DES MOINES, IOWA -- The Drake men's and women's track and field teams are gearing up to host the 99th annual Drake Relays this Thursday through Saturday at Drake Stadium.

More than 8,000 athletes are expected to converge on the Drake Stadium track.

Four runners will get things started by competing in the Distance Carnival Thursday.

Drake seniors Andrew Shortslef (Janesville, Wis.) and Cole Feldman (Carroll, Iowa) will run in the men's 10,000 at 4:45 p.m. Former Drake runner Skyler Nesheim finished second in the 10,000 at the 2007 Drake Relays in a personal best of 30 minutes 30.60 seconds.

Junior Nicole Braunsdorf (St. Francis, Wis.) and freshman Casey McDermott (Newton, Iowa) will run in the women's university-college 1,500 at 5:55 p.m.

The Drake women will compete in five relays: the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, distance medley and 4x1,600 relays.

The Drake men are expected to run in the 4x100, 4x200 and sprint medley relays.

Drake senior Jaron VanMaanen (Sully, Iowa) will compete in the men's university-college division high jump at 10 a.m Saturday.

Freshman Johanna Sprang (New Brighton, Minn.) will compete in the women's university-college division pole vault at 10 a.m. Friday.

Drake freshman Tyse Samani (Kansas City, Mo.) will participate in the women's university-college high jump at 1 p.m. Friday.

Freshman Ari Curtis (Fort Collins, Colo.) is scheduled to compete in the women's university-college triple jump at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.