Olympic Spotlight: Hawkeye Track and Field Wins 8 Events

It's the busiest time of the year for Hawkeye sports as we reach the final few weeks with both winter and spring sports competing simultaneously. Hawkeye track and field continued to rack up event wins and career bests, Iowa softball took part in a weekend tournament in Florida, Iowa baseball began its season, Iowa gymnastics continued its resilient campaign, and Iowa tennis picked up a pair of wins against in-state rivals.

Let's jump right in.

Iowa track and field continued their blistering indoor season with another strong weekend at the Iowa Open last week, highlighted by Kat Moody reaching 2nd-all-time in the shot put at Iowa. Moody launched a 17.00m throw that was a career-best, the 20th-best throw in the country this season, and an event winner. She wasn't the only winner for the Hawks on the weekend though, as they notched eight wins on the weekend.

Other winners included Ella Meeuwsen in the women's high jump and Kabela Jack in the high jump. On the track side, the Hawks got wins in both the 60m and 60m hurdles from Joe Stein and Gratt Reed, as well as the women's 600m and 5,000m races from Katie Moore and Kelli Tosic. The final Hawkeye win came in the men's 4x400m race when Jaylin Holmes, Evan Schuster, Koby Brackemeyer, and Carson Lane finished in 3.23.14.

It's a testament to just how good the Hawkeyes have been this year when a week with eight wins, the 2nd-best shot put in school history, and a slew of other personal bests feels like a "down" week for the group. It's the first week in almost a month that the Hawkeyes didn't set a new program record and still Iowa put together an impressive set of results. The Hawkeyes again spread their victories across the sprint and distance runs, as well as the field events. It was another new set of competitors picking up wins and more proof that this team has both a breadth of talent and depth of talent.

Last week's meet wrapped up the indoor regular season for the Hawkeyes, who now turn their attention to the conference and NCAA championships. Postseason competition kicks off on February 23rd with the start of the Big Ten Indoor Championships (BIG+).

Track season is unique, with indoor and outdoor seasons right next to one another, and the Hawks recently announced their full outdoor schedule as well, which will begin March 15th at the USF Alumni Invite.

Iowa baseball began their season at the Swig and Swine College Classic last weekend, going 2-1 to kick off what should be one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory for the Hawks. The starting staff was as dominant as advertised and the offense looks primed for another year of big production.

You can read all about the now 17th-ranked Hawkeyes' weekend here and can follow along with us all season as we recap the season for head coach Rick Heller and the Iowa baseball team.

Iowa softball (4-3) split their first two games of The Spring Games last weekend before the final two games were canceled due to weather. Iowa fell to Southern Illinois (5-2) 4-1 but bounced back and beat Liberty (2-7) 4-2.

Against Southern Illinois, Iowa's defense struggled early and three Hawkeye errors in the 2nd inning gave SIU a 3-0 lead. Freshman Devin Bowman drove in a run with a long RBI double in the 4th inning, but the Hawkeyes stranded runners throughout the game and weren't able to mount a comeback.

It was a down game all around for the Hawkeyes, who also committed four errors in the game and only managed four hits. However, the group was able to flush the frustrating start to the weekend quickly and bounced back with a convincing win in the afternoon's game against Liberty.

Grace Banes led off game 2 with a walk and was quickly brought home when Soo-Jin Berry mashed an RBI triple. Brylee Klosterman kept the carousel moving, driving in Berry with a single. Liberty answered with a run of its own but the Hawks held on to their 2-1 lead into the 5th inning. There, Iowa found some insurance runs with RBIs from Jena Young and Sammy Diaz. Jalen Adams took care of the rest on the mound, finishing out her complete game, giving up just two runs on two hits.

The first game of the weekend was unlike what we've seen early in the season and throughout last year with so many errors in the field, but Iowa showed the mark of a good team by bouncing back in the afternoon. The Hawkeyes stuck to their stated plan, leaning on Adams on the mound and getting contributions at the plate from established contributors like Klosterman and Diaz, as well as the young phenoms in Berry, Bownman, and Young.

During media day head coach Renee Gillispie spoke about how excited she was to see these freshmen on the field and they have delivered early in the season. Berry was part of last week's all-tournament team and continued her hot streak at the plate on Friday. Jena Young was touted as much as anyone on the roster and she's come through both at the plate and in the field in the early going.

The Hawkeyes want to compete for a conference championship this year. To do that, they'll need to limit the lapses that came in Friday's early game, but the bounce-back win in the afternoon is proof that the culture around this team is strong.

The team will next take the field on February 23rd when they compete in the UNF/Jacksonville tournament. They'll play a doubleheader on Friday against North Florida (6-3) (3:00, 5:30, ESPN+).

Iowa gymnastics took on #13 Ohio State last weekend at their Senior Day meet, falling 197.125 - 196.075. Sophomore Karina Munoz continued her great season, tying for first on beam with a 9.900, as well as finishing second on the floor (9.900) and in the all-around (39.425). Eva Volpe, fresh off Freshman of the Week honors, continued her strong freshman campaign with a personal best on the floor (9.875), as well as a 9.850 on the vault, which tied her career-high. Alyse Karenbauer also set a career-high on the floor, with the freshman scoring a 9.900.

The Hawkeyes are still looking for a complete performance since they lost Adeline Kenlin. They've put together some great individual performances, with Munoz and Volpe both standing out, but the team hasn't yet put it all together in a single meet. Still, the experience is proving invaluable as the underclassmen continue to grow and set new career highs. The GymHawks will next compete in the Big Five meet on February 24th, hosted by Penn State (3:30, BIG+).

Iowa tennis (5-5) picked up a pair of in-state wins last week, beating both Iowa State (2-4) and Drake (3-4). The Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones 5-2 and the Bulldogs 6-1.

Iowa won the doubles point to kick off the match against ISU and followed that up with wins from Marisa Schmidt (Court 2), Barbora Pokorna (Court 3), and Pia Kranholdt (Court 4), as well as a forfeit win on Court 6 to claim victory.

Against Drake, Iowa won both doubles matches, giving them an early 2-0 lead (due to a lack of players, each doubles match was worth one point). The Hawks won on courts 2-5 to claim the match. Hawkeye winners included Schmidt, Pokorna, Kranholdt, and Vipasha Mehra.

The two wins last weekend give the Hawkeyes four in a row after a tough start to the season. They'll wrap up non-conference play next Friday against Oregon (6-3) (5:00, Hawkeyesports.com) before they begin conference play.