Weekend Recap: Top Collegians Take Center Stage On Relays Weekend

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll continue to update this post throughout the weekend.

Relays Weekend means big marks!

Well, what weekend doesn’t mean big marks this year?

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | Records & Lists

All-time performances reverberated throughout the nation at both the Drake Relays and Penn Relays, as well as a number of other meets featuring collegiate athletes.

Here are some of those efforts that stood out the most to us.

Boom! Alekna Whirls Discus CR

Mykolas Alekna of California put his name in a number of record books Saturday.

His best discus throw of 67.68m (222-0) made him the farthest thrower in collegiate history. His first-round effort was followed with three more efforts over 67m to completely own the all-time list. Counting two long throws from earlier this spring, he now owns six of the nine longest in history.

Alekna’s performances came in a dual meet. Not just any dual meet, mind you, but the longest-running collegiate dual meet in history that has been called “The Big Meet” as long as anyone knows. Today’s meeting was edition number 127; it started in 1893.

Arkansas & NC State Put On A Show

Arkansas and NC State went head-to-head in the College Women’s 4×1500 Championship of America at the Penn Relays on Saturday afternoon. Both teams destroyed the previous collegiate record of 17:08.34 set by Tennessee in this meet back in 2009.

Destroy? That’s putting it lightly.

How about 16:53.87 and 16:55.19, with the Razorbacks finishing ahead of the Wolfpack. The Arkansas foursome was comprised of Isabel Van Camp (4:16.8), Logan Jolly (4:13.9), Lauren Gregory (4:12.9) and Krissy Gear (4:10.7), while the NC State lineup was Anna Vess (4:17.4), Samantha Bush (4:10.9), Savannah Shaw (4:17.1) and Katelyn Tuohy (4:09.8).

#BYURun4Her Into The Record Book

Lauren Ellsworth, Alena Ellsworth, Claire Seymour and Courtney Wayment teamed up to do something special on Friday at the Penn Relays. You could also call it historic.

That BYU quartet won the Women’s Distance Medley Championship of America in 10:50.22 to become the third-fastest team in collegiate history. Only collegiate record-holder Villanova (10:48.38) and Michigan (10:49.58) ran faster with both of those coming before 2010 (The Wildcats just celebrated the 34th anniversary of their record-setting run on April 28).

Lauren Ellsworth led things off with a 3:18.22 split over 1200 meters, followed by a 53.63 clocking by Alena Ellsworth in the 400. The baton then went to Claire Seymour for a 2:05.98 800-meter leg, which put the Cougars about one second ahead of Villanova’s record-setting pace from 1988. Wayment ran solo the entire time over the final 1600 meters, covering that distance in 4:32.39.

Ole Miss finished runner-up behind BYU in 10:55.61 to move up to No. 6 all-time.

Mama, There Goes That Man, Again!

Trey Cunningham wasted no time to move up the all-time chart.

Cunningham, competing at the North Florida Collegiate Invitational Meet, dropped a wind-legal PR of 13.15 in the prelims of the Men’s 110 Meter Hurdles on Saturday afternoon, before returning to the track less than two hours later to lower that time to a wind-legal 13.10.

If those marks look fast, good. They should.

Cunningham etched his name into the No. 4 spot in collegiate history with that first time and then cemented it with the second. Not only that, but Cunningham is now just one of four men in collegiate history who have gone 13.10 or faster during the collegiate season: record-holder Grant Holloway (12.98), Renaldo Nehemiah (13.00) and Daniel Roberts (13.00) are the others.

Doing You A Favour

If you didn’t know the name Favour Ashe before today, now you will.

Ashe, competing at the LSU Invitational, turned in the fifth-fastest all-conditions 100-meter mark in collegiate history at 9.79 (+3.0) and beat a talented field of athletes by 0.23 seconds. Only Obadele Thompson (9.69w) Andre De Grasse (9.75w), Churandy Martina (9.76w) and Trayvon Bromell (9.77w) have gone faster during the collegiate season.

Back in March, Ashe was the fastest out of all competitors in the prelims of the 60 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships with his 6.51 PR. Ashe would later finish third in the final.

Historic NCAA Division III 5000-Meter Marks

Alex Phillip and Kassie Parker are no strangers to history.

Fiona Smith finally acquainted herself with the all-time chart.

All three athletes competed on Thursday night between the Drake Relays and Penn Relays and etched their names into the NCAA Division III annals.

Parker and Smith soared to No. 4 and No. 6 in NCAA DIII history with their 16:09.66 and 16:16.54 marks in the top section of the Women’s 5000 Meters. The duo worked together throughout the entire race before Parker pulled away over the final two laps at 1:16.42 and 1:14.26 for a final 800 meters of 2:30.68 (Smith went 1:19.56 and 1:17.41, comparatively).

