The Drake men's and women's track and field teams will compete at
the Jack Jennett Invitational at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. The Jack
Jennett Invitational is named after the former longtime track and field
coach at Northern Iowa. Jennett is a 1953 graduate of Drake who was a
three-year letterwinner in track (1951-53) and football (1950-52). He
also was captain of the 1952 Bulldog football team. Field events start
at 11 a.m. with running events at 1 p.m.
GAINES, HIX PACE MEN'S TEAM:
Drake senior Nate Hix (Nerstand, Minn.) was fifth in the men's 200
(22.16) at the Iowa State Open. Hix ran the second leg on the
Bulldogs' men's distance medley relay which finished fifth in 10:11.12.
Other runners on the team were senior Leyden Tolhurst (Auckland, New
Zealand), junior Kevin Earl (Overland Park, Kan.) and senior Jeff Grassmeyer (Fremont, Neb.) who ran the anchor leg.
Senior
Marcus Gaines (Aurora, Colo.) tied for sixth in the men's long jump at
the Iowa State Open, soaring 23 feet 4.75 inches.,
Drake's B
team was sixth in the men's distance medley relay in 10:25.12 with
freshman Matt Jurysta (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada), junior Troy Kimberlin
(Rochester, Minn.), sophomore Brandon Lewis (Plymouth, Minn.) and
senior Zach Bales-Henry (Des Moines, Iowa/Lincoln) comprising the
team.
Tolhurst placed seventh in the 3,000 in 8:22.32, while
junior Rob Fechner (St. Louis, Mo.) tied for third in the unseeded pole
vault at 13-6.25.Earl was 15th in the men's 600-yard run in 1:14.59.
Hix was 16th in the men's 400 in 49.85. Sophomore Luke Schafer
(Centennial, Colo.) was 15th in the unseeded men's 3,000 in 9:15.11.
QUOTING THE COACH: Here are comments from Drake head track and field coach Natasha Kaiser-Brown: "Nicole
(Braunsdorf) had a great weekend for us, running a great anchor leg in
four minutes 50 seconds. She usually runs around a 5:01. This was the
first indoor meet for our distance runners so we just had everyone line
up and compete. We really didn't talk about defending the relay at all.
"Nate (Hix) looked really good. It was probably the fastest he has opened the indoor season in a long time."
