Blake Boldon, the Franklin P. Johnson Director of the Drake Relays, has announced six more elite fields at the 112^th Drake Relays Presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom as well as the women's invitational 200-meter dash on Friday night (April 29).
 
Limited Drake Relays general admission single-session tickets are now on-sale on draketix.com/drakerelays through Friday, April 22. The first 1,000 fans in attendance for Friday night's session will receive a rally towel.
 
"The announcement of another Olympic Champion is a testament to exactly how special our 2022 event will be," said Boldon. "The addition of a marquee sprint matchup on Friday night is exactly the type of excitement that Drake Relays fans have grown to know and love."
 
Women's Invitational 200m Dash
The women's invitational 200m dash has been officially announced including Brittany Brown, a 2019 World Championships Silver medalist. She took second place in the 2019 U.S. Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium and was a medalist multiple times at Drake Relays while at University of Iowa. The former Hawkeye standout will go head-to-head with University of Iowa sophomore Lasarah Hargrove, who boasts a PR of 22.79 seconds, which ranks her ninth in the NCAA in 2022.
 
Kamaya Debose-Epps and 2021 Olympian Grace Nwokocha both hail from powerhouse North Carolina A&T while the reigning Division-II 200m dash champion at Northwest Missouri State, Hiba Mahgoub was recently added to the field.
 
Men's 110-Meter High Hurdles
2021 Olympic Gold medalist Hansle Parchment returns to the Blue Oval for the first time since 2016. He has a great history at America's Athletic Classic, winning the 110m high hurdles in 2014, being a part of a shuttle hurdle relay team that clocked a time of 53.08 the following year and taking third place in the 110m high hurdles in 2016. In addition to last year's Gold, the Jamaican earned Bronze at the 2012 Olympics.
 
The reigning Drake Relays 110m high hurdles champion Daniel Roberts (also the 2019 champion) will make his return as well. Roberts was the 2019 United States 110 high hurdles champion and a 2021 Olympic semi-finalist.
 
The world-class field also includes Damion Thomas, Michael Dickson, former Hawkeye standouts Aaron Mallett and Jamal Britt, in addition to Chris Douglas and David King, who were both finalists at the 2022 Indoor World Championships.
 
Women's High Jump
Vashti Cunningham headlines the 2022 Drake Relays elite high jump field. Her personal record is 2.02m/6-7.5, the fourth highest clearance ever by an American. Cunningham finished sixth in the 2021 Olympics and qualified for the Olympics in 2016. She has enjoyed prior success at Drake Stadium, winning the 2018 Drake Relays and U.S. Championships as well as the 2019 U.S. Championships and 2014 Junior Olympics at the historic venue.
 
2019 Drake Relays champion Amina Smith is coming off a sixth place showing at the 2022 U.S. Indoor Championships. Smith has finished in the top-8 a whopping nine times at the U.S. Championships. 2021 Olympic qualifier and 2022 Indoor World Championships finalist Rachel McCoy is another American vying for the Drake Relays women's high jump title.
 
The world-class field also includes Kimberly Williamson, Inika McPherson, Zarriea Willis and Jelena Rowe.
 
Men's 800-Meter Run
The extremely consistent Erik Sowinski has run 198 sub-1:50 800s (as of April 7, 2022) in his career. He is a three-time U.S. champion and a member of the U.S. indoor record holding distance medley relay team (9:19.93) in 2015. Sowinski ran at the University of Iowa, where he was a Big Ten 800m and 4x400m relay gold medalist.
 
Isaiah Jewett holds a PR of 1:43.85 in a second place finish at the 2021 Olympic Trials as he became a 2021 Olympic semi-finalist. Both out of Iowa State, Alex Lomong and Frank Hayes will compete the 2022 800m run at the Drake Relays along with Iowa State alum and 2021 Drake Relays DMR champion Daniel Nixon.
 
The world-class field also includes indoor 1000m American Record holder Shane Streich, Luca Chatham and Drew Piazza.
 
Women's 800-Meter Run
Mariela Real is the Mexico outdoor national record holder (2:00.92) in the 800m run and a two-time national champion. Division-I indoor and outdoor All-American at Monmouth University, Allie Wilson enters the Relays with a PR of 1:59.02.
 
Hannah Segrave hails from Great Britain and was the NAIA 800m champion at Milligan. Out of the University of Iowa, Mallory King was a four-time Drake Relays medalist while at Davenport Assumption High School.
 
The world-class field also includes two-time Puerto Rican national champion, Priscilla Morales, Gemma Finch, Emily Richards, Kendra Chambers and Anna Connor.
 
Men's 1500-Meter Run
Brahim Kaazouzi (2016 Olympic semi-finalist and 2014 Morocco national champion), Ben Blankenship (two-time U.S. champion) and Jake Edwards (2019 Drake Relays Invitational Mile champion) are all a part of a deep men's 1500m run field.
 
Two-time Olympian and six-time U.S. champion across multiple events Clayton Murphy has a storied history in Des Moines. He set a Grand Blue Mile record time of 4:00.00 in 2017 and will be returning to the event as well as the men's 1500m run in 2022. Murphy will be joined in both events by two-time steeplechase Olympian Hillary Bor.
 
The world-class field also includes Josh Yeager, Amos Bartelsmeyer, Sam Tanner, Daniel Michalski, Casey Comber and Willy Fink.
 
Women's 1500-Meter Run
Three-time Sweden national champion and 2019 1500m World Championships semi-finalist Yolanda Ngarambe will venture to the 2022 Drake Relays. Former cross country and track All-American (University of Washington) Katie Follett won the 2017 USATF Road Mile Championship at Drake will also compete in the 1500m run this year.
 
Current University of Northern Iowa assistant track and field coach and former Missouri Valley Conference champion Alex Wilson Teubel will return to the Blue Oval as a competitor after she finished sixth in 1500m run during the 2021 Drake Relays.
 
The world-class field also includes Alma Cortes, Laura Galvan, Sammy George, Abbey Cooper, Holly Archer, Lauren Berman, Berenice Cleyet-Merle, Adelle Tracey, Madeline Kelly, Jamie Morrissey and Molly Sughroue.

The 2022 Drake Relays Schedule can be found here.

The 112^th Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom will be held April 27-30 at Drake Stadium. Tickets for the 2022 Drake Relays are available for purchase here.