2024 Drake "Delays"

By Coach Vanderah | April 28, 2024

The 114th Drake Relays were a memorable one, to say the least. Several hours spent in rain delays, the 4x400 taking the brunt of those both Friday and Saturday. But even mother nature couldn't prevent the athletes from setting several all-time performances. Mike Jay let several lines fly:

"All they wanted was sunshine and a chance" or sometimes changing to "All they wanted was good weather and a chance."

And who could forget him shouting "TAKE THAT MOTHER NATURE" after the steeplechase?

Best in the business. Anyways, here is how your Maroons did with their chances this weekend!

First, lets go through the Dowling schedule for the weekend and see how everyone performed.

THURSDAY

Sunny, warm, and windy weather on Thursday.

• High Jump: Alex Gaskell finished 7th overall with a clearance of 5'3, Kate Nelson finished tied for 21st clearing 5'1.

FRIDAY

Friday was the cold, wet, windy day of the three with pretty strong headwinds at the finish line.

• 100 Hurdle Prelims: Annie Smith ran a near PR of 14.94 to finish 3rd and qualify for finals. Alex Gaskell finished 20th with a 15.97, and Franny Brooks caught an elbow and clipped a hurdle running a 16.75 finishing 31st.

• Discus: Audrey Ott had a strong showing out of the first flight throwing a 119'8 to finish 14th.

• Long Jump: Ruby Leman jumped a 15'10.25 to finish 18th overall.

• 100 Meter Prelims: Emily Heitzman ran strong to finish 13th with a 12.83.

• Sprint Medley: Shea Johnson, Emily Heitzman, Annie Smith, and Lauren McCoy ran a great race to finish in 3rd with a 1:48.47.

• 100 Hurdle Finals: Annie Smith came right off the Sprint Medley to run a 15.30 and hold on to 3rd place.

• Weather Delay

• 4x200: Maddie Nagel, Emily Heitzman, Annie Smith, and Lauren McCoy ran a season's best 1:43.46 finishing 2nd overall and 9th in school history.

• 400 Meters: Lauren McCoy dropped a new PR and SCHOOL RECORD of 57.39 to finish 8th overall out of the first heat.

• 4x400 prelims delayed due to weather, ran Saturday as a timed final with no prelims

SATURDAY

Saturday was a beautiful day to race, until we hit the TV window in the afternoon for the professionals and university events.. then it got cloudy, windy, and wet.

• Shuttle Hurdle Prelims: Annie Smith, Franny Brooks, Alex Gaskell, and Ruby Leman ran a 1:03.37 (with some of the most conservative exchanges ever seen) to qualify first for finals.

• 4x100 Prelims: Franny Brooks, Emily Heitzman, Shea Johnson, and Ellie Mead run 50.00 on the dot to finish 21st. 

• Shuttle Hurdle Finals: Smith, Brooks, Gaskell, and Leman run a season's best and 3rd in school history time of 1:01.43.

• 400 Hurdles: Katherine Banker drops almost a second off of her PR and ran the 4th fastest time in school history finishing 9th with a 1:06.09.

• Weather Delay

• 4x400: Maddie Nagel, Alex Gaskell, Katherine Banker, and Lauren McCoy wait out the rain for a second straight day. They run a 3:58.52 which is a season's best and 4th in school history. They are only the 5th quartet in school history to go under 4 minutes.

As we are ramping up for the postseason, I want to highlight how we fared against our fellow 4A schools. Keep in mind people will run in different events at the Drake Relays than they will at districts and state since there are fewer events, and some athletes could run in more relays if they didnt qualify individually.

100 Meters: Emily Heitzman was 5th in 4A.

400 Meters: Lauren McCoy was 3rd in 4A.

100 Hurdles: Annie Smith was 3rd in 4A, Alex Gaskell was 15th,  and Franny Brooks was 20th.

400 Hurdles: Katherine Banker was 5th in 4A.

High Jump: Alex Gaskell was 3rd in 4A, Kate Nelson was tied for 7th in 4A.

Long Jump: Ruby Leman was 10th in 4A

Discus: Audrey Ott was 3rd in 4A.

4x100: Dowling was 13th in 4A.

4x200: Dowling was 2nd in 4A.

4x400: Dowling was 6th in 4A.

Sprint Medley: Dowling was 3rd in 4A.

Shuttle Hurdle: Since we won, obviosuly we were #1 in 4A.

• Katherine Banker - 400 Hurdles (1:06.09): 4th in school history, New Junior Record

• Lauren McCoy - 400 Meters (57.39): New School Record and Sophomore Record

• 4x200 (Nagel, Heitzman, Smith, McCoy) 1:43.46: 9th in school history

• 4x400 (Nagel, Gaskell, Banker, McCoy) 3:58.52: 4th in school history

• Shuttle Hurdle (Smith, Brooks, Gaskell, Leman) 1:01.43: 3rd in school history

Katherine Banker: 400 Hurdles 1:06.09

Lauren McCoy: 400 Meters 57.39

May 2: CIML Conference Meet at Ankeny Stadium (Northview Middle School)

May 9: State Qualifying Meet at Norwalk High School

May 16-18: State Track and Field Meet at Drake Stadium