Kansas State track and field put together another strong weekend at the 116th Drake Relays, stacking up event wins, personal bests and some of the fastest relay times in program history across three days in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Wildcats closed the meet with both teams finishing in the top five. The men’s team was named runner-up with 30 points, while the women’s team finished fifth with 15 points. The University of Iowa claimed both team titles, but K-State stayed in the mix all weekend behind a deep group of veterans and freshmen.

The Wildcats picked up two individual wins April 24, with senior Jourdin Edwards taking the women’s 400-meter hurdles title in 58.15 and junior Tavon Underwood winning the men’s 400-meter in 46.07. Edwards led a strong showing in the women’s 400m hurdles, with freshmen Reese Kasper and Delaney Wright following in third and fourth place and finishing with personal-best times of 58.26 and 58.91.

Underwood added another first-place finish in the men’s 400m, while freshman Heath Grant placed second in 46.95. 

Saturday marked the third day of competition, and the Wildcats remained sharp in the relays by securing multiple top-five finishes and moving two units into the top five of the K-State record books.

K-State’s men’s 4x100m relay team of junior Nen Matlock, sophomore Uroy Ryan and freshmen Croix DaCunha alongside Jack Guthridge, qualified for finals after taking second in prelims with a time of 40.12, followed by another runner-up finish in the finals, clocking a time of 39.92.

Both 4x800m relay teams added points April 24, as the men finished fourth in 7:26.41 with the help of freshmen Vance Krudwig and Dylan Plath, sophomore Jackson Steger and senior Julian Avila. The women clocked a time of 8:45.10, with junior Angi Pondler alongside freshmen Anna Pozdeeva, Delaney Brinker and Emma Baum taking fifth place.

The Wildcats also ran the women’s 4x1600m relay for the first time this season, finishing seventh with a time of 20:11.17 behind senior Cecilia Fisher, junior Paige Baker and freshmen Hanna Keltner, along with Bree Allen.

The women’s distance medley relay team of senior Grace Meyer, Pondler and freshmen Baum and Reese Brownlee, placed ninth with a time of 11:28.69, which moved the quad into fifth in K-State history. On the men’s side, Avila, sophomore Jackson Esquibel alongside freshmen Krudwig and Mattix DaCunha, ran a time of 9:47.25, which placed them sixth. 

Both sprint medley relay teams turned in third-place finishes. The men’s team of sophomore Thomas Canivet and freshmen Guthridge, Croix DaCunha and Plath clocked 3:20.36. The all-freshman women’s group of Desirae Riehle, Anastasiia Kretova, Delaney Brinker and Pozdeeva finished in 3:50.99.

The women’s 4x400m relay team of senior Vanessa Mercera, sophomore Ariana Jackson and freshmen Riehle and Kretova clocked in at 3:32.77 to place fourth and move to No. 3 in K-State program history. The men’s group of senior Cyrus Ways, Matlock, Grant and Underwood added one more runner-up finish in 3:06.73.

The purple and white also saw strong marks in the field events. Senior Kayla Goodwin finished runner-up in the championship triple jump at 12.67m (41′ 7″) and added a fifth-place finish in the long jump, reaching 5.81m (19′ 0.75″). Freshman Zoey Brinker cleared 1.80m (5′ 10.75″) to place fourth in the championship high jump, while senior Claire Bybee took eighth in the championship pole vault at a height of 3.93m (12′ 10.75″).

Sophomore Brock Olsen also delivered one of the weekend’s top distance performances, placing fourth in the 10,000m, clocking in at 29:59.85 — his first collegiate 10K — and good for No. 9 in K-State history.

“We have a very special freshman class on both sides, and those freshmen really stepped it up this weekend,” K-State head coach Travis Geopfert said. “Some breakthrough performances in the hurdles with Reese Kasper and Mattix DaCunha and awesome relay legs by all the freshmen women’s sprint medley and by Jack and Croix in two different sprint relays.”

K-State returns to Manhattan on May 8 to close the regular season at the Ward Haylett Invitational at R.V. Christian Track.