The men's and women's outdoor track teams secured top finishes at the Iowa Musco Twilight meet. The weather was nice, for a change, allowing athletes to improve times and distances and qualify for regional championships.

"I think that we had a really good meet," said head coach Dave Uhrich. "We had a couple of really good performances and two that were outstanding. Michaela Courtney and Brent Des Roches both set meet records. Those were the two highlights."

Courtney earned first place in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:27.33 at the University of Iowa meet. She broke the school record by 16 seconds and the meet record by 22 seconds.

"I've gone a long time without being injured and I've also had a lot of good workouts over the past few weeks," Courtney said. "Those two factors really helped me on Saturday."

The win was especially meaningful because it came against Meghan Armstrong of Iowa, an indoor All-American in the mile.

"I was happy and excited because I raced against her a couple of times indoors in the mile and she beat me," Courtney said. "But I was happy to finally beat her. That was also a (personal record) for me and it was the first time that I ran the 3K outdoors."

Des Roches also secured victory in his first-ever 3,000-meter steeplechase with a finish of 9:04.65 and qualified for the Big East Championships and NCAA Regional Championships.

Marquette had several other solid performances on Saturday.

Sophomore Christina Flowers earned third place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.70, and freshman Sharon Fritz followed in fourth place at 13.11.

On the men's side, senior David Henderson earned third place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:25.11. Junior Jeremy Williams finished in fourth place in the 1,500-meter run and crossed the line at 3:58.19.

Saturday's meet was held in Iowa City, Iowa. Although a tornado ripped through the town on April 13, the meet proceeded according to schedule.

"We were kind of wondering if it was going to impact the meet," Uhrich said. "We didn't see anything where we drove in to the track."

Runners who have qualified for the Drake Relays will return to Iowa on Thursday. For those athletes, the University of Iowa meet served as a stepping stone to the Drake Relays.

"I think that it will help my confidence to know that I can race with fast people," Courtney said.