Thursday, April 20 was the official cutoff for qualifying for the 2017 Drake Relays. An accumulation of several months of grinding through the cold weather has led the Pleasant Valley Spartan Track athletes to the hailed blue oval of the Drake Stadium. The relays will be hosted April 27-29 at Drake University, with the atmosphere of the campus focused on the exciting nature of track and field. Both the women’s and men’s track teams from Pleasant Valley have qualified in a vast amount of events, individually and as relays.

The Pleasant Valley Women’s Track team has added some events since the last Drake report came out. The individual qualifications go as listed:

Amaria Kirby, junior, in the 100m dash.

Ellie Spelhaug, junior, in the 100m hurdles

Addie Swanson, senior, in the 400m hurdles

The relay teams include:

4x100m relay of Adrea Arthofer, sophomore, Amaria Kirby, junior, Addie Swanson, senior, and Kira  Arthofer, junior

4×100 shuttle hurdle relay of Ellie Spelhaug, junior, Carli Spelhaug, sophomore, Claire Park, senior, and Adrea Arthofer, sophomore

4×200 of Addie Swanson, senior, Amaria Kirby, junior, Adrea Arthofer, sophomore, and Kira Arthofer, junior

4×400 meter relay of Carli Spelhaug, sophomore, Ellie Spelhaug, junior, Rachel Tebbe, senior, and Addie Swanson, senior

The women’s team is eager and excited to showcase their talent on the blue oval and hopefully claim some Drake flags.

The Pleasant Valley Men’s Track team has had quite the fluctuation in individual and relay qualifications. Despite injury and other issues, however, the men’s team is heading to the blue oval. The individual qualifications are as listed:

KeShaun Baker, junior, in the 100m dash and long jump

Cody Snyder, senior, in the shotput and discus

Konnor Sommer, junior, in the 1600m and 3200m races

Anthony Peña, junior, in the 1600m and 3200m races

Mark Conway, senior, in the 1600m run

Pleasant Valley Men’s Track team also added three additional relay teams to their trip to Des Moines, including:

The 4x100m relay of Colin Ankton, junior, Arthur Braden, junior, C.J. Carter, senior, and KeShaun Baker, junior

The distance medley relay of Arthur Braden, junior, C.J. Carter, senior, KeShaun Baker, junior, and Ben Gorman, senior

The 4x800m relay of Anthony Peña, junior, Mark Conway, senior, (Konnor Sommer, junior, Parker Huhn, sophomore, or J.R Pourin, senior), and Ben Gorman, senior.

The men’s team is very excited to take on the blue oval, and they look to get back to the purity and simplicity of the sport.

The Pleasant Valley athletes will leave Thursday, April 27 for Des Moines to begin their three day competition schedule.