The Pella Dutch boys’ and girls’ track teams had an incredible weekend on the Blue Oval with a lot of great accomplishments. The Drake Relays are a collection of events with competitors ranging from middle school up to professional athletes. High school athletes compete against the best in the whole state. It’s a great honor to qualify for the Drake Relays, and the Pella track teams were very fortunate enough to have 15 people and 11 events qualify. 

On Thursday the fun began with senior Brandon Fischer and junior Hanson King competing in the shot put against the state’s best. Fischer finished 4th with a throw of 54-11.5, while King finished 15th with a throw of 51-1.25. Not very many schools get to say they had TWO throwers make Drake. The fun didn’t stop there however, senior Chase Lauman and freshman Canaan Dunham both competed in the 3200 meter race. Lauman went on to win the race and take the Drake Relays title with a school record time of 9:06. Lauman is the first runner in school history to win a Drake Relays title. Dunham ran 9:44 for 21st. Thursday wrapped up with freshman Marissa Ferebee running the 3000 meter race. She finished 9th with a school record time of 10:18. 

Friday the Dutch kept it rolling. Senior CJ Shetterly didn’t have an ideal start by scratching all of his long jump attempts, but that alone doesn’t tell the full story. He scratched by mere centimeters everytime and had a couple jumps that looked like they would’ve put him in the top 3. Shetterly quickly turned it around as he would qualify as the 8 seed in the 100 meter dash finals with a time of 10.85. Later that day, he finished one spot higher at 7th in the finals. The thrower boys were also back at it in discus as Fischer would finish 3rd with a throw of 180-4.25 and King would follow behind him at 7th with a toss of 163-5. The fun continued that morning with the girls sprint medley team of freshman Kamryn Long, seniors Marissa Hackman and Delanie Reynolds, and junior Jacie Trine 1:50.49 to finish 13th. The boys distance medley team of seniors Quinn Gruver, Cam Schulte, Trey Van Hauen, and Chase Lauman would follow up by finishing 6th overall and breaking the school record that had stood since 2003. The afternoon session of Friday’s action began with the girls 4×200 team of Reynolds, sophomore Kelsey Tauke, Hackman, and Long running a season best time of 1:45.59 for 16th. The boys team of seniors Kenson Fuller, Gruver, Schulte, and Shetterly finished 8th place with another school record time of 1:29.39. Friday would continue with Chase Lauman continuing his awesome run with 2nd place 800 meter finish at a, you guessed it, school record time of 1:53.83. The day would end with  Trine running the 400 meter dash and finishing 12th with a time of 1:00.10 

The Dutch would finish strong on Saturday with the girls 4×100 relay team of Reynolds, Long, Hackman and Tauke getting 23rd with a time of 50.72. The boys 4×100 team of Fuller, Gruver, Schulte, and Shetterly would finish 9th with a time of 43.25. They would miss finals by .01 seconds. The Dutch 4×800 team of juniors Nathan VanderWaal, Atticus Vos, senior Trey Van Hauen, and freshman Canaan Dunham would have to overcome some adversity in their race. The race started with some tripping that caused VanderWaal to fall. This caused the officials to re-run the race. The next time the gun sounded the runners were instantly recalled because somebody had their foot over the start line. Third time’s a charm right? Not really. The runners were recalled again after a runner from Pleasant Valley false started. As the crowd became restless and boos started to arise, the officials tried again. This time, however, there was no ammo in the gun and it shot duds. The runners were forced to stand up and wait even longer for the official to reload the gun. The crowd of thousands of people erupted with boos that could be heard from all around. Finally the gun went off, for real this time, and the Pella Dutch boys finished 13th with a time of 8:15.42. It is worth noting that Pella was the only 3A team in that race with every other team being from 4A. The Drake Relays would end for the Dutch as Chase Lauman would finish out a historic weekend with a 2nd place finish in 1600 meter race with a time of 4:12.64. This breaks his own school record. 

The Pella Dutch track teams put the state on notice as they showed up to the Drake Relays and competed well with the best of the best in the state of Iowa. This should give Dutch fans a lot of hope and excitement as postseason racing started May 2nd with the Little Hawkeye Conference meet.