DES MOINES, IOWA ? Indiana State senior Jeanne' Middleton will be running again on Saturday, posting the fourth fastest time in the women's 100 meter preliminaries Friday at the 100th Drake Relays.
In addition to Middleton, Sycamore junior Kylie Hutson returned to pole vault competition with a fifth place finish in the women's pole vault and Indiana state freshman Brandon Pounds made the finals of the men's shot put, finishing seventh.
“Middleton ran a great race into a headwind,” John McNichols, Indiana State Track & Field, Cross Country coordinator said. “And it was good to see Hutson back in competition after having an impacted wisdom tooth but she had a little bit of problem with the tailwind and didn't reach the height she was hoping for at this meet.”
Middleton won the third heat of the 100 meters with a time of 12.13 against some of the strongest headwinds of the afternoon. That was the fourth fastest time in the preliminaries with Stanford's Griffin Matthew and Texas-El Paso's Gladys Nwaubani each posting times of 12.01 to lead the field. Mississippi's Kadeshia Fortune is third with a time of 12.09.
The finals of the 100 meters will be run at 4:18 p.m. (ET) Saturday.
Hutson had a vault of 13'1.5” (4.00 meters) to finish fifth in the women's pole vault. It was her best vault of the outdoor season and her first competition in three weeks. The height improves her regional qualifying mark.
Pounds won his flight in the shot put competition with a heave of 56'3.25” (17.15 meters) but did not improve in the finals to finish seventh overall.
In other individual races Friday ISU's Michael Roberts finished 13th overall in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.94 while Daryl Truitt placed 14th (10.89) and Gary Ogburn 17th (11.04) in the men's 100 meter preliminaries.
“I thought that Daryl and Gary ran really well against a stiff head wind as did Roberts in the hurdles,” McNichols said. “You like to see these sprints run with a tailwind but they just do not do that here at the Drake Relays.”
McNichols said he had high hopes for the men's 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams this weekend but both teams had their worst times of the season.
“We have great weather and great competition,” McNichols said. “Some athletes excel in this environment while others do not. We had some that just didn't do their jobs today.”
The men's 4x100 relay team of Truitt, Antinoice Surry, Sean Wright and Jeramie Gray finished 11th with a time of 41.06 while the 4x400 meter relay team of Surry, Wright, Colton Slack and Anthony Bertoli was 10th overall with a time of 3:14.31.
In the 4x100 relay, only two teams finished in the heat the Sycamores ran in with Gray having to step over a fallen runner and a baton rolling on the track to finish.
“That was a great effort on his part,” McNichols said.
The Indiana State men's 4x200 meter relay team of Surry, Ogburn, Patrick Mendenhall and Slack finished 14th overall with a time of 1:28.41.
Two relays competed for the Sycamore women on Friday. Kacie Klem, Mary Kate Conway, Adriane Wunderlich and Heather Stembridge placed 17th overall in the women's distance medley with a time of 12:00.90 while Allison Malone, Wunderlich, Katie Weber and Stembridge placed 12th overall in the 4x800 meter relay with a time of 9:09.35.
