DES MOINES, Iowa -- University of Nebraska athlete Till Steinforth, who is redshirting this outdoor season, won four of the five events to take a commanding lead Thursday during the opening day of the decathlon at the 114th Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom.

Steinforth, from Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, compiled 4,295 points for a 332-point lead over Zack Butcher, a Northern Iowa athlete competing unattached.

Jordan Gray, bronze medalist at the 2023 Pan-American Games, leads a close race in the heptathlon with 3,576 points – 72 more than Lexie Keller.

Steinforth, coming off a third-place finish in the heptathlon at the NCAA indoor championships last month, dominated the competition from the start, winning the first four events under sunny skies and temperatures that reached the mid-60s.

He ran the 100 in 10.63, went 24-8 ½ (7.53m) in the long jump, reached an outdoor personal best with a throw of 47-1/4 (14.33) in the shot put and cleared 6-5 ½ (1.97m) in the high jump. He finished second in the 400 with his time of 48.55.

Butcher won the 400 in 47.87, his all-time best. He finished the day with 3,963 points. Jakob Tordsen, the 2022 Drake Relays champion, is third with 3,726.

Steinforth owns a personal best of 8,064 points, which he achieved at the Big Ten championships last year. Kip Janvrin is the only decathlete to score 8,000 points at the Drake Relays, a figure he topped four times.

Gray got off to a fast start in the heptathlon competition with a personal best of 13.69 seconds in the 100 hurdles to win that event. She also won the shot put with a throw of 47-6 ¼ (14.48m), finished second in the high jump at 5-7 (1.70m) and took third in the 200 (25.16).

A four-time All-American at Kennesaw State, Gray slipped into second place when Keller won the second event, clearing a personal best 5-9 ¼ (1.76m) in the high jump. But she moved back into the first place after her shot put victory and ran fast enough in the 200 to stay there.

Gray is shooting to top her personal best of 5,903 points, which she achieved in the 2019 USA Championships at Drake Stadium.

Along with her high jump victory, Keller finished fourth in the 100 hurdles (14.04), second in the shot put (42.8 1-4, 13.01m) and second in 200 (25.13) to compile 3,504 points.

Keller is the Colorado State record holder in both the heptathlon and pentathlon and won the 2022 Mountain West Conference championship in the heptathlon. She logged a personal best of 5,858 points in Coral Gables, Florida, earlier this month.

Haley Rizek, who won the 200 in 24.40, is third with 3,205 points, while Northern Iowa sophomore Katy Stephens is fourth with 3,141.

The multi-events competition concludes Thursday, with the decathlon starting at 11:30 a.m. and the heptathlon at 12:30 p.m.

The final five events for the men are the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500. The women finish with the long jump, javelin and 800.