Drake Relays

Drake Relays

Conference	Missouri Valley
Sport	Track and field
Founder	1910; 116 years ago (1910)
Organizing body	Drake University
Related competitions	Penn Relays
Official website	godrakebulldogs.com/relays

The Drake Relays is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as America's Athletic Classic, it is regarded as one of the top track and field events in the United States.^[1] In 2020, the Drake Relays was named a Silver Level event on the World Athletics Continental Tour, one of only two competitions in the United States to earn Silver Level status.^[2]

The inaugural Drake Relays were held in 1910. The first meet drew just 100 spectators and 82 athletes, all from Des Moines-area colleges and high schools. The second year attendance grew to 250 athletes and a crowd of some 500 spectators. In 1914, the Relays saw its first world record set. By 1922, the Relays had expanded to two days and drew 10,000 fans, becoming the first major track and field event broadcast on radio. For the 1926 Relays, Drake Stadium was built on the site of the prior host, Haskins Field.^[3]

Women's events were added beginning in 1961 with Wilma Rudolph competing in the 100 meters.^[4] The 1966 Relays began a streak of 48 consecutive Saturdays with a sellout.^[5] In 1969, a $175,000 tartan track was installed. The events at the Relays would go all-metric in 1976 and the track was rebuilt as a 400-meter oval in 1978. It was resurfaced in 1983, and in 1988 was renamed the "Jim Duncan Track" to honor the long time relays public address announcer.

Hundreds of Olympic gold medalists have competed at Drake Stadium including Caitlyn Jenner, Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Frank Shorter, Gwen Torrence, and Jeremy Wariner.^[6] Hundreds more Drake Relays competitors have gone onto compete in the Olympic Games, including 113 at the 2012 Olympic Games.^[7]

In 2006, a Friday evening session was added.^[8] In 2010, the Grand Blue Mile, a one-mile road race in downtown Des Moines, was added.^[9] The week of festivities currently opens with a parade on Saturday, continues with a Beautiful Bulldog Contest (Drake's mascot) on Sunday, the Grand Blue Mile on Tuesday, and an indoor pole vault on Wednesday^[10] with the decathlon and heptathlon beginning Wednesday and concluding alongside the distance carnival on Thursday.

Midwest grocer Hy-Vee became the presenting sponsor beginning in 2013, enabling the Relays to offer a $50,000 purse in running events and $25,000 purse in field events, making the Drake Relays the richest athletics event in the United States. ESPN2 aired 90 minutes of live-action coverage that year and ESPN3 aired an additional two hours.^[11] The 2013 field saw 25 Olympic medalists compete.^[12] Currently NBCSN airs 2–3 hours of coverage on Saturday with live online coverage via NBCSports.com throughout the event.

In January 2018 Drake Relays unveiled the Blue Standard, under which Iowa's top high school athletes automatically qualify based on their event performance. The Blue Standard is the top 25 percent of accepted entrant's results from past Drake Relays.^[13]

In March 2020, Xtream powered by Mediacom was named the presenting sponsor of the Drake Relays. Xtream's sponsorship allows the Drake Relays to maintain its status as a premier track and field event, to be called the "Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom".^[14]

In addition to the track meet, the Relays serves as a second homecoming for the university^[15] and sees other community events such as student street painting and a downtown Des Moines block party.

Opened in 1925, the 14,557-seat stadium and its famous blue oval have hosted the Relays since 1926. A $15 million renovation in 2006 reduced capacity from 18,000 seats in order to expand the lanes, allow fans to watch throwing and running at the same time, and allow for more hosting of events.^[8] Another renovation following the 2016 relays saw a new track installed, constructed of the same material used for tracks in Beijing and London for the Summer Olympics.^[16]

Eleven men have claimed the role of director of the Drake Relays since the very first officially organized track and field event took place more than 100 years ago back in the year 1910.

