Men’s track and field’s 4×800-meter relay posts top-15 all-time performance at Drake Relays

DES MOINES, Iowa – The St. Olaf College men’s track and field team’s 4×800-meter relay ran the 11th-fastest time in NCAA Division III history, as 10 Oles ran in distance events at the Drake Relays on Thursday at Drake Stadium.

First year Jackson Bullock, junior Cullen Moore, first year Austin McInturff, and junior Lance Nemecek fell less than one second shy of the program and Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) record in the 4×800-meter relay with a fourth-place finish in 7:34.14. Individually, three members of the men’s team and three from the women’s team ran distance events in fields that included all three NCAA Divisions, junior colleges, and running clubs.

Bullock, Moore, McInturff, and Nemecek took fourth – behind National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Cornerstone University (Mich.), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Iowa Central Community College, and NCAA Division II Minnesota State University, Mankato – in the 4×800-meter relay, with heir time of 7:34.14 falling just shy of the program and conference record of 7:33.39 set by Jack Henschel ’20, Jacob Eggers ’17, Sean Bjork, ’17, and Joe Coffey ’17 set in 2017. Moore moved the Oles up from ninth to fifth in their heat with a split of 1:52.61 in the second leg before and Nemecek brought it home in 1:52.03.

Seniors Sean Hartney and Olaf Coffey finished 15th and 20th, respectively, in the unseeded 1,500-meter run with times of 3:55.96 and 4:00.05, respectively. Junior Ignatius Fitzgerald took 16th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:01.70, which ranks in the top 15 in NCAA Division III and second in the MIAC this season.

Junior Lauren Walda had the top finish for the St. Olaf women with a fifth-place performance in the unseeded 5,000-meter run in 17:06.29, which was less than one second off her personal-best time of 17:05.92 that is the top time int eh conference this season. The four runners to finish ahead of Walda were all from NCAA Division I institutions.

Running her second 800-meter race in as many days, junior Isabel Wyatt finished 10th in the unseeded category in 2:12.21, falling .02 seconds shy of her time from the day before that is second on St. Olaf’s all-time list and first in the conference this spring. Senior Alison Bode was eighth overall and first among NCAA Division III runners in the 10,000-meter run in 35:44.49, which marked a near seven-second improvement on her season-best time that entered the day ranked 20th in the country.

St. Olaf’s teams will head to UW-Eau Claire for the Dick & Mary Johnson Invitational starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 26.