FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Drake University men's and women's track and field teams recorded a series of personal bests in their second outdoor meet of the season Saturday, March 28 at the Arkansas Spring Invitational.

"I was hoping to see not only strong efforts but actually improvements in performances," said Drake head coach Natasha Kaiser-Brown. "We have several athletes poised for some big time results." 

Freshman Mary Young (Urbandale, Iowa) continued her stellar debut season with a victory in the 100-meter hurdles courtesy of a time of 13.77 into a headwind. Virginia Hill (Haymarket, Va.) took ninth in the event. Later in the afternoon, Hill claimed second in the 400-meter hurdles with a 1:02.09 finish.

"The hurdlers looked great," Kaiser-Brown said. "Last week Virginia [Hill] opened the season with a 61 second race and nearly repeated that time this weekend. She also ran a personal best in the 100-meter hurdles by dipping under 15 seconds while her teammate, Mary Young, ran another sub 14-second race." 

The pair also combined with Rai Ahmed-Green (Irvine, Calif.) and India Knight (Germantown, Md.) to finish second in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:47.60, the fourth-fastest in program history.

The distance events were led by a third-place time of 2:15.55 from Samantha Nielsen (Maplewood, Minn.) in the 800 meters and a fourth-place finish from Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) in the 1,500 meters in 4:42.38. The men's distance crew was paced by a fourth-place time of 8:35.21 from Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) in the 3,000 meters and George Webb (Morton Grove, Ill.) taking fifth in the open 800 meters while James Saxton (La Crosse, Wis.) finishing eighth in the seeded race.

"Reed, Krista and Emma [Huston] were tough competitors this weekend," Kaiser Brown said. "They stayed towards the front of the pack they pushed the pace of their individual races." 

In the women's field events, Jaclyn Aremka (Plainfield, Ill.) unleashed a huge personal best by clearing 5-7.25 to win the event while Kayla Bell (Bollingbrook, Ill.) and Kathryn Ambrose (Warrensburg, Mo.) finished third in the triple jump and pole vault, respectively.

For the men's squad, Kendall Owens (Carrollton, Texas) finished ninth in the 100 meters with a personal best of 10.79 to become the first Bulldog to break 10.80 since 2010. In the longer sprints, Steven Jordan (McFarland, Wis.) took fourth in the 200 meters and sixth in the 400 meters with times of 21.97 and 48.99. Both also ran legs on the Bulldogs' 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays that finished fourth and fifth.

Kai Asberry (Carrollton, Texas) also ran a leg on both relays in addition to finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51.99

In the men's field events, Drake recorded top-five finishes in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and javelin. Johnathan Osifuye (Woodbury, Minn.) finished second in the long jump with a personal best of 23-4 and then took third in the triple jump.

"Johnathan Osifuye had a great day," Kaiser-Brown said. "His Long jump is really coming together. I would not be surprised if he launches a big performance here in the next few weeks." 

David Silkman (Leawood, Kan.) took third in the javelin with a toss of 184-0 while Ryan Cook (Colorado Springs, Colo.) took third in the high jump and Adam Perkins (Lake Quivira, Kan.) cleared 14-1.25 to take fifth in the pole vault.

The teams continue their season next weekend with various athletes competing at the Stanford Invitational and the San Francisco Distance Carnival.