DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake Relays will kick off preparations for the 2026 edition of America’s Athletic Classic by hosting two in-person officials training sessions in January. Open to all officials, including those not working the Drake Relays and those who would like to simply learn more about track and field officiating, the sessions are designed to improve officiating consistency, expand technical expertise, and provide event-area training for the upcoming high school, collegiate, and elite track & field seasons.

Training sessions will be held Sunday, January 11, 2026, and Sunday, January 25, 2026, featuring instruction from Drake Relays Head Officials and event-area leaders. Both dates will offer hands-on demonstrations, situational review, and shared best practices across multiple levels of competition.

These training initiatives are made possible through the leadership of Jim Walczyk, USATF Iowa President and Drake Relays Officials Coordinator. Walczyk’s longstanding commitment to education and community development continues to elevate the standard and consistency of officiating at the Drake Relays.

“Jim Walczyk’s leadership and tireless efforts continue to elevate the professional conduct that defines America’s Athletic Classic,” said Blake Boldon, the Franklin P. Johnson Director of the Drake Relays. “We are incredibly fortunate to work with such a dedicated and knowledgeable community of officials from throughout Iowa and across the country. Their commitment ensures that athletes at every level, from high school competitors to Olympians, experience the fairness, precision, and world-class environment that distinguish the Drake Relays as a global destination.”

 

JANUARY 11 TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS

Active Threat Training — Scott Law, Drake University Executive Director of Public Safety & University Operations.

This essential session equips staff and volunteers with the skills needed to respond during an active threat using the Run, Hide, Fight model. The program emphasizes situational awareness, rapid decision-making, and coordination with law enforcement to ensure the safety of participants and spectators at major events such as the Drake Relays.

Total Station Training — Randy Baker & Mark Tigges, long-time members of the Drake Relays Electronics Crew with extensive experience in total station operation and electronic officiating systems.

Weights & Measures — Jon Turner, Drake Relays Head Weights & Measures Official for more than 35 years and brings extensive experience from USATF Championships, NCAA events, conference championships, and three U.S. Olympic Trials.

 

JANUARY 25 TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS

Throws Training — Doug Johansen, widely regarded as one of Iowa’s premier throws officials and has officiated multiple NCAA Championships and Olympic Trials. He currently serves as the Drake Relays Head Throws Official.

Vertical Jumps Training — Curt Broek, a former Drake Relays athlete and long-time Head Jumps Official, Broek has served for over 20 years and is the current USATF Iowa Officials Certification Chair.

Horizontal Jumps Training — Sharon Plant, a Drake Relays jumps official for more than a decade with national-level experience from the Olympic Trials, NCAA Regionals, and NCAA Championships.

Running Events Training — Carolyn Hill and Ryan Elsbernd. Hill retired from a career in track and field meet management serving as the Assistant Athletic Director for Relays Operations. She is a Master-level USATF official with extensive national championship experience. Elsbernd serves as Head Umpire for the Drake Relays and is a Master-level USATF official with significant experience across NCAA Championships and Olympic Trials.

Para Athletics Training — Ryan Elsbernd is a national leader in Para Track & Field officiating and will focus the training on expanding the pipeline of certified officials in this growing discipline.

Immediately following the January 25 training session, all attendees are invited to join the Drake Relays community at the Drake Women’s Basketball game as the Bulldogs host Murray State at 2:00 PM.

Individuals interested in learning more should contact Tre Stanton at tre.stanton@drake.edu

The Southeast Missouri Track and Field teams return for its indoor season Friday. The squads will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana to compete in the John Gartland Invitational, hosted by Indiana State University. 

The meet fires off at 5 p.m. on Friday starting with the field events. The running events will start at 5:40 p.m. The meet will continue Saturday morning starting at 11 a.m. 

The Redhawks will be competing against Eastern Illinois, Indiana State, Marian (Ind.), Rose-Hulman (Ind.), Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.), Valparaiso (Ind.) and Wheaton (Ill.).

Last Season

The SEMO women’s squad won the OVC Championships, which was their third consecutive indoor team championship. The men finished second to Little Rock by 13.5 points. 

Last Season Awards

Last season Breanna Miles claimed the Female Track Athlete of the year for the second year in a row. Anna Thomason was tabbed as Co-Female Athlete of the year while also winning Female Athlete of the Championships. 

On the men’s side, Paden Lewis won Male Field Athlete of the year and Co-Male Athlete of the Championship. 

Head coach Eric Crumpecker also won Women’s Coach of the Year, for the third straight season and the fourth time in his career. 

This Year’s Team

The Redhawk’s women’s squad returns 21 athletes from last year’s squad. Highlighting the returners are senior pentathlete Anna Thomason, junior sprinter Brianna Dixon, graduate distance runner Erika Mellor, senior pole vaulter Clara Billing, senior thrower Bailie Hux, sophomore sprinter Alaina Lester and junior sprinter Sydney Burdine. All of these athletes are returning OVC indoor event champions. 

The team also recruited four transfers including Liberty Blackburn and Makayla Jones who both transferred from OVC foe Little Rock. The team also added 11 freshmen.

On the men’s side they return 23 athletes from last season’s team. Highlighting the returners from the men’s team is Sullivan Gleason, who the pole vault event at the OVC championships last season. Other returning runner up finishes at the OVC indoor championships last season include senior pole vaulter Tanner Koontz, senior thrower Quinton Maxwell, sophomore heptathlete Luis Schadlich, and junior sprinter Marcus Gordon Jr.

The team also recruited seven freshmen and four transfers. Included in the transfers are Trenton Braswell, who was a two-time All-Conference thrower at the NAIA level.

