Relay Success Leads Midland at Weekend Meets

DES MOINES, Iowa/LINCOLN, Neb. — Midland University was back in action this weekend, competing at the Drake Relays inside Drake Stadium, hosted by Drake University, and at the Prairie Wolf Outdoor Invite at Woody Greeno Track on the campus of Nebraska Wesleyan University.

At the Drake Relays, a meet that featured 17 teams, including seven NCAA Division I programs, the quartet of Braden Taylor, Koen Steenblok, Lucas Hjortkjaer, and Christian Olsen finished 10th in the 4x800-meter relay with a time of 7:49.00. The mark ranks third all-time in Midland program history.

"The schedule change on Thursday at Drake hindered most of the performances. The athletes handled it as well as we could," said head coach Daniel Gerber.

At the Prairie Wolf Outdoor Invite, a 10-team meet, Ja'Myri Bernard placed third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.32.

Bernard, Jameson Painter, Jason Jeffers, and Aiden Mountain teamed up to finish second in the 4x100-meter relay with a time of 42.51. In the 4x400-meter relay, Raheem Richards, Bernard, Noah Sherman and Chris Medlock also placed second, clocking a time of 3:19.70. The mark ranks fourth all-time in program history.

Kelvin Korir (17:10.46) and Jay Stoa III (19:15.61) finished third and fifth, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run.

Two Warriors finished in the top 10 in the javelin, led by Josiah Meyer in third place with a throw of 49.17 meters. Marcos Riano Aransay placed sixth at 38.58 meters.

Jonathan Edberg finished fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 12.87 meters. He added a seventh-place finish in the high jump with a clearance of 1.89 meters.

Jameson Painter placed sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.96.

In the hammer throw, Federico Migliano finished sixth with a mark of 53.96 meters.

"Several athletes improved their conference standing and are poised to perform well in the GPAC championships on our home track next week," Gerber said.

Midland will host the GPAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 1-2 in Fremont, Nebraska.