Southwest Iowa athletes shine at Drake

DES MOINES — The 2025 Drake Relays were a great year for the Panthers as they qualified two boys events and had two alumni competing for Southwestern Community College.

“It’s been 10 years for the boys team since they’ve had someone qualify for Drake Relays,” Creston coach Maggie Arnold said. “We knew both of these throwers [Brayden Schoon and Tom Mikkelsen] have immense talent, so from the first practice of the year, this was a midseason goal for them.”

Mikkelsen, a sophomore, started the event with a bang Thursday, taking bronze in the high school boys shot put.

Entering the event with a mark of 55-09.25, Mikkelsen was seeded ninth. Prior to the event, however, Mikkelsen threw a new personal best of 56-04 — a mark that would have seeded him sixth.

Mikkelsen never scratched a throw, getting consistently better in the preliminary round. His first throw put him in sixth place, and his second was 54-09.25, moving him up to fourth. His final throw of the first round was a 55-1.25, advancing him to the finals in fifth place.

From there, the top nine compete for six medals. His best throw of the day was the first of the finals — a distance of 56-2.75, moving him to third, the spot he would finish in.

Mikkelsen said his performance felt really good. “I’ve been working really hard. I took my offseason really serious this year. After last year, I knew I could do something,” he said. “All those kids out there have a lot of talent.”

Schoon, a senior, competed Friday morning in the discus. He came in as the 20 seed with a mark of 160-07. Though he didn’t hit his PR at Drake, he outperformed his seed, placing 17th with a throw of 148-09.5.

“It’s an experience; hopefully I can learn from it for state, get used to the rings and stuff,” Schoon said. “I need to work on my speed in the ring. I need to speed it up a lot. I have a lot left out there.”

Mikkelsen and Schoon both compete in both throwing events.

“They have their strong events, both of them, but when we get to conference and the state qualifier, we want to make sure they are both up here in both of those events,” Arnold said. “I feel really great about where they are at in their number one event so we’re going to continue working on that, but we’re going to start hitting that number two throwing event really hard here in the last couple weeks so they can both be up here in both in May.”

Two 2024 Creston graduates were on the track in a different uniform, competing for the Southwestern Spartans Friday. Brandon Briley and Dillon Starlin were members of the men’s 1600-meter sprint medley relay that placed 16th in 3:39.37.

Though Briley is no stranger to the track, an 800m state medalist in 2024, this is Starlin’s first season in the sport.

“It’s going very well, but I’m not improving as much as I would like to. I’m extremely ambitious in my first season,” Starlin said. “I just have to be patient with myself, trust my training, trust my coach and ultimately just go out there and give my best every day, every rep.”

Zach Thornburg started the relay for the Spartans, running a 23.66 200m leg. He handed the baton to Briley who ran his 200 in 23-flat. Cam Swapsy made up three places in a quick 400m time of 49.56 before passing the baton to Starlin for the 800m anchor leg.

“As a soccer player in high school, the 800 is kind of similar as it’s a sprint, but it’s a long sprint,” Starlin said. “I feel comfortable running the 800, but it’s also one of the hardest races. I feel like you could run the 800 your whole life and still not know how to run it.”

Starlin was disappointed with his time of 2:03.55 but said the spread-out field made it tough as there was no one close to him to compete with.

Briley shared the sentiment, saying the race was lackluster.

“We were going in trying to beat the record that SWCC has and we didn’t get it,” he said. “It didn’t go as well as we wanted.” The Spartans were only a second off the 3:38 record.

Two area high school athletes also competed at the relays, highlighted by Lenox senior Gabe Funk winning the 400m hurdles Saturday.

Seeded eighth with an entrance time of 54.26, Funk ran in lane eight, unable to see the rest of the field.

For much of the race, Cael Woods, a 4A senior from Ankeny Centennial, had a good lead on his competitors. By the final hurdle, Funk, the 1A kid from Lenox, cleared the hurdle just behind Woods. It was the final sprint that gave Funk the narrow win, winning in 52.40, a new Lenox school record and the fastest time logged this season by any Iowa high school athlete.

The race was redemption from a minor misstep in the 400m dash the day prior which saw Funk disqualified.

Mount Ayr junior Aubree Shields was the only local female to qualify. She competed in high jump Friday afternoon.

Despite a PR of 5-5, the Mount Ayr school record, Shields struggled at the relays.

She cleared the opening height of 5-2 on her first try, but was unable to jump the 5-4 mark, finishing in a tie for 11th. ADM’s London Warmuth won the event with a jump of 5-7.

Full results available here.