May 23, 2012

You are here: Home / Archives for Track & Field

Tickets are on sale for the Drake Relays

April 2, 2012 By

Officials with the Drake Relays are hoping for another attendance record for this month’s event. Single session tickets went on sale last week and associate athletic director Dennis Francois says all-session packages are still available.

Francois says the ticket packages are designed for different fan bases. “We have a lot of high school participation and Thursday and Friday is really heavy on that,” Francois says. They step up the packages for the college events on Saturday.

Francois says there is a special price for Thursday’s distance carnival. “We still have a full day on Thursday…that ticket is just a five dollar ticket,” he explains.

Francois says plenty of tickets remain for all sessions but they expect the Saturday afternoon session to sell out for the 47th consecutive year. “Last year actually we had a record attendance at the relays for the entire session of the relays, Saturday of course was another sell out. We were blessed of course with good weather,” Francois says.

The Drake Relays are April 26th through the 28th.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Pole vaulter Miles to make last appearance at Drake Relays

April 2, 2012 By

This months Drake Relays will be the final one for pole vaulter Derek Miles. The 39-year-old three time U.S. champion will make one more attempt to qualify for the Olympics before calling it a career.

Miles says unless he goes out and wins an Olympic medal, then this will be his farewell tour in the sport. Miles was a four-time NCAA champion at South Dakota and says he wants to end his career while he is still competitive at an international level.

“I still have the same expectations of myself that did five or six years ago, and for me, that is the hardest part,” Miles says. He says it’s hard the older you get to run as fast as you need to and jump as high, but says if he felt he couldn’t still compete he wouldn’t be out there.

Miles says he still feels like he has something to prove. “I’m still chasing the height,” Miles says. He says he’d really like to end his career with an Olympic medal, but he will focused on just making the team.

Miles was the U.S. champion in 2011.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Top female pole vaulter to compete at Drake Relays

March 28, 2012 By

The world’s top ranked female pole vaulter will compete in a West Des Moines mall next month as part of the Drake Relays. Jenn Suhr was the 2008 Olympic silver medalist and will be part of the women’s field in the Pole Vault at the Mall in the Jordan Creek Towncenter.

Drake Relays director Brian Brown says she is the American indoor and outdoor record holder and a 10-time U.S. champion. Brown says the presence of a top ranked competitor will add even more excitement to the competition.

Suhr says she is excited to jump in the mall and it has been one of the things on her bucket list. Suhr says she has hear great things about the event from other competitors. “I heard it was electrifying, the crowd is great…and it’s just a pumped up atmosphere,” Suhr says.

The Drake Relays are April 26th through the 28th.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Iowa Games looking for more volunteers

July 5, 2011 By

It takes a large number of volunteers to make the Iowa Games run smoothly and executive director Jim Hallihan says they are always looking for more. The first of three weekends of competition begin this Saturday.

Hallihan says they have more athletes and sports than the Olympics and he says the volunteers are the”backbone” of the Iowa Games.

Haiihan says for anyone still interested in volunteering their time they should contact the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Hallihan says it is also a large chore to find officials for more than 60 sports. He says they send out hundreds of cards to umpires and officials to ask them to volunteer and then they schedule the officials.

More than 15,000 athletes are expected to take part.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , , , ,

Grand View wins Commissioner’s Cup

June 23, 2011 By

Grand View University has won the Commissioner’s Cup trophy as the all-sports champion of the Midwest Collegiate Conference. The Viking’s swept the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field titles and also captured championships in men’s soccer and men’s golf.

Grand View athletic director Troy Plummer says the award is a reflection of the entire department as he says they try to make sure the athletes have a “really good experience.” He says part of that experience is having success on the field or court.

Plummer says all of the sports programs at Grand View support one another. He says each of the students enjoy the success of the other programs and that’s something they work on among coaches. Plummer says it’s nice to have a good group of coaches who root for each other.

It is the second straight All-Sports title for the school. Plummer says they finished second or third a number of years before winning last year and he says the league is very competitive when it comes to the all-sports champion.

St. Ambrose finished second in the standings. Mount Mercy was third.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , , , , ,

UNI senior ready to run at NCAA championships in Des Moines

June 7, 2011 By

The N.C.A.A. Track and Field Championships open Wednesday in Des Moines, and U.N.I. will have a total of three events competing over the weekend. Holli Hosch qualified in the 800 meter run and has the best chance to earn All-American status of the Panther events.

The senior from Independence says she’s honored to be going back to the national meet. Hosch says it’s really hard to get to the championships and it is a great honor to make it.

Hosch qualified for Nationals by running the 800 in 2:05.16 at the Regional Meet in Oregon last month. That time was more than three tenths of a second better than her preliminary time, and she says she is capable of running even faster. She says prelims usually go out a little slower, and she knew she could do better.

Hosch says she’s looking forward to competing Drake’s blue oval in front of what she says will be a big contingent of fans from her hometown. Hosch says she usually runs well in Des Moines and it will be exciting, although she says it makes her a little more nervous to perform well in front of all of her family and friends.

Hosch’s preliminary race is at 6:00 on Wednesday night. U.N.I.’s men’s 4×100 team will be the first Panther event to run at the Championships. Their race goes off at around 5:45. U.N.I.’s other qualifier is Olimpia Nowak in the heptathlon.

By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Cedar Falls prep weighing college offers in three sports

June 1, 2011 By

Cedar Falls multisport athlete James Harrington has another scholarship offer to consider. Harrington has been offered a scholarship to play football for the U.N.I. Panthers. While he’s not ready to make a decision yet, Harrington says he would have a certain comfort level if he went to U.N.I.

He says he’d be familiar with everything at U.N.I. as he goes to some of their games, but he wants to keep his options open. Harrington is a three-sport star at Cedar Falls, and has Division I offers to play football and basketball.

He’s also been receiving a lot of interest from some top-flight track programs since his four-championship performance at the State track meet. But Harrington says that he won’t decide which sport he wants to play in college until after this summer. He says he is going to go to some AAU tournaments and football camps and hopes to have a better idea by the end of the summer which sport he will participate in.

Harrington says that he’s enjoyed going through the recruiting process of all three sports at the same time, especially since his interest from top track programs has kicked up in the past week. He says it has been more fun to experience them all, and says a lot of big time track schools called him after the state meet. Those schools included: Florida State, Arkansays, Kentucky, Iowa State, Iowa, Wisconsin.

Harrington’s other Division I offers are from North Dakota for football and Indiana State for basketball. He says that many schools have been open to the idea of him playing multiple sports at the college level.

By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »