WACO’s Bryce Achen sprints to the finish line during last Thursday’s 100 meter dash. Achen has qualified for this week’s Iowa Girls’ and Boys’ State Track Meet 2015 in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.  Photo by KCII’s Andrew Jones.

For the second time in as many months, WACO junior Bryce Achen will compete at Iowa’s most prestigious track.

Achen automatically qualified for this week’s state track meet in Des Moines in the 200 meter dash, topping last Thursday’s Class 1A District 10 meet with a time of 22.8 seconds. His time was the third fastest time in Class 1A.

Achen also finished in second place in the 100 meter dash at the district meet, posting a time of 11.39 seconds. The time was among the 12 finest across the state in Class 1A not to place first at districts, qualifying Achen for the state track meet at Drake Stadium.

Achen ran at the blue oval in last month’s Drake Relays, qualifying for the event in the 100 meter dash. He finished 27th out of the 32 sprinter field across all classes with a time of 11.74 seconds.

Joining Achen in Des Moines this week is senior Braden Blake, who qualified in the 800 meter run despite recording his slowest time of the season. Blake finished second in the district with a time of 2:07.34, a full three seconds off Maharishi’s Ross Emmanuel for first place. Blake’s time is the 20th best out of the 24 person field.

The first event of the Iowa Girls’ and Boys’ State Track Meet 2015 for WACO’s boys’ track team will be Thursday at 4:35 p.m. when Achen competes in the preliminaries of the 100 meter dash.