The best weather conditions in recent years at the Drake Relays brought out several top performances from UTEP on Saturday.
UTEP closed with three titles, one silver and one third-place finishes on a lightly breezy, 80 degree day in Des Moines, Iowa.
Oludamola Osayomi blazed the field in the special final of the 100-meter dash, running the nation’s fourth-fastest time in 11.25. She finished the wind-legal race .15 seconds ahead of Taheisa Harrigan, running for Reebok.
Dominic Kiprono Tanui and
Elias Koech ran two of the NCAA’s fastest time in the 800-meter run, going 1-2. Tanui was the gold medalist, running the third-best time in the country in 1:47.79. He held off the hard-charging Koech, who crossed with the nation’s fourth-swiftest time of 1:47.82.
All-American
Nelly Tchayem was the top collegiate in the triple jump, marking 42-11 (13.08) to end the afternoon.
The men’s 1,600-meter of
John Alipio,
Daniel Ward, Tanui and Koech ran the fastest time by a Miner team in 11 years and posted the seventh-best time in school history to take third in the relay. UTEP ran 3:07.32 -- which is the 10th best by a school this year -- closing with Koech’s 45.9 split.
Osayomi later joined up with
Quashanda Welch,
Halimat Ismaila and
Olatunde Okusanya to place fifth in the 400-meter relay with a time of 45.47.
The men’s 400 relay was disqualified.
Junior
Kelly Young held near the top of the pack in the 1,500-meter run to cross in a season best by over 11 seconds. She took fifth with a clocking of 4:25.15.
Other student-athletes competing at Drake included
Keisha Walkes, who was 22nd in the shot put (13.36/43-10),
Nina Schvedoff, who was ninth with a season best in the hammer (regional 57.65/189-2),
Alina Joaca-Bine, who was 12th in the hammer (54.81/179-10) and
Hans Eriksson, who was 13th with a season best in the men’s hammer (58.83/193-0).
UTEP also won two titles at the Don Kirby Memorial Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M.
Delia Cesar took the gold in the 1,500 in 4:51.08 and
Megan Chojnacki ran the third-fastest time in school history to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:57.80).
Crystal Garcia was additionally seventh in the 5,000-meter run in 19:37.83.
|
|
