Thursday, May 12, 2011
What's Ahead: The Drake men's track and field team will take its
talents to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference
Outdoor Track And Field Championship. The meet, which will last
from Friday to Sunday (May 13-15) and takes place at the Mark Messersmith Track
and Field Complex. Combined events will begin Friday at 10 a.m. and Saturday at
10:30 a.m., while action on Sunday kicks off at 11 a.m. with the men's pole
vault.
Last
Time Out: Freshman
Omet Kak (Des Moines, Iowa) set another
collegiate personal best en route to a third-place showing in the 1500-meter
race at the Arkansas Twilight.
Kak's time of 3:47.43 was faster than all of
the other collegians competing in the event. It also was a half second faster
than his old personal best set April 30 at the Drake Relays.
Junior Matt Jurysta
(Oshawa, Ontario) was ninth crossing the line in 3:51.03, also a personal best.
Senior Brandon Lewis
(Plymouth, Minn.) and junior Charlie Lapham
(Golden Valley, Minn.) were 11th and 12th, respectively, in the 800-meter dash
finishing in 1:53.25 and 1:53.28.
In his final tune up before looking to defend
his conference crown in the 400-meter hurdles, junior Jon DeGrave (Lake Villa, Ill.) ran a conservative race
clocking in at 54:05 to finish eighth.
A
Year Ago: Jon DeGrave (Lake Villa, Ill.) won the 400 intermediate
hurdles in a personal best time of 51.27 seconds to highlight action for the
Drake men's track and field team at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference
Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He was also named Most Outstanding Men's
Track Athlete of the meet.
DeGrave became just the fourth athlete in Drake
history to win the league title in the 400 hurdles, joining Dave Carlson who
captured the league crown twice in 1966 and 1967 along with Dan Cleveland (1983)
and Theotto Lillard (2005).
Jeff Grassmeyer was third in both the 1,500 and
5,000-meter runs. Grassmeyer was timed in 3:54.89 in the 1,500, while Charlie Lapham (Golden Valley, Minn.) was fifth in
3:55.96. Grassmeyer closed out his collegiate career by being clocked in
14:29.79 en route to a third-place finish in the 5,000.
Brandon Lewis
(Plymouth, Minn.) was sixth in the 800 in 1:57.23 after running a season best
1:53.21 in the qualifying round. Lapham placed eighth in the finals of the 800
in 1:57.27. Shaun James (Lawrence, Kan.) was eighth in the finals of the
200 in 21.77.
Kevin Harp (Iowa City, Iowa) broke Dan Beattie's school
record in the javelin with his then record throw of 202 feet 6 inches.