DES MOINES — Both Nick Efkamp and Ese Okoro posted record times in their respective 400-meter dash events at the Jim Duncan Invitational this past weekend.

Efkamp, a sophomore, ran in his first 400-meter dash event of the outdoor season and set a Jim Duncan Invitational meet record with a time of 46.68 seconds. Efkamp finished just less than two seconds faster than his competition to place first in the event.

“It was pretty good to open my first 400-meter outdoor race,” Efkamp said. “I told myself I wanted to run 46 [seconds] but I know I want to run even faster.” 

Efkamp thinks he can run faster, and knows his training leading up to the Big 12 Championships will be an important step to improving his time.

“The main thing is just staying consistent in the workouts, not taking any reps off and just hitting all of our workouts,” Efkamp said.

In the women’s 400-meter dash, Okoro finished second but set a new personal record running a time of 54.83.

“Well I haven’t run the 400-meter dash in a few years, but it went really well,” Okoro said. “I kind of died that last 15 meters, but it was a good start.” 

Okoro was joined by Cyclones Kendra White and Dana Christensen, both of whom finished third and fourth in the event. The competition between sprinters, Okoro said, is really heating up.

“I feel like in training we really push each other,” Okoro said. “But we work together to help each other accomplish the goals we set out to break in our workouts and meets.”

Sophomore distance runner Edwin Serem finished first in the 1,500-meter run. Serem, from Kenya, has been improving as of late and ran a personal record in the 5,000-meter run at the Stanford Invite in March.

Serem and others impressed in the 800-meter run as well with Alec Baldwin finishing second, Mohamed Hrezi third and Serem fourth overall in the event.