Qualified for Drake

This coming weekend will be exciting for a number of area athletes, as they look to take their talents to Des Moines.

Out of the Journal coverage area, five individual events and one relay found their way into the field at the Drake Relays, which will be held all week. The high school competition will be held from Thursday through Saturday in conjunction with the university meet.

As opposed to next month?s state track meet, the Drake Relays doesn?t recognize class when qualifying, and instead, pits the top athletes against each other from across the whole state.

The Washington boys? track team had two individual qualifiers advance to Drake, with seniors Tommy Peterson and Jacob Hennigan both earning a spot.

Peterson entered in the shot put, using his career-high throw of 55 feet ? 7 ½ inches (currently ranked as the sixth-best throw in the state, regardless of class) to advance. The top 24 athletes in the shot put advanced, and Peterson has been among the top all season.

Peterson?s competition will begin at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, and he will be in the second flight.

Hennigan used a time of 14.95 (10th best in the state) to earn his spot in the Drake Relays in the 110-meter hurdles.

The prelims for the 110-meter hurdles are scheduled be held on Friday morning, at 8:16 a.m., with the finals held later in the day at 11:40 a.m.

Two area athletes will be competing in the boys? 100-meter dash in Des Moines on Friday, as WACO?s Bryce Achen and Columbus? Mauricio Ramirez both qualified for the prestigious meet.

Ramirez posted a time of 11.02 seconds in the meet held at Washington to give him the sixth-best time in the state up to this point, while Achen was just behind him at the same meet, posting an 11.03 for the seventh-best time in the state.

The 100-meter dash prelims are scheduled to begin at 8:46 a.m. on Friday, with Ramirez set to run in the first heat, and Achen running in the fourth heat.

The finals will be held at 12:38 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

The final boys? competitor to advance to Des Moines is Mid-Prairie sophomore Levi Duwa.

Duwa qualified in the shot put, posting the 19th-best throw in the state up to this point, throwing it 52 feet ? 3 ¼ inches to qualify. Duwa will be in the first flight of shot putters at the meet on Thursday afternoon.

The lone girls? event to qualify for the Drake Relays was Mid-Prairie?s 4 x 100 relay team of Shelby Zahradnek, Lexi Duwa, Emily Cayton and Alex Rath. The team ran a season-best time of 52.30 seconds at their meet in Tipton to qualify as the 63rd-best time in the state. The top 80 4 x 100 teams advanced.

The 4 x 100 meter prelims will be held on Friday night at 5:40 p.m. with the finals being held on Saturday at 3:35 p.m.

Viewers will have the chance to see a couple of these events on display at Mid-Prairie?s home meet on Tuesday, where Washington and Columbus will be in attendance.

WACO will be hosting its own meet on Tuesday, where Highland will be in attendance.