By Carter Melrose
The Iowa track and field team will compete today in the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The meet will be held in Geneva, Ohio, today and Saturday.
It will cap a tremendous indoor season that saw as many as seven school records fall, such as the 4×400-meter relay time of 3:05.62 by Mar’yea Harris, Emmanuel Ogwo, Collin Hofacker, and DeJuan Frye. That relay team consists of three top-10 400-meter runners in Iowa history — Harris, Ogwo, and Frye. Another capstone of the year was the 60-meter-hurdle record falling by Aaron Mallett’s 7.64 run.
When it comes to event favorites, Iowa has a few of those, too. Mallett running the 60-meter hurdles stands to be one of the more exciting events of the weekend. He holds the Big Ten’s fastest time so far this season.
“I really want to break the Big Ten record, but you have to win first,” Mallett said.
Another favorite is Vinnie Saucer, who hopes to defend his 60-meter Big Ten title in his senior season as a Hawkeye.
On the women’s side, Jahisha Thomas, an athlete with staggering leaping ability, has broken two school records this season, in the triple jump and long jump. She should come into the Big Ten meet with a little bit of moxie, considering these two record-breaking performances have occurred in the last month. One happened during the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 11 and one on the very next week in the Iowa Open on Feb. 18.
“I have personal goals that I want to achieve,” Thomas said. “Winning is the No. 1 goal. My goal is to always go out there and win, so that’s what I’ll aim to do. Hopefully, it’s a mark close to what I’ve done, if not better.”
Notably, many freshman tracksters have done great work this season, with as many as seven leading the team in their events. That includes Antonio Woodard in the 200 meters, Tysen VanDraska in the 1,000 meters, and Laulauga Tausaga in the shot put.
Iowa Director of Track and Field Joey Woody is as confident in his athletes as ever and believes this team is special.
“This is probably the best we’ve been heading into the Big Ten Championships as far as the athletes who are going to compete,” Woody said. “It’s going to be a complete team effort. Obviously, we want to win Big Ten individual titles, but at the end of the day, we’re all battling to win that team trophy. Everybody is in; we’ve been talking about it since the beginning of the fall, and now it’s go time.”
Going into the Big Tens, the U.S. Track and Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association computer rankings have Iowa slotted as the 18th best team in the country. This ranking will be put to the test starting today during a meet stuffed to the brim with talented athletes.