Phillip is now ranked eighth all-time over the same distance following his 13:58.78 effort at the Penn Relays. He finished 11th in a tough section and held on for a strong mark despite losing seven places in the final two laps. Phillip joins Ian La Mere as the only two athletes in NCAA DIII history to go sub-14 minutes both indoors and outdoors.

Loras Soars To Record-Setting Relay Effort

Is 800U in NCAA Division III located in Dubuque, Iowa?

People are asking after what happened on Friday morning.

The Loras quartet of Carter Oberfoell, Ryan Harvey, Wyatt Kelly and Mike Jasa teamed up to break the NCAA DIII record* in the Men’s 4×800 Relay at the Drake Relays. Oberfoell (1:53.21), Harvey (1:51.45), Kelly (1:52.78) and Jasa (1:50.81) combined to get the baton around the Blue Oval in 7:28.28.

What might be even more impressive is that the Duhawks ran most of the race alone: Loras took a near four-second lead after the second leg and never relinquished the top spot. The closest another team got was two seconds before Jasa extended it to more than five seconds at the finish.

*Our record books for non-championship relay events is incomplete across divisions, but what we have in there points to an NCAA DIII record.

How About Some 4×200 Records?

One event.

Three divisions.

Two divisional records.

That’s what happened in the Women’s 4×200 Relay at the Drake Relays on Friday night.

In an event won by Kentucky at 1:32.98, Minnesota State and St. Norbert posted the second- and fifth-fastest marks of the competition – and won their respective heats – at 1:34.87 and 1:40.05, respectively, to take down their respective divisional records (That’s a lot of ‘respective’ things, huh). The Mavericks compete in NCAA Division II, while the Green Knights are in NCAA Division III.

Distin Keeps Soaring

Lamara Distin keeps jumping higher. At Saturday’s Alumni Muster on her home Texas A&M campus, she cleared 1.95m (6-5½) to move into a tie for No. 4 on the all-time collegiate list. She had been tied for No. 5 all-time with her 1.96m/6-5 clearance to win the Texas Relays in March.

She’s now tied with Arizona’s Tanya Hughes, who set a then-collegiate record in 1992 with her performance. Two of the others ahead of her – Brigetta Barrett of Arizona (1.99m/6-6¼) and Amy Acuff of UCLA (1.98m/6-6) – also set CRs.

Distin was unsuccessful at three attempts at a would-be CR of 2.00m/6-6¾.

Duigou, Eagles Turn In All-Time Efforts

Clement Duigou of Adams State and Ashland’s 4×100 relay left their mark on the NCAA DII all-time chart.

On Friday night at the Payton Jordan Invitational, Duigou won the second section of the Men’s Steeplechase in 8:29.05. That effort makes him the second-fastest performer in NCAA DII history. Duigou took the lead at the 1800 meter split and went on to win the race by more than 9 seconds.

It was only a few weeks ago that Duigou first cracked the top-10 when he became the No. 7 performer with his 8:36.25 clocking at the Mt. SAC Relays That performance is now the 10th fastest time recorded by a DII athlete.

Then on Saturday afternoon at the Ashland Alumni Open, the quartet of Aaron Banks, Doniven Jackson, Channing Phillips and Keshun Jones got the baton around in a facility record 39.65 to win the Men’s 4×100 Relay. The Eagles are now ranked No. 10 on the all-time chart.

Robinson Nabs NJCAA 400 Hurdles Record

Chris Robinson of South Plains (Texas) hit a bullseye in the 400 hurdles at the Corky/Crofoot Shootout at Lubbock on Saturday.

Not only did he break 50 seconds for the first time, he won the race in 49.18 to take down one of the oldest NJCAA records on the books. Eric Thomas of Blinn (Texas) set the previous all-time best of 49.29 in 1994.

Robinson, the defending NJCAA Division I champion in the event, made a huge improvement as his previous best was 50.96 from earlier this year. Only five collegians this year at any level have run faster than Robinson’s 49.18.

Chebet Scares NJCAA Chart-Topper

Running in the top section of the Women’s 5000 Meters at the Drake Relays on Thursday evening, Hilda Chebet of Iowa Western chopped more than 35 seconds off her lifetime best to finish second in 16:07.40.

That time ranks as No. 2 all-time in NJCAA history, just behind the all-time best of 16:07.03 set by Iowa Central CC’s Adva Cohen in 2018.

Chebet went from 14th to fourth between 200 meters and 600 meters and never left the top-4 the rest of the way, eventually finishing runner-up to Lindsay Cunningham of NCAA Division II Winona State.