DES MOINES, Iowa – Missouri State track and field earned six top-five finishes and advanced to two event finals as the Drake Relays continued here today inside Drake Stadium.
 
Madison Meredith captured a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash with her time of 24.38 coming just behind first place's Cecilia Tamayo-Garza of Houston (23.94).  Calandra Henry joined her teammate in the top-5 after she sprinted to a 24.95 time which placed her fifth in the event.
 
Meredith (11.86) went on to qualify for Saturday's 100-meter finals after finishing fifth in the preliminaries.  Henry (10th) and Nakaja Weaver (11th) each clocked matching times of 12.29 with Henry finishing a tick faster as both runners were third in their respective heats.  Timeka Jordan (12.54) and Taylor Richey (12.77) rounded out the five-runner event for Missouri State.
 
Talia Emerson placed third in the long jump after her third attempt resulted in a 5.92-meter mark.  Brooke Jenkins finished eighth in the event with her leap of 5.66 meters.
 
"The dreary conditions throughout most of today certainly made it challenging for everyone," said head coach Jordan Fife.  "Talia (Emerson) had several good jumps in the long jump to take third place and Madi (Meredith) will, hopefully, get to take advantage of a tailwind tomorrow in the 100m finals as opposed to today where the sprints were facing a tough headwind."

Prior to her performance in the long jump, Emerson marked a time of 14.86 in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles and finished 19th. 

Jessica Haney tied for seventh in the high jump with her final clearance coming at the 1.63-meter mark.
 
Edna Dar, Grace Breiten, Sierra Williams and Ashley Rolewicz combined to run a 20:18.15 time in the 4x1600-meter relay which placed them fifth.

Mackenzie Ihasz produced her fastest 400-meter time of the season after she completed her lap around the track in 58.09 seconds while Manuela Ngo Tonye Nyemeck finished at the 59.97 mark.
 
The Bears earned their second fifth-place finish in a relay event with the 4x100-meter relay team of Weaver, Meredith, Jordan and Henry passing the baton around in 45.89 seconds which qualified them for the event finals. 

"Kenzie (Ihasz) had another nice race in the 400m and continues to lower her personal record," added Fife.  "The 4x100 relay is safely through to the final tomorrow where we should hopefully have some better weather and can see faster times.  Sometimes the goal is to run fast and sometimes it just comes down to competing against whoever is lined up next to you regardless of the weather conditions."
 
Missouri State wraps up the three-day meet tomorrow (April 24) with the finals of the 100-meter dash at 2 p.m. while the 4x100-meter relay finals and javelin are scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m.