The 4×400 meter relay fell short of both the men’s and women’s side on Friday at the Drake Relays. They finished fourth and fifth place in the prelims and failed to qualify for the finals on Saturday.

The women had a preliminary time of 3:48.21, which came up 22nd overall. On the men’s side, their time of 3:14.92 was good enough for 11th place overall.

Sophomore Brian Sandvig, junior Jamal Currica, junior Matt Brinkley and senior Alvin Garnett were approximately four seconds off their target time.

“It definitely wasn’t what we wanted,” Sandvig said. “This was our big race before conference that we wanted to try to get out. It just wasn’t there today.”

Garnett, who ran the anchor leg wasn’t any less pleased with the team’s time and knows that they can run faster.

“I feel like we’re a lot faster team,” Garnett said. “You just have to do it on the track.”

With only the conference meet remaining for the quartet in this event, they would like to get the finishing time down to around 3:10 in order to qualify for nationals.

Currica knows that this event requires all four parts to work together, but he felt as if he could have especially stepped it up on his end.

“The other three guys did their part,” Currica said. “I tightened up and I didn’t feel good. I didn’t do enough to run a good time and get us a good enough time for regionals.”

Freshman Dana Christensen, sophomores Jordon Andreassen and Donnise Powell, and junior Callan Jacobson made up the women’s side.

“I feel like, overall, our handoffs were good and we all ran strong,” Andreassen said.

The runners weren’t sure of their time immediately following the race, but knew they had finished in the middle of the pack. Once they found out about their time, the hopes for reaching the finals started to dwindle.

They also felt that the windy conditions played a factor, especially down the home stretch.

“You really hit the wind when you come off the curve, it made it really difficult,”Christensen said.