With two days highlighted by the decathlon and distance runners, the Cyclone men’s and women’s sprinters got their crack at the Drake Relays on day three, alongside the 4×1600-meter teams.

Cinammo’s triple jump and men’s 4×1600 take gold to start the morning

Junior Ava Cinammo took full advantage in the women’s triple jump as she won with a distance of 40-3 ¼ to sneak past Illinois Wesleyan’s Imani Ogunribido by less than two inches. After injury woes in her first two years, she’s found the right gear this year.

“I try to zone in on what I know how to do and not focus on my competition, focus on what I do to be good, the form I need and getting into a good headspace by not worrying about other people and focusing on myself,” Cinammo said. “And having fun. If you’re not having fun, then you’re not going to do your best.”

One of Cinammo’s top goals is to place at the Big 12 Conference meet later this year. With the addition of the new schools formerly from the Pac-12, the Big 12 now has more depth than it did previously.

The Cyclone quartet of Quinton Orr, Joash Ruto, Robin Kwemoi Bera and Devan Kipyego cruised to a Drake Relays championship with a time of 16:38.06 in the mens 4×1600 meter relay. Kipyego put the cherry on top by lapping North Central’s (Illinois) Luke Hoffman on the final 200 meters.

“We wanted to show that Iowa State always comes out to Drake Relays and we wanted to put on a show for them,” Kipyego said. “With 200 meters to go I said, ‘Go celebrate, go have fun with this,’ and with 100 meters to go I was smiling to hype up the crowd because this is Iowa, this is the heart of Iowa.”

Going forward, Kipyego wants to go one-two alongside Emanuel Galdino in the 1,500 meter run at the Big 12 Conference meet and continue to feed off that success at both the NCAA regionals and nationals.

The Cyclone women’s 4×1600 team of Sydney Morrell, Olivia Verde, Mya Trober and McKinley Wheeler followed up the men with a fourth place finish in a time of 19:56.33, one of six sub-20 minute results in the race.

Hurdles kick off afternoon

In the women’s 100 meter hurdle prelims, both freshman Riyah Burns and senior Kiersten Fisher fell short of the finals, placing ninth and 12th. Burns finished in 13.80 while Fisher finished in 13.98.

In the men’s 110 meter hurdle prelims, junior Jack Latham found his way into the finals, as he placed seventh with a time of 14.01. Junior Alec Carr fell short, as he placed 10th with a time of 14.12.

Later in the women’s 400 meter hurdles, Cinnamo didn’t have the success that she did during triple jump, as she finished 18th of the 23 with a time of 1:03.22. On the men’s side, Carr took fifth in 53.04, followed up by freshman Aidan Jacobsen, who ran a 53.92 and placed 14th.

Cyclone 4×100 meter teams qualify for Saturday’s finals

The women’s 4×100 meter relay team, made up of Amari Lang, Karynne David, Cameron Moon and Brooklyn Sandvig, made the cut for Saturday’s finals with a time of 46.16 and a seventh place finish.

The men’s team, made up of Grayson Hartman, Gus Langford, Ty Koehnk and Mikey McClain, followed up by qualifying as well, with a time of 40.67 and a fifth place finish in the preliminaries.

Remaining field events get their turn

Sophomore Brandon Fischer put the Cyclones in the spotlight during the men’s discus with a third place finish and a throw of 179-4. Senior Daniel Norris also capped off the top 10 and threw a distance of 171-10. Senior Cam Jones also took fourth in the men’s shot put championship, with a throw of 59-6 ¼.

Following her 4×100 performance, Lang took second with her jump of 19-5 ½, coming on her third attempt. Fisher also placed fourth with a jump of 19-¾.

Sophomore Braden Goellner struggled in the men’s high jump. While clearing 6-6 ¾ on his first attempt, he couldn’t clear 6-8 ¾ on either of his two attempts following.

Distance caps day three

Senior Bella Heikes kicked off the end of day three for the Cyclones in the women’s 1,500 meter run, as she ran a 4:21.35 and placed ninth, yet fell six places after the first lap.

On the men’s side, junior Nathan Pestka ran a 3:49.34 and placed eighth, doing so by passing three runners on the final lap. Junior Hanibal Haile and senior Riley Simpson saw not-so-good results, as they placed 11th and 12th. Haile ran a 3:52.24 but fell four positions on the final lap, while Simpson ran a 4:12.73.

The women’s 4×800 relay team grabbed a runner-up finish after being nearly hunted down at the finish. Makayla Clark, Kaia Holtkamp, Camryn Hubbard and freshman Keelee Leitzen worked to run a relay time of 8:40.86.

On the men’s side, Dugion Blackman, Leroy Russell III, Darius Kipyego and Galdino closed the night in a time of 7:23.10 and held the lead for the first half of the race. Galdino couldn’t close the gap on Iowa’s Terrick Johnson, and fell short of a 15th 4×800 title at the Drake Relays.

Saturday caps the 115th Drake Relays, where Iowa State will see a handful of field events and relays, including the men’s and women’s 4×100 relay teams that qualified Friday.