Iowa State track and field’s second day of the Drake Relays saw plenty of athletes get off to a good start to their week in Des Moines, Iowa.

A total of 13 athletes competed for the Cyclones at the Blue Oval, with a majority of those performances coming in the distance running events.

The Cyclones weren’t just kept on the track, as Zach Kraft returned to the stadium for the final day of the decathlon, his second of the season. It was also his first fully complete decathlon, as he was unable to finish the 110m hurdles and 1500m at the Sun Angel Classic in Arizona.

However, the distance runners stole the show for the Cyclones, as three athletes broke their personal bests across two events. 

Kraft finishes decathlon strong

Zach Kraft was Iowa State’s lone entry Wednesday, as he took part in the first five events of the decathlon. Kraft ended day one with 3,036 points and earned two personal bests along the way in the shot put and high jump.

Kraft continued his personal success in Thursday’s events as well, as he wrapped up the competition with a total of 5,362 points to move up for a ninth-place finish.

Kraft got off to a slow start, however, as he began his day in the 100m hurdles by recording a time of 16.99 seconds and finished well outside of the top five.

Collecting 625 points from that effort, he moved onto the discus throw, where he notched a top mark of 34.10 meters on his second attempt and finished sixth in the event. Kraft collected another 546 points entering the last three events of the competition.

In the pole vault, Kraft was able to escape his first three heights of 2.80, 2.90 and 3.00 meters by successfully converting on his third and final attempt. He then breezed through marks of 3.10 and 3.20 meters on his next two rounds and was again able to cross on his last attempt at 3.30 meters to enter what was, for him, uncharted territory in the event.

Unfortunately, the journey came to an end at 3.40 meters, as he was unable to clear the height and finished the event at 3.30 and with a points haul of 431.

Kraft’s high point of the competition came in the javelin throw, where he was able to add another PR to his collection. His best throw of 40.95 meters broke his previous mark by more than a meter, as he previously thrown for 39.32m at last week’s Musco Twilight meet.

With that performance, he was able to add another 456 points to enter the final competition of the day.

In the 1500m, Kraft finished in much slower form than the rest of the field, as his time of 5:58.97 was more than 40 seconds behind Northern Iowa’s Zack Butcher, who placed tenth.

Despite the finish ending on a low note, Kraft’s final points total broke his top mark from the Musco Twilight meet by nearly 2,000.

Steeplechase Success

It was another busy outing for the Cyclone distance runners, as their schedule saw athletes compete in the 1500m, 5000m, and 3000m steeplechase. The last of those three events turned out to be the most successful, as both the men’s and women’s squads turned out in a pair of competitive races.

For the Iowa State women, Kiki Connell was the leading athlete, as she finished the second heat of the day in a new personal best time of 10:39.31. That mark now puts her at eighth on the Cyclones’ all-time leaderboard.

A top performance by Connell, who is in her maiden track season as a Cyclone, having transferred to the program following completing last fall’s cross country campaign with Northern Iowa.

Connell got off to a strong start, stayed there for most of the race and crossed through the fourth lap just two seconds behind Creighton’s Danielle Hotalling.

For the remainder of the race between the two athletes, Connell attempted to overtake her opponent in the back half. Hotalling was able to shift to a higher gear as she gradually extended her lead over the final 800 meters.

She crossed the line in 10:30.09, breaking her own PR by almost 20 seconds. Hotalling’s time was better than some of the athletes in the quickest heat of the day, as she placed sixth overall.

Gable Sieperda was again in top form for the Iowa State, as he led a quartet of runners in the men’s section. Sieperda currently ranks as one of the best steeplechasers in the country, as his top time of 8:43.45 ranks as the 19th best in Division I.

Sieperda’s main competition came from Daniel Michalski, a professional athlete who competes for the Nike team. Michalski’s collegiate career included spells at Indiana and Cedarville College, and he earned All-American honors by helping the Hoosiers to a fourth-place finish in the distance medley relay at the 2019 NCAA Championships.

In the professional ranks, he just missed out on a spot on the U.S. Olympic team last summer, as he finished fourth in the steeplechase at the Olympic Trials in Oregon.

Sieperda ended up as the top collegian in the steeple, as he finished second to Michalski with a time of 8:45.31. The battle for first between both athletes was neck-and-neck at the start, with Michalski having less than a  second’s lead over Sieperda through the first four laps.

Michalski accelerated in the final three laps, with his final finishing time of 8:28.93 more than 15 seconds clear of Sieperda. Despite the loss, Sieperda earned himself a bit of Cyclone history, as his performance was the fastest by a Cyclone collegian at the Drake Relays since former All-American Dmitry Drozdov’s time of 8:39.66 in 1994.

Kelvin Bungei was the next Cyclone to cross the line, as his ninth-place performance was completed in 8:56.62. Bungei’s top mark of 8:51.71 came at the Mt. SAC Relays in California a couple of weeks back.

Nate Mueller completed his debut in the steeplechase with a time of 9:10.61, as he worked his way through the pack to eventually finish in 17th. His teammate and fellow freshman Noah Kohut-Jackson finished in 19th, with his final time of 9:10.61, a new season-best.

Thompson breaks 1500m PR

Senior David Thompson returned from his rest last week in strong fashion, as he established a new personal best in the 1500m. Thompson’s time of 3:48.26 was enough for him to place fourth in his heat, as the top four finishers were separated by less than two seconds.

Thompson’s top performance in the 1500m this season came at the Sun Angel Classic three weeks back, as he produced a seventh-place overall performance with a time of 3:52.72 in Tempe, Ariz.

Thompson looked to be blazing out of the blocks at the start of the race, as his 300m time of 47.29 seconds put him right alongside the leaders, Sean Maison and Nicholas Hoffman of Air Force and Hope College, respectively.

At the bell, he entered with a time of 2:48.87, putting him just ahead of Maison. The Air Force athlete proved victorious with a time of 3:46.76, as Thompson was passed by two other athletes over the final stretch.

Iowa State will be back on the track Friday morning, with the first event of the day for the Cyclones being the women’s 4x1600m relay at approximately 10:42 am.