Track and Field Roundup : Cal Poly Pomona Wins Another Relay in Iowa

Michael Spindler, running the anchor 1,600-meter leg, led Cal Poly Pomona to victory in the college division distance medley relay Saturday at the 80th Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was Cal Poly’s second relay title of the meet. The Broncos won the 3,200-meter relay Friday.

Spindler, who led throughout his leg, held off Emporia State’s David Kipelio in the final 50 meters as Cal Poly won in 9:57.48.

Stephane Franke led off for Cal Poly on the 1,200-meter leg and was followed by Dario Robinson in the 400 and Marc Spina in the 800.

Franke, Spina and Spindler also ran on the winning 3,200 team, joining TeFere Gebre.

Olympic gold medalist Paul Ereng, a Virginia sophomore from Kenya, won the 800 meters going away in 1:47.0, well short of the meet record of 1:45.86, but Ereng said he was satisfied considering the 50-degree weather.

“The weather bothered me a lot, but just at the start of our race it became sunny for about three minutes and I think that was good for me,” Ereng said. “I like to run when it’s about 75 degrees.”

Defending champion Arizona outran crowd favorite Iowa State to win the university division distance medley in 9:37.39. John Quade caught and passed Iowa State’s John Nuttall on the anchor leg.

In the university-college 100-meters, Texas A&M;’s Andre Cason zipped to a meet record 10.1, which was hand-timed.

That’s the fastest ever at the Drake Relays, although meet statistician Mike Henderson decided to leave Calvin Smith’s 10.11 in the record books as the best automatic time. The event was hand-timed because of a malfunction in the automatic timing device.

LSU’s Tananjalyn Stanley set a meet record of 13.05 in the women’s 100-meters hurdles.

Arkansas won its second relay title at the 95th Penn Relays in Philadelphia, taking the 6,000-meter relay. The Razorbacks won the distance medley Friday.

Joe Falcon, who ran the anchor lap in the distance medley, also anchored the 6,000 team, which was timed in 15:16.26.

Texas finished second in the 6,000, while the Longhorn women, directed by U.S. Olympic Coach Terry Crawford, became the first women’s team to win four relays in one weekend, taking the 400, 800, 1,600 and sprint medley.

Mount St. Mary’s, which lost to Arkansas in the distance medley, came back to win the sprint medley in 3:18.04.

Kenyan Peter Rono, Olympic 1,500-meter champion, ran the 800 anchor for Mount St. Mary’s.