AMES, Iowa ? With the bulk of the action taking place on Saturday at the Iowa State Track and Field Classic, there was still some excitement in the Lied Recreation Facility on the campus of Iowa State University on Friday.
The final event of the day, the women's pole vault, proved to be one of the most exciting of the day. Kylie Hutson improved on her school record in the pole vault by clearing 13'07.75 to take first place in the event, just edging out Alicia Rue of Minnesota and Mallory Peck of Purdue. Hutson bested the mark she set last week at the Meyo Invitational and maintained her top spot in the conference rankings. Also in the field, Lauren Martin jumped a distance of 18'05.25 to finish 13th overall in the long jump.
“The competition out here today really got the adrenaline going,” said Hutson, a Terre Haute native. “It seemed like every time I cleared a height, the next person came right up and made it too. It was like that all the way to the end, which made it really exciting.”
On the track, Jeanne Middleton ran a strong time of 25.03 in the 200 meter dash to finish in 23rd place overall. She was joined by Kayla Alexander, who ran to a 13th place finish in the non-seeded 5000 meter run with season-best time of 17:48.26.
“We've had a couple of outstanding performances to start this meet,” said women's head coach John Gartland. “Erica (Moore) smashed the school record in the pentathlon last night and then Kylie bested her mark in the vault today against two of the best vaulters in the country. The competition at this meet is some of the best in the country and I hope we continue to improve tomorrow and run to some more strong finishes.”
On Thursday, Moore took second place in the women's pentathlon with 3,993 points, breaking her own school record set last season at 3,674 and catapulting her into eighth place nationally in the event. Meanwhile, the men were beginning their competition in the heptathlon and wrapped up that competition today, with Anthony Bertoli and Brian Jackson serving as the Sycamores' representatives in the event. Bertoli, who struggled on the first day of competition, used second-place finishes in the pole vault (15'07.00) and the 1000 meter run (2:41.08) on Friday to finish in seventh place overall with a score of 4,888. Jackson finished in 10th overall in the event, with a final score of 4,361.
Men's head coach John McNichols was impressed with the way Bertoli battled back on the second day of action.
“Usually, the multi-event is about consistent performances throughout,” said McNichols. “However, Anthony really buckled down today and finished strong to move up to seventh place. His performance in the vault was particularly impressive, with changing to a longer pole. I just hope he continues to improve tomorrow in the open vault for us.”
In other action on the track, Logan Edwards ran a time of 22.17 to finish 35th overall in the event for the Sycamores. He was joined in the event by teammate Gary Ogburn, who set a new personal record time of 22.24 to finish in 38th place, while Jeramie Gray also had a strong performance with a time of 22.32 for a new season-best. In the field, Lyle Nolcox threw a distance of 57'06.50 in the weight throw to take 17th overall.
“I thought there were some good performances out there today, but the bulk of the action will happen tomorrow,” said McNichols. “We'll really need some strong performances in our distance events in order to earn high-seed spots at the conference meet in two weeks. It will also be an important day for our field event athletes, who have leveled out over the last couple meets.”
The Sycamores will wrap up action on Saturday beginning at 10:30 a.m. EST with the remainder of the non-seeded running events and remaining field events. Seeded running events will begin at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST, with live statistics from the entire day available at Cyclones.com.
