Morton Leads Charge Towards Drake Relays, Other Bulldogs Look to Qualify Also

The Drake Relays are a special tradition in the state of Iowa.  They began in 1910 with high school and college athletes from the Des Moines area competing against each other and the event has grown ever since then.  In 1961, Drake added female events, continuing the prestigious tradition for both young men and women. Over the intervening years numerous olympic gold medalists have competed.  To automatically qualify for the Drake Relays an Iowa high school athlete must meet the Blue Standard, which is being in the top 25 percent of Drake participants from the previous years.  This year the Bulldogs are striving to get a few runners and throwers down to big stadium to compete.  Sophomore Charlee Morton met the Blue Standard in the discus this past week, guaranteeing her a spot down in Des Moines at Drake Stadium.  Morton will try to qualify for Drake in the shot put also.  The Bulldog boys track team will also try to qualify in their 4x100- and 4x200-meter relays to Drake as well.

The Bulldogs made up a rained out co-ed track hosted by Roland-Story at Jewel, with Morton sweeping the shot put and discus, winning both. At the meet teammate Kasey Springer took third in the discus and fourth in the shot put.  The Lady Bulldogs would also do well in the other field events as Abby Drier took second in the long jump and Aubree Gronewold took fifth.  Lily Hambly added to the wins by taking sixth in the high jump.  The Bulldogs would continue to have success in the running events as well with Drier taking fourth in the 100-meter dash.  Zoe Erdman turned in a third place finish in the 400-meter dash, while teammate Gronewold finished sixth. Team member Lydia Maas finished fourth in the 3000-meter run and Drier earned another silver with a second place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and Hambly would finish sixth.  Teaghan Bird finished third in the 400-meter hurdles.  The 4x100 relay team finished in third. The relay team consisted of Drier, Gronewold, Erdman, and Bird.  The team would finish fifth with 51 points.

The Hampton-Dumont-CAL boys also ran at Jewel in the co-ed meet.  Junior Scott Harr finished second in both the discus and shot put. with teammate Grant Subbert turning in a fifth place finish in the shot put and sixth in the discus.  In the long jump Gage Plagge finished second, and Tucker Schmitt tied for fourth in the high jump.  The Bulldog runners went 1-2 in the 100-meter dash with Jack Drier taking home the gold and Gavin Meader finishing runner-up.  Karter Janssen came in second in the 200-meter dash, with teammate Carson Hisler finishing sixth.  Hisler also finished seventh in the 400.  Marshall Rust finished eighth in the 800-meter run and seventh in the 2 mile, while Isaac Vosburg and Rann Varrelmann finished seventh and eighth in the mile.  Plagge and Colin Bird came in fourth and fifth respectively in the 400-meter hurdles.  The Bulldogs team prevailed both in the 4x100-meter relay and the 4x200-meter relay, turning in wins.  The Bulldogs then took second in the 4x400-meter relay.  The shuttle hurdle team also got in on the action finishing in first place.  The Bulldogs would finish fourth as a team with 69 points.

The Lady Bulldogs hosted their home meet on Thursday night and made history, with Charlee Morton breaking a school record and meet record with her discus throw of 132-02.  The throw would also get her first place in the meet.  Mortonalso claimed gold in the shot put as well.  Hambly tied for fifth in the high jump and sophomore Aubryee Showalter finished eighth in the long jump.  Erdman turned in a fourth place finish in the 400-meter dash, Drier took third in the 100-meter hurdles, and teammate Bird took seventh.  Bird would also take home sixth in the 400-meter hurdles.  The 4x100-meter relay of Drier to Gronewold to Showalter to Erdman, finished fifth.  The sprint medley placed fifth overall with Drier and Gronewold running the 100s, Showalter running the 200, and Erdman running the 400.  The distance medley crew finished sixth with Gronewold and Kodey Eilderts running the 200’s, Hambly running the 400 and Maas running the 800.  In the final tally the Lady Bulldogs finished in fifth place with 61.5 points.

Thursday night the Bulldogs headed to Clarion for the Cowboy Relays. There, Harr finished runner-up in both the discus and the shot put while  Subbert finished fifth in the discus and seventh in the shot put.  Schmitt would tie for fourth in the high jump.  Plagge finished as runner-up in the long jump with Brody Strother finishing eighth.  Jack Drier won the 100-meter dash and Tony Valenzuela finished fourth.  Drier also won the 200-meter dash as well.  Plagge finished as runner-up in the 400-meter dash and teammate Schmitt took eighth.  Isaac Sauke finished seventh in the 800-meter run and teammate Mitterand Tchamba took eighth.  Isaac Vosburg would finish eighth in the mile.  Plagge finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles and teammate Colin Bird finished in fifth place.  Marshall Rust came in seventh in the 3,200.  In relay action, the 4x100 relay team of Drier, Tate Murray, Meader, and Valenzuela won the race with a time of 43.61.  The team hopes the time will be good enough to get them into the Drake Relays, which ties them for the second best time in the school's history.  The same group finished second in the 4x200.  The Bulldogs also took fifth in the 4x400 and the fourth in the 4x800.  The sprint medley finished second, with the distance medley finishing third.  The shuttle hurdle team placed as well, taking home third place.  The Bulldogs would finish in fourth place overall with 112 points.  

The Lady Bulldogs return to the track with a trip to Clarion for the Cowgirl Relays on Tuesday April 11th.  The Bulldog boys will travel to Clear Lake for their invitational on Tuesday as well.  Then both teams head to Parkersburg for the Falcon Co-ed Invitational on Friday April 1fourth.