Dutch men’s 4×1600 relay nabs league honor

Central College

PELLA—After shattering the school record by more than 21 seconds, the Central College 4×1600-meter relay team of Eli Horton (junior, Runnells, Southeast Polk HS), Drew Jackson (junior, Johnston), Jamie Vander Veer (junior, Knoxville) and Austin O’Brien (senior, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley HS) has been named Iowa Conference men’s track events performer of the week.

The Dutch quartet placed ninth in the 14-team race in 16:56.06, which featured 11 Division I schools, besting teams from the University of Iowa, South Dakota State University, the University of Wis.-Milwaukee and the University of South Dakota. The previous school record of 17:17.17 was set by Jackson, Kyle Nuehring (sophomore, Waukee), Cole Decker (sophomore, Des Moines, Dowling Catholic HS) and Horton in 2013.

The Central track and field teams compete at the Monmouth (Ill.) Invitational Saturday, which the team will use as a tune-up for the Iowa Conference meet May 8-10.