The Iowa State men’s and women’s track teams head to one of the most prestigious track meets in the Midwest from Thursday to Saturday as the Cyclones compete at the Drake Relays.

“Drake is one of the things that is right about track and field in the United States,” said women’s coach Dick Lee. “They treat their athletes well that are competing there. Everything is geared around allowing people to have their best performances.

“It’s one of those special meets that I don’t know if there’s another one around the country.”

The meet is perhaps extra special for Iowa State, with its home turf only 35 miles away.

“Iowa State has always been one of the premier teams in the meet, and it’s a big draw for a lot of people to come and see us compete,” said sprints coach Scott Roberts. “People often recognize our accomplishments there more than they do from the national championships because it’s in our backyard.”

The Drake track facility was renovated in the offseason, which Lee hopes will keep the Relays good for the fans.

“It’s a very athlete-friendly venue, and hopefully that still continues with the renovation,” Lee said.

In addition to individual events, the men’s team will run four relays. Among those will be the 4-mile relay with David Rotich, Dan Taylor, Brandon Rooney and either Jory Zunich, Johnny Reel or Kyle Rasmussen.

“We feel real good right now not just about David [Rotich], but about Dan Taylor and Brandon Rooney, [who] are running really really well, so we think that 4-mile relay is a real good chance for us to do something good in that,” said men’s coach Steve Lynn. “If we can keep close, David [Rotich] can do some special things [on the final leg].”

Rotich will also run the 1500-meter run, and possibly the distance relay.

“He may run three races down there. I don’t know if we’ve done that with a miler before,” Lynn said. “If we do that, he can win a couple of them and probably get MVP of the meet.”

The Cyclones will also run a shuttle-hurdle relay, and the 4×400-meter relay.

Neil Hines will run the decathlon, and Lynn feels he will compete for the win.

“He should be the favorite to win it,” Lynn said. “Obviously we want to get him qualified for the NCAAs, and I think he’s ready to have a really good meet.”

Chase Madison will also compete in the discuss.

For the women, a smaller number of people will compete than in most years.

“We’re redshirting a lot of people this year, putting a lot of people on the shelf, because we think next year we can be pretty darn good,” Roberts said. “We’re going to have a smaller contingent than we’ve had in the past, but the kids that are there are real quality kids.”

The women will run only one relay: the sprint medley with Leia Jackson and Erica Lynn running the 200-meter legs, Sara Boisen running the 400-meter leg and Ada Anderson running the 800-meter leg.

“We’ve got a chance to place very high on that,” Lee said.

Anderson will also run the 800-meter run, and Boisen will run the 400-meter hurdles. Lynn will compete in the heptathlon.

“We’re looking for [Lynn] to improve upon her national qualifying mark, and I think we could legitimately see a 200-point improvement out of her,” Lee said.

Among jumpers, Tony Douglas will compete in the long jump and Leigh Wagner in the triple jump.

“[Jumpers are] a pretty select group. It’s hard to get into the thing,” said jumps coach Ron McEachran. “I think the kids that we have there, they should be competitive.”

The events began Wednesday with the first rounds of the heptathlon and decathlon, which will conclude Thursday.

University events start Friday with the women’s 4×100-meter relay at 9:24 a.m., and Saturday’s university events start at 8:11 a.m. with the shuttle hurdle relay. Mediacom will televise the Relays on Friday at 5 p.m., and Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m.