The ADM girls track team is in the midst of a full week off before it gets back to competition next Monday, so we caught up with head coach Bart Mueller for a routine season update.

The Tigers are coming of a busy week in which they competed four times in five days, with Mueller saying the reason behind that schedule is it gave his team additional opportunities to qualify events for the upcoming Drake Relays.

So did ADM take advantage of those opportunities?  Mueller says his girls did, and he explains which events should be competing at Drake.

“Let’s start with the 4×100 relay, and they sit 20th and they take 80 in that, quite a few teams qualify.  They try to get a lot of parents there Friday night to try and sell some tickets… The 4×200 is currently in 9th and they take 24 relay teams there.  Our 4×400 relay is sitting 4th, and again, they take top 24 there.  And then finally, our sprint medley is the one we waited the longest for, we waited until Friday night–they set a school record and they’re sitting 16th right now.  That is probably the one I’m most concerned about but I think it will hold eight spots until Thursday.”

Thursday is the last day for teams from around the state to qualify events for the Drake Relays.

Mueller says a couple of individual athletes will compete at Drake on their own.  Kari Dufoe holds the fifth best time across all classes in the 100 meters, while Madi Bertman is in good position in the long jump.  Brianna Mueller could also qualify in the 800 meters, though she currently sits in 15th out of 16 qualifying spots.

In all, as many as seven ADM Tiger girls could be headed to Des Moines in a week and a half for the always popular relays.