Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Fort Dodge's James Daniel competes at the Dodger Relays.

DES MOINES — Fort Dodge’s Tyler Schreier knows what it’s like running at the prestigious Drake Relays.

In his final high school season, he will end his career where it all began.

The Dodger senior competed at the Drake Relays as a freshman, and again during his sophomore campaign. He’s participated in the 4×100-meter relay for FDSH, and competed individually in the long jump.

Schreier will be in two individual events and a pair of relays during the high school portion of the 111th running of the Drake Relays this Thursday.

“For Tyler it’s a big deal to run at Drake,” said FDSH head coach John McBride. “He wasn’t able to accomplish what he wanted last year (due to the global pandemic). We never talked about that, but it’s great for him to get back and try to find his own sense of closure.”

Schreier isn’t leaving anything to chance as he enters the home stretch of his final season with the Dodgers.

“As a senior and with it being my last track year, everything means a lot more to me — especially after last year,” Schreier said. “I’ve had to start off the season trying to run my best 100, 4×100, 4×200 and long jump in such a small amount of time.”

Schreier enters the 100-meter dash and long jump tied for the 24th-best qualifying marks, respectively.

Schreier will also anchor the 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay teams.

The Dodgers’ 4×100 quartet of senior Christian Davidson, junior Jake Erickson, senior Sam Daniel and Schreier have the third-best qualifying time.

“We’ve run the same 4×1 (team) at every meet and have had some pretty consistent times,” McBride said. “We’ve broken our 4×2 up a little, but have done well there, too.

“We ran the same relays at the Jim Duncan (at Drake Stadium earlier this season), so that gave guys like Jake (Erickson) a chance to be down there and give it a trial run. Christian competed at Drake when he was at Pocahontas Area.”

The same quartet enters with the 12th-quickest time in the 4×200.

“I know we’ll all run our hardest,” Schreier said. “And to go out my senior year with a chance to win those events…I will know I’ve done my best as a Dodger.”

Fort Dodge is also in the 4×400 with the 23rd-best time. Competing in the event will be Erickson, senior Jerry Chada, junior Eli Elisbecker and senior James Daniel.

“Five events at Drake is the second-most since I’ve been here,” McBride said. “It’s pretty special, being my last year to have this many events on the card.”

This year’s format keeps all of the high school events on Thursday.

“The kids used to be able to enjoy the experience of being able to watch the college and pro guys, which won’t happen (this week). I remember going down one year and the kids were in awe of a high jumper going 7-5,” McBride said. “It was nice to have everything more spaced out, but we’ll do what we have to do and make the most of it this time around.”

DODGERS’ ORDER OF EVENTS THURSDAY

10 a.m. long jump

10:01 a.m. 4×100 relay

11:27 a.m. 100-meter dash

1:05 p.m. 4×200 relay

2:44 p.m. 4×400 relay