“Amazing” and “excited”. These are the emotions senior Nathan Skala and junior Aubrey Jones felt after individually qualifying for the Drake Relays.

Skala ran on Friday, April 26 at 2 p.m. in the 800 meter open. He also ran on Saturday, April 27 at 10:03 a.m. in the 4×100 meter relay with seniors Christian Klein, Aaron Larson and junior Kaiden Cuevas.

“I am very excited to run at the relays,” Skala said. “My senior year, but my first time at the relays, I am just going to try and soak it in and then not make the moment bigger than it is when I run.”

Skala knew that he needed to keep himself ready before he raced, and his coaches were a big part in helping him prepare for Drake.

“My coaches have really helped me this year in putting me in an action individual event so I could see what I can do and make the most out of my opportunity,” Skala said. “We also had good workouts back in February and March to get us ready for the start of the season.”

Head Coach Russ Camacho knows Skala is someone who leads by example on the team, considering he is a team captain.

“He has done everything you could possibly ask of him. Every little thing you could do to make yourself better, he has done,” Camacho said. “He is by far one of the hardest working, if not, the hardest worker on the team. Being a captain, he is the person that not only talks the talks, but walks the walk, so he leads by example.”

Jones ran her first race on Friday, April 26 at 8 a.m. in the 100 meter hurdles. She ran her second race on Saturday, April 27 at 9:28 a.m. in the 4×100 meter relay with juniors Julia Shoger and Brianna Yanga and freshman Jordan Jansen.

“I am super excited and shocked,” Jones said. “I did not even think I was going to have the chance to qualify since I had been out resting a heel injury. It is such an amazing opportunity to run at the Drake Relays.”

Since Jones qualified, she knew she would have to work more on hurdles instead of running, but she knew she could do it with the help of her hurdle coach, Korey Johnson.

“Coach Johnson is so amazing,” Jones said. “Not only is he a great coach for learning and improving my hurdling skills, but he is also a great head strength coach, which is definitely a big part in being able to do the hurdles. I definitely would not be where I am without his inspirational emails or his great podcasts.”

Johnson knows Jones put in the effort to make it to Drake Relays through her hard work in the off season.

“Aubrey is part of a group that put in time in the summer to work on her hurdle technique,” Johnson said. “She, among others on the team, have set goals for themselves in more than one sport and they continue to push themselves to reach those goals. Drake is just one of those goals.”

Jones was seeded 32nd and placed 27th overall with a time of 16.25. Skala was seeded 11th and finished 6th overall with a time of 1:57.72.