Official 2024 Drake Relays live discussion thread

So Penn thread gets 6-7 pages and this gets zero posts. Midwesterners, did nothing happen at Drake this year? Us Northeasterners are feeling pretty superior about ourselves.

Who cares about a weak meet in a flyover state?

Technically penn relays got over 15 pages when you include all the threads congratulating a runner/team st penn relays, such as Harvard’s dmr record got 2 addl pages.

Would that be any different had Drake been packed with world records?

Seriously though, it wasn’t very noteworthy on a national/international level. The quality of the meet has certainly declined, at the professional level but maybe more so at the collegiate level. Ezekiel Rop (Iowa State) racing at Payton Jordan instead of the meet 30 minutes from his home is telling.

There were tornadoes and thunderstorms in the immediate area last evening and several events were postponed until this morning. Today had good running weather but there was still a 2.5 hour delay as a precaution from storms nearby.

Annie Rodenfels won the pro steeple in 9:31.03. Put her down as another USOT long shot.

Olivia Markezich split 4:31.02 in the 4x1600 yesterday and 4:29.41 in the distance medley today with Notre Dame winning both in blowouts.

John Reniewicki held off Vincent Ciattei in the 1500, 3:36.44 to 3:36.57, both closing in ~54.3. Abraham Alvarado was 3rd in 3:37.56.

Anna Camp Bennett continued her strong season with a 4:07.82 win over Rachel MacArthur (4:08.39). Bennett closed in 62.25. Two Oregon Ducks, Silan Ayyildiz and Klaudia Kazimierska, ran 4:09.34 and 4:10.71 respectively.

Wes Ferguson (DII star for Nebraska Kearney) won the 800 in 1:46.08 over Darius Kipyego of Iowa State (1:46.27). Drake’s best runner Isaac Basten was 5th in 1:46.89, and former Bulldog/recent 3:49 miler Adam Fogg was 7th in 1:47.47.

Aurora Rynda (Canada) won the 800 in 2:00.97 over Julia Nielsen (Bradley, 2:00.99) and Kaela Edwards (US, 2:01.53).

Aldrich Bailey defeated Trevor Bassitt in the 400 hurdles, 48.82 to 48.93.

A bunch of high school kids ran fast mid-distance times by 3 million population flyover state standards, and practically all the top boys will be back next year. A sophomore (Jaden Merrick) won the 3200 in 8:55, a different sophomore (Quentin Nauman) won the 800 in 1:52.2 with a 57.5/54.7 negative split, and a junior (Tony Anania) won the 1600 in 4:06.5 closing in 57.3. Alabama commit/FL finalist Addison Dorenkamp won the 3k/1500 double in 9:23/4:26.

Is there a high level meet with worse weather historically? It always seems to rain or storm recently, lots of DNS’s in the relay events. Despite the crappy weather, there were still some good performances as the above poster mentioned.

Iowa is the Pit of the Midwest and it showed today a Drake.

Several better high school performances than Penn even though only Iowa kids.

Wes MF Ferguson...Dude can fly