Results | Post-Meet Notes
DES MOINES, Iowa – It was a cold and gloomy day at the 107th Drake Relays, but that did not stop the Texas Longhorns from running fast times. Texas advanced all four of its relay teams through preliminary rounds and saw success in the individual running prelims as well.
Hurdlers began the action for the Longhorns on Friday morning with the pair of BJ Adeokun and Ariel Jones advancing to the final in the 100 meter hurdles. Freshman Mariam Abdul-Rashid ran a new personal best time to finish ninth in 13.64 seconds. She missed making the final by just .01. Adeokun and jones ran 13.53 and 13.58, respectively.
That time by Abdul-Rashid also gives the Texas women five runners ranked in the Top 10 in the Big 12 Conference as the league championship meet is approaching in two weeks.
Texas advanced its men's and women's 4x100 meter relay teams out of prelims and into Saturday's final with strong showings.
The team of Chrisann Gordon, Courtney Okolo, Caitland Smith and Morolake Akinosun clocked in at 45.05 to move on with the No. 5 time of the day. Smith would later run 11.68 in her preliminary heat of the 100 meters and advance to the final individually as well.
For the men, it was Charles Anumnu, Carlton Anumnu, Zack Bilderback and Aldrich Bailey Jr. running 40.25 seconds to move to the final with the second-best time of prelims.
Carlton Anumnu, Bailey and Bilderback would team up with Chris Irvin to advance to the final in the 4x400 meter relay later in the day's first running session. The Longhorns crossed the line in 3:07.58.
The women's 4x400 team of Zola Golden, Melissa Gonzalez, Smith and Jones grabbed a spot in the final with a 3:39.42 timing.
Jones ran 58.14 seconds to finish second in the 400 meter hurdles final. Abdul-Rashid and fellow freshman Sydne Fowler both ran PR's clocking in at 59.10 and 59.64.
The Longhorns closed their evening with a ninth place finish in the women's 4x800 meter relay. The rarely seen event teamed Alex Cruz, Okolo, Fowler and Gabby Crank together. Crank ran the anchor leg and crossed the finish line to give Texas a time of 8:55.53.
Texas will conclude action at the Drake Relays on Saturday. Action begins at 7:30 a.m. and the first event for Texas is set for 9:30 a.m. The meet is being live streamed online via USATF.tv. NBC Sports Network will also air two hours live on television starting at 3 p.m.
