DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake men's and women's track and field teams continue their indoor season this weekend at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa. The meet starts Friday with field events beginning at 11 a.m., track events at noon and will continue into Saturday at ISU's Lied Recreation Athletic Center.
The Bulldogs are coming off a successful performance at the Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb., last weekend with eight personal bests in six different events. This weekend's the squad will again face heightened competition with nearly 50 teams competing and high qualifying standards.
“It's a little bit different situation than most seasons because we're come off of Husker Invitational where you're thrown into the fire with national-level competitors and this weekend's standards are even higher,” said Drake head coach Natasha Kaiser-Brown. “But we're hoping to put some of our best athletes into that situation and see how they handle it.”
Although the standards are higher for this meet compared to previous meets and years past, Drake is hoping to be represented by several athletes that competed last week in Nebraska, according to Brown. Travis Marsh will lead the way on the men's side in the 60-meter hurdles and the 400 meters and Brogan Austin takes to the track for his first 5,000-meter race of the season. In the sprints, Danyelle Cole and Tiara Winston will lead the women's team fresh off Winston recording personal bests in the 60 and 200 meters last week. Ryan Cook in high jump and Kathryn Ambrose in pole vault are scheduled to represent Drake in the vertical jumps.
“Each event has somebody significant competing in it,” Kaiser-Brown said. “We've had a handful of athletes that met the standards for this meet, so I imagine it would be really competitive.”
Drake's indoor track season is quickly coming to a close with only the Iowa State Classic and next week's Iowa Invite in Iowa City, Iowa, standing between the Bulldogs and the MVC Indoor Championships in Cedar Falls, starting Feb. 28. With the indoor season wrapping up, the team is able to look at the progress that's been made and ways to keep improving leading up to the MVC Championship.
“We're not probably where I'd like to be,” Kaiser-Brown said. “We're still trying to figure out how to train with the j-term, but in a week we should be where we want to be,” Kaiser-Brown said.
