STORM LAKE - The Southwestern Community College track & field team continued its strong start to the season Saturday at the Dennis Young Indoor Classic, hosted by Buena Vista University.

SWCC's 4x800 relay team highlighted the day, running the second-best time in program history, and ending the weekend currently ranked second in the event in the NJCAA. The relay team of Dillon Starlin, Cam Swapsy, Brandon Briley, and Zach Roome ran 8:05.55, just behind host Buena Vista in a back-and-forth head-to-head battle. Adjusting for a flat 200 meter track to a banked 200 meter track, the Spartans' converted time of 7:58.71 currently ranks behind only Garden City's 7:52.30 in the NJCAA.

Starlin kicked off the relay with a split of 2:05.5, a 3-second improvement from his open time the week prior. Swapsy carried the Spartans into the lead with a 2:01.2 split on the second leg, with Briley running 2:04.7 on the third leg. Roome erased a 1-second deficit on the anchor leg to catch Buena Vista fifth-year senior Kyle Miller, battling down the home stretch to the finish. Roome anchored in 1:54.4, but was unable to overtake Miller for the win.

"This was a fun race, with both teams battling back and forth," said Scott Vicker, SWCC director of cross country/track & field. "Even though the place didn't matter so much, it was great to see how much it meant to the guys to try to win. They really battled to try to get it done, and ran a great time for this point of the season. We still have a lot more potential in this race as we continue to get in better shape."

Roome came back just an hour later to run the seventh-best indoor 400 time in program history, finishing second with a time of 52.44. The other three 4x800 relay members all doubled back in the open 800.

"That was a really tough double for those guys," Vicker said. "I knew we probably wouldn't run great times in the open because of the short turnaround, but this was a great chance to get a good workout in at the meet to simulate paces we can't really replicate in practice right now. I thought the guys did a really good job of fighting through tired legs in that open event."

Freshman Zach Thornburg finished third in the 60 meter dash finals with a PR run of 7.01 seconds, which ranks him seventh in program history. Sophomore Peyton Embree ran a new PR of 7.75 seconds in prelims of the event.

"I thought Zach ran a really strong finals race," Vicker said. "He ran well in prelims, but popped up out of his drive phase way too early in the race. We were able to focus on that for finals and he did a much better job, and it showed with his time. It's just a matter of time before he breaks the 7-second barrier."

Freshman Jacob Driskill finished the day for the Spartans with a fifth-place finish in the 3,000 meters. Driskill ran an evenly paced race with a strong closing kick, crossing the finish line in 9:48.15, which currently ranks 10th in program history.

"I'm so happy for Jacob to be seeing this much improvement early in the track season," Vicker said. "If you convert that 3K time to 3,200 meters, it would have been a 1-minute lifetime best for him over his high school PR. I'm excited to see how much time he can take off as he continues to gain more confidence."

In the throwing events, freshman Gavin Neely posted new PRs in both the weigth throw and shot put, with marks of 10.03 meters (32 feet, 11 inches) in weight throw and 10.25 meters (33-7.5) in shot put. Freshman Cole McNemar hit a new PR in shot put with a throw of 11.38 meters (37-4).

For the Spartan women, freshman Kara-Jean Staton posted a new PR of 9.36 meters (30-8.5) in the shot put, which currently ranks 10th in program history. Abbi Richter finished seventh in the weight throw with a best throw of 11.06 meters (36-3.5).

"I know both of the ladies wanted to throw better than they did, but it was a good learning experience for them," Vicker said. "They picked up several things they need to work on over the next couple of weeks before their next competition."

Southwestern returns to action this weekend, with a limited squad traveling to the Washburn Open in Topeka, Kansas, on Friday and Saturday. The full team will be back in action Feb. 7-8 at the Bearcat Invite, hosted by Northwest Missouri State University.