T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown senior Noah DeVenney, left, prepares to receive the baton from fellow senior Josh Melde during the boys 4x100-meter relay on Friday in the Drake Relays. The Bobcats ran their season-best time in the race and improved their seeding by 20 spots.

DES MOINES — Entering the 4×100-meter relay competition on Friday in the 109th running of the Drake Relays, the Marshalltown boys track squad was seeded 48th out of 80 qualifiers.

When they finished their race, however, the Bobcats had climbed all the way up to 28th, after the team of Braden Bethke, Josh Melde, Noah DeVenney and Jonathan Hernandez ran a season-best 44.34 seconds in their sixth heat.

MHS was actually placed in the eighth lane in their heat, generally reserved for a team that isn’t expected to do well, but they took advantage of the placement to finish second in their respective race, with only Dubuque Senior managing to beat the Bobcats on the oval head-to-head.

DeVenney, who ran the third leg of the race and delivered the baton to Hernandez for the final push, said it was one of the best races of his life.

“We had really solid handoffs and everyone was looking really strong,” he said. “It felt amazing, just yelling at Rico (Hernandez) to finish strong after my handoff, it was pretty exciting and exhilarating.”

It all started with a good opening leg by Bethke, who said in the time before the starter’s gun went off he only had one thing on his mind.

“All I was thinking was ‘make sure I give it to Josh in first place,’ because it’s such a good feeling to get it in first place, you just want to keep it there,” he said. “Going through it I was just hoping I could stay ahead of them, maybe get a little lead going on so they would feel more comfortable when they got to their handoff.”

Hernandez delivered that promise, handing the baton off to Melde with a decent lead, one that Melde maintained on the way down to DeVenney.

“We were trying to put our two last runners in a position to finish strong,” Melde said of his mentality. “Me and Bethke had a good handoff and it was just good all the way through.”

Once DeVenney got the handoff he took off down the second turn, and he said being in the outside lane is actually an advantage because he can get a good look at the rest of the field.

“Usually at some meets I will see guys coming up behind me, especially in lane eight, but I didn’t see anybody and we had a solid handoff and he got a good start out of it,” DeVenney said. “Smooth all the way through.”

Once the final handoff was delivered cleanly it was just up to Hernandez to finish off down the home stretch, and while some of the other competitors made a great effort he was able to hold them off and secure second in the heat.

“It was a good race and competitive,” Hernandez said. “We came here and did what we had to do.”

Hernandez was the lone junior on the team, as Bethke, Melde and DeVenney made it to Drake Relays in their final year with the Bobcats. Melde said he is happy he got to come out and compete on the blue oval in his final year, and he hopes the group qualifying this season sets a standard for the next generation of MHS athletes to follow.

“It was crazy, there were a lot of people here,” Melde said of the experience. “I just hope they can come again next year.”