Saturday, April 30, 2011
DES MOINES, Iowa--The duo of freshman Omet Kak
(Des Moines, Iowa) and junior Jon DeGrave
(Lake Villa, Ill.) led the Bulldogs at the Saturday session of the Drake
Relays.
Kak ran a personal best
time in the 1500 finishing in 3:48.30, which is the best time in the Missouri
Valley Conference this season. Even with the sellout crowd of 14,504 there was
one person very special in the crowd for Kak.
“My family has never
watched me run my whole entire life,” said Kak. “Today, my mom came out to
watch and I tried to run well. Coming down the homestretch I thought of how my
mom was in the stands and I had to succeed.”
DeGrave ran the
second-fastest time in school history in the 400 hurdles crossing the line in
50.91. It marks a personal best for the humble junior and the best time in the
Valley.
“Jon's forte is being
aggressive at the beginning,” commented head coach Natasha Brown. “I thought he got a good start today and his finish
coming home was good at all.”
“It was a decent time, but
I was disappointed with some of my hurdling,” said DeGrave. “I was hurdling
sloppy and it was not smooth as I would have wished. For me to run that time
when I hurdled like that it was pretty good.”
Both competitors agreed
that the atmosphere at the Relays is different from many other meets.
“Its amazing that it's so
different form any other meet we go to the rest of the year,” said DeGrave. “It's
so fun. The environment and all of the great athletes here make it a fantastic
meet.”
In the distance medley
relay, the Drake squad of junior Charlie Lapham (Golden Valley, Minn.), freshman Travis Marsh (Ankeny, Iowa), senior Brandon Lewis (Plymouth, Minn.) and junior Matt Jurysta (Oshawa, Ontario) netted a 10th place finish with a
time of 10:00.48.
“You are in some elite
company when you run at the Drake Relays,” said Brown. “I was impressed with how that relay
team lined up and competed. It's easy to be intimidated by other teams and for
us to hang in the race with those top teams is great.”
Sophomore Isaac Twombly, after breaking the
hammer throw school record on Thursday, had a toss of 163 feet 7 inches.
In one of his many events
of the Relays, sophomore Dan Karys
(Bartlett, Ill.) leapt 46 feet 10 inches.
The Bulldogs will head
north next Saturday (May 7) to Cedar Falls, Iowa to partake in the Messersmith
Invitational.
