Weekend Preview: Penn Relays and Drake Relays

NEW ORLEANS – When it comes to tradition, prestige and pageantry in college track & field, two meet do it arguably better than anywhere else in the country – the Penn Relays and the Drake Relays.

MORE INFO: Full Weekend Schedule | Broadcast Schedule

This year marks the 122nd running of the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, while the Drake Relays is in its 107th running Des Moines, Iowa.

Both meets are already underway with decathlon/heptathlon events, but the real meat of the action is slated to begin Thursday at Penn and Friday at Drake, and last through Saturday afternoon.

Both meets may have lost some of their shine with several SEC powers – Arkansas, Texas A&M and LSU – instead battling each other in Baton Rouge this weekend and with only the women of Oregon and men of Florida having a significant presence in Philly.

Make no mistake, though, these are still two of the premier meets of the weekend and the regular season as a whole.

We spotlight five events to watch at each meet. Do note that relay pools for each team have not been made public, and we’ve projected which athletes will participate in each relay race.

PENN RELAYS

Women’s 4×800 Relay

Saturday | 4:10pm ET | WATCH LIVE | Live Results

Two weekends ago at the Mt. SAC Relays, indoor mile champ Kaela Edwards of Oklahoma State took down reigning indoor/outdoor 800-meter champion Raevyn Rogers of Oregon in their head-to-head two-lap showdown (though both lost to 2014 Bowerman Winner Laura Roesler). With the two likely to square off on the anchor in this race, this weekend could either be further evidence of Edwards’ status as the nation’s top mid-distance runner or revenge for Rogers.

By no means will this event just be a showcase for these two titans. Using the USTFCCCA “Event Squad Rankings” as a guide (these rank the deepest schools in each individual event by averaging the best marks of a given team’s four top athletes, and then ordering those averages), seven of the 16 deepest programs in the country in the open 800 will be represented.

Dueling for the Wheel will be indoor DMR champ No. 1 Georgetown, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Clemson, No. 9 UConn, No. 11 Indiana, No. 12 Oregon and No. 16 Villanova. We could see as many as four of the nation’s top 10 women this year on the anchor leg: No. 1 Edwards, No. 3 Cecilia Barowski of Princeton, No. 4 Rogers and No. 9 Siofra Cleirigh Buttner of Villanova.

Men’s 4×400 Relay

The Florida men’s 4×400 relay team members are among the very few Gators who won’t be making the trip to Baton Rouge for the SEC Championships preview that is the LSU Invitational, so expect them to go for something big in Philly this weekend. The quartet of Hugh Graham, Jr., Arman Hall, Kunle Fasasi and Najee Glass could be chasing the Penn Relays record of 3:01.10, set 12 years ago by the Gators. Graham, Hall and Glass have experience running sub-3:00 from two seasons ago, with a 2:59.73 in the early-April Florida Relays.

They’ll contend this weekend with No. 11 Clemson and No. 13 Tennessee, which was fifth at NCAA Indoors.

Men’s Distance Medley Relay

Friday | 2:45pm ET | WATCH LIVE | Live Results

With no Edward Cheserek to gum up the final leg this year (yeah, we know that was the 4xMile last year) we could see a fast one. No one has gone sub-9:23 since Michigan did it more than a decade ago in 2005, but could someone in this year’s field be up to the task?

Oregon won the two most recent titles in this event, with Penn State having won before that in 2013. Two members of that team – which ran 9:24.68 – return in Brannon Kidder and Robby Creese. They’ll square off with Oklahoma State (9:26.60 indoors), Georgetown (9:28.91 indoors) and Villanova (9:29.17 indoors) to reclaim the winners’ wheel.

Most of these same squads (with some different runners plugged in) will also duel in the 4×800 and 4xMile relays throughout the weekend.

Men’s Shuttle Hurdles Relay

Friday | 3:10pm ET | WATCH LIVE | Live Results

Since this is one that’s run so infrequently, it can be tough to size up how a shuttle hurdles relay race might play out. The USTFCCCA “Event Squad Rankings” give us an insight into which programs have the deepest stables of hurdlers, and a number of them will be in the City of Brotherly Love this weekend.

Per the rankings, Houston is the No. 2 program in the country, led by No. 2 Isaac Williams and No. 19 Marcus McWilliams. They’re followed closely by defending Penn Relays Champ No. 4 South Carolina (led by No. 5 Isaiah Moore), No. 10 Cornell and No. 11 Connecticut.

Women’s 100 Meters

Assuming both Penn and Drake are on schedule Saturday afternoon and that the Texas duo of Morolake Akinosun and Teahna Daniels don’t do it five minutes earlier at Drake and the wind conditions are legal, there’s a possibility that Oregon’s Hannah Cunliffe and Jasmine Todd can make some collegiate history.

