Although the ISU Women’s track team did not leave the Drake Relays with a first place performance, they definitely left a mark on the 42nd straight sellout crowd of 14,000 track fanatics at the Drake Relays.

The shuttle hurdle relay crew shattered a school record on their way to a second place finish. The team of Rebecca Williams, Sara Boisen, Megan Nielsen and Jenna Caffrey ran a time of 55.53 seconds. The team qualified in the preliminaries with the fastest time but was bested by Michigan in the finals. Michigan ran a time of 54.82 seconds.

“I was disappointed only for a second, when I looked at the time we had improved a lot,” Nielsen said. “To hit a 55 is nothing that we really expected, just a great surprise really. None of us were disappointed.”

The team felt as if they were at home, which helped all the runners to run such strong times.

“It feels so great,” Nielsen said. “I’m from Altoona, so I have always been around with the Drake Relays, same with Sara and Jenna. This is the best meet, with all the crowd support. Everyone cheering for the Cyclones, it feels great, it really helps a lot.”

Just 15 minutes after her impressive run in the shuttle hurdle relay, senior Sara Boisen made her Drake Relays farewell in a 12th place finish in the 400-meter hurdle event.

“It was my last Drake race ever. It was fun. The crowd was awesome. I love this place,” Boisen said. “My time was not very good; it was not a very smooth race for me, but you will have those and that is what drives you for the next race.”

Boisen was not the only Cyclone to have a busy day. Williams and Caffrey placed second and third respectively in the 100-meter hurdles in their third race of the day. Williams ran a school record time of 13.29 seconds. Williams was beaten by Tiffany Johnson of Iowa.

“I felt really good going into the race,” Williams said. “I am a little tired because we had shuttle hurdle so early and then finals, so I am a little out of it. I am excited that’s my friend that won, so I can’t be that upset.”

Caffrey made a successful return to the Drake Relays. The high school champ made a strong collegiate debut finishing right behind Williams with a time of 13.52 seconds. Caffrey said she feels at home at the Drake Relays.

“It does, it definitely feels like home,” Caffrey said. “It’s a great weekend to be out here running with family here and great competition.”

Caffrey’s coach, Scott Roberts was more than pleased with the effort of the true freshman standout.

“Jenna Caffrey – what a gamer,” Roberts said. “Get her into the big races and she always performs well and she had a big PR today and finished third as freshman at the Drake Relays. It’s a fantastic job, and I am extremely proud.”

The hurdlers took the spotlight on Saturday, but it was Lisa Koll who opened the successful weekend for the Cyclones in the 5,000-meter run. The true freshman distance star took sixth place in the race.

Koll is coming off a back injury that left her questionable coming into the race and had to miss a week of training.

“We came in thinking if everything went super, we would be able to contend for one of the top couple spots,” said coach Dick Lee.

“Missing a week of training probably hurt the confidence more than it did physically. We really didn’t know, going into the race, whether her back would hold hope throughout the race.”

The Cyclones also got a top-10 performance from Jenny Mockler in the 800-meter run, who finished seventh. Mockler also anchored the Sprint Medley to a seventh place finish. The Cyclones return to action in two weeks at the Big 12 championships in Lincoln, Neb.