DES MOINES — Completing the 4x800-meter relay in the program's best-time since 2015, the Central College men's track & field team finished its second day of competition at the blue oval Friday.

Tanner Rathje (junior,  Marion, Linn-Mar HS), Preston Kizer (freshman, Zwingle, Dubuque HS), Kyle Pape (sophomore, Dubuque, Wahlert Catholic HS) and Jon Specht (junior, Dubuque, Hempstead HS) were able to take 11^th as the 4x800-meter relay team, running the program's best-time since 2015, 7 minutes 52.23 seconds.

"Considering the weather, they ran really well," coach Joe Dunham said. "I was decently pleased with the time. They worked hard and tried to get themselves in a position to run well. They went out aggressively, which is how you have to do it at Drake.

Kizer anchored the sprint medley relay team to a 17th place finish in 3:35.79. He was preceded by Caleb Jennings (junior, Spirit Lake), Justin Wimbish (junior, Glendale, Ariz., Apollo HS) and P.J. Carey (junior, Ankeny).

Jennings and Wimbish also led off the 4x100 and 4x200-meter relay teams. In the 4x100, they were joined by Blake Morgan (junior, Story City, Roland-Story HS) and Connor Lewin (freshman, Stillman Valley, Ill.) to place 22nd in 43.75 seconds. The duo was joined by Kijuan Posley (sophomore, Chicago, Ill., Von Steuben HS) and Cory Suedmeier (freshman, Ankeny, Centennial HS) to take 27^th in the 4x200 with a time of 1:31.62

The final relay team at Drake was the 4x400 team, featuring Carey, Lewin, Mitchell Yaw (sophomore, Orange City, MOC-Floyd Valley HS) and Morgan. They completed the race in 3:25.93 to take 27^th place.

The weather hanging over Des Moines was especially harmful to the sprinters.

"(The weather) couldn't have been much worse," Dunham said. "It was a constant rain with really cold temperatures. It's very difficult trying to sprint in those circumstances.

"Mentally, I felt like we could have been better. I believe in this team and I know we're going to be ready to go by conference."

???????The Dutch have two individuals and a relay team taking center stage on the final day of the meet Saturday. The distance medley relay team will start at 8:40 a.m. Mark Fairley (junior, Dubuque) follows at 9:50 a.m. in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.  While Fairley's running, Logan Mulford (senior, Mount Pleasant) will be high jumping at 10 a.m.