No two college women have ever run sub-11.00 in wind-legal conditions (2.0m/s or less) in the same season – let alone two teammates doing it in the same race. Cunliffe went 10.99 just two weekends ago at Mt. SAC, while Todd has a 10.92 to her name from last year’s USATF Outdoor Championships, where she finished third to qualify for the IAAF World Championships.

It might be a taller order for Todd than Cunliffe to get there this weekend. She only has an 11.20 on her ledger this outdoor campaign. Plus, it will depend on the freshness of their legs after potentially doing relay duty in the sprint medley and 4×100 finals on Friday.

DRAKE RELAYS

Men’s 110-Meter Hurdles

Perhaps no individual event in the country is as deep as the men’s 110-meter hurdles at the Drake Relays. Five of the 11 fastest NCAA Division I men are in the field, headlined by No. 4 Aaron Mallet of Iowa, who ran a windy 13.50 just this past weekend and was fifth at NCAAs last year.

He’ll be challenged by No. 6 Adarius Washington of Indiana State, No. 7 Teivaskie Lewin of South Dakota, No. 9 Nate Pozolinski of Milwaukee and No. 11 William Barnes of Kent State. Plus, the fastest collegian of the year in the indoor 60-meter hurdles, NCAA DII champ Myles Hunter of Minnesota State, will get his chance to mix it up with the “big boys”. He’d be ranked No. 8 in DI with his windy 13.60.

Men’s High Jump

Saturday | 11am ET / 10am CT | WATCH LIVE | Live Results

Trey Culver of Texas Tech may be the reigning indoor NCAA DI high jump champ, but he’ll have to battle this weekend to hang on to his claim of the best collegiate high jumper in the nation. He lost a tiebreak to NCAA DII stud Jeron Robinson of Texas A&M-Kingsville at last month’s Texas Relays, though both men cleared a collegiate-leading 2.26m (7-5).

Since then, Culver has only jumped once and didn’t make it past 2.08m (6-9¾). He’ll have to go much higher if he wants to hold off Jah-Nhai Perinchief of NJCAA’s Iowa Central CC, who also cleared 2.26m (7-5) earlier this month.

Also in the field is last year’s indoor/outdoor runner-up Bradley Adkins of Texas Tech and 2014 outdoor runner-up Wally Ellenson of Marquette. Adkins has only gone as high as 2.16m (7-1) this outdoor season, while Ellenson has topped out at 2.20m (7-2½).

Women’s 100 Meters

Remember how we mentioned that Oregon’s Todd and Cunliffe could make history Saturday in the Penn Relays 100 final? Well, Teahna Daniels and Morolake Akinosun of Texas could beat them to the punch by minutes; the women’s final at Drake is scheduled for 2:20pm CT, while it goes off at 3:25pm ET / 2:25pm CT at Penn.

Daniels, the upset winner of the NCAA indoor 60-meters title, hasn’t competed in several weeks and only has an 11.21 to her name so far, while Akinosun is the DI qualifying leader at a windy 10.97, though her 3.5m/s trailing wind disallows it from record purposes.

They’ll both potentially run against Michigan’s indoor 60-meter hurdles champion and outdoor 100-meter hurdles collegiate leader Cindy Ofili.

Women’s 4×400 Relay

If you saw what Courtney Okolo did this past weekend at the LSU Alumni Gold, you’ll know why this is a featured event. Her Longhorns aren’t even racing anyone close to their level – the next-highest ranked team behind No. 2 Texas (3:26.54) is No. 12 Baylor (3:32.31) – but the college track & field world is officially on notice every time Okolo races.

She dropped a 50.04 anchor split last year to win the Penn Relays and went 49.7 two years ago in Philly; can she go faster this year? Judging by her collegiate-record 49.71 run in the open 400 last weekend, anything is possible.

Men’s 4×200 Relay

Friday | 7:45pm ET / 6:45pm CT | WATCH LIVE | Live Results

The men’s sprint relays in Des Moines this weekend will be a battle between TCU, Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, and Iowa. Texas is ranked highest in the 4×400 at No. 2, followed by No. 5 Baylor, No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 12 TCU; while TCU holds the advantage in the 4×100 at No. 3, followed by No. 6 Texas, No. 12 Texas Tech and No. 13 Iowa.

But what will happen when they meet in the middle?

Based on the USTFCCCA “Event Squad Rankings,” Texas has the No. 2 stable of 200-meter sprinters in the nation, while TCU checked in at No. 9, Iowa at No. 12 and Texas Tech at No. 15. It all depends who runs and how hand-offs go – just as in any relay – but this one is more up-in-the-air as a non-championship event not frequently run.

Plus, you could potentially see NCAA indoor 60 champ/outdoor 100 qualifying leader Ronnie Baker against either indoor 400 champ Zach Bilderback or 400-meter hurdles qualifying leader Byron Robinson of Texas.