St. Albert, the lone Class 1A school in Council Bluffs, qualified five athletes in four events from its district at Treynor, all of whom are seeing their first action at the state meet.

The Falcons moved on in the 4x100 (Chad Pearce, Jeremy Schieffer, Nolan Batten, John O'Malley) and 4x200 (Pearce, Zac Butcher, Batten, O'Malley), both of which have just come together in the past few weeks. Prior to that, St. Albert had to do some shuffling in the relay events due to injuries and also to find the right mix.

"We've kind of run into a situation where just in the past few weeks we were able to get the kids together who we thought could have the best times," Falcon coach Mike Kayl said. "It's been like two weeks since we got those four together, and they're understanding how everybody kind of works together."

O'Malley, out for his first year of track and field, qualified in the 200 as well as the two relays for the Falcons.

Batten made the cut in three events as well, breaking his old personal best by 11-feet in the discus at the district meet to move on to state.

"We preached to the kids before to try to peak at districts and at state, and I think we're where we want to be," Kayl said. "We're just going to go down there and do our best and try to get some PRs ... once you get down there, anything can happen."

excerpt from Daily Nonpareil - Ryan Weatherill - 05.17.06