Multiple area athletes will make a trip to the famous Blue Oval in Des Moines for the 109th edition of the Drake Relays.

Pella Lady Dutch athletes hit the blue standard twice in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays — meaning they received automatic bids by recording a time faster than the standard set for the first time this year. They are also sending the 4×400 meters and sprint medley relay teams .

Pella’s Avery Van Zee will be competing in two races – the 400 meter hurdles and with three others in the shuttle hurdle relays, and Kody Huisman is tossing the discus.

Emily Vos of Pella will also be featured among the fastest sprinters in the state, as her 12.36 sprint at Waukee is the third fastest time in Iowa, regardless of class. Emily Holterhaus is racing in the 400 meter hurdles. Paighton Malek will try her hand in the long jump.

Pella Christian is sending a 4×100 team on both the boys and girls side, including Noah Treimer, Kyle Fynaardt, Nathan De Bruin and Hayden Vroom and Chloe Morgan, Erica Nikkel, Mary Kate Bandstra and Morgan Fopma.

Sprints have been dominated by area athletes including PCM’s Noah Anderson and Pleasantville’s Hunter Tyree qualifying in the 100m dash. The cutoff time in the whole state was 11.2 seconds with Tyree qualifying in 11.11 seconds and Anderson in 11.17 seconds. Both schools will also be represented in the boys 4x100m relay event being among the top 80 times in the state with a qualifying cut off of 45.25 seconds.

On the girls’ side, PCM’s 4x100m relay team will be running on the Blue Oval after beating the cutoff time in .12 seconds with 52.74 seconds.

Knoxville’s Katie Keitges has qualified in the 1500. Her best time of 4:50.44 is the fifth best overall time among all classes.

The Drake Relays begin Thursday at Drake Stadium, and features some of the best athletes in high school, college, and professional track and field.

Click here for a full list of the events for high school athletes: https://godrakebulldogs.com/documents/2018/4/21/hs_heats_Drake_Relays_4_21_18.pdf?id=5028
College: https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/1072/2019/01/18102812/2018_DrakeRelays_UCCD_Qualifiers.pdf