In past years, the ISU men’s sprint team has had a great deal of success at the Drake Relays.

However, because of injuries facing the team, this season the sprinters will send only James Galvan and Derron Montgomery to Drake.

Last year, the sprint team gave the home crowd at Drake Stadium something to cheer about. The highlight of the 2007 meet was the Cyclones’ victory in the 4-by-110-meter shuttle hurdle relay. After winning the event in 2006, the relay team of Sterling Frison, Scott Lynn, Eric Parker and Kellen Burl successfully defended the team’s first place title.

This year, the team has been taken apart. Burl has graduated, and Frison is no longer with the team.

Apart from the shuttle hurdles, Iowa State had several other top finishes, including fourth place in the 4-by-200-meter relay.

This season, the Cyclones’ sprint roster is depleted, making it tough to fill relay spots. Head coach Corey Ihmels said the sprinters have a few injured runners in the lineup, including junior Jared Lewis, who is recovering from a hamstring injury suffered prior to the team’s trip to Arizona.

“We have a few nagging injuries on that side of things,” Ihmels said. team or basketball team, you can be 90 percent healthy and still get out there and be part of the group – while in track and field you need to be 100 percent healthy to be able to run.”

Entries for the Drake Relays had to be submitted by last Sunday. Because of that deadline – mixed with the uncertainty of the availability of several runners – sprint coach Ronnie WIlliams was unsure what events the team would be ready for.

“Last week we were a little banged up, so I wasn’t sure what we would be ready for and not ready for at the Drake Relays,” Williams said.

“I didn’t want to do a bunch of stuff here and have the kids feel they really had to out and hit it.”

As the week progressed, Williams said the team began to look and perform better in practice, but by that time it was too late to enter the Relays.

Instead of going to Drake, the rest of the sprint team is traveling to Indianola for the Kip Janvrin Simpson College Open on Friday. The meet is an opportunity for the team to run several individual events it is unable to run at Drake.

Iowa State will still have Montgomery and Galvan competing for the sprint team at Drake. Following Galvan’s NCAA-regional-qualifying run in the 800-meter at the Sun Angel Track Classic, he will run on the 4-by-800-meter relay and a leg on the distance medley. Montgomery, who has also set a regional-qualifying time in the 400-meter dash, is joining Galvan on the distance medley, running the 400.

“We’re going to put them out there and see if they can’t bang some heads,” Williams said.

On the women’s side, only two spring events are scheduled, featuring Jenna Caffrey running the 110-meter hurdles and the 4-by-100-meter relay team.