Drake Relays Saturday: John Reniewicki breaks 40-year-old record, Lolo Jones returns “home”

DES MOINES — John Reniewicki didn’t enter the Drake Relays to make history. Or break a 40-year-old record in the 1,500-meter run owned by the legendary miler Steve Scott. So as the 28-year-old former walk-on runner at Arizona State outdueled this week’s Grand Blue Mile champion, Vince Ciatti, he tuned out PA announcer Mike Jay, who informed the crowd at Drake Stadium of his tense record-breaking performance in real-time.

“I couldn’t hear it to be honest,” said Reniewicki, who Saturday surged to the triumph in the elite World Athletics Continental Tour (WACT) 1,500 in 3:36.44. “I can hear two things: my coach yelling and my mom. She whistles. I can hear those two things, but besides that, nah, just kind of like a buzz.”

Ciatti, Abe Alvarado and Justine Kipkoech joined Reniewicki in eclipsing Scott’s previous Relays benchmark of 3:38.27 set in 1984. Reniewicki didn’t even know Scott held the record, but once he did, he smiled.

“Oh, wow,” he said.

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Saturday’s slate of elite athletes produced plenty of other wow-worthy moments at the famous blue oval, but Gazette-area colleges and the state’s universities couldn’t churn up a win. Northern Iowa and Iowa State each notched a second-place finish. The Panthers claimed runner-up honors in the men’s shuttle hurdle relay. The Cyclones’ Darius Kipyego nearly won the WACT 800-meters but finished in a still-impressive time of 1:46.27 — just 19-hundredths of a second behind race winner Wes Ferguson of Nebraska-Kearney, a three-time Division II national champion in the event.

And former world champion hurdler Lolo Jones returned to her home track for the first time in a decade, as well. Jones — one of a select few athletes to have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympics — finished fifth in the WACT 100-meter hurdles, but said Saturday was less about results than expressing gratitude to her longtime fans in the state.

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“I would not be the hurdler I am without this track, without this community,” said Jones, who clocked a time of 13.10 seconds. “I’m beyond grateful. I wish I could have given y’all a better race, but this 41-year-old body gave it everything today and I hope I’ve made you guys proud over my career.”

That decorated career continues. Jones still believes she can achieve a time that will give her a chance to earn a spot in the U.S. Olympic Trials in late June.

“One of (her) previous Olympic Trials, I couldn’t get it under 13.20 (for a while) — and I still made the Olympic team,” Jones said. “So it’s not over yet. It’s definitely looking bad. I’m not gonna lie to you guys, it’s looking bad, but we will fight until the end because that’s what I’ve done my whole career.”

Cindy Sember — a two-time Olympian for Great Britain — won the elite women’s 100 hurdles in a time of 12.59.

“I used to watch (Jones) on TV when I was younger and to be able to run with her is really, really nice,” Sember said. “It’s really cool she came back to her home crowd to have the support and just to show up, so I really appreciate and respect it.”

Elite thrower Payton Otterdahl finally earned some Relays-based respect from his younger brothers, Trevor and Max. Otterdahl won the WACT shot put title with a top throw of 22.14 meters — the world’s top outdoor mark this season.

“They’ve both got white flags, my girlfriend’s got multiple white flags, so that’s the one thing everybody was holding over me,” said Otterdahl, a 2020 Olympian who earned another Drake flag by teaming with fellow Olympian Jessica Ramsey for a team shot put title on Wednesday. “At every family gathering they’d ask, ‘Where’s your Drake flag?’ Well, I’ve got it here — finally.”

Canadian middle distance runner Aurora Rynda won some of those white flags when she competed for Michigan, but Saturday she claimed her first one as a pro by inching past second-pace Julia Nelson in the closing moments to win the WACT women’s 800 title in a time of 2:00.97. Nelson finished just two-hundredths of a second behind.

“100 meters to go I was like, ‘I’ve got a shot,’” Rynda said. “So I just really dug deep and tried to tap into different gears we’ve been working on in practice. Just rolling through the gearbox. It comes in handy.”

So does being able to mute the stadium’s noise, just like Reniewicki did while breaking a record previously held by one of America’s greatest milers.

“I was completely unaware of the record,” he said. “I knew that obviously this is a historic meet and it’s been around for a very long time, but it certainly wasn’t something in my mind. Coming into races at this point in the year, especially with the silver label status for the continental tour, just trying to race for the win. Anytime you put your focus on pure racing you put yourself in situations to do something like break a meet record."

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