Olympic Spotlight: Iowa Track and Field Continues to Excel

This has been a remarkable time for Iowa sports. Take a moment and look back at what Hawkeye sports have accomplished in the past few years.

Iowa has had conference championships from both basketball programs, gymnastics, soccer, baseball, field hockey, and track and field. Several sports have produced All-Americans and Iowa (and NCAA) record books have been rewritten multiple times in multiple sports.

Iowa track and field continued its hot start to the season last weekend, competing in the Jim Crick Shootout. Speaking of All-Americans, reigning indoor 800m national champion Rivaldo Marshall put together another statement performance, setting the Iowa school record in the outdoor 800m race, winning the event in 1:45.86. Marshall's blistering time is the third fastest in the NCAA this season and cracks the Olympic trials standard.

Marshall wasn't the only Hawkeye who had a big weekend. In the women's 800m, Katie Moore won the event in 2:10.45. Iowa also secured wins in the women's 4x100m relay from Tionna Tobias, Lia Love, Holly Duax, and Paige Magee (44.44, 6th all-time) and 4x400m relay from Mariel Bruxvoort, Ali Dorn, Nylah Perry, and Duax (3:37.92).

Bruxvoort joined Duax and two-time champions on the weekend with a 57.58 400m hurdles run that earned her first place. Iowa's final champion on the weekend was Kat Moody, who tossed the discus 55.95m to claim victory.

The Hawkeyes have to be ecstatic with their early season performances. Established stars like Moody, Bruxvoort, and Magee continue to put up huge performances, Marshall has been an enormous addition after coming from the junior college ranks last season and already new names are popping up in the early weeks of the outdoor season like Holly Duax.

Iowa's proved that it can develop talent across all events. They've been posting top-10 marks week in and week out and over the past few months, and program records have been falling with regularity.

The Hawks are seeing some national recognition as well. The men's team is ranked #3 in the 110m hurdles, #5 in the 800m, and #1 in the Midwest Region while the women's team is #1 nationally in the 400m hurdles, #5 in the long jump, #6 in the 800m, and #8 in the 100m hurdles.

The Hawkeyes will split their squad between two California meets and a Florida meet next weekend as they look to continue their season-long heater.

Four Hawkeyes competed individually at the NCAA Regional meet last weekend in the final competition of the Hawks' 2024 season. Ilka Juk started the meet for the Hawkeyes on beam. She put together a near-perfect routine, scoring 9.900 and finishing 6th. Emily Erb was next up for Iowa and matched Juk's 9.900, her 5th 9.900 of the year. She tied for 9th in the event. Bailey Libby also competed on floor, scoring 9.850 in the debut of a new routine.

Karina Munoz was the final competitor for the Hawkeyes, competing in the all-around. Munoz, competing for the first time since pulling out of the Big Ten Championships with an injury, overcame an early fall on the beam to score 38.750 overall. None of the Hawkeyes qualified for the next round of the NCAA Championships.

It was a somewhat muted end to a tumultuous season for the GymHawks. Injuries plagued the group, and while it led to valuable experience for the underclassmen, it limited the overall ceiling of the team.

The program now has multiple questions to answer as it navigates an external investigation into Coach Larissa Libby and potential changes to the roster. There were impressive performances throughout the season, especially from Karina Munoz, which bodes well for the program's future. Still, everything is on pause until the investigation is resolved.

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Iowa softball (16-15, 4-5) suffered a sweep at the hands of Purdue (17-18, 5-4) last weekend, dropping the opener 3-2 in extra innings before falling in a Saturday doubleheader, 4-0 and 2-1.

Friday's game was an eight-inning thriller for the Hawkeyes and Boilermakers. Purdue took an early lead with a two-run home run in the second inning. Iowa nearly answered back in the third, loading the bases, but were held scoreless. Still, the Hawks kept pushing and finally broke through in the 6th when freshman Jena Young launched a solo shot into right field to cut the Purdue lead in half.

Young came through in the clutch again in the 7th inning, smacking a single back up the middle to tie the game with two outs.

The Hawkeyes put two runners on in the 8th inning but weren't able to capitalize and the Boilermakers claimed the win with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the inning.

Iowa's bats were again kept quiet in Saturday's doubleheader. The Hawkeyes loaded the bases in the 1st and 2nd innings but couldn't push any runs across, which came back to bite them when Purdue plated three in the bottom half of the 2nd. They added an insurance run in the 4th to take the 4-0 win.

In game 2, Iowa again loaded the bases in the 2nd inning, but this time pushed a run across on a bases-loaded walk from Rylie Moss. Jaylee Ojo put together a strong start on the mound, retiring 15 straight batters at one point and giving up no earned runs, but Purdue scored twice in the bottom of the 6th to take a late 2-1 lead. The Hawks threatened in the 7th, putting two runners on with two outs, but couldn't find the tying run.

It was a frustrating weekend overall for the group. The team consistently threatened but never seemed to find a way to break the game open. Too often, the Hawks rely on stringing singles together to drive in runs. The group has just three home runs this season, all from Young who has been a force in her freshman year. Iowa's pitching has been consistently solid-to-great all season so the recipe for success is there if the Hawkeye bats come alive. They'll have another shot at it next weekend when they travel to take on Michigan (24-14, 6-3).

Both the men's and women's golf teams teed off for the Hawkeyes last weekend with the men competing in the Calusa Cup and the women competing in the Chattanooga Classic.

On the men's side, Iowa's leading scorer was Noah Kent, who tied for 9th (+2) after a 1st round 71 (-1). Mac McClear was the next-best finisher for the Hawks, tying for 22nd (+8). As a team, the Hawkeyes finished 7th (+28).

On the women's side, a 2nd round 70 (-1) pushed Paula Miranda into a tie for 15th on Monday and she followed it up with a -4 67 in Tuesday's final round to secure a top-five finish. Miranda jumped more than ten spots in both the 2nd and 3rd rounds to propel herself to a strong finish. The team finished 7th after a 16-shot improvement from round one to round two and a four-shot improvement from round two to round three.

Both teams will compete again next weekend, each traveling to Ohio for competitions.

Iowa tennis (9-9, 4-3) picked up a 5-2 win over Rutgers (10-9, 1-7) last weekend, pushing their conference record back over .500. Rutgers actually picked up the first two points of the meet, winning the doubles point and at court 6, but Iowa stormed back, winning each of the remaining five singles points to claim the win.

Hawkeye winners included Daianne Hayashida, Marisa Schmidt, Barbora Pokorna, Pia Kranholdt, and Vipasha Mehra.

The Hawks will host their final home matches of the season next weekend when Ohio State (13-6, 6-1) (4/12, 5:00 pm) and Penn State (5-12, 4-3) (4/14, 10:00 am) come to Iowa City.