One week before the Drake Relays another Cyclone runner was able to qualify for NCAA Regionals.

Jared Lewis’ time of 20.83 seconds in the 200-meter invite was enough for a fifth-place finish in the event at the John McDonnell Invitational on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark. Although the time wasn’t good enough to beat the 19.87 ran by Wallace Spearmon of the unattached Nike team, it does take pressure off Lewis to qualify for postseason competition.

“The race just felt good,” Lewis said. “I’m happy with the time. I still think I can improve on it, but I’m still happy to get the qualifying out of the way.”

Lewis said he can now focus on helping the team as they head toward the postseason, including the Big 12 Championships on May 11-13, and the regional meet on May 25-26.

“If I want to place high in the conference, I’m going to have to keep improving my time,” Lewis said. “I don’t want to just do well at conference – hopefully we can do well at Regionals and go on from there.”

The immediate focus, however, turns to the Drake Relays, starting Wednesday, where Lewis will run as a member of the 4×400-meter and 4×200-meter relay teams. The 4×400 team is already qualified for NCAA Regionals.

“It’ll be a large crowd and a lot of competition, and I think that’s the place where we try to represent Iowa State with the 4×4 and 4×2, just to let everybody know that we’re for real,” Lewis said.

The 4×400 team of Lewis, Tony Stanfield, Elijah Braimah and Jared Graham also had a regional qualifying time, winning in 3:8.83 seconds. The time wasn’t their fastest of the year, however, as they ran a time of 3:08.23 at the Walt Disney World Invitational on March 24. At Arkansas, coach Steve Lynn said the runners were not as strong in their individual races, but they were able to come back to do well as a team.

“Everybody kind of struggled in their first race down there. We were really kind of sluggish,” Lynn said. “They weren’t totally on top of their game . but they all came back together to win the 4×4 against a very solid Oklahoma State team.”

Stanfield was able to take second in the 200-meter dash, with Braimah taking second in the 400-meter invite. In other races, David Lantz won the 800-meter run, with Johnny Reel taking second. Kellen Burl narrowly missed a regional qualifying time in the 110-meter hurdles, taking sixth.

Elsewhere, throwers Zac Brouillette and Robbie Utterback competed at the Dick Young Classic in Grinnell, with Brouillette winning the shot put, and Utterback taking fourth in the shot put and discuss. Next up for Iowa State is the Drake Relays, beginning Wednesday and lasting through Saturday. The Drake Relays is the last regular season meet for the Cyclones and one of the most prestigious in the sport.