ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Drake University men's and women's track and field teams opened their outdoor season with four performances that rank in the top-10 all-time at Drake and an outdoor school record from Kayla Bell (Bollingbrook, Ill.) in the triple jump at Saint Louis' Billiken Kickoff this weekend.

“We have been training hard this past week during spring break and I knew we would be sore and tired,” said Drake head coach Natasha Kaiser-Brown. “But I wanted to see strong efforts from everyone and we got just that this weekend.”

Bell's first-place jump of 40-7.75 bested the previous outdoor record, which she set last year, by four inches. Three weeks ago at the MVC Indoor Championship she set the program's indoor record at 40-9.75.

“Kayla Bell is a gamer,” Kaiser-Brown said. “She comes prepared to drop a solid performance each time she competes.”

She also won the long jump with a leap of 19-3.25, her outdoor personal best and the sixth-best jump in school history.

The women's team also had strong showings in the hurdles with freshman Mary Young (Urbandale, Iowa) winning the 100-meter hurdles in 13.67, the fourth-fastest time in program history on the heels of her third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles at the MVC Indoor Championship. Young also finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles behind Virginia Hill's (Haymarket, Va.) first-place time of 1:01.83, the sixth-fastest ever by a Bulldog.

“Mary continues to show she is not your average first year college hurdler,” Kaiser-Brown said. “I'm proud of Virginia in her 400-meter hurdles. That was a strong race.”

The men's team was aided by Pierce Vincent (Fayetteville, Ga.) continuing his strong first season with the program with a first-place finish in the 100 meters in 10.80, the fastest time by a Bulldog since 2010. On the women's side, Danyelle Cole (Kansas City, Kan.) finished third in the women's 100 meters in 12.16

The 800 meters yielded success for both programs as Samantha Nielsen (Maplewood, Minn.) won the women's race in 2:15.77 while George Webb (Morton Grove, Minn.) was second in the men's race in 1:57.26.

Johnathan Osifuye (Woodbury, Minn.) continued his standout sophomore season with a personal best jump of 23-3.25 to win the long jump and took third in the triple jump with a leap of 46-6.

The teams continue their outdoor seasons next weekend with members competing at the Arkansas Spring Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., and others traveling to the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas.