DES MOINES – In one of the most coveted sporting events in the state of Iowa, the ISU men’s track and field team gave the home crowd of nearly 14,500 fans a reason to cheer when the men took home a number of top finishes at the 99th annual Drake Relays at Drake Stadium.

Throughout the weekend, the Cyclones had to persevere through a slew of varying weather conditions but were still able pull out several notable performances.

Coach Corey Ihmels expressed his enthusiasm about the way the team competed.

“I was really excited about the weekend,” Ihmels said. “If you take a look at a lot of the different events we were in, we were battling to be in the hunt and win.”

On what ended up being the warmest day of competition, Clayton Carper got the team rolling on Thursday with a seventh-place finish in the 10,000-meter run. Running the event for the first time in college, the freshman turned out a 31-minute, 31.13-second performance.

Following a sixth-place finish in the 5,000 at last year’s Relays, Kiel Uhl returned to the blue oval for another chance to run in front of the hometown fans. Although not the result he was looking for, the junior still managed to pull out a top-five performance.

Right out of the gate, the Prole native struggled to find a rhythm, falling behind early amid the large field.

“My legs were feeling sluggish and pretty heavy,” Uhl said. “What I wanted to do was get into a rhythm and find someone to key off of and have them do some of the work, because I wasn’t feeling great.”

As the race reached the halfway point, Uhl had fallen into 12th place, but a late spurt brought him into fifth with a lap to go. Down the home stretch, the junior runner went neck-and-neck with Artur Kern of Harding, pushing ahead to finish the race in fifth.

Disappointed with the result, Uhl felt he had lost the race from the start.

“Anytime you race in a field as big as this and people are out leading – if you lose concentration for a second or you’re not able to follow pace – you’re fighting your way back and it’s nearly impossible to catch up,” Uhl said.

Weather conditions on Friday began promising, with temperatures in the 60s, but by the afternoon temperatures had dropped into the low-40s and a 28-mph wind rushed through the infield.

Freshman Hillary Bor started off the race for the 4-by-1,600-meter relay, moving into fourth by the end of his leg. As the field began to widen, the team fell behind in the middle of the race, dropping away from the front of the pack. Jayden Russ was able to maintain position in the closing leg, resulting in a sixth-place finish. For the third straight year, Notre Dame took home the title in the event.

“We kind of let it slide a bit and fell off that front group, when I think we were capable of being in the top three teams,” Russ said. “Everybody gave it their all – everybody put it in. It was an OK result, but it could have been better.”

Along with the high winds, a few drops of rain had begun to fall as the 4-by-800 relay was getting ready to line up on Friday. The relay team of Michael Alexander, Brek Minarik, David Lantz and James Galvan battled the conditions head on, banking a fifth-place finish – the Cyclones’ highest finish of the day.

When Galvan took over on the last leg, the junior was able to move the team from 10th into fifth but fell short of catching the leaders who had created the large gap.

“I felt great, but every time I would hit the wind, it would slow my momentum down,” said Galvan, who was disappointed with his performance. “I just wanted to catch that pack in the front, but it didn’t happen today.”

Galvan countered that disappointment on Saturday, running strong again in the 800 on the distance medley in windy but sunny conditions.

Running against a talent-rich field, Lantz led off for the team, keeping himself close to the group. When Galvan took over, the team was in 10th place.

As soon as he took the baton, the Arizona native surged through the pack, catapulting the team into first.

Jared Lewis, a late addition to the relay, kept the team in the hunt on the 400-meter leg of the race, before handing it off to anchor Kevin Born.

After being disappointed with his time in the 4-by-1,600 on Friday, the junior distance runner said he was determined to produce a strong finish for the team.

“I was coming around that bend and I knew we were going to slow up. I said, ‘I can’t make us slow – I’ve just got to keep going,'” Born said.

In a race where the top-five teams were all within four seconds of each other, Born kept the team in contention down the home stretch. The Cyclones ended up in fifth after being edged out by Indiana State by less than a second.

After the race, sprint coach Ronnie Williams was happy with the fifth-place finish.

“I think the guys got out there, raced really well and mixed it up. We were battling. We were racing against some good teams,” Williams said. “We kind of got out-kicked a little bit, but I think the guys really ran well.”

Ihmels shared Williams’ sentiments about the relay and is looking forward to what the future has in store for the relay team.

“Obviously, in the distance medley, we were in the lead until the end,” Ihmels said. “We have a lot of young guys on that squad that are all going to be here next year, so that is exciting.”

Bor, who came to the team straight out of Kapsabet, Kenya, finished off the Cyclones’ impressive weekend with a fourth-place finish in the 1,500.

At the starter’s gun, the freshman runner jumped into the front of the group, running in the top few spots for most of the race. But as he rounded the final few turns, he seemed to hit a wall, falling slightly away from the front pack to end the race in fourth.

The freshman runner attributed his late-race fade to fatigue.

“Yesterday, we came out here and did the 4-by-1,600, which is what made me feel a little bit tired,” Bor said.

Robert Edgerton of New Hampshire won the event, finishing less than 3 seconds in front of Bor.

Despite Bor’s minor collapse at the end of the race, Ihmels was still happy with the result.

“I thought Hillary competed really well. He put himself in the race and looked good.” Ihmels said. “He didn’t quite have the finish we wanted him to have down the home straight, but I think that is going to come with time.”

Bor, competing at the Drake Relays for the first time, said it was a thrill to run in front of the packed crowd at Drake Stadium.

“I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I’ve never ran in front of such a large crowd,” he said.

Junior Dan Fadgen, who ran the 1,500 in the unseeded heat on Friday, ended in fifth place, right behind Bor.

Also highlighting the weekend was Russ, who captured fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.