What's Ahead: The Drake women's track team will travel to Cedar
Falls, Iowa to compete in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor
Track and Field Championship this Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 26-27). Events from
the UNI Dome will start at 9:30 a.m. both days.
Last Time Out In its final tune up before the State Farm Missouri
Valley Conference Indoor Track And Field Championship, Drake won six events at
the Iowa Invitational on Friday (Feb. 18).
Senior
Kara McCartney (Elgin, Iowa) won the
600-meter race clocking in at 1:37.44.
Sophomore
Sarah Yeager (Ottumwa, Iowa)
captured the 60-meter hurdles crown with a time of 9.06.
Senior
Cambria Pardner (Aurora, Colo.) took
home the triple jump title soaring 36 feet 10. 25 inches.
Sophomore
Marissa Smith (Ajax, Ontario) out
ran the competition in the 60-meter dash to win the event. Smith's time of 7.94
beat Ebonie Butler of St. Ambrose and Pardner by a hundreth of a second.
Pardner finished in third clocking in 7.95, and sophomore Kelly Hendricks was fourth finishing in 8.06.
The Drake 4x400 "A" relay team of Yeager, Whitney Westrum (Waukee, Iowa), Beth Hamling (Council Bluffs, Iowa) and
Clarissa LaFlora (Kewanee, Ill) won
the event with a time of 3:56.07.
Senior
Lindsay Smith (Lakeville, Minn.) won
the 3,000-meter run finishing in 10:51.39.
Westrum
ran a time of 26.24 to register a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash.
Senior Tyse Samani (Kansas City, Mo.) was second in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet
6 inches. Freshman Vaughn Powell
(Ballwin, Mo.) was third with a jump of 5 feet 2.25 inches.
Senior Johanna Sprang (New Brighton, Minn.) earned a second-place finish in the pole vault
with a jump of 11 feet 5.75 inches.
Sophomore
Jazmine Dupee (West Des Moines,
Iowa) finished second in the long jump as she soared 15 feet, 10.25 inches.
A Year Ago: Ari Curtis
(Fort Collins, Colo.) finished second in the pentathlon with an NCAA
provisional qualifying mark to highlight action for the Drake women's track and
field team at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championship.
Curtis also set a Drake indoor school record,
breaking Jane Toporowski's mark of 3,500 points set in 1980.
Curtis closed out the pentathlon strong by winning
the final two events -- the long jump at 18 feet 7.25 inches and 800-meter run
in 2 minutes 18.48 seconds -- to total 3,739 points.
Tyse Samani won the high jump title with a leap of 5 feet 7
inches. Teammate Michelle Mitchell (Brookfield,
Wis.) was ninth at 5-5.
Kara McCartney was third in the finals
of the 800 in two minutes 15.13 seconds.
Nicole Braunsdorf and Casey McDermott (Newton, Iowa) had steller performances at the
meet. Braunsdorf finished fourth in the mile in 4:56.82 and came back to place
third in the 5,000 in 17:35.06. McDermott was fifth in the mile in 4:57.74 and
capped off the meet by placing fourth in the 5,000 in 17:44.13. McDermott was
fifth in the finals of the 3,000-meter run in 9:47.50, while Braunsdorf was
sixth in 10:03.47.
Tara Scieszinski was 12th in the 5,000 in 18:11.15, while Meredith Bell (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) was
13th in 18:15.19.
Johanna Sprang placed seventh in the pole vault at 11-09, breaking
the school indoor record of 11-7.75 held by Sprang and 2004 record holder
Jess Hetcko.
Drake closed out the meet by placing sixth in the
4x400 relay with Caitlin Able, Clarissa LaFlora, Sarah Yeager and Curtis
being clocked in a season best 3:53.08.
Marissa Smith finished eighth in the final of
the 60 hurdles in 9.03 seconds.
Up Next: Drake will travel to Ames, Iowa for the final time
this season to compete in the Iowa State Last Chance Meet on March 5.