It was all about the relay meets this past weekend with the famous Drake and Penn Relays capturing the continent’s attention. At the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa it was strictly relay running for Lions athletes Adam Palamar and Matt Bedard. Palamar got things started Thursday, leading his Tulsa Hurricane team to a second place finish in the 4x1600m. Running anchor, Adam’s 3:59 leg helped Tulsa to a school record 16:19.62. In a similar vein, Matt Bedard led off for his North Dakota State Bison sprint medley team as they posted the third best time in the school’s history,completing the 1600m event in 3 minutes 24.96 seconds.
The Penn Relays in Philadelphia featured a wide range of line talent from Shona McCulloch’s third place finish in the High School Girls Championship 3000m, to Farah Jacques blistering anchor run for Canada in the USA vs The World Women’s 4x400m relay. Running with some of the top high school runners on the continent, McCulloch put forth a personal best effort, completing the seven and a half laps in 9:38.74. Jacques, on the other hand, laid down a 52.88 second anchor leg for Canada, helping the team to a time of 3 minutes 32.83 seconds that now ranks them 7th in the world heading into next week’s IAAF World Relays
At the Tom John’s Memorial in Gainsville Florida, Sekou Kaba continued to show his affinity for the sunshine state as he equaled his PB of 13.61 seconds for the 110m hurdles to finish third. Kaba had set his personal best just a few weeks prior on the same University of Florida track. On the other side of the country in the Golden State of California, Tim Nedow pushed his 16 pound ball out to a distance of 19.58m as he finished fourth in a star studded field at the UCSD Triton Invitational in San Diego.
