The Events... Several members of the Northwestern track and field teams will compete this weekend at either the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa or at the Kip Janvrin Open hosted by Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa.
Schedule and Personnel... Action gets underway for the Red Raiders at the Drake Relays early Friday morning with the running of the men's 4x100 relay followed by the women's distance medley. The women's 4x400 relay will be the final event that Northwestern athletes will compete in on Friday. Three more relays will highlight the competition on Saturday, beginning with the women's 4x800 relay at 8:53 am. Two more relays, the women's 4x100 and 4x400, will run Saturday afternoon. Red Raider athletes competing as part of a relay team include: Emily DeWeerd, Andrea Wedel, Laura Jacobson, Luke Hofmeyer, Jordan Langer, Lori Wolf, Jess Regan, Olivia Johnson, Steph Powell, Kyle Blankers and Jameson Guthmiller.
The throwers will be competing at the Kip Janvrin Open, hosted by Simpson College. The first event will be the men's hammer throw and women's discus beginning at noon on Friday. The complete schedule of events can be found below. Athletes competing at the Kip Janvrin Open are: Josh Earleywine, Kara Den Herder, Logan Ogden, Paul Lundgren, Rae Taylor, Sara Earleywine and Teryn DeHaan.
12 p.m. Men’s High Jump
Men’s Hammer
Men’s Javelin
Women’s Discus
2 p.m. Men’s Long Jump
Women’s High Jump
Women’s Pole Vault
Women’s Triple Jump
3 p.m. Men’s Discus
Women’s Hammer
Women’s Javelin
4 p.m. Men’s Pole Vault
Women’s Long Jump
Men’s Triple Jump
4:30 p.m. Men’s Shot Put
Women’s Shot Put
About the Event... The Kip Janvrin Open will feature 52 teams who have created 1,805 entries. Both are records for the event which traces it roots back to the mid 1980's. NCAA Division I teams scheduled to compete include Air Force, Bowling Green, Drake, Iowa State, Minnesota, Missouri State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Iowa, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Utah, Wisconsin, and UW-Milwaukee. 11 NCAA Division II teams are entered with 14 from NCAA Division III scheduled to run. Rounding out the field are 14 NAIA teams, two junior colleges, and one Canadian team, the University of Manitoba. Kip Janvrin Web-Site
College and universities from all four corners of the United States will compete this week in the 99th running of the Drake Relays.There will be colleges and universities representing a whopping 34 states including California (UC Riverside, Long Beach State), Florida (Florida, South Florida, Tampa),Oregon (Portland State), Vermont(Vermont) and Utah(Utah, Utah State). A school from every southern state from the east coast to the west coast, with the exception of New Mexico, will attend the Drake Relays. The University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and YorkUniversityin Toronto, Ontario, Canada, also are competing.
Officials expect 7,908 athletes, representing 686 teams, to participate in the Relays. Drake Relays Results
Red Raider Notes... Heading into the weekend, five Red Raider entries have qualified for the national meet. Jon Woehl (Marathon), Olivia Johnson (800, 1500), Charity Miles (10,000) and the women's 4x800 relay have all met the automatic qualifying standard. Preliminary seedings have been released for the GPAC meet next week and Laura Jacobson is seeded second (58.97) in the 400m and fourth in the 800m (2:19.47). Olivia Johnson is seeded first in the 1,500m (4:39.1) and second in the 800m (2:14.55). Three Red Raiders, Charity Miles (2nd), Sara Hess (7th) and Ingrid Carlson (9th) are seeded in the 10,000m. Emily DeWeerd is ninth in the 100m hurdles (15.78) and Jess Regan is eighth in the 400m hurdles (1:06.87). In the field events, Kaitlin Beaver is fifth in the high jump (5-4), Amy Katsma is ninth in the shot put (38-09) and Angela Wiersma is ninth in the triple jump (33-11.25).
For the men, Steve Westerkamp is seeded eighth in the 400m with a time of 50.03. Kyle Sauter is seeded seventh in the 110m hurdles (15:15) and 10th in the 400m hurdles (57.69). The 4x100 relay is seeded third with a time of 43:29. For field events, Michael Ortmeier is seventh in high jump (6-05) and 11th in javelin (157-10). Logan Ogden is eighth in the shot put (49-03).
Next up... The GPAC Conference Meet is slated for May 3 at Elwood Olson Stadium in Sioux City, Iowa.
