The Iowa track and field team ran away with the Musco Twilight XIX on Thursday in its first home meet of the outdoor season. The event was supposed to take place on Saturday, but the Hawkeyes rescheduled it because of a chilly weather forecast.
The meet included Iowa, Loyola, Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota State, Iowa Central, and Bradley. It was the first time the Musco Twilight took place on a Thursday, but the warmer weather made the schedule change worth it.
“We had some nice weather, so we knew we had to take advantage of it. A lot of the teams in the Midwest haven’t gotten many chances to compete,” Director of Track and Field Joey Woody said. “There’s no better training than competition, so I’m glad we were able to take advantage of this.”
Laulauga Tausaga’s dominance continued on Thursday. Last week, she set school records in both the discus and the shot put. This week, she again won the women’s discus with a mark of 56.69 meters. She leads the Big Ten in the event.
Konstadina Spanoudakis finished second in the discus (49.92 meters), and Kara Misel finished fourth (45.47 meters).
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Amy Smith won the pole vault by clearing 3.7 meters.
On the men’s side, Reno Tuufuli won the discus with a throw of 58.08 meters. He is currently sixth in the country in the event.
On the track, Kyara Avant had a monster day. She won the 100 meters with a personal best time of 11.88 seconds and the 200 with a mark of 24.02 seconds.
Sommer Sharpe ran a personal best time of 59.2 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to win the event and move into fifth in school history. Right behind Sharpe was Sarah Plock at 59.54 seconds, good for sixth in school history. Addie Swanson took third with a time of 1:02.23.
“We haven’t been outside to train much for [the 400 meters], so they really put some good things together,” Woody said.
In the 110-meter hurdles, Chris Douglas finished second with a time of 14.05 seconds. He only trailed former Hawkeye and now-professional runner Aaron Mallett, who ran a time of 13.55 seconds.
Jenny Kimbro won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.77 seconds.
The men’s 4×100 relay team (Collin Hofacker, Antonio Woodard, O’Shea Wilson, and Mar’Yea Harris) won the event with a time of 40.37 seconds.
The women’s 4×400 relay team (Talia Buss, Sharpe, Kylie Welch, and Kyle Morken) took first as well, with a time of 3:43.67.
In the distance races, Madison Waymire picked up ground in the last stretch of the 1,500 meters to win the event by 0.04 seconds with a time of 4:31.86.
Luke Sampson won the 3,000 meters with a time of 8:28.37.
Next weekend, the Hawkeyes will split up to compete in numerous meets: the Long Beach Invitational in Long Beach, California, the Azusa Pacific Invitational in Azusa, California, and the Mt. SAC Invitational in Torrance, California.
“I think our men’s and women’s teams are setting up really well right now as far as where we are on paper,” Woody said. “We just have to finish strong.”
