Jagielo, men's 4x400 relay win at Grinnell meet

Cornell track and field coach Lonnie Speidel cited several strong individual performances Saturday as both his men's and women's teams placed third at the nine-team Dick Young Classic.

The Cornell women tallied 90.5 team points, led by Allie Jagielo's title in the 3000-meter steeplechase and an NCAA provisional mark from Madison Craw in the shot put.

Sophomore sprinter Andrew Harter ran the opening leg on Cornell's winning 4x400 relay and took runner-up in two other events to pace the men's squad, which finished with 105 points.

Jagielo turned in a personal-best clocking of 11 minutes, 31.90 seconds in the 3000 steeplechase, a mark that ranks third in the Iowa Conference. She blew away her closest competitor by more than 20 seconds in the 15-woman field.

Craw established a personal outdoor best with a shot put mark of 43 feet, 10.5 inches, which stands 12th in NCAA Division III this spring. She finished third in the event, behind a pair of NCAA automatic marks from Wartburg throwers. Craw also placed second in the hammer throw (136-11), while sophomore teammate Raquel Ristau came in fourth with a personal-best toss (134-2).

Freshman Amanda Houts had her best day in the pole vault, clearing 9-2.25 for third place. Michelle Hannemann was fourth (8-2.50). Sophomore Elise Mead finished second in the 1500 in a season-best 5:03.37. Christal Harris recorded her top times in the 100 hurdles (16.6, fourth) and 200 (28.19, sixth).

The men's 4x400 relay of Harter, Reed Skoog, Matt McGowan and Adam Rooyakkers claimed victory in 3:26.40, nipping Wartburg by .007 seconds in a photo finish. Harter took second in the 200 and also was runner-up in the 400 in a personal-best 50.48.

Cornell also received runner-up men's finishes from Rooyakkers in the 1500 (4:09.71) and Andrew Tobben in the 5000 (15:16.18). Chase Nowak came in third in the 5000 (15:23.24).

Junior Marshall Kraker reached the finals in four field events: javelin (153-2, third), shot put (42-9.75, eighth), discus (126-10, fifth) and hammer throw (108-10, eighth).

Coming up - Cornell qualified four men's relay events for the annual Drake Relays Friday-Saturday, April 29-30, at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

On Friday, the Rams will compete in the 4x800 (Rooyakkers, Chris Stadler, Nowak, Kirkwood Donavin or Scott Riedel) at 10:55 a.m., and the 4x200 (Skoog, Harter, McGowan, Roli Teko-Folly) at 1:46 p.m. Cornell will run two more relays on Saturday, the distance medley (Nowak, Skoog, Rooyakkers, Donavin) at 9:19 a.m., and the sprint medley (McGowan, Teko-Folly, Harter, Stadler) at 9:54 a.m.

The Rams not competing at Drake will take part in the Viking Classic Friday, hosted by Grand View in Des Moines. Field events start at 12 p.m., followed by the running events at 2 p.m.