At the Drake Relays last weekend, the Iowa State track and field squad had successes and failures alike. There were several athletes, however, that didn’t compete at all.

Over the weekend, there were 10 ISU entries scratched from Drake events.

The absences started Thursday night when junior Kiel Uhl and freshman Yonas Mebrahtu were scratched from the 5,000-meter run shortly before the race.

“When we entered, we had no idea what was going to happen a week before or two weeks before,” said head coach Corey Ihmels. “We just had to roll with how the guys were feeling.”

Uhl was coming off of a personal best in his previous competition in the event, but Mebrahtu struggled his last time out, leading the coaching staff to change up the events they ran over the weekend. 

“It was kind of a ‘Tale of Two Cities’ with those two guys,” Ihmels said. “It was for different reasons we decided to pull them out of the 5k and run them in different events.”

The women’s 4×400-meter relay and distance medley relay were both scratched Friday afternoon, and sophomore Tiffanie Synacek missed the high jump competition.

The relay squads were cut for a number of reasons, some being level of preparation or injuries to a potential member, Ihmels said 

Synacek, however, missed the high jump competition due to a bone spur condition in her foot that may force her to miss the remainder of the season. Ihmels said Synacek is in the process of applying for a medical redshirt to gain another season of eligibility.

“[As coaches] we enter everyone and then see where your people are at, how people are doing, who’s healthy and who’s not healthy,” Ihmels said.

Back on Track

In Berkeley, Calif., senior Grace Kemmey and juniors Guor Marial and Lisa Koll competed at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational.

For Kemmey and Marial it was the first chance at competition since the two struggled at the Stanford Invitational in March, and for Koll it was her first competition in the 10,000-meter run since her National Championship effort last June.

Marial struggled against the elite field at Berkeley and was pulled from the track before the end of the race.

“We’ve got conference [championships] in three weeks, and it was going in the wrong direction for him,” Ihmels said. “There was no point in him suffering out there longer than he had to.”

Koll finished fifth in the 10,000-meter event with a time of 32:43.85, the second best time registered this season in Division 1, while Kemmey finished 10th with a personal-best time of 33:50.58

“I thought it went really well for both [Koll and Kemmey],” Ihmels said. “It was nice for both of them to have great races.”

Koll used the race to gauge her preparation for the postseason meets later this season where she will look to defend both conference and national titles. She has only been training for five weeks since coming back from a back injury, so Ihmels was encouraged by what he saw from his star runner.

“I think she’s got a chance to do great things,” Ihmels said. “She’s in a good spot, and it’s exciting where we can take her in the next four or five weeks.”

Baton Troubles

In several relay events at Drake, the Cyclones had handoffs that were described as “messy” and even had a team struggle after the baton was dropped in traffic.

In both the men’s and women’s 4×800-meter relay, the large field wreaked havoc on handoffs. Athletes struggled to find their teammates through the traffic, and even times that athletes stumbled over one another trying to make it through cleanly.

The women’s 4×100-meter team also struggled to make clean handoffs throughout their event, potentially costing them a chance at an NCAA regional qualifying time.

“That’s just part of the deal,” Ihmels said. “You can practice it all week and do everything you need to do to give yourself a chance at great handoffs, but sometimes those things just happen.”

Also in the women’s 4×800, freshman Kersten Thorgaard fumbled the baton early into the second leg when she was bumped in traffic.

Thorgaard had to quickly turn around and retrieve the baton from the track’s apron, putting the team far behind the pack.

“Those are mistakes that are made, and we just have to learn from it and not let it happen again,” Ihmels said. “She’s still young, and I doubt she’ll let that happen again.”