Greene County High School senior Jackson Morton finished in seventh place on Friday morning at the Drake Relays 110 meter high hurdles race. He ran 14.96 seconds in the finals after qualifying in the prelims with a personal best 14.60 clocking, the second fastest time of the 32 hurdlers that qualified. The Drake Relays are different from the State Meet in that all high schoolers compete in one class and there is no team score. Plus, the Drake Relays select what events they hold and how many competitors will be allowed in each event.

Morton older brother, Carter, finished fourth in the men’s decathlon on Thursday at Drake Stadium. He’s a second year student at the U. of Northern Iowa. The brothers are sons of Chad and Deb Morton of Jefferson, and Chad is the Rams’ head boys’ track & field coach.

Saturday is the final day of the Relays. The Rams will have both 4 x 100 meter relays in the preliminaries. The girls run at 9:15 a.m. and the boys at 9:45 a.m. Drake accepts 96 4 x 100 meter relays and only the eight fastest advance to the Saturday afternoon final. Coach Derek Merk’s quartet that qualified includes juniors Olivia Shannon, Katrina Heupel, Natalie Heupel, and Bella Schroeder. The boys 4 x 100 that qualified starts with freshman Camden Strennen, followed by Morton, senior Bryce Stalder, and junior Jesse Miller.