Air Force Heads to Iowa for 111th Drake Relays

The Air Force track and field team splits for a pair of meets this weekend (April 22-24), as the championship season draws closer. Part of the squad is set to travel to Des Moines, Iowa, for the 111th running of the annual Drake Relays, while a smaller contingent remains in state for the Jack Christiansen Invitational in Fort Collins.
 
DRAKE RELAYS INFORMATION
The Drake Relays, presented by Xtream, powered by Mediacom, will take place at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. The meet, which is in its 111th year, will begin with the Distance Carnival on Thursday, April 22. A limited number of tickets were available and capacity has been reached for each day. Live results and a complete schedule of events are located on the Drake Relays’ website, while a broadcast will available through the USATF.tv subscription service (direct links to results and video can be found the team’s schedule page at GoAirForceFalcons.com).
 
HISTORY 101
Since 1963, Air Force has captured 16 championships at the Drake Relays. The sprint medley squad of Miguel Molas, Terrell Bradford, Sedacy Walden and Michael Rhoads are the program’s most recent winners at the Drake Relays, as the quartet ran an Academy-Record time of 3:19.33 during their winning performance.
 
JACK CHRISTIANSEN INVITATIONAL INFORMATION
The Jack Christiansen Invitational will take place at Colorado State’s stadium of the same name on Saturday, April 24. Spectators are not allowed at this year’s meet, but live results are slated to be provided by Rapid Results (a direct link is available on the team’s schedule page at GoAirForceFalcons.com.
 
AIR FORCE IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Mitch Lipe is ranked among the NCAA Top 25 in the pole vault, as his career-best clearance of 17’8½” is the 18th-best mark in the nation.
 
SQUAD GOALS
Air Force’s decathlon lineup remains the top-scoring team in this week’s USTFCCCA #EventSquad rankings – which are determined by using the cumulative season-best marks from a team’s top four athletes on the national descending order list. Wyatt Murphy, Braeden Holcombe, Tyler Gurchiek and Brian Hubbard have combined for 25,469 points – more than 1000 points more than any other NCAA decathlon quartet. The men’s pole vault is fourth (68’4¼”), while the Falcons’ top-four 5000-meter runners are listed in the top 15 (56:12.84, 14th).
 
COMING UP
Air Force heads to Clovis, Calif., next week for the first-ever West Coast Relays. The May 1 meet will take place at Veterans Memorial Stadium – site of the upcoming Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

 

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