Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Cooper Nuss of Southeast Valley competes at state in 2022.

DES MOINES — For a number of area track and field athletes, this week is going to be a busy completion to the spring.

The state track and field championships begin here this Thursday inside Drake Stadium and wind down Saturday.

Along with the way, 19 qualifiers will compete in multiple individual events, with three of them doing so in three each.

Manson Northwest Webster’s Matt Condon, Emmetsburg’s Rachel Schany and Mikayla Beisel from Clarion-Goldfield/Dows all secured bids through qualifiers in three individual events.

Meanwhile, North Union’s Bryer Prochniak, Webster City’s Jaxon Cherry, Eagle Grove’s Cayden Schultz, Pocahontas Area’s Josiah DeYoung, Bishop Garrigan’s Cal Birkey, Greene County’s Jesse Miller and Southeast Valley’s Cooper Nuss and Justin Loseke are in two boys events.

For the girls, Bishop Garrigan’s Audi Crooks and Molly Joyce are both back as defending state champions and entered into multiple events alongside Algona’s Moriah Knapp, Humboldt’s Ashlynn Works, Manson Northwest Webster’s Alyssa Richman, South Central Calhoun’s Keira Hammen and Newell-Fonda’s Mia and Mary Walker.

Crooks is the defending Class 1A state champion in both the discus and shot put, and comes into the meet first in the shot put and second in the discus. She also won the shot put as a sophomore.

Joyce, the reigning long jump winner, is first in that event and third in the 100 hurdles.

Mia Walker ranks first in both the 1A 100 and 200, while Mary Walker is fifth and eighth in the same events. Richman is third in the 2A 3,000 and fifth in the 1,500, while Schany is third in the 2A high jump, seventh in the long jump and eighth in the 400.

Hammen is fifth in the 2A shot put, Works fifth in the 3A discus and Knapp sixth in the 3A 3,000.

Prochniak is third in the 1A 200 and fourth in the 100, Cherry is seventh in the 3A discus and eighth in the shot put, Schultz is eighth in the 2A 100 and DeYoung is 10th in the 2A 400.

A number of other qualifiers come into state having posted Top-10 times and marks this year led by Carter Sievers of Newell-Fonda. The Drake Relays medalist is first in 1A in the long jump.

Mason Allen from Clarion-Goldfield/Dows is sixth in the 2A discus, Colin Rasch from North Union is eighth in the 1A shot put and Ethan Ackerson of Southeast Valley is eighth in the 2A shot put.

The Newell-Fonda sprint medley relay is fifth and the Webster City 4×100 relay is ninth in 3A.

Madison Ehrig from Algona is sixth in the 3A high jump, Maddie Fehr from West Bend-Mallard is seventh in the 1A 200, Raegan Murphy from Bishop Garrigan is seventh in the 1A 100 hurdles and Alex Kitchen of Southeast Valley is eighth in the 2A shot put.

Newell-Fonda is third in the 4×200 and seventh in the 4×100, while Bishop Garrigan is third in the shuttle hurdle and sixth in the 4×400.