The final chance for many area teams hoping to qualify for the Drake Relays took place on City High’s very own Raffensberger Track and Bates Field, at the Forwald-Coleman Relays. Drake qualifications are announced at midnight the night of the meet, which makes for an atmosphere of high-energy scrambling to run and throw the fastest and farthest of the season. The last-minute energy surge led City to fifth place and six Drake-qualified events.

“Forwald is so much different than any other meet for so many reasons. First off it’s our only varsity home meet and that’s a massive thing in itself. Plus it’s the last day for Drake qualifying and the each of the teams who show up to Forwald come with their best lineup in hand and ready to lay down fast times,” Jim McMillan ‘17 said.

Not only is it a chance for athletes to qualify for Drake, but it also gives the coaches a chance to assess where the team is at before heading into big meets in May.

“Our goal is to win the meet, but it’s always a challenge anytime you host your own meet and  bring in the level of competition that we do at Forwald. We are disappointed we didn’t win the meet but we are focused on MVC, Districts, and State in May,” Head Coach Mike Moore said.

Nevertheless, Rex Thompson ‘17 in the high hurdles, Michael Berg ’17 in the 3200 meter run, the 4×100 meter relay team, the 4×400 meter relay team, the 4×800 meter relay team, and the distance medley relay team all found spots this weekend on the blue oval at Drake.

“Rex Thompson qualified in the [high hurdles], coming in 32 out of 32 spots. It’s been really neat to see him grow and improve over the years. This season especially he’s had much better focus so I’m really happy for him,” Moore said. “The chance to run at the blue oval is a great honor that nobody can take away from him. He’s a great kid.”

For Thompson, it has been a long road to qualify for Drake.  

“It feels amazing. Looking back at my freshman year I was so bad that [the coaches] didn’t even take me to JV meets and now I’m a Drake qualifier. It truly is a dream come true,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s teammate, Zach Jones ‘18, will be joining him in Des Moines this weekend as well.

“Zach Jones had a great night. He was part of the 4th place shuttle team that had a season’s best time of 1:00.36, the 4th placed 4×100 team who ran a season’s best time of 44.19, the 3rd placed 4×400 team who also ran a season’s best 3:25.26, and he also placed 2nd in the Open 400 with a PR of 49.93,” said Moore.

Even for those teams that didn’t qualify for Drake, Forwald gives teams a chance for them to continue to improve.

“We didn’t get the shuttle to Drake but we had a PR and the team is even more focused for State now. 4×400 came up a little short too [last night]. Not winning that last event to take it home was not what we wanted but we had qualified already so I’m confident in that team. Open 400 PR and it felt good so I know I can run faster. 4×100 we have talent so we can compete,” Jones said.

Although some like Jones experienced success at Forwald, others like Jim McMillan who placed 13th in the 800 last year at Drake weren’t quite satisfied.

“I think it’s safe to say Jim McMillan is disappointed right now. Jim just missed qualifying in the open 800 being 17 out of 16. But he is mature enough to understand that the May is our ultimate goal,” Moore said.

Although discouraged, McMillan remains focused and even more motivated to improve throughout the rest of the season.

“Personally I feel like my races didn’t go how I intended them to go. I got in bad spots in my open 800, which ruined my chances for Drake qualifying. Then our 4×8 and basically everything else we ran just really didn’t come together as we wanted, and you can see that in the results, which were frankly [bad], for our standards as a team and for myself personally,” McMillan said.

All in all, Moore still thinks that the team’s youth, will pay dividends in years to come.

“We have to keep in perspective how young and inexperienced we are in a number of event areas, throwing and jumping especially. We just have to keep coming back and getting better, meet after meet,” Moore said.

“My main focus going into these next few weeks is mainly to get back to work and control what I can do. Which is preparing better for my races as a whole, being the best leader and captain for the other guys on our team and finally running in two relays at the Drake relays. Then building off that into state where I plan to take my racing to the next level along with the rest of our team’s. We still have time and I look forward to the next days and weeks we have of putting in the hard work to give us the best chance we have to be happy in May,” McMillan said.