LINCOLN, NEB. - Junior Jon DeGrave (Lake Villa, Ill.) ran the third-fastest 400-meter dash in school history to win the consolation round of the event during the second day of action at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Saturday (Feb. 5).
"Jon Degrave executed the perfect race," commented Drake track and field head coach Natasha Brown. "We talked about being more strategic and in each critical part of the race he did exactly that. It is rare to find an athlete that can remember important details during the race."
Sophomore Tim Cornish (Auckland, New Zealand) and freshman Omet Kak (Des Moines, Iowa) were sixth and eighth, respectively, in the special mile race. Cornish had a time of 4:12.60, while Kak finished the race in 4:13.51.
Freshman Brogan Austin (Boone, Iowa) registered a second-place finish in the mile run finishing in 4:16.78.
Junior Ben Jaskowiak (Madison, Wis.) ran a time of 8:48.06, a personal best by more than ten seconds, in the 3,000-meter race to place ninth.
Freshman Doug Brady (Englewood, Colo.) was ninth in the 800-meter race running a time of 1:56.79.
Senior Brandon Lewis (Plymouth, Minn.) finished sixth in the 800-meter special clocking in at 1:54.95.
The 4x400 relay team of freshman Ian Wells (Champaign, Ill.), DeGrave, junior Shaun James (Lawrence, Kan.) and sophomore Dan Karys (Bartlett, Ill.) were second in 3:19.80.
"The meet wrapped up nicely for us," said Brown. "I was really proud of the group. It takes a few practice runs on the track to get used to the banked turns but when we figured it out we ran fast."
Drake, for the third time this indoor campaign, will travel to Ames, Iowa to compete in the ISU Classic next Thursday through Saturday (Feb. 10-12).
