Day two of the Iowa State track and field team’s opening week of the outdoor season was a busy one, as multiple of Cyclone athletes competed across two different meets.

At the Raleigh Relays, Iowa State saw 13 athletes compete in events ranging from the hurdles to steeplechase, while the Bobcat Invitational had the Cyclones starting the day off in the field events before ending on the track with the men’s and women’s 200m heats.

Friday was also a day highlighted by the Cyclone women’s team, as multiple athletes recorded top performances and personal records on both the track and field. At day’s end, Iowa State recorded four personal records and 11 top-ten finishes.

Tutt paces to 5K bronze medal

Senior distance runner Ashley Tutt kicked off her outdoor season by finishing third overall in the women’s 5000m race at the Raleigh Relays, crossing the line in a time of 16:52.17.

Tutt was able to turn in a final lap performance of 1:13.94 to pass several runners and claim a top-five spot.

Competing in the third and final heat of the morning session, Tutt started her race off far behind the leaders, as she came through at the 2600m mark in third-to-last place.

The back half of the race saw Tutt significantly increase her pace, as she crossed the 3000m point with a split time of 1:22.90, and then 1:19.89 to reach 3800 meters in ninth place. The final kilometer saw Tutt continually pass one runner after another, eventually earning the bronze medal spot by just clipping Northwestern’s Emily Casaclang by three one-hundredths of a second at the tape.

Tutt is in her first season with Iowa State, having transferred from Illinois State. As a Huskie, Tutt put up multiple top performances across a number of distances, including being named a second team All-American in the 5000m at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships.

March smashes hammer PR

Switching over to the Bobcat Invitational, it was the Cyclones’ field event squad that got things rolling in San Marcos, Texas. Throwers Antonella Creazzola and Emily March both finished within the top ten of the women’s hammer throw and also achieved some personal milestones.

March was coming off of an opening day that saw her take silver in the discus, recording a best throw of 51.78 meters for the fifth best mark in school history. March lost out to Texas State’s Alyssa Wilson, who launched the disc 56.50 meters, nearly five meters greater than her opponent and broke the school record as a result.

In the hammer event, March posted an opening round mark of 49.91 meters before breaking her personal best on the next attempt with a throw of 54.27 meters (178 feet). The throw broke March’s previous record by nearly 18 feet as she finished the competition in ninth.

Hall, Hill break PRs in event debuts

The Bobcat Invitational also saw a personal best on the track, with Kaylyn Hall recording the top time for the Cyclone women in the 400m hurdles. Hall’s teammate Madelynn Hill joined her in the personal record category by recording one in the 3000m steeplechase a few hours later in Raleigh.

Hall generally competes in the shorter, 100m hurdles for Iowa State, with her personal best of 13.60 seconds being the fifth-fastest in program history, but also saw success in the longer 400m distance Friday.

Running in the third and final heat of the day on Friday, Hall blew past her competition and crossed the line in a time of 59.32 seconds. The only athlete to break the 60-second barrier, Hall beat her previous top mark by nearly 2.5 seconds and earned top honors for the Cyclones.

She will compete in the 100m hurdles on Saturday alongside teammate Katarina Vlahovic.

Hill’s personal best came as a surprise as well, as she had never competed in a steeplechase race before Friday. The sophomore competed in both the 1500m and 5000m distances in last year’s outdoor season, finishing eighth in the 1500m final at the 2021 Big 12 Championships.

Hill started off her heat 1 race in the lead pack and stayed there for the rest of the race. The Liberty, Mo., native jostled between the bottom half of the top eight spots through the five laps or so to stay with the leaders.

By lap six, Hill had risen up to third, going through the finish line less than a second behind Joice Jebor of Middle Tennessee State and Eastern Kentucky’s Saskia Pingpank. Hill’s teammate Kiki Connell also moved up throughout the race and came through the six lap mark in ninth.

The final two laps saw the top three runners, along with Georgetown’s Katie Dammer and Cedarville’s Rachel Sweeney all separated by less than a second. Hill was able to pass Pingpank before the final lap but lost out on first over the final 400 meters, finishing second overall in a time of 10:41.98.

Connell finished sixth in 11:03.43.

Hill’s performance in the steeplechase was the seventh-best in Iowa State’s history, as she surpassed Meaghan Nelson’s time of 10:39.11 from the 2013 Big 12 Championships. Connell’s time just missed out on the top-ten list, as Perez Rotich’s 2013 time of 11:02.92 beat her out just over half a second.

Iowa State will wrap up both the Bobcat Invite and Raleigh Relays on Saturday. The field events in San Marcos, Texas will kick off at 10 a.m. and running events to follow at 2 p.m. Track events for the Cyclones at the Raleigh Relays will start at 10:45 a.m.