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115th Drake Relays to Start with Loaded Lineups in Heptathlon, DecathlonPublished by
Drake Relays Drake Athletic Communications 115th Drake Relays to Start with Loaded Lineups in Heptathlon, DecathlonFormer champions, international performers make up strongest multi fields in Relays historyDES MOINES, Iowa -- Till Seinforth, who finished 15th in 2024 Olympics, returns to defend his Drake Relays decathlon title which starts Wednesday at Drake Stadium. Steinforth, a junior at Nebraska, is one of three past champions in the strongest decathlon field in Drake Relays history since the event was first held in 1976. A native of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Steinforth will make his outdoor debut in the decathlon after coming off a strong indoor campaign in which he earned a bronze medal in the heptathlon at the 2025 World Indoor Championships as well as the 2025 European Indoor Championships. The field also includes Carter Morton, who won the 2023 Drake Relays title competing for Northern Iowa, along with 2022 Drake Relays champ Jakob Tordsen. Steinforth became just the third decathlete in Drake Relays history to eclipse 8,000 points when he captured the 2024 Drake Relays title with 8,053 points. He joined 1976 Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, who accomplished the feat in 1975 and 1976, and Kip Janvrin, a 2000 U.S. Olympian, who achieved the feat five times (1990 and 1995-1998) en route to winning Drake Relays titles. Steinforth, who owns a personal best of 8,287 points in the decathlon, finished third in the heptathlon and seventh in the long jump at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships. He won the long jump and decathlon at the 2023 Big Ten Conference Outdoor Championships. Morton, who is being redshirted during the 2025 outdoor campaign, is coming off a fifth-place finish in the heptathlon at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships. He has captured seven career Missouri Valley Conference individual titles, including the long jump, triple jump and high jump at the 2025 MVC Indoor Championships. He has a personal best of 7,509 points in the decathlon set last year. Tordsen is coming off a personal best 7,523 points at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz. on April 6. He finished third in the heptathlon in the 2024 U.S. Indoor Championships Jan. 28. As a senior at Concordia-St. Paul, Torsden won the heptathlon at the 2023 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships. Other top entrants include Kansas State junior Emil Uhlin, the 2023 Swedish national champ; Zack Butcher, who finished second in the 2023 Drake Relays, Jack Rosner, a senior at St. Thomas (Minn.) and Jacob Wadsworth. Uhlin, who has a personal best of 7,618 points, finished 12th as a freshman in the decathlon at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, while placing fourth in the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. He also won the 2020 Sweden national championship in the high jump with a personal best 6 feet-11 1/2 inches. Butcher, who will be competing unattached for UNI, opened the 2024 outdoor season scoring a personal best 7,046 points at Wartburg on April 6. He was second in the heptathlon at the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships. Rosner was seventh in the 2024 Summit League decathlon with a personal best 7,249 points. Wadsworth was seventh in the heptathlon at the 20225 U.S. Indoor Championships. There are 24 entrants in the decathlon, which starts at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday with the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400-meter dash. It resumes Thursday at 10 a.m. with the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run. Jordan Gray Eggerth, bronze medalist for Team USA in the 2023 Pan-American Games in Santiago, Chile, tops the list of title contenders for the Drake Relays heptathlon, which starts Wednesday at Drake Stadium. Gray, who was third at the 2023 Drake Relays, recorded a personal best of 5,903 points at the 2019 USA Championships that were held at Drake Stadium. A four-time NCAA All-American and 10-time Atlantic Sun Conference champion at Kennesaw State, Gray is the American record holder in the women's decathlon with 8,246 points set in 2021. Other top contenders include Anneke Moersdorf, Pacific Athletics; Minnesota State junior Miranda Lauvstad; Wisconsin junior Shaina Zinter; and Kayla Goodwin from New Zealand. Moersdorf has a personal best of 5,618 points and was third in heptathlon at 2024 Pac-12 Conference Championships competing for Oregon State. Lauvstad, a native of Norway, is coming off a personal best of 5,529 points at Emporia State on March 29. She was second in the pentathlon at the 2025 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships. Zinter won the heptathlon at the 2024 Big Ten Championships. Goodwin was fourth in the triple jump and eighth in the heptathlon at the 2024 NCAA Division II Championships competing for Central Missouri State. She was second in the pentathlon at the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Division II Indoor meet. She won eight Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Conference career individual titles for the Jennies. Northern Iowa will have sophomores Katy Hand, Joey Perry and Silvana Kabolo competing. Twenty-four athletes are entered in the heptathlon which begins at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday with the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200-meter dash. Activities start at 11 a.m. Thursday with the long jump, javelin and 800-meter run. More news |
