DES MOINES, Iowa – Former Drake Relays champions Jakob Tordsen and Shaina Burns return to compete in Drake Relays decathlon and heptathlon, respectively, which starts Wednesday at Drake Stadium.
Tordsen won the 2022 Drake Relays decathlon, while Burns captured the 2023 Drake Relays heptathlon title after placing second in 2019.
There are 26 entrants in the decathlon, which starts at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday with the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400. It resumes Thursday at 10 a.m. with the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500.
Eighteen athletes are entered in the heptathlon which begins at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday with the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200. Activities start at 11 a.m. Thursday with the long jump, javelin and 800.
North Dakota State senior Zach McGlynn, along with Drew Thompson and Josh Cogdill from the Lux Viridi Athletic Club, should challenge Tordsen for the decathlon title. McGlynn has posted the top mark of all decathletes with 7,697 points to win the 2025 Aztec Invitational in San Diego. He placed seventh in the heptathlon at the 2026 NCAA Indoor Championships with a personal best of 5,995 points.
Thompson is coming off a personal best 7,641 points to win the decathlon at the Duke Invitational April 10. Cogdill owns a personal best of 7,508 points in the decathlon and is the only athlete to win three straight Mountain West Conference titles in the decathlon during his collegiate career at Colorado State.
Tordsen set personal best 7,523 points at the 2024 Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz. He finished third in the heptathlon in the 2024 U.S. Indoor Championships. As a senior at Concordia-St. Paul, Torsden won the heptathlon at the 2023 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships.
Burns, who owns a personal best of 6,130 in the heptathlon, will face strong competition from UNI junior Joey Perry who is ranked No. 9 on the 2026 women's collegiate list.
Perry posted a personal best 5,617 points to finish second at the Bryan Clay Multi-Event April 10 in Azusa, Calif. Perry is the defending 2025 Missouri Valley Conference heptathlon champ and also captured the pentathlon title at the 2025 MVC Indoor Championships. She finished fourth in the heptathlon at the 2025 Drake Relays with 5,174 points.
Other top contenders in the heptathlon include Iowa State freshman Zola N'Douma-Mona, Missouri graduate student Brianna Utech, and Anneke Moersdorf, competing for Pacific Athletics.
N'Douma-Mona finished sixth in the 2025 French Junior National Championships with a personal best of 5,481 points. She collected a season best of 5,467 points, finishing second at the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos, Texas April 3.
Utecht recorded a personal best 5,449 points en route to a sixth-place finish at the Texas Relays April 2. A transfer from Wichita State, Utecht was second in the heptathlon in the 2025 American Athletic Conference Championships. Moersdorf has a personal best of 5,618 points and was third in heptathlon at 2024 Pac-12 Conference Championships competing for Oregon State.
