Seven storylines to look for from Ames-area athletes competing at the Drake Relays

The 114th Drake Relays take place this week on the Jim Duncan Track at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

A total of 46 Ames-area high school track and field athletes qualified for the prestigious event. There will be 26 girls competing in nine events and 20 boys in three events.

On the girls side, Ames will compete in eight events, Gilbert three and Roland-Story two. The boys will have Nevada in two events and Ames, Ballard, Gilbert and Roland-Story in one apiece.

The high school competition for the Relays takes place Thursday through Saturday. Here are seven storylines involving area athletes heading into Drake.

Angelica Attinger keeps hurdles tradition going for the Ames girls

Last year current Iowa Hawkeye track and field athlete Ali Frandsen stole the show at the Drake Relays.

Frandsen won both the 100- and 400-meter hurdle races for the Ames girls during the 2023 relays. She also anchored Ames to a second-place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay and a sixth-place showing in the 4x400 to end up earning the Gerry Cooley Award as the most outstanding high school female athlete at the Relays.

This year sophomore Angelica Attinger will take over for the Ames girls in the 400 hurdles, and she will be running in the shuttle hurdle relay prelims at Drake for the second year in a row.

More: Meet Angelica Attinger, Ames' next superstar hurdler in girls track and field

Attinger ranks fifth among all girls 400 hurdles qualifiers with a time of 1:05.36. Clear Lake's Reese Brownlee leads the field with a time of 1:01.95.

Joining Attinger in the girls shuttle hurdle from Ames will be Sophia Hatcher, Elia Varghese and Camryn Johnson. Varghese and Johnson will be running at Drake for the first time.

The Ames girls qualified 17th in 1:07.93.

Can Ballard pull off a shocker in the boys 4x400-meter relay?

The Ballard boys track team pulled off a surprising 2023 state meet when the Bombers took third in the 3A boys 4x800 and seventh in the 4x400, and long jumper Chase Ihle placed fourth.

The Bombers are looking to pull off another upset at Drake in the boys 4x400. The Ballard team of Jameson Witt, Jakson Fleischmann, Eli Rouse and Chance Lande is seeded fourth in the prelims with a time of 3:23.87.

More: Ballard's Chance Lande is ready for a big encore after his big 2023 season on the track

Beating Cedar Falls' leading time of 3:22.58 will be tough, but the Bombers are just 0.49 seconds behind Johnston's runner-up time of 3:32.38.

Will the Gilbert girls 4x800 team hang with the 4A schools?

Gilbert's Clare Stahr, Sophia Bleich, Keira Andersen and Sarah Feddersen are all back after winning a Class 3A state championship in the girls 4x800-meter relay in 2023.

The quartet ranks eighth among the 2024 Drake qualifying teams in the event with a time of 9:35.98. Seven 4A teams — Pleasant Valley (9:20.17), Johnston (9:21.17), West Des Moines Valley (9:22.54), Waukee (9:30.35), Dubuque Hempstead (9:31.29), Dubuque Senior (9:33.47) and Ankeny (9:34.02) come in ranked ahead of the Tigers.

More: Top 15 Ames-area Iowa high school girls track and field athletes ahead of the 2024 season

Solon (9:35.98) is close behind Gilbert for the best qualifying time among non-4A teams. If the Tigers can reach, or surpass, their 2023 state time of 9:29.11 they will have a shot at placing in the top five.

Ames will also run in the girls 4x800. The Little Cyclone team of Emma Stanley, Lauren Risdal, Katie Campbell and Marley Turk ranks 17th among qualifying teams with a time of 9:41.60.

Sophia Hatcher looks to make noise in three events for the Ames girls

Ames sophomore Sophia Hatcher will be competing in both the girls long jump and the 4x100 at state.

As a freshman, Hatcher was part of the Little Cyclone girls shuttle hurdle team that came in second at Drake.

Hatcher enters the 2024 Relays ranked 21st in the girls long jump with a distance of 17 feet, four inches. Along with running in the shuttle hurdle, Hatcher will anchor an Ames girls 4x100 relay team that ranks 36th among 96 qualifying teams with a time of 50.85.

Juniors Holly Dettbarn and Saylor Horras will run the first two legs of the 4x100, and sophomore Edyn Cowles will take the third leg. Dettbarn and Cowles will be making their Drake debuts.

Area girls look strong in individual distance events

There are four area girls competing in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000 at Drake, and three are ranked in the top 10 of their respective events.

Turk is ranked ninth in the 1,500 and 10th in both the 3,000 and 800, with respective qualifying times of 4:45.37, 10:17.49 and 2:17.95. Risdal ranks ninth in the 3,000 after qualifying in 10:17.44. Feddersen comes in seventh in the 800 with a qualifying time of 2:17.12.

Gilbert freshman Emee Dani also qualified in the 3,000. She ranks 16th among qualifiers with a time of 10:24.18.

Pleasant Valley's Grace Boleyn leads the girls 800 field with a qualifying time of 2:12.01. West Des Moines Valley's Addison Dorenkamp leads the field in both the 1,500 and 3,000 with respective times of 4:34.08 and 9:37.41.

Connor Kunze ready to make a big first impression for the Nevada boys

This will be the first Drake Relays for Nevada sophomore boys runner Connor Kunze.

Kunze qualified in the boys 100, and he will anchor Nevada in the 4x100 relay.

More: Why Nevada sprinter Connor Kunze has something to prove in 2024

Kunze enters Drake ranked 31st among prelim qualifiers in the boys 100. His qualifying time is 10.98 seconds.

Nevada's boys 4x100 team of Jackson Baker, Lucas Brown, Carson Clem and Kunze ranks 84th among prelim qualifiers with a time of 44.74.

Seven area teams to compete in the 4x100

With 96 teams running for both the girls and boys, the high school 4x100 relay prelims have by far the most participants at the Relays.

There will be seven area teams competing in the 4x100 prelims.

Ames, Gilbert and Roland-Story will join Nevada in running the boys 4x100 at Drake.

The Ames team of TJ Douglas, Jeffrey Roberts, Kayden Willoughby and Luke Simmons ranks 78th with a qualifying time of 44.67. Gilbert's Brayden Howard, Paul Marpe, Gabe Fierce and Will Hawthorne come in 89th at 44.78 and Roland-Story's Fiston Carlson Heston McIlrath, Jake Berggren and Sam Knoll are 90th among qualifying teams with a time of 44.78.

More: Top 15 Ames-area Iowa high school boys track and field athletes ahead of the 2024 season

Joining Ames on the girls side will be Gilbert's team of Averie Bruner, Keaton Hanson, Laurel Mizerak and Sammy Johnson and Roland-Story's quartet of Adalyn Sporleder, Kennedy Petersen, Lauryn Kilstofte and Kamryn Lande.

The Gilbert girls rank 64th among qualifying teams with a time of 51.76, but Bruner is injured. Gretchen Mizerak, Taylor Banning, Abby Deal and Kayla Rash are all potential alternate runners.

Roland-Story ranks 71st with a qualifying time of 51.86. That same Norse quartet also qualified in the sprint medley, ranking 20th in 1:51.56. Ames also qualified in the sprint medley, with the team of Destiny Davis, Alli Ryan, Dettbarn and Horras coming rated 22nd at 1:51.70.

Joe Randleman covers high school sports for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: What to look for from Ames-area athletes heading into the Drake Relays