Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: St. Edmond's Grant Galles competes during last year’s state meet. Galles is back for his junior season.

St. Edmond head boys track and field coach Donn Larson will need to be a little more selective with where he places his athletes this spring.

With a roster consisting of just 17 athletes, Larson knows that the Gaels will not be in many team races. Instead, the focus is on individuals and forming the right relays to have as many qualifiers as possible come state.

“It’s definitely the smallest bunch we’ve had, as we are usually in the 25 to 30 range,” Larson said. “But we’ll focus in on getting as many individuals to state as we can and go from there.

“Once we get going and running, we can see where kids really fit in.”

Juniors Anthony Valles and Grant Galles, who have competed in Des Moines at state each of their first two seasons on the track, return to lead the way. Aaron Hindt, a sophomore, is also back with state experience.

“Anthony is back strong in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200,” Larson said. “And he is a kid I can throw in the distance medley. Aaron is going to be in the long jump along with the 100, 200 and 400. He’s a kid that could probably run the 800 if I asked.

“Grant is just getting back into track shape after basketball season and he’ll be a 200 and 400 runner.”

Valles, who was 14th in the 3,200 in Class 1A and 19th in the 1,600 last year, also ran on the sprint medley relay with Galles and Hindt that placed 13th. As a freshman, he was part of the fifth place 4×800 relay.

Galles, coming off a starting role on the St. Edmond basketball team that reached the final four, was on three qualifying relays a season ago after running on one in 2023.

Both Galles and Hindt were on the 4×200 and 4×400 that reached Drake Stadium a season ago, as the 4×200 finished 18th. As a freshman, Galles ran the lead leg of the 4×400 that also placed 18th.

“We just don’t have the amount of runners we need to field strong relays,” Larson said. “It makes it tough but we’ll do what we can with who we have out.”

Seniors Levi Odor-Westrum, Logan Reed and Liam Shannon provide more experience. Along with Valles, Odor-Westrum and Shannon ran at state cross country this past fall, with Valles finishing sixth, Shannon 29th and Odor-Westrum 84th.

Junior Jonah Carlson, along with sophomores Erik Larson and Drake Yurkovac, are also out for track after running at state cross country this past year.

“Liam has a chance to qualify in the 3,200 for state,” Larson said. “It will be our job as coaches to get them in position for the best event possible.”

Rounding out the roster are juniors Kinnick Henning, Jonah Mosier and Jossef Taveras; sophomores Evan Christiansen, Aidan Reel and Abram Ribbens; and freshmen Matthew Crimmins and Thomas Ehn.

Henning was a two-way starter on the football team before suffering a season-ending injury, Christiansen and Ehn were both on the basketball squad and Crimmins qualified for state wrestling.

Larson will be assisted by Cory Naughton and Mike Landwehr this spring.

St. Edmond opens the outdoor season on April 1 at Earlham.