• John L. Griffith 1910–1918
  Griffith was the founder of the Drake Relays. He remained director for nine years and moved to the University of Illinois after World War I. He later became commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. Drake's live bulldog mascot, Griff, is named for him.
• M. B. Banks 1919–1921
  Banks also served as coach to the Drake football and basketball teams.
• K. L. (Tug) Wilson 1922–1925
  Wilson was a former Illinois and Olympic athlete. After his tenure as director, he went on to become athletic director at Northwestern University. Wilson was also a former Big Ten Conference commissioner.
• O. M. (Ossie) Solem 1926–1932
  Longtime Drake coach succeeded Wilson, later became head football coach at the University of Iowa and Syracuse University
• F. P. (Pitch) Johnson 1933–1940
• M. E. (Bill) Easton 1941–1947
• Tom Deckard 1948–1955
• Bob Karnes 1956–1969
• Bob Ehrhart 1970–2000
• Mark Kostek 2001–2005
• Brian Brown 2006–2016
  Brown participated in the relays himself and held the Drake Relays record in the high jump until 2014. For his first eight years as director, Brown had attempted to have his record broken by recruiting some of the best high jumpers in the country.^[17]
• Blake Boldon 2017–present

Men's meeting records of the Drake Relays

Event	Record	Athlete	Nation.	Date	Ref.
100 m	10.01 (+1.9 m/s)	Harvey Glance	United States	24 April 1976	[18]
200 m	20.02 (+1.7 m/s)	Wallace Spearmon	United States	28 April 2012	[19]
400 m	44.08	Kirani James	Grenada	29 April 2016	[20]
800 m	1:45.86	Randy Wilson	United States	28 April 1978	[21]
1500 m	3:38.27	Steve Scott	United States	28 April 1984	[22]
Mile	3:51.71	Alan Webb	United States	28 April 2007	[23]
5000 m	13:21.39	Morgan McDonald	Australia	23 April 2021	[24]
10,000 m	28:07.40	Kipsubai Koskei	Kenya	26 April 1980	[25]
110 m hurdles	13.04 (+1.8 m/s)	Omar McLeod	Jamaica	29 April 2017	[26]
400 m hurdles	48.15	Alison dos Santos	Brazil	24 April 2021	[24]
3000 m steeplechase	8:31.02	Henry Marsh	United States	30 April 1977	[27]
High jump	2.40 m (7 ft 10+1⁄4 in)	Derek Drouin	Canada	25 April 2014	[28]
Pole vault	5.90 m (19 ft 4+1⁄4 in)	KC Lightfoot	United States	22 April 2024	[29]
Long jump	8.26 m (27 ft 1 in)	Anthuan Maybank	United States	24 April 1993
Triple jump	17.12 m (56 ft 2 in)	Christian Taylor	United States	27 April 2013
Shot put	22.59 m (74 ft 1+1⁄4 in)	Payton Otterdahl	United States	24 April 2024	[30]
Discus throw	64.59 m (211 ft 10+3⁄4 in)	Reggie Jagers	United States	28 April 2018	[31]
Hammer throw	81.08 m (266 ft 0 in)	Rudy Winkler	United States	24 April 2025	[32]
Decathlon	8265 pts	Till Steinforth	Germany	23–24 April 2025	[33]
	100m Long jump Shot put High jump 400m 110m H Discus Pole vault Javelin 1500m 10.65 (+1.4 m/s) 7.90 m (+4.0 m/s) 15.28 m 1.98 m 47.96 14.09 (+0.8 m/s) 41.44 m 4.75 m 56.02 m 4:50.10
4 × 100 m relay	38.96	University of Alabama: Emmit King Lamar Smith Calvin Smith Walter Monroe	United States  United States  United States  United States	30 April 1983	[34]
4 × 200 m relay	1:20.53	University of Texas-El Paso: Obadele Thompson Milton Mallard Hayden Stephen Andrew Tynes	Barbados  United States  United States  Bahamas	30 April 1994	[35]
4 × 400 m relay	3:00.78	Southern Illinois University: Parry Duncan Tony Adams Elvis Forde Michael Franks	United States  United States  Barbados  United States	28 April 1984	[22]
Sprint medley relay (2,2,4,8)	3:12.19	Alabama State University: Lamar Smith Calvin Smith Terry Menefee William Wuyke	United States  United States  United States  Venezuela	30 April 1983
4 × 800 m relay	7:12.57	Iowa State University: Jason Gomez Joven Nelson Daniel Nixon Festus Lagat	United States  United States  United States  Kenya	23 April 2021	[24]
Distance medley relay	9:30.45	Southern Methodist University: Rob Topping Russell Mitchell Ben Bor Paul Rugut	United States  United States  Kenya	30 April 1983
4×110 m Shuttle hurdles relay	52.94	USA Blue: Jason Richardson Aleec Harris Aries Merritt David Oliver	United States  United States  United States  United States	25 April 2015	[36]

