VERMILLION, S.D. - Junior Jon DeGrave (Lake Villa, Ill.) won the 200-meter dash to highlight action for the Drake men's track and field team at the Graphic Edge Alumni Meet at the University of South Dakota Saturday night (Jan. 15).

DeGrave won the race with a time of 22.31. Sophomore Brandon Ridlen (Griswold, Iowa) finished eighth with a time of 23.46 and freshman Ian Wells (Champaign, Ill.) ran a time of 23.85 to place 13th.

"DeGrave is always fun to watch," said Drake head coach Natasha Brown. "He only knows one way to race and that is fast and strong."

Freshman Travis Marsh (Ankeny, Iowa) finished third in the 400-meter dash as he was clocked in 51.37.

Sophomore Dan Karys (Bartlett, Ill.) was fourth in the long jump and the triple jump. Karys jumped 21-10.00 in the long jump and 44-01.50 in the triple jump. Freshman Alex Kaster (Omaha, Neb.) finished seventh in the long jump with a leap of 20-07.25.

Senior Brandon Lewis (Plymouth, Minn.) was seventh in the mile in 4:32.19, while junior Matt Jurysta (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada) was 11th in a time of 4:39.56.

"We hoped they would compete hard in the meet and they did that," said Brown. "We obviously still have work to do but this is a solid start for our squad and we look forward to our meets next weekend."

The Drake student-athletes will start class this week before heading out to participate in a pair of meets. The Bulldogs will send contingents to both the Iowa State Open (Jan. 21-22) in Ames, Iowa, as well as the adidas Classic hosted by Nebraska (Jan. 22) in Lincoln, Neb.