DES MOINES — The ISU men’s track and field team didn’t accomplish what it wanted in a rain-plagued Drake Relays.

In the distance medley, ISU placed third with a time of 9:55.48. This event consists of 1,200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,600-meter legs, which were run by Dan Wiltgen, Jared Graham, Abraham Rotich and Corey Ylinen, respectively.

Graham, a sprinter, said the heavy rain on Saturday may have affected their times.

“I’m sure it did a little bit,” he said. “[It affected] me especially since I’m a sprinter. I mean, sprinters aren’t really good in the cold and rain. [I’m sure it affected] the distance guys as well.”

For the field events, Matt Murdock threw 202-11 in the javelin, which gave him fifth place. Teammate Tyson Hilgenberg threw 175-9 for 16th place.

Murdock had previously regionally qualified in the javelin and was disappointed in his throw.

“I’m still trying to put some stuff together before [the Big 12 championships] this weekend,” he said. “I’m struggling with some technique issues right now. I just went into the Drake Relays and tried to get a place in the finals. Next week is a big meet.”

Murdock said practicing with Hilgenberg, his roommate, is helpful because they can critique each other on their throwing techniques.

“We don’t really compete in practice, we just try to help each other,” Murdock said. “It helps both of us out by having someone there watching. We’re always talking about it too [since we live together.]”

Jamal Salahuddin, who had also regionally qualified before the relays, finished sixth in the shot put with a throw of 55-9. Salahuddin also threw 167-1 in the discus for 10th place.

Despite placing, Salahuddin wasn’t pleased with his performance.

“It just wasn’t a good day for me,” he said. “[I went down to Drake] pretty much to get a basis on where I stand. All I can do now is leave that in the past and move forward.”

In the 400-meter hurdles, Ryan Boyington finished seventh with a time of 53.43. Boyington said he beat his previous best time, but failed to meet his personal goal.

“It was a personal best by [not even] a 10th of a second,” Boyington said. “I ran 52.47 at our first meet in Arizona [where I regionally qualified]. I just barely beat my personal best.

“My goal going into that race Friday was to break 52 [seconds] and get a 51 time in there. I didn’t quite do that, but I have confidence going into the Big 12 meet next weekend. Hopefully I’ll break the 52 [seconds] barrier at that.”

Boyington was also a member of the ISU men’s 1,600-meter relay team that finished ninth on Friday afternoon. Elijah Braimah ran first, followed by Boyington, Tom Reis and anchor Graham. The top eight finishes moved on to finals in that event.

“We were definitely disappointed we didn’t make the final,” Boyington said.”That was one of our goals going into that meet — to make a final spot in the 4×400. It was really unfortunate. Last year we got ninth, and this year we got ninth again. We didn’t run our best race, and we’re very unsatisfied with the result. We have next week to make it up, I guess.”

Cross country standout Dan Taylor finished eighth in the 1,500-meter run, clocking in at 3:54.55. Taylor saw some familiar faces on Saturday such as Cameron Schwehr of Kansas, who won the event, and runners from Missouri, Minnesota and Illinois.

“We’ve raced against a lot of the conference guys before the conference meet — at Drake and other meets — and [they] give you a gauge to see how well you’re doing,” Taylor said. “If you beat them one meet, you expect to beat them at the next.

“The good thing about the Big 12 is that there’s a lot of good guys in it. If you can find one of them that you can target at every meet that you run against a lot [it’s beneficial]. For example, we run a lot against Missouri. If Missouri has a good 1,500-meter guy, it’s really nice to get a gauge to see where you are.”

Taylor is excited for the conference meet and said the best thing for the distance runners to do before a big meet is to take care of themselves during the week prior to it.

“We’ll just do some easy runs during the week; some sprints and repeats just to sharpen up,” he said. “For sprinters and jumpers, they can use this week to perfect their technique. There’s no technique to distance running. We’re going to use this week just to rest up and make sure our bodies are rested.”