PHOTO PROVIDED - Marshalltown's Preston Johnson, left, and John Moellers placed eighth and sixth, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run on Thursday at the Drake Relays in Des Moines.

DES MOINES — The cream rose to the top, or at least as close to the top as these Bobcats could.

Marshalltown senior John Moellers and sophomore Preston Johnson ran with the best in the state on Thursday at the 115th Drake Relays, circling the famed Blue Oval eight times for the 3,200-meter run.

Moellers emerged in sixth place and Johnson finished eighth, both setting new personal-best times in the event while smashing their qualifying efforts.

Moellers qualified with a time of 9 minutes, 17.54 seconds, but on Thursday he ran a 9:05.66 — breaking Stephen Dak’s school record of 9:07.34 set in 2007. Johnson qualified at 9:18.91 and whittled that down to 9:09.37.

Western Dubuque’s Quentin Nauman clocked in at 8:52.45 to claim the Drake Relays title, Pella’s Canaan Dunham was second at 8:56.11, and Ankeny’s Ethan Zuber was third in 8:59.60.

For Class 4A competition, Moellers finished fourth and Johnston was sixth. Elias Arbuckle of Dallas Center-Grimes finished in between them for seventh overall and fifth among 4A competition.

South Tama junior Timmothy Chandonia scratched in all three of his attempts in the shot put on Thursday and therefore did not finish. He was one of two shot put competitors to scratch all three attempts.

Chandonia’s qualifying distance of 53 feet, 10 1/2 inches would have gained him ninth place on Thursday.

Clear Creek Amana’s Landon Prince won the event with a heave of 61-10 3/4.