The outdoor season opened up with two victories and two regional qualifying marks for the ISU men’s track team.

The 4×400-meter relay team ran a winning time of 3 minutes, 08.23 seconds, at the Walt Disney World Invitational – good enough for a regional qualifying time. The team of Tony Stanfield, Jared Lewis, Elijah Braimah and Jared Graham came back to win its first outdoor race after running 3:09.03 to take 10th two weeks ago at the NCAA Indoor Track Championships.

“They kind of picked up where they left off after the indoor season, and they’re one of the better teams in the country,” said coach Steve Lynn.

The Cyclones faced the first two legs of the Florida State team that won the Indoor Championships. Stanfield was able to grab a lead on the first leg, with the rest of the runners pulling away to a six second victory.

“It feels really good to go out there and open the race, especially against the guys we saw at Nationals,” Stanfield said. “It boosts our confidence so we can get our time lowered and we can be ready for outdoor Nationals, because we will be there.”

The same 4×4 team took second to Florida State in the 4×200-meter relay Friday.

The defending Drake Relay Champion shuttle hurdle relay team of Sterling Frison, Neil Hines, Eric Parker and Scott Lynn opened the outdoor season winning the two-team event with a time of 1 minute, 1.44 seconds. The time wasn’t as good as the team’s time at Drake last year, but Parker said this weekend’s meet in Missouri would be a test.

“It was all right, with the wind and heat and everything,” Parker said. “Hopefully next week at Missouri, we can lower it to where we were at Drake last year. It [winning] gives us that confidence that we can win anything. It’s a good stepping stone for the rest of the season, being where we want to at Drake.”

Parker also took fifth in the 400-meter hurdles, with a time of 53.28 seconds.

Elsewhere, Kellen Burl had a Regionals qualifying time in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.29 seconds to finish sixth. Robbie Utterback took second in the discus with a throw of 152 feet, 3 inches. Lewis and Braimah both won their heats in the 100-meter dash. Lewis finished seventh with a time of 10.69 seconds and Braimah finished 12th with a time of 10.84.

“Nobody’s anywhere near where they need to be in a month from now at the Drake Relays, but I think we opened up with some good performances,” Steve Lynn said.

Next weekend will see the distance runners travel to Stanford as the rest of the team will compete at Missouri.