The Marquette track program put up a solid showing at one of the most storied track meets in America this weekend, breaking two school records at the Drake Relays on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Drake Relays attract college teams from all over the country as well as post-collegiate runners and Olympians.
This year's field included Jeremy Wariner, the gold medalist in the 400-meter dash at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, among other Olympic athletes.
Junior Matt Piekarski finished third in the Drake Decathlon. Piekarski finished the event with 6,852 points, a school record. His total broke the old mark set in 2003 by Nick Newton. Piekarski already holds the freshman record in the event, with 6,095 points. Track icon Kip Janvrin won the event with 7,671 points, his 15th win in the Drake Decathlon. Janvrin was an Olympian in the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona and in 2000 in Sydney.
"The winner of the decathlon is a Drake Relays legend," assistant coach Bert Rogers said. "To see Matt almost right with him was very exciting."
Junior Jon Shaffer also finished third, finishing the 800-meter run in a time of 1:51.02. Bronco Meeks of Illinois State won the event with a time of 1:50.38. Shaffer, who qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships in the same event in the winter, started off slow in the outdoor season because of changes in his training regimen that left him with nagging hamstring injuries.
"Jon was pretty healthy after the indoor season, but we beefed up his training to get him set for the stretch run of the outdoor season," Rogers said. "We did some work with the 400-hurdles, which Jon ran once, but he got a sore hamstring and tweaked his back a little bit, so we had a two-week period where we just didn't do anything and he rehabbed."
The women's 4×1600-meter relay team of senior Brianna Dahm, sophomore Michaela Courtney and freshmen Kaitlyn Chambers and Cassie Peller finished fourth with a time of 19:48.89, which shattered their old mark of 20:12.48.
Michigan's relay team won the event.
Dahm also finished fifth in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:36.43.
She holds the school record in the event.
Junior Susie Emond finished fourth in the 10K run, setting a personal best with a time of 36:11.41.
"That was a big-time personal best time," Uhrich said. "I was very impressed with that."
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on May 2 2005.