There's something incredibly pleasing in the simplicity of track and field events. No complicated rules, no referees, it's just "race you to that tree" taken to its maximum. Sport distilled down to its purest form.

Most Iowa fans know the pedigree of the football and basketball teams and the field hockey team has made a name for itself with its consistent performance on the national stage, but the Hawkeye track and field team has quietly been as good, if not better, than any of those programs. Iowa has won the last two men's indoor conference championships, and both the men's and women's teams have made noise on the national level. The all-time Iowa record books have been seemingly rewritten entirely within the past five years. It's a high bar to live up to, but last weekend's Hawkeye Invitational has me bullish on the potential for this year's group.

The Hawkeye track and field team hosted the Hawkeye Invitational last weekend, their first meet of the new year. If there was any worry about a winter break hangover, the fears were quickly felled as the Hawks set four meet records, three all-time top-10 marks, and the best 400m time nationally so far this year.

Jenoah McKiver wasted no time reclaiming his spot as one of the best runners in the country, setting a meet record and claiming the best 400m time in the country with a 46.26. McKiver was poised to push for a national title during the 2022 outdoor season before a hamstring injury forced him to miss the end-of-year competitions. Undoubtedly, he will be a mainstay on podiums throughout the indoor and outdoor seasons. While I would never put championship-or-bust expectations on a young athlete, I'm sure McKiver's goals are that high if not higher. At one point last year, McKiver had the second-best time in the world in the 400m, to give a sense of the man's talents.

But McKiver wasn't the only Hawkeye showing out over the weekend. Myreanna Bebe set a meet record and the second best-time in Iowa history in the women's 60m hurdles, running in 8.22. Paige Magee claimed second in the event for the Hawkeyes but scored gold in the women's 200m race. The Hawks racked up another 1-2 finish in the women's 60m behind Lasarah Hargrove and Lia Love, who ran the even in 7.39 and 7.41 seconds respectively. Iowa also won gold in the women's 4x400m race.

The Hawkeyes showed their prowess in the field events as well. Jordan Johnson won the men's weight throw with a 20.06m toss, good for 9th-best in school history, and added a win in the shot put for good measure. Kat Moody took home gold in the women's shot put for the Hawks. In the men's high jump, Zack Pluff set a meet record with a 2.11m jump that was 8th-best in Iowa history. The Hawks set a final meet record in the men's triple jump with James Carter's 15.7m leap. Kayla Hutchins notched a win in the women's triple jump as well, flying 11.90m.

The likes of McKiver, Carter, Magee, Hargrove and Bebe are going to make headlines all season and it's a testament to the coaching staff and the athletes themselves that the Hawkeyes are so strong in such a wide breadth of events. The Hawks aren't just a sprinting school or a throwing school, they're a well-rounded program full of strong athletes with a few of the best in the country peppered in for good measure. It's not a particularly complex recipe for success, but it's incredibly hard to pull off year in and year out. These individual sports packaged together as team sports are the hardest to coach and develop. Each athlete needs something different to help reach their ceiling and once someone is in the blocks or the circle, there's nothing anyone else can do to help. It takes adaptive coaching, individual drive from the athletes, and a strong team culture to put together a group as well-rounded as this one. Iowa has succeeded in that exact combination over the past three years and is poised to push for a three-peat in the Big Ten indoors and to compete to reclaim their outdoor title if early returns are anything to go off of.

The Hawkeye gymnastics team set a new season-high at the Wasatch Classic on Saturday, scoring 196.575 at the event. The Hawks finished third behind #3 Cal and #26 Oregon State, and ahead of #20 Pitt. Iowa posted season-high totals on the Bars (49.100) and on the Floor (49.450, 6th-best in school history). Jerquavia Henderson tied for second on the floor, scoring a 9.925. The Hawkeyes scored five career bests and seven season bests at the events. Iowa was ranked #15 in the most recent national poll and will be back in action on 1/22 against Ohio State.

Hawkeye swimming and diving fell to Illinois over the weekend, but senior Kennedy Gilbertson and freshman Scarlet Martin came away with event wins. Gilbertson won the 100m backstroke on Senior Day, while Martin earned first in the 100m butterfly. These Hawkeye seniors have seen this program cut and revived during their tenure, at one point suing the University in order to keep their program alive. Each of the seniors, Gilbertson, Aleksandra Olesiak, and Sheridan Schreiber deserve a huge shout-out for weathering that storm and choosing to stick with the Hawkeyes afterward. Without them, there's a very real possibility the women's swimming and diving for Iowa would no longer exist. Iowa's next event is scheduled for 1/21 against Vanderbilt.