Central women smash another record
Central College
DES MOINES—The Central College men’s and women’s track and field teams finished the Drake Relays with a strong showing Saturday highlighted by yet another broken record from the women’s squad.
One day removed from cracking the 4×200-meter relay record, the women’s foursome of Jill Ziskovsky (senior, Dallas Center, Dallas Center-Grimes HS), Emily Teas (senior, Indianola), Rachel Purdy (sophomore, Ankeny), and Felicia Coleman (sophomore, Houston, Texas, J. Frank Dobie HS) shattered the school mark they had set two weeks earlier in the 4×400 relay en route to a fifth-place finish in the college division. Their time of three minutes, 48.75 seconds was over a full second faster than their previous best (3:50.16) and easily surpassed the NCAA-automatic qualifying standard of 3:50.1. The Dutch are currently ranked second in Division III.
“Our women continued their great season with a big performance on a big stage,” said coach Joe Dunham. “Running that well at the Drake Relays is a huge accomplishment and something they’ll remember for a long time.”
Meanwhile, the men’s 4×100-meter squad of Trevor Veach (junior, Grinnell), Logan Danko (sophomore, Centerville), Kyle Wood (senior, Newton), and Allen Scovel (junior, Runnells, Southeast Polk HS) finished sixth in the college division with a time of 41.58 seconds, just off their season’s best from earlier this month (41.54). That mark is currently ranked sixth in Division III.
“Our men had two solid races this weekend,” said Dunham. “They didn’t improve their previous mark but they were very close and there is a lot to be said for being that consistent.”
The Dutch will travel to Monmouth, Ill. next Saturday for the Monmouth Invitational for their final tune-up before the Iowa Conference meet May 12-14.
“Today was a big day for Central College track and field and we’ve got a lot of momentum heading into the last week of the season,” said Dunham. “We’re excited to see how the championship part of this season turns out.”