Women's meeting records of the Drake Relays

Event	Record	Athlete	Nation.	Date	Ref.
100 m	11.06 (±0.0 m/s)	LaShauntea Moore	United States	24 April 2010	[37]
200 m	22.40 (+0.7 m/s)	Gwen Torrence	United States	30 April 1994	[38]
400 m	50.13	Francena McCorory	United States	25 April 2015	[36]
800 m	2:00.03	Ajee' Wilson	United States	24 April 2015	[39]
1500 m	4:03.35	Jennifer Simpson	United States	26 April 2013	[40]
Mile	4:23.69	Krissy Gear	United States	26 April 2025	[41]
3000 m	8:56.03	Suzy Favor-Hamilton	United States	27 April 2002	[42]
Two miles	9:16.78	Jennifer Simpson	United States	27 April 2018	[43][44]
5000 m	15:23.21	Karissa Schweizer	United States	26 April 2018	[31]
10,000 m	32:57.38	Patti Murray	United States	28 April 1988	[45]
100 m hurdles	12.40 (+1.5 m/s)	Jasmin Stowers	United States	25 April 2015	[36]
400 m hurdles	53.88	Dalilah Muhammad	United States	30 April 2022	[46]
3000 m steeplechase	9:32.23	Leah Falland	United States	26 April 2018	[24]
High jump	1.98 m (6 ft 5+3⁄4 in)	Chaunte Lowe	United States	28 April 2012	[47]
Pole vault	4.88 m (16 ft 0 in)	Sandi Morris	United States	28 April 2018	[31]
Long jump	6.78 m (22 ft 2+3⁄4 in)	Aisha James	United States	26 April 2003	[48]
Triple jump	13.79 m (45 ft 2+3⁄4 in)	Shani Marks	United States	26 April 2003
Shot put	19.37 m (63 ft 6+1⁄2 in)	Tia Brooks	United States	29 April 2016	[49]
Discus throw	64.38 m (211 ft 2+1⁄2 in)	Becky Breisch	United States	24 April 2010	[50]
Hammer throw	78.69 m (258 ft 2 in)	Brooke Andersen	United States	27 April 2023	[51]
Heptathlon	6040 pts	Diana Pickler	United States	21–22 April 2009	[52]
	100m H High jump Shot put 200m Long jump Javelin 800m 13.63 (±0.0 m/s) 1.78 m 12.08 m 24.48 (+1.7 m/s) 6.14 m (+1.0 m/s) 41.39 m 2:16.73				[53]
4 × 100 m relay	43.58	University of Texas: Morgan Snow Allison Peter Christy Udoh Chalonda Goodman	United States  United States Virgin Islands  Nigeria  United States	28 April 2012	[54]
4 × 200 m relay	1:31.96	Texas Southern University: Linda Eseimokumoh Beatrice Utondu Dyan Webber Mary Onyali	Nigeria  Nigeria  United States  Nigeria	28 April 1989	[55]
4 × 400 m relay	3:28.42	Purdue University: Chole Abbot Brionna Thomas Symone Black Jahneya Mitchell	United States  United States  United States  United States	28 April 2018	[31]
Sprint medley relay (2-2-4-8)	3:43.64	Arkansas State University: Regine Williams Daina Harper Taylor Ellis-Watson Chrishuna Williams	United States  United States  United States  United States	25 April 2015
4 × 800 m relay	8:27.42	University of Minnesota: Julie Schwengler Jamie Cheever Gabrielle Anderson Heather Dorniden	United States  United States  United States  United States	27 April 2007	[56]
Distance medley relay	11:03.25	Notre Dame University: Olivia Markezich Kelly Hart Erin Sullivan Katie Wasserman	United States  United States  United States  United States	24 April 2021	[24]
4 × 100 m Shuttle hurdles relay	50.50	USA Blue: Brianna Rollins Dawn Harper-Nelson Queen Harrison Kristi Castlin	United States  United States  United States  United States	24 April 2015	[39]

Mixed meeting records of the Drake Relays

Event	Record	Athlete	Nation.	Date	Ref.
4 × 110 m Shuttle hurdles relay	54.42	Team Blue: Kristi Castlin Spencer Adams Nia Ali Eddie Lovett	United States  United States  United States  United States Virgin Islands	30 April 2016	[57]

• 116th Drake Relays - April 22–25, 2026
• 117th Drake Relays - April 21–24, 2027
• 118th Drake Relays - April 26–29 2028^[58]

• Official website
• Drake Relays Digital Archives
• Drake Relays Hall of Fame Listing