The Coaches

SEMO returns all four coaches from last season. Leading the way for the 18^th season is head coach Eric Crumpecker, and it will be his 35^th season at SEMO. Associate head coach Ryan Lane enters his 17^th season and specializes in coaching the distance runners. 

Assistant coach Eric Fox returns for his sixth season. Fox oversees the Redhawks multi-event athletes, pole vaulters, hurdle runners and jumpers. The final assistant is Theresa Scott, who begins her sixth season with the Redhawks. Scott coaches the Redhawk sprint and relay teams and assists with hurdle runners.

The Schedule 

After this weekend’s opener, SEMO will host the Redhawks Invite on Jan. 10. The Redhawks then travel to Bloomington for the Indiana Invitational on Jan. 16–17, followed by the Don DeNoon Invitational at Southern Illinois on Jan. 23.

The back half of the season features the PNC Lenny Lyles Invite at Louisville (Jan. 30–31), the Missouri Invitational  (Feb. 6), the Heartland Invitational, in Indianapolis, Indiana (Feb. 13–14), and the Redhawks Open on Feb. 20.

The indoor season concludes with the OVC Indoor Championships in Louisville, Kentucky on Feb. 24–25. Qualifying athletes will compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13–14.

OVC Scholar Athlete

In the offseason, Sullivan Gleason won the OVC Scholar Athlete award. The award is the highest individual honor that can be earned by OVC student-athletes and is given annually to three men and three women student-athletes for their accomplishments in both the classroom and athletic arena, and because of their leadership qualities.

Gleason, a native of O’Fallon, Missouri, finished third at the OVC Outdoor Championships. He also qualified for the NCAA West Regional where he finished 33^rd. He won the pole vault at three meets including the OVC Indoor Championships. He also took the title at the Billy Hayes where he set a personal best of 17′ 0.25″. 

 

Creighton took on Arizona State in Lexington in the Sweet 16 on Thursday afternoon.

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The Jays got on the board first.

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Ava Martin with a kill. The Jays were up 10-7 in the first set.

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Arizona State took a slight lead, but the Jays started to cut down the deficit.

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Back-to-back kills from Kiara Reinhardt gave CU the 20-18 lead and forced an ASU timeout.

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A kill from Martin got CU the set one victory, 26-24.

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Set 2 saw Creighton up 2-1.

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The start of the second set was anyone’s game, but Creighton started pulling away with a 7-4 lead.

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Neither team had led by more than three points during Thursday’s match.

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The Sun Devils won set 2, 25-19.

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The Bluejays got on the board first in the set 3.

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CU went on a 5-1 run in the third set.

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The Bluejays dominated in set 3, 25-13.

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The Bluejays were on the board first in set 4, going on a 3-0 run.

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Reinhardt helped Martin lead the Jays to success during the match.

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The Bluejays won 3-1 after a 25-18 set 4 victory.

Creighton will face the winner of the Kentucky-Cal Poly game in the Elite Eight.

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The undergraduate ceremony begins at 10 a.m. and the graduate ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. 

The following student-athletes are scheduled for graduation:

 

Baseball 

Robert Burnett (Housing Management & Policy), Brandt Pancer (Real Estate)

 

Women’s Basketball

Savannah Henderson (Sociology)

 

Equestrian

Aphrodite Papandreou (Real Estate )

 

Football

Henry Bates (Risk Management and Insurance), Tyler Clark (Sociology), Daylen Everette (Sport Management), Terrell Foster (Risk Management and Insurance), Earnest Greene (Housing Management & Policy), Patrick Hester (Management), Justin Houston (Housing Management & Policy), Cooper Johnson (Sport Management), Toby Johnson (Sociology), Christen Miller (Housing Management & Policy), Kavon Townsend (Housing Management & Policy)

 

Soccer

Madeline Baker (Consumer Economics), Jordan Brown (Psychology), Summer Denigan (Sport Management)

 

Softball

Lilliana Backes (Finance), Madison Kerpics (Masters in Comparative Biomedical Science)

 

Men’s Swimming and Diving

Tommy-Lee Camblong (Biology), Sam Parker (Psychology)

 

Men’s Tennis

Miguel Perez Pena (Financial Planning), Oscar Pinto Sansano (Political Science)

 

Men’s Track and Field

Jordan Fick (Sport Management), Alon Rogow (Sport Management)

 

Women’s Track and Field

Aaliyah Butler (International Affairs), Kaila Jackson (Journalism), Autumn Wilson (Finance)

 

Volleyball

Estelle Haugen (Dietetics), Bianna Muoneke (Sociology)

 

PULLMAN, Wash. — WSU track will head north to Spokane on Saturday for the Spokane Invitational. Races will start with the Women’s 1 mile at 1:40 pm PT and will conclude at 6:10 pm PT with the Mixed 4×400. WSU Runners will look to continue their strong start to the year in a competitive field in Spokane.

Meet Info – Spokane Invitational

Dates: Saturday, Dec. 13

Venue: The Podium  |  Spokane, Wash.

Results: AthleticLive

Live Stream: RunnerSpace

Meet Schedule (PDF)

Last Time Out – BU Season Opener (Dec. 6, 2025)

Rosemary Longisa, Zenah Cheptoo, and Nicole Bissell set personal bests in their first race of the indoor track season. Longisa and Cheptoo also set school records in the 3k and 5k, respectively. Kipchoge and Kurui impressed in an elite field in the Men’s 5k Invitational.

Up Next:

Washington State will have a month break from the action and continue their season at the UW Preview on January 16th and 17th.

For all the latest WSU Track and Field news, photos, and videos, like the team on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/wsucougartrack) or follow on Twitter (@ WSUCougarXCTF) and Instagram (@WSUCougarXCTF).