A week before the Drake Relays, a number of ISU men’s and women’s track and field competitors did well Saturday to set themselves up for this weekend.

At the Iowa Musco Twilight in Iowa City, Chase Madison qualified for the NCAA Regional meet next month by winning the discus. Dan Taylor won the 1500-meter run, and David Rotich won the 800-meter run.

At the Michael Johnson Classic in Waco, Texas, Tony Douglas won the triple jump, and on the women’s side Sara Boisen won the 400-meter run.

Madison not only won the discus with a throw of 57.48 meters, but also took second in his first shot put of the season with a throw of 17.87 meters, after having surgery in the offseason.

“Chase Madison had a real good meet. He beat Tim Broderson of Iowa – who’s a very good thrower – made the NCAAs, [and] beat him in his own place,” said coach Steve Lynn.

“He hasn’t thrown shot put since last year’s Big 12 meet. His personal record last year was 55 [feet] 6 [inches]. His first throw today was 57 [feet] 7 [inches], and he ended up throwing 58 [feet] 7 [inches],” Lynn said.

Taylor won the 1500-meter run with a time of 3:53.39, and Rotich won the 800-meter run with a time of 1:50.78.

“I felt good about those guys who won. Those were some real highlights for us right there,” Lynn said.

Other men’s highlights included Douglas’ triple jump of 14.71 meters, beating out the one other person in the field at Baylor.

Eric Parker took third in the 400-meter hurdles at Iowa. Jared Graham won the 400-meter dash unattached, and Elijah Braimah took fourth in the race.

Overall, Lynn felt the team would be ready for next week after a strong performance this weekend.

“We had a couple of guys that came up a little bit injured, so we weren’t able to do everything we wanted to,” Lynn said.

“All in all, it was a good meet to help get us ready for next week.”

As for the women, the biggest highlights came at Baylor with Boisen’s run, as well as four-time All-American Ada Anderson running her best outdoor time of the year.

For Boisen, the 400-meter hurdles run of 59.20 was important, said sprints coach Scott Roberts.

“She was really strong, and it looks like she’s made a breakthrough,” Roberts said. “Our next goal is to get her into 59 seconds, and I think she can do that, so I’m really excited about that.”

Anderson had a run of 2:07.72 to tie with Baylor’s Erin Bedell for second, but was given third overall.

“Ada [Anderson] ran her best time of the year. I thought she finished the race better than she had finished any race outdoors so far, so we’re progressing,” Roberts said.

“Last year at this meet she ran 2:08. This year she ran 2:07, so we feel like we’re on track.”

In Iowa City, Nicole Teitsworth was second in the javelin with a throw of 40.24 meters.

Nicole Williams had a high jump of 1.65 meters to come in second, and Christina Tim had a jump of 1.60 meters in the same event to take fifth.

Coach Dick Lee felt that after Saturday’s meet, there was still uncertainty about how and what the team will perform at Drake this week.

“We had some good things happen. We were hoping for a few more good things to happen,” Lee said. “There’s still some question marks about [this] weekend as to what we’ll run.”

“It may be the fewest relays we’ve run in years just because of the number of kids we are redshirting, but we’ve got kids we are expecting to go in and do well there.”

The Drake Relays begin Wednesday with heptathlon and decathlon events, and heat up with preliminary races Friday and finals Saturday. The events are held in the newly renovated Drake Stadium.