Jonas wins high jump at Drake Relays
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Nebraska high jumper Dusty Jonas just keeps adding to his resume.
Saturday in front of a sell-out crowd of 18,000 in Des Moines, Iowa, the senior won the Drake Relays men’s special high jump with a leap of 7 feet, 6½ inches.
That effort was just half an inch short of Jonas’ career best and school-record 7-7 that he achieved at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this spring. However, it tied the school outdoor record set by Shane Lavy in 1999.
Jonas cleared 7-6½ on his first attempt. He then went after 7-8, which would’ve set a Drake Relays record and been the top jump in the world this year.
“I feel that 7-8 is reachable,” Jonas said. “It’s something that really means something to me.”
NU coach Gary Pepin was happy for Jonas.
“That (the win) was really important for Dusty because (athletes with) 10 of the best jumps in the United States were here,” Pepin said. “(It) should give him a lot of confidence.”
Jonas wasn’t the only Husker to win at the 99th annual Drake Relays. The Husker men’s shuttle hurdle relay team of Jamie Ryder, Pat Burke, Eric Lund and Tyrell Ross had the second-fastest qualifying time (58.74 seconds), then came back and cut a second off their time to win in :57.74. It was the seventh-best time in NU outdoor history.
The NU women’s shuttle hurdle relay team of Arna Erga, Nikita Eades, Rachel Butler and Karyn LaCour had the fastest qualifying time (:55.83), but finished second in :55.18, a school record. Eades also was sixth in the 100-meter hurdles.
Nebraska freshman Lehann Fourie was runner-up in the men’s 100 hurdles, and Dax Danns and Scott Wims were fourth and eighth, respectively, in the 100.
Danns, Wims, Dan Christensen and Lukas Hulett combined to finish second in the 400 relay.
Brian Parr was third in the men’s 3,000 steeplechase and his women’s counterpart, Joslyn Dalton, was sixth. Peter van der Westhuizen was third in the men’s 800.
Zarinah Suluki-Drakes was fourth overall and second among collegiate competitors in the women’s triple jump.
Other Husker finishers include the sixth-place women’s 400 relay, the sixth-place 6,400 relay (with NU’s second-best time ever outdoors, 19:50.11), seventh-place men’s distance medley relay, Adam Dailey, ninth in the men’s 400 hurdles; Chris Nuttleman, 12th in the men’s long jump; Chantae McMillan and Suluki-Drakes, 13th and 15th, respectively, in the women’s long jump; Pat Burke, Paul Hamilton and Brandon Sheppard, 11th and 14th, respectively, in the men’s high jump; and Leandra McGruder, eighth in the women’s triple jump.
In the college division, Doane’s 1,600 sprint medley relay team of Paulvince Obuon, D’Artagnan Dai’re, Greg Torres and Lance Foster was fourth.
Obuon, Dai’re, Kedrick Kelley and Maurice Smith then came back to finish third in the 400 relay.
The Concordia men’s distance medley relay team finished eighth, and Concordia was seventh and Nebraska Wesleyan 10th in the women’s 3,200 relay.
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