Iowa high school track & field fans have a lot to keep track of these days. The deadline for submitting qualifying performances for next week’s Drake Relays is 11:59 p.m. tonight, and the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, have released track & field State Qualifying Meet assignments. All State Qualifying Meets are scheduled for Thursday, May 9.

Paton-Churdan is assigned to Class 1A District 10 for its qualifying meet hosted by North Union, with headquarters in Armstrong in Emmet County. P-C is the southernmost of the 14 schools assigned there. In 1A, only the event winner is an automatic State qualifier with the next 14 best performances in each event qualifying. There are 10 1A qualifying sites.

Greene County is a 2A program and has been assigned to Panora and the District 5 meet hosted by Panorama. The Panthers and Rams will be joined by ACGC, West Central Valley, Ogden, Van Meter, Southeast Valley (Gowrie), Clarinda, Interstate 35 (Truro), Mount Ayr, Red Oak, and Shenandoah. There are eight qualifying sites in 2A with first and second place finishers automatically qualifying for State, then the next eight best performances statewide will fill out the field of 24 in each event.

Greene County hopes to have several events competing at the May 16-17-18 State Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, but well before that are the Drake Relays. High school events are spread out between April 25-26-27 at Drake Stadium. Junior high jumper Carter Morton is an automatic qualifier with a leap of 6′ 8″, the third highest in Iowa so far this season. No fewer than six other girls and boys events from Greene County High School are in the running for Drake Relays qualification. The unofficial list of high school qualifiers is expected to be released sometime Friday afternoon.