By Jacob Miller
The Hawkeyes continued to put up electrifying numbers on their new home track at the inaugural Larry Wieczorek Invitational on Jan 20-21.
The Iowa track and field team swept the meet in convincing fashion, defeating Florida State, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa. The women won with a score of 168, and the men won with a score of 148.50. The Iowa State women took second place at 123, and Florida State was second for the men at 123.50.
Throughout the two-day meet, the Hawkeyes continued to break personal records on their new track as well as to dominate the competition.
“You see what happens on this lighting fast track in the 60 and 60 hurdles,” said Joey Woody, the Hawkeye director of track and field. “You see how lighting fast this straightaway is with the 60 meters having three or four of the top times in the country in that 60, including Christian [Brissett] to go out and have a huge [personal record] in that 60 was fun.”
Senior Aaron Mallett broke the facility record in the 60-meter hurdles, again, beating his mark he set last week at the Hawkeye Invitational. His previous mark was 7.79, and he topped that with a time of 7.77. Mallett is now first in the Big Ten in the 60-meter hurdles and third in the NCAA.
“It’s been great,” he said. “I’ve been having season bests every time I’ve stepped on the track. It’s just a lot of fun to run on this track and to have a beautiful facility like this. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Hawkeyes had many personal records broken this weekend, including one by senior Tess Wilberding in the mile. Wilberding broke the five-minute mile mark and won the event with a time of 4:54.16.
“[Associate head coach Randy Hasenbank] kind of wanted me to go out and take the lead and set the pace, and I didn’t know with this pack how that would go over,” she said. “I was scared I’d go out and die, but luckily, it worked.”
For the fans who stuck it out until the end, they received a unique treat before the 4×400 relay. The lights went off, and the team members were spotlighted when they stepped on the track to be introduced as music blared in the background. The Hawkeye teams were, of course, introduced with “Back in Black” playing.
“Our event management staff does a phenomenal job,” Woody said. “We give them ideas, and they take them and do everything they can to make them happen, so having the spotlight and the music at the end of the meet was a lot of fun. We just want to continue to create a great entertainment atmosphere here, entertaining for the fans, but also entertaining for our student athletes to be able to compete in front of a great crowd.”
