Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Casey Hanson of Southeast Valley clears a hurdle at the state track meet on Thursday in Des Moines. For more photos, visit CU.messengernews.net

DES MOINES — Colin Johnson and Southeast Valley boys track and field team have a busy state championships ahead of them here inside Drake Stadium.

On Thursday, they got things pointed in the right direction in Class 2A, qualifying for the finals in the shuttle hurdle relay.

With Johnson running the anchor leg, the Jaguars put down a time of 59.80, which placed them second through prelims behind only Treynor, who went 59.16 out of the heat before Southeast Valley hit the Blue Oval.

“It felt great,” Johnson said. “We came in with very high expectations knowing what we could do. We just had to execute our race and run our best.”

Alex Burger, a Drake Relays medalist earlier this season, Casey Hanson and Kolton Ollinger completed the relay. They were the only team to come from their heat, which they won by over two seconds after coming in with the sixth-best time.

Southeast Valley has five other individual events to run and five more relays, with Johnson running both the 110 and 400 hurdles in addition to the sprint medley relay, which has the second-fastest district time.

“It feels like a weight taken off my chest knowing what it feels like to be in the finals (in the shuttle hurdle relay),” Johnson said. “Getting our team into a spot to score some good points.”

Three others were involved in the prelims, as Kayden Showers finished 15th and Logan Jaeschke 20th in the 200. Avrie Hanson ran the girls 200, placing 18th in the prelims.

In addition to the NCC showing up, the Twin Lakes Conference claimed five medals, led by a fifth from Wendie Veit of East Sac County.

Veit went 58.30 in the girls 400 to place fifth, as Manson Northwest Webster’s Cole Judisch was sixth in the boys 400 in 49.90. Veit also ran the anchor on the shuttle hurdle relay with Libbie Veit, Haley Jo King and Tori Hauser, as they placed 19th in prelims.

Rachel Schany, a defending state champion who qualified in four individual events this year, placed sixth in the long jump (16-10.75) and eighth in the 400 (59.35) for Emmetsburg.

Halee Hauswirth of Pocahontas Area was eighth in the shot put with a throw of 38-11.5.

East Sac County’s Riley Aragon was 14th in the 3,200 (10:02.70), Manson Northwest Webster’s Ava Moline placed 15th in the shot put (35-8) and the boys 4×800 relay of Thomas Lundberg, Thatcher Oswald, Kyle Widlund and Jack Hoeppner was 22nd in 8:36.91.

South Central Calhoun’s Jace Pedersen placed 15th in the shot put (48-0.5) and Iris Melody was 22nd in the 3,000 (11:25.90).