KEVIN JENISON

GoSycamores.com

DES MOINES, IOWA – Freshman John Mascari broke the Indiana State record in the 10,000 meters in winning the event Thursday evening at the 104th Drake Relays hosted by Drake University. Mascari took the lead at the 5,000 meter mark and never looked back.

“Today was a do or die day for me so I could get into the NCAA Regional,” Mascari said after the race. “I just wanted to hold on. It worked out and I had a 30 second personal best. I just was to hang on as logn as I could and I kept saying to myself 'please don't hit a wall.'”

Mascari's did put himself into position to qualify for the East Regional with his performance at the Drake Relays.

“This is the biggest race I have been in,” Mascari said. “Before, the biggest race was my high school state meet. Coming in as a freshman, I did not know what to expect. Thankfully it worked out.”

Mascari was clocked in 29:19.74 as he dominated the finish of the race. Robert Scribner (Hansons-Brooks) was a distance second at 29:38.42 with Illinois State's Ryan Rutherford the second collegian and third overall with a time of 29:51.66.

The Sycamore freshman broke the Indiana State record by almost 20 seconds, surpassing the mark of Craig Padgett who ran 29:38.70 at the Mt. SAC Relays in 2012. Mascari is the first Sycamore to win the 10,000 meters at the Drake Relays since Jason Gunn in 2001. Gunn ran 30:13.75 and edged Randy Arias of Southwest Texas State (30:16.10) for the victory.

Senior Robert Webb scored a career best 6,723 points to finish as the fourth collegian and seventh overall in the men's decathlon at the Drake Relays Thursday. The total is the fourth best in school history.

Junior Kelly Steffen was the 10th collegian and 13th overall in the women's heptathlon as she finished with 4,574 points as the competition closed Thursday. Fellow junior Rachael Johnson recorded a career best 4,491 points in her first heptathlon since the 2011 season to finish as the 11th collegian and 14th overall. Johnson's point total is the fifth best in school history. Steffen holds the third spot with 4,772 points set a year ago.

Webb finishes the second day of the Decathlon on a high note, setting a personal best in the final two events as he had a throw of 143'-11” (43.87m) in the javelin and ran 4:50.05 in the 1500 meters. He opened the day by running 15.10 in the 110 meter hurdles before moving to two field events where the threw 100'-3” (30.51m) in the discus and cleared 13'-9¼” (4.20m) in the pole vault.

The seniors' best event on the opening day of the Decathlon (Wednesday) was in the high jump as he cleared 6'-6¼” (1.99m). Webb also had a leap of 22'-2¼” (6.87m) in the long jump, ran 11.36 seconds in the 100 meters, posted a personal best distance of 36'-7¾” (11.17m) in the shot put, and closed out the opening day with a time of 51.83 seconds in the 400 meters.

Northern Iowa's Daniel Gooris won the event with 7,395 points with Jake Arnold (Asics) second with 6,955, and Georgia's Devon Williams third with 6,916 points. 

Three events rounded out the heptathlon competition Thursday. Steffen had a leap of 17'-9” (5.41m) in the long jump, a throw of 94'-3” (28.73m) in the javelin, and ran 2:25.13 in the 800 meters. Johnson capped her competition with a leap of 15'-11¾” (4.87m) in the long jump, a throw of 95'-11” (29.23m) in the javelin, and running a career best 2:27.26 in the 800 meters. Johnson finished with five career bests in the two day competition.

Johnson was a perfect four-for-four in recording personal bests on the first day of the heptathlon as she ran 15.94 in the 100 meter hurdles, cleared 5'-5¼” (1.66m) in the high jump, threw 32'-6½” (9.92m) in the shot put, and ran 26.84 in the 200 meters. Steffen ran 15.61 in the 100 meter hurdles, cleared 5'-1¾” (1.57m) in the high jump, threw 30'-4¾” (9.16m) in the shot put, and ran 26.58 in the 200 meters.

Lindsay Lettow (unattached) won the heptathlon with 5,470 points. Mississippi's Mary Hall was second with 5,324 points and Northern Iowa's Paige Knodle was third with 5,312 points.

In other results from Thursday: Brad Adams placed seventh in the men's unseeded 800 meters in 1:53.28; Nicole Lucas placed 26th in the women's 10,000 meters with a career best time of 37:17.62; Tristan Selby placed 34th in the men's 10,000 meters with a time of 32:19.13; and Taylor Head ran 14:38.17 to finish 16th in the men's 5,000 meters.

There will be a full day of competition on Friday beginning with the preliminaries in the 110 meter hurdles at 10:45 a.m. (ET). That will be followed on the track b the 4x100 relay preliminaries, the distance medley relay, 100 meter preliminaries, seeded 800 meters, preliminaries in the 4x400 relay, and the 4x200 relay. The first field event of the day will be the women's pole vault at 11 a.m. (ET) followed by the men's javelin, women's shot put, women's high jump, men's long jump, women's discus, and men's shot put.

POLE VAULT AT THE MALL

Former Indiana State pole vaulter Kylie Hutson (Nike) tied for second in a highly competitive Pole Vault at the Mall which was held at the Jordan Creek Town Center Wednesday night. The event had an international flavor with several Olympians in attendance to compete.

Hutson won the 2011 Pole Vault at the Mall title and cleared 15'-1” (4.60m) to tie for second with Mary Saxer a week after a disappointing finish at the Kansas Relays.

“I actually felt pretty good about my performance today,” Hutson said. “I had a rough go at the Kansas Relays last Saturday so coming back from a no height in Kansas is pretty nice.”

Cuba's Yarisley Silva, who won silver at the London Games, set a new Pole Vault at the Mall record as she won the event by clearing 15'9¾” (4.82m). Becky Holiday was fourth and April Steiner Bennett fifth as each cleared 14'-5¼” (4.40m) with Tori Pena sixth at 14'-1¾” (4.30m).

German Bjorn Otto, a silver medalist at the London Games, won the men's pole vault by clearing 19'-0¼” (5.80m). Frances Renard Lavillenie, the gold medalist in London, was second at 18'-8¼” (5.70m). Jordan Scott, the 2013 USA Indoor Champion, was third at 18'-4½” (5.60m) with 2012 Pole Vault at the Mall champion Brad Wagner tying Mark Hollis for fourth at 18'-0½” (5.50m). Steve Lewis was sixth at 17'-6½” (5.35m).

Most of these same competitors will be competing in the Drake Relays which will feature several “London Games Revisted” events during the next two days. The LGR women's pole vault will be held at 6:15 p.m. (ET) Friday with the LGR men's pole vault at 3 p.m. (ET) Saturday.