Bruins experience Drake Relays, Lara Flores sets mark at Kip Javrin

For the first time in program history, the Bruin track team sent relay squads to the fabled Drake Relays held over the past three days in Des Moines. The Bruins' busy weekend also included the Jip Javrin Invite in nearby Indianola, while a handful of the team competed at Friday's Prairie Wolf Invitational hosted by Nebraska Wesleyan in Lincoln.

The 116th running of the Drake Relays began Friday with the men's 4x800 meter relay. Due to a very late change that moved the schedule up by 2 hours to avoid incoming severe weather, the Bruin team of Luis Casallas Vega, Xavier Mallow, Robbie Siford, and Ronald Kipyegon arrived just minutes before the starting gun and finished in a respectable 8:00.24, placing 14th.

Grace Steinmetz contested the women's 5,000-meter run and finished fourth in the unseeded section, running just off of her season best in 17:20.88. David Felipe Mejia returned on Friday evening after the 10,000-meter run was postponed from Thursday. He finished in 33:19.14.

Both men's and women's distance medley relay squads returned to Drake's famed blue oval on Saturday morning, with the women's squad of Maggie Boley, Emily Usher, Wren Hofacket, and Steinmetz running to a fifth-place finish. Their time of 12:14.75 was thirty seconds faster than the same foursome ran indoors in January and was an outdoor school record. The men ran to a ninth-place finish in 10:27.65. Again, the group of Casallas, Mallow, Siford, and Kipyegon represented the Bruins.

At Simpson College on Friday evening, the "Drake alternate" Kip Janvrin Invitational featured exceptionally deep and strong fields in the distance races, and Jose Lara Flores made the most of the opportunity as he cruised to a personal best and new Bruin record of 15:07.37 in the 5,000-meter run. Jack Brown lowered his personal best as well, crossing the line in 15:29.07.

At Friday's Prairie Wolf Invite, Griffin Kisoryo Kipchumba led things off with a victory and personal best of 10:50.56 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He would return an hour later to run 4:26.70 in the 1500-meter run.
Bentlee Kollbaum was the lone representative in the field for the Bruins and reset her own school record of 37.78 meters in the javelin throw, earning a fifth-place finish in the event.

Lydia Cherotich ran to a personal best of 2:39.26 in the 800-meter run, while Alejandro Corona Martinez was just off his personal best, running 2:15.42. Ashley Guatemala-Ortiz returned to the track after missing the past few weeks due to injury to run 5:53.97 in the 1500-meter run.

Terry Kalonji represented the Bruins in the sprints, running 12.32 at 100 meters and 25.52 for 200 meters.

With their final meets of the regular season behind them, the Bruins look forward to their first Frontier Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships to be held in Dickinson, N.D., next Saturday and Sunday, May 2- 3.