake Relays crown in 10.08.
Sophomore Emilee Trost of Minnesota-Duluth put together a groundbreaking nice Drake Relays double. Trost won the women's university-college 800 on Friday, then came back Saturday to outrun 10 competitors in the 1500 -- the first time that double has been accomplished in the women's division.
Oklahoma State won the women's distance medley in their division, the Cowgirls' third relay title of the weekend. Kaela Edwards, the collegiate record holder in the indoor 1000, anchored as OSU won in 11:18.20. Edwards also anchored the winning 4x1600 relay on Thursday night and was joined on both teams by leadoff runner Molly Sughroue. Kaylee Dodd ran on the winning 4x800 and 4x1600 teams.
At the high-school level, the Waukee girls broke the Drake Relays record in the shuttle hurdle relay with a time of 1:00.95, which is the fastest time ever in the state of Iowa. Waukee's record-run was the third Drake Relays record to fall at the high school level during the meet.
Davenport Assumption's Joy Ripslinger won her seventh Drake Relays crown on Saturday thanks to a time of 4:31.91. Ripslinger became only the third in Relays history to win both the 800 meters and 1500 meters, joining Stephanie Jenks and Shelby Houlihan in the elite group.
Western Dubuque assembled a fast foursome for the sprint relays and they came away with two boys championships. The team of G Bennett, Max Steffen, Kenny Beard and Brandon Beard won the 4x200 on Friday and doubled up by winning the 4x100, the penultimate race of the high school competition.
After finishing second in the boys 3200 on Thursday night, Linn-Mar's Ryan Murphy turned the tables on his rival in the 1600 -- by the narrowest of margins. Murphy and Sam Schillinger ran side by side down the stretch before Murphy edged ahead to win by six-thousands of a second. Murphy was timed in 4:23.221, Schillinger in 4:20.227.
Southeast Polk and Bettendorf both ended long droughts in the 4x400 relays to conclude the 108
th running of the Drake Relays. SEP won the girls' 4x400 relay, marking the first time the Rams have won the event since it was introduced in 1974. Minutes later, Bettendorf won the boys' 4x400 relay to give the Bulldogs their first-ever win in the event that debuted at the 1911 Drake Relays.