The University of Iowa women’s 4×400-meter relay team set a new school record at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday. The team, consisting of Olicia Lucas, Alivia Williams, Damaris Mutunga, and Gabby Cortez, finished with a time of 3:29.69. This result ranks them 11th nationally.
Director of Track and Field Joey Woody commented on the achievement: “We had some ups and downs today, but we closed with a huge performance by the women’s relay team that set a school record and is now nationally ranked,” Woody said. “Olicia ran a terrific lead-off leg to set up Alivia, who ran her fastest split ever, on the second leg to keep the relay with the pack. Damaris followed with an incredible third leg and another 51 split to keep us in the hunt. Gabby delivered an exceptional anchor leg with her fastest sprint ever to bring us home and break the school record.”
Woody also expressed satisfaction with the team’s overall effort over recent competitions: “Overall, I’m proud of how our team competed,” Woody added. “We’ve had a lot of great performances over the last two weeks, and we’re looking forward to getting back home, resting some of our athletes, tuning up others and preparing for the Big Ten Championships in two weeks.”
Other notable performances at the Tyson Invitational included junior Rosemary Arthur running a personal-best 4:49.05 in the mile event. In Boston at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invite, Julia Gehl and Jalyssa Blazek both achieved lifetime bests in their respective mile races.
In other results from Arkansas, Alexandria Edison ran 23.91 seconds in the women’s 200 meters—just shy of her personal best—and senior Wisdom Williams placed ninth in women’s shot put with a throw of 15.39 meters.
At Boston’s meet, Clare Kelly led Iowa runners in the women’s 800 meters with a time of 2:08.99 while Jalyssa Blazek set a personal-best at 2:13.74.
The Hawkeyes will next compete at home during the Iowa Open on Friday, February 20. Additional groups will travel to Fayetteville for the Arkansas Qualifier on February 20 and to South Bend for Indiana’s Alex Wilson Invitational on February 21.
