Des Moines, IA- Some of the best athletes from around the world will be migrating to Drake University to compete in the 115th Drake Relays, starting on Wednesday, April 23rd, and running through Saturday, April 26th. The high school running events will start on Thursday, April 24th, and here’s some of our local athletes participating.
Mt. Pleasant
Alex Scott reset her meet record at the Denny White Relays last week, which also placed her directly on the Blue Oval Standard for 2025 at 12.43 seconds in the girls’ 100-meter dash. The junior will sprint in the first heat around 9 am on Friday.
Avin Truong broke 23 feet earlier this year in the long jump, clearing the Blue Oval Standard. The senior will be looking to add to his accolades on Thursday evening at 4 pm in the second flight.
Winfield-Mt. Union
Kohlby Newsom is looking to continue his running success in his senior campaign, competing in the boys’ 800-meter run. His best time of 1 minute and 54 seconds for the season is one second better than the Blue Oval Standard. He will be apart of the first heat on Saturday around 1:50 pm.
Danville
The Bears’ girls’ team will send Alaina Gourley to run in the first heat of the 400-meter dash slated to start at 5:28 pm on Friday night. Her personal record (58 seconds) is just a second off the Blue Oval Standard.
Columbus
The boys’ team will be sending two to run the 110-meter hurdles in Lamar Ceant and Alex Rees, as they both were placed in the third heat. Ceant’s personal record for the season (14.9 seconds) is just two-tenths of a second away from the Blue Oval Standard.
The duo will run on Friday around 10:30 am.
Fort Madison
Julian Dear will be exhibiting the speed in the boys’ 100-meter dash when he runs in the second heat on Friday morning following the girls’ 100-meter dash.
Kenden Bowie will compete in the boys’ high jump on Thursday evening at 4:30 pm.
Brylie Lorence will toss the shot put on Friday morning in the second flight.
Burlington
Kylee Hill showed out as a freshman in last year’s Class 4A throwing events, winning the shot put and finishing in 4th in the discus. She will look to express the same kind of dominance in both events as she will throw the discus at 2:30 pm in the second flight on Thursday and shot put on Friday morning at 9 am.
Washington
Greyson Hartman is following in the footsteps of other great Washington throwers as he will heave the shot put around 3 pm on Thursday and then toss the discus on Friday morning at 8:30 am.
Fairfield
Last year’s Class 3A state champion Eli Zillman will show off his skills at the high jump along with fellow Trojan Ryan Giberson on Thursday evening.
Girls’ 4×100 Meter Relay
The Southeast Conference (SEC) will be well represented on Saturday morning with five of the six squads sending a team. Burlington will run in the second heat around 9:40 am with the quartet of Kierah Wiseman, Meilah Ertz, Sophie Brown, and Mylee Stiefel.
Over in heat three, Keokuk will have the team of Layonna Stewart, Kelly Takorbisong, Alaya Carr, and Ada Wood, while Washington will participate in the seventh heat with the squad of Layla Green, Leighton Messinger, Leighton Salazar, and Jaedyn Moore.
Lastly, Mt. Pleasant’s team of Ellie Freeman, Kiyah Sanders, Taylor Williamson, and Kynlee White will run in the 12th heat.
Boys’ 4×100 Meter Relay
It’s another busy race for our local schools with a litany of SEC and Southeast Iowa Super Conference (SEISC) talent showing off their speed and cohesion. Here’s to look out for.
Columbus’ Ceant and Rees will be joined by Juan Chairez and Riley Kaalberg to run in the second heat of the 4×100 meter relay. Following in the third heat will be Fairfield’s team of Dylan Adam, Spencer McCready, Ethan Bisgard, and Dayson Workman along with Keokuk’s squad of Tramell Smith, Kurt Joy, Ryan Bair, and Drew Campbell.
Over in the seventh heat will be the team of Nathan Schmidgall, Kyler Crow, and Will and Henry Luttenegger. The ninth heat will feature Cale Westerbeck, Gavin Strawhacker, Brigham Porter, and London Franklin of New London and Washington’s Keider Gomez Valdez, Kael Williams, Jayfred Espinosa, and Nate Edmonds.
Lastly, Burlington will compete in heat ten with the quartet of Amare Stepps, Kamryn Reynolds, Darius and Laderrias Shealey.
Next Up
Stay tuned to KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, throughout the multi-day event for updates.