Senior track & field athlete Steven Hughes (Grimes, Iowa/Dallas Center-Grimes H.S.) had an outstanding weekend competing in the heptathlon at the Wildcat Pre-Season Open hosted Wayne State College. Hughes started out Friday afternoon with solid performances in the 55m dash and long jump and then he stepped into the shot put ring and took first place honors with a personal best mark of 12.43m. He then finished off day one of the two day event equaling his school record in the high jump with a NAIA "B" standard qualifying mark of 1.98m provisionally qualifying him for the NAIA indoor national meet.

On the second day of competition, Hughes got things started with a new school record and NAIA "A" standard qualifying time of 7.73 seconds in the 55m hurdles earning him an automatic bid the NAIA Indoor National Championships being held on March 4th-6th in Johnson City, Tenn. He then finished up the competition with the pole vault and 1,000m run tallying a new school record and personal best score of 4,746pts., bettering his previous school record in the heptathlon by nearly 300pts.

The NAIA accepts the top 16 scores over 3,750pts. as automatic bids to the NAIA Indoor National Championships. Based off previous season's results, his score should have a good shot at being one of the top 16 marks accepted into the indoor national meet